Psycho Sensei

So, after the amazing Mustafa fixed my hair color, I figured that perhaps the long and involved story about why it had to be fixed should be told. I mean, after all, what fun is it to just fix something without knowing why it was broken, eh?

One fine day, I decided I needed to cover some more of this icky grey hair that keeps propping up on the head of the Psycho Sensei. So I went off to my hairdresser of 20 years and she mixed up "the usual" and put it on my head in the usual way, and waited for it to cook, then rinsed it off and *EGADS!* A nightmare ensued.

You see, my lovely Culligan water softening system had shit the bed without telling anyone, causing serious mineral build up in my hair. This mineral build up "grabbed" onto the color, and everything in the bottom half was..... black.

Yes, it was black. I mean really black. Quite black in fact. After much confusion about what to do next, various consults with others, etc., we find that it is quite the process to attempt an "undo" given that my hair is so fragile (I was born with thin hair that has become very dry despite use of every hydrating substance (almost) known to humankind. Therefore, the attempt to "take it back" resulted in 1/2 red, 1/2 dark brown hair. It was kinda punk, but not my thing, ya know? Hairdresser then left me with many new "products" including an interesting looking red mousse that I set aside for the "right time" when my hair was perhaps monotonal.

Couple weeks later, after letting the hair "settle," we "took it back" again, this time to many shades of brown. Not quite so bad, but this multi toned hair was really getting to me, especially since the Psycho Sensei is a REDHEAD! Brown was just not "it." Mustafa fixed that, the red was back, the grey was gone, and all was well.

So today I thought I'd see how this lovely looking red mousse did. I sprayed it in my hands as one is wont to do with mousse, and put it in my hair. Then I noticed my hands were MAGENTA. Looking up, I noticed that everywhere I put the mousse was ALSO MAGENTA. Magenta streaks just do not "go" with red hair, nor with a 45 year old Psycho Sensei. This was quite scary. Upon getting my magnifying glass to read the tiny tiny print on the can, it said, "for professional use only" and "use gloves" underneath large all caps disclaimers and warnings in other languages that I had no idea what they meant.

"Oh dear," thought the Psycho Sensei, along with many other words that are unfit for a family blog. Multi toned again, only this time much WORSE than before (magenta and red truly do look hideous) back into the shower I hopped, slathering my hair (what was left of it) with a boatload of shampoo. Rinsing it ran a magenta river into the drain. I washed it again. More magenta. Again - a kind of pinky color. Amazing since I had only used a LITTLE. Finally, the rinse ran relatively clear, so I conditioned my poor now very clean but unhappy hair and wrapped it on a towel.

Here I sit, hair in a towel, concerned about any attempt to style it. Perhaps I will call Mustafa :-)

Epilogue: There's still a small amount of magenta. Man... what fun I'm going to have....