Teacher, Yellow Hair... no, Blonde... okay, Now Yellow

So, I got my hair dyed a few weeks ago. Of course, it was a total spur of the moment, I'm bored and I just want to feel pretty, moment of weakness. I went in to a hair salon which is just down the block from my school. Another girl I work with had gotten her hair cut and colored a week before and recommended the place because the lead stylist knew a little English.

I made an 6:30pm appt. that day for just a cut. I had already been warned that getting my hair highlighted in Korea would be a disaster and I should just avoid it. I brought pictures to show the lady how I wanted my hair to be cut and she asked about the color. I said I get it highlighted. And she nodded her head and said, "yeah, highlightee - bery pretty" She pointed to the pictures and asked, "highlight?". I said, "ugh, maybe?" She got out a color book and showed me a picture of chunky highlights. I said "ne, but mani mani" (yes, but many many... like many many little streaks). She said, "ne, ne. I can do." So, I said "kwenchanio" (ok).

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So, she mixed up the stuff... and as she was mixing, I realized she never showed me what color she was going to do. So I grabbed the highlighting book she was showing me and flipped to the only section with blonde color swatches (it was in the alternative color section, right next to blazing red, purple, blue, and gray). I realized there were only three "blondes" to choose from. None of them were really what I would pick but there was one that looked okay. I pointed to it and she nodded, "ne, ne". Then she picked up her paintbrush and parted my hair and glopped it on. Now, girls out there are all doing a collective gasp! Boys, let me translate - the fact that she didn't section off my hair into tiny pieces, apply a piece of tin foil and only dye a select section of my hair, means that she was dying hair... not highlighting my hair to look "naturally" blonde. But at this point what could I do. So, I just let her proceed.

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And as I expected, after an all too tiny and styled Korean boy washed my hair, I was brought back to the mirror. The towel wrapped around my head was dropped and behold... I was no longer white blonde with dull, dirty blonde roots ... I was YELLOW. I got the opposite of a highlight. She turned my dull, dirty blonde roots a freakish, toxic, electric yellow! The rest of my hair is white blonde.

(I've included the before and after so you can grasp the full extent of this tragedy... before right, after left, obviously! I will grant that the picture on the right might be a bit over exposed and the sunlight beaming down might give the appearance of an angle but make no mistake, the difference between my before hair and after hair is just as shocking as what you are seeing ... at least in my eyes :))

Thankfully, it has been two weeks, and after many many scrubbings in the shower, my hair has dulled to a less potent version of its previous self.

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On a funny note - I was in an elevator today with a bunch of my students. The kids were going to the dentist for a check up. A man (not a boy or even a teenager - a MAN) standing beside me, gently leans over, takes a small section of my hair, rubs it between his fingers with a quizzical look on his face, shrugs his shoulders, smiles and drops his hand. All I could do was stand there and watch the semi-assault happen. The guy got off on the next floor and never said a word. It was like I wasn't even there or I was an animal at a zoo to be poked, prodded and examined. I guess he just wanted to see if my hair was real or felt like his hair, I don't know? But the clear disregard for personal space was hilarious.