Today, I've decided to write an entry to explain, once and for all.

I've had enough of "Jess! What happened to your hair?" and "OMG Jess did you cut all your hair off?" all month.

This is what happened

I don't remember replacing my glorious long red hair with burnt, fried grass/hay 🙁

If you've been reading TheJessicat.com for a while, you would know that I've been a red-head for 6 years now. 

Yep, I know that's an awfully long time. Check out all my hair escapades – here

But this trademark has since set to become my image and signature look already, hence I decided to keep it.

After my trip to attend Hennessy Artistry in Penang, I went to a hair salon to re-bleach my hair and give it some hair treatment. 

The stylist managed to convince me to get my hair permed so I could have permanent curls.

Seeing that I like wavy/curled hair and frequently tong my hair by myself when I attend events, I relented and got my hair permed.

It turned out disastrous.

It was frizzy, unmanageable & felt like dried grass to the touch & smelt burnt

It may look fine in the photos, but trust me, it's not.

Friends of mine who saw how terribly destroyed my hair was, were horrified.

The texture was just ruined and calling it brittle would be giving it too much credit. 

Bottom line, my crowning glory wasted away before my eyes.

For days, I cried & slapped on serum, conditioner, repair creams & everything I could do to salvage the little glimmer of hope I harboured.

When everything was proven futile, a day came when I could no longer stand it…..

I grabbed the 1st scizzors I could find and chopped everything off

And then I *still* wasn't satisfied. So, I took the same scizzors & went SNIPSNIPSNIP again

Doesn't look too shabby at all, right? 😀 I kinda like it!

It made me happy for a week, until I realized how I just cannot be seen with uneven, self-cut hair which was deliberately chopped off out of despair! I wanted something more professionally done & urban-looking.

So I landed myself in another hair salon to have it done properly

Ready?

SNIPSNIP BUZZBUZZ WHIRRWHIRR

The end product (back view). What do you think? 😀

Front view

I think I'm adapting to this prissy, sleek haircut so far

9/10 of my friends, family, readers and strangers' response were positive

YAY!!! 😀 😀 Looks like my nightmarish ordeal was finally over

My stylist told me that I should give my hair a rest and not bleach + dye it red for a while to allow my hair to recuperate and replenish its strength.

Well, it sure deserved that much needed rest after being fried and burnt like discarded toast.

Never in my life, would I have imagined myself donning a haircut THIS SHORT.

But there was nothing left I could do. Looks like I took matters in my own hands this time – literally!

For now, I shall just continue to help it repair & regenerate by itself. 

But if I'm feeling cheeky, the redhead will be back sooner than ya think! 

Most of you would know that I've had my trademark red hair for as long as ever.
 

And by ever I mean ever since I was granted emancipation from rules and regulations of high school, upon graduation of course. So by the end of 2006, the color of my hair was finally my choice and mine alone.
 

Yup, 5 long years of blood red hair… and counting!

Anyhoozers, I had no idea what gotten into me one fine day.

I wanted a stronger colour of red so I bleached it 3 levels higher.

Gradually, the burning sensation on my scalp came to pass and I brushed it off. But  when I saw my red fading away into blonde, my mouth gaped open.

Urmmm… whaaaa-aaat? I'm blonde now?

ZOMG. I soon found myself looking like a dip-dyed red blondie
 

Thank goodness it didn't go platinum. If it did then I must've had bleached it 8 levels without realizing it.

So I just kept staring and staring at that semi-blonde girl in that mirror. Who on earth?
 

No sirree. There is no way in heaven and hell that TheJessicat would exist in the same sentence as blonde hair. No offense to any blondies whosoever but blonde has just never (and will never) be my colour.
 

Mom and I
 

But the most ironic thing was that after a while of blow-drying and letting everything settle down, I began to be in favour of the end product. At certain angles, you'd see some dip-dye pink and red along with the blonde.
 

I thought it was rather unique… for strange reasons unbeknownst to me.

 

I mean, come on! It was something different, no? I've been a red head for 5 years and I've never seen myself in another colour before. Let alone blonde of all colours someone keeeeel me pleeease.
 

I know the pic on the right made me look like I'm bleeding off the top of my head from

brain haemorrhage but don't worry. It's just the sucky quality of a random camera.
 

Then I started getting curious stares as to why my hair was halfway done like that
 

I don't think any hairdresser would dare to stand up for it LOL. As close as it was to a disaster, I began to grew fond of this new look.

So I decided that it would be sticking around for a bit longer before I turn it back to bloodshot red.
 

But that "longer" lasted for only 72 hours before I couldn't stand the living daylights of being part-blonde anymore.

At work, my editor approached me at my desk and said, "Jess! Why is your hair like that!" and that was the ultimatum.

So goodbye blonde and say hello to the bloody red head

She's back to stay… for good. 
 

Finally!

It’s frustrating to know that red hair dye pigments aren’t exactly very permanent ones, heck I would know, did it red for a total of 7 times already! It’s one tough hairstyle to maintain and not to mention expensive too *sigh*

But it’s all worth it 😀

am loving it

If you’ve been following my tweets yesterday, ya’ll would know that I’m back to being a red-head again 😀

Okay, some of you asked me questions about my red hair and how I maintain it.. etc etc

Well, here are the answers :

1. Where can I find a place to do my hair red like yours?

You can just do it anywhere, but opt for the ones with permanent red pigments. I’ve trusted that for 4 years and its the longest lasting one (buzz me if you want to know the brand)

2. Can I just do it red (from the box) at home?

No one’s stopping you. It’s for a fraction of the salon price but unless you’re a bleached blonde, it ain’t gona work on your Asian head, honey.

One of my besties Cedric, dubbed me an Aluminium Bitch + Lady Gagak LOL

Iconography VI brass ring by Soak Republic

3. How often do you do your hair red?

Twice a year 🙂 (both damaging to my pocket blahh)

4. How much does it cost?

Approximately RM500. If you say I’ve been ripped off, screw you. Sure, I can do it for RM200 or less but it won’t last as long and your hair will be more prone to damage without proper treatment. It IS very drying on the hair and chemicals were never your best friend from the start

5. Do you bleach it before getting it red?

No, I never believe in bleaching. If you do it often enough it WILL turn chilly red by itself.

Fooling around at the hair salon

6. How do you maintain the red hair?

I use two shampoos whenever I wash my hair – one is to enhance the colour and the other is to lock the color in. (again, buzz me if you want to know the brand) After shampooing, I use a color reflective conditioner to protect it from damaging weather conditions i.e sun

7. Does the red hair color fade?

DUH. Nothing lasts forever babe. And I wouldn’t have to do it 7 times if it never faded in the first place! 😀

8. Why do you choose to do red?

Simply because it’s visually arresting and no doubt my favorite color. Bet you can tell by the color of this blog anyway 😉

red Blackberry pimp by Berry Addictions

I totally felt like walking past the other hair salon which totally cheated me of my money.

I told them I wanted chilly red and even pointed to a few red items in sight, like their Chinese lanterns and ‘Welcome’ carpet for instance. Those morons told me they knew exactly what I wanted and I had nothing to worry about.

When it was finally done. I looked like a fig tree. My hair was quite damaged and the color? Not even the least bit close to red. They didn’t even have the decency to apologize nor refund. Instead, kept insisting it was red.

What, if you’re not colour blind nor have eyeballs hinderd with severe cataract, you’re definitely not fooling anyone but your unprofessional self mind you.

DO NOT GET CHEATED BY UNORTHODOX HAIR STYLISTS!

Always go for the established ones or at least, the ones you trust.

Anything else you wanna know? Just spill and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

Check out my post writen last year about having it done red. And no, I don’t do any other colour besides red 🙂

Till then, hope you like it just as much as I do!

Cos it’s here to stay at least for the next 6 months haha!

😀 😀