The German Hair Experience - before and after photos

About 4 weeks ago I had my hair cut and colored off base. Ms. INGA (everyone here is Helga or Inga) said she could lighten my roots and give me a trim - no problem. "It will be EASY" she says. Easy for her, the process was a nightmare for me.

I endured 2.5  hours with a plastic dry cleaning bag over me, a cup of hot coffee, sci-fi hair heater along with a moderate hangover. It was a personal sauna, and I wanted to THROW UP.

See the plastic bag? Who does this?

The hair cut was 'MEH' and the color looked 'ok'. 3 shampoos later, the color had washed out and it was a frizzy BRASSY mess thanks to dull scissors and extra hard German water.

YESTERDAY:
I rode Fifi into another town and found a very clean, modern and English speaking hair salon. Yes, it's called 'HAIR FORCE' (I know, it's a cheesy name but I really wanted it to be great). The prices were good and the OWNER herself was happy to squeeze me in.

Without going into extreme detail, she put bleach on my roots and walked away. I knew what was happening, but I WAS STUCK. If I had her rinse the bleach out, it would be YELLOW. If it stays in I'll have WHITE ROOTS and yellow ends.

I CONVINCED MYSELF she had toner. After a horrifying shampoo (an entirely different post), I was rewarded with YELLOW SUPERHERO HAIR.

I tell her its too bright, and she says, "Nooooo... I think its pretty. This is perfect. You stupid American are just not used to it".

"Do you have toner", I ask?

She says, "What? What is this toner you talk about? No-no, your hair is pretty just like this" .

I wanted to spaz, but me 'CHUCKING A TANTY' (thanks Luan for the Australian lingo!) was not going to help.  I was screwed. Did I tell you Mr. C is flying in next week? Great, between the gun and my new hair - he's now dating a bonafide superhero.

ON TO THE HAIR CUT: There was no magazine flipping going on here. I watched her scissors like an SNIPER watches their target. Then I don't know what happened, but with a speedy move she snuck in an EXTRA SNIP on my bangs (with thinning shears no less).  Fantastic, I now have 5 year old like bangs along with my YELLOW hair. 

THANK GOD I had shipped toner from the states as a precautionary measure. Take a gander at the before and after photos: 

See how yellow it is? The tips are white in the back (bottom) and at the roots.

Natural lighting. This is so bad!!!!!



I put conditioner on the tips to keep them from turning purple.





 2 tbsp of toner, 4 tbsp of developer.

Shampoo'd twice and put on a deep conditioner, wrapped in saran wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes. The color is now 95% even - and no more yellow!

I can live with this.

I was able to fix the color problem, and I can disguise the bad haircut with plenty of product. Now the trick will be to see what tap water does to this color. I might have to start using bottled water, which would be a complete pain.

Does anyone else have a hair horror story? How do you screen a good hairdresser when no one around you has good hair AND there is a language barrier.