Hairroin Horror Stories Part 2: The Abominable Ombre

by: Luis Payne
“I’m going to have to drop her base down like two shades darker than I initially wanted to cover up all they did to her root. It so splotchy underneath her mid strands you wouldn’t believe. It’s like a cheetah died under there or something. Then I’m going have to saturate her ends with bleach to make it a hopeful shade of blonde- which I’m a little nervous about since they shredded her ends with a razor”

 “It’s fine.” She giggles as she munched on her chips.

“Just trim it afterwards. She concluded

“Yea totally.” I agree.

 “Dude what happened to your client” says another stylist as they dump their color bowls into the sink

“I know I’m about to fix it. I’m Mixing up a plan” I confirm.

A different stylist walks into the back and searching for her phone.

“What Happened to Your clients hair?”

“OMG, You guys!” I shout laughing.  “Really?” 

“Geez, Never mind” as she snatches her phone from behind my color bowls

“HA! Its cause we’ve all been asking him what happing in his chair” The others say laughing.

“Ok, I know what Happened, I don’t know why it happened, but it did. Some dumb ass thought they would give her an Ombre so they went in and bleached out her hair three inches from the root one side and four inches from the root on the other leaving wicked lines of demarcation. Then they got lazy and half-assed the underneath leaving it to look like a dead cheetah. After that they decided to tone it all, but didn’t anticipate the base shifting. After they realized what they did they remembered Ombre. So they slapped more toner on just the ends which then went way too dark.  They then preceded to razor it all together to blend the colors. Now she looks like a 3 layer Mexican Jell-O with a hot root, and I get to fix it.”

The Stylists burst into laughter with shock and amazement.

“That is the only logical explanation I could come up with that would explain why her hair looks like that. AND she said it took them like eight hours”

More laughing.

“Ok, Here I go!” I announce

“Good Luck with that” one stylist chimes back.

I head out to my chair looking much like a server with color bowls, foil, and cotton placed neatly onto my arms. I smile set up and begin to proceed. She smiles graciously and thanked me.

“You are so welcome” I say proudly.

I sectioned off her hair and began my plan of attack. I applied her color and the magic began.

“So be Honest, how bad is it?” she asks

“WELL.” I say hesitantly. “ Its Bad, but not that bad. It’s not the worst I ever seen. They messed up your color but thankfully they didn’t over process your hair. Color we can always fix, so long as your hair is healthy enough. Your color is off, but your hair still feels good”

“Yea I was worried about that so I’ve been conditioning it a lot and doing hair masques. I haven’t really been blow-drying all that much. Usually I smooth my hair out better but it seems like my cut is off” she replies.

“Yeah, your cut is a bit off as well, we might have to bring the length up a little bit so we can reestablish some density at your perimeter, it’ll still be long. I like long hair, and with this particular color technique; it looks best if the hair is longer.”

“Oh ok perfect. You want to know the funny thing?” she adds. “The instructor came over after the students were done with me and checked it”

“Yea?”

She said to me “Oh it looks Beautiful!” I thought to myself, “This is beautiful???”

“She did not!” I gasped.

 I applied my color and lightener thoughtfully and carefully to promote a smooth transition from dark to light- roots to ends. She vanished into her magazine stack and we rinsed her forty minutes later. I gave her a smooth, voluminous blowout and proceeded to trim her hair into a shape that would compliment her lifestyle.

She stood up was quiet for a second as she studied her new look side to side.

“I Love it,” She proclaimed. “I love it SO much. It’s exactly what I wanted the first time.  You have no idea how awful I felt having to cover myself up everyday. It’s going to look SO GOOD for graduation when I curl it”

“YES it’s going to look gorgeous in waves, however we just did your color so you’ll need a thermal protectant, Color safe Shampoo/Conditioner, and some Potion 9 to condition as you style.”

“OK, just show me what to get and I’ll use whatever you think is best”

I walked her up to the front and gathered the products she needed. As I’m walking up I see a few of my fellow stylists nodding and winking their approval as we walk by. That makes me feel best when my colleagues can approve from afar. She gives me a big Hug and I walk away feeling proud and accomplished.

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” I thought.