adventures in home hair coloring

so.  things were not going so well.  i needed a change.

"red!"  i thought.  "a lovely strawberry blonde!"

i made the necessary purchases and preparations.

and dyed it myself, in my bathroom.

and, voila!

ORANGE.

what you need to appreciate about the results is that the blondest parts of my hair got turned a bright orange [that this picture really doesn't do justice to], and the rest of it...didn't change.  so i had strangely highlighted, two-tone hair--and not in a "look how edgy and funky i am!" way but in a "hey i dyed my hair in my bathtub and now i hate it can you tell?" way.

to the internet!

the internet told me that in order to counteract the red, i needed to buy an ash brown, which should have a green base.  hoping to neutralize my fiery mistake, i purchased another box of loreal hair dye and continued on my merry way.

that night, after the wee beasties were in bed, i once again soaked my hair in a bottle of chemicals with headache-inducing fumes and folded clothes while i waited the allotted time.

after showering and drying my hair, i looked into the mirror with not a little apprehension.  

this is what i saw.

my first thought?  "dang it!  i hate it!"  (it was a lot more red than you can see here.   it actually hardly looks red at all in this picture.)

but after a few days (and changing the part of my hair to cover the reddest streaks), it's growing on me! 

i daresay i like it now.

the only problem is, i have no idea how to replicate these results.