Bad Red Hair

My dearly beloved,
Lord knows that PeaceBang loves her some violently red hair. I have never been one to promote the idea that our hair color need reflect anything found in Nature; after all, what is L’Oreal for if not to transcend the limitations of genetics?

As you can see here, I have had fiery red hair myself at times:

will and jess wedding

Whether you think that particular hue is flattering on me or not is not the point right now (although I’m happy to receive your criticism — it’s all in the past, and if you love it, maybe I’ll go back to it!). The point is that PeaceBang has been seeing some REALLY SCARY red hair out there on clergy lately, and she feels obligated to say something about it.

1. Although there is a wide variety of what constitutes “red hair,” your hair color should not approach faded pink or magenta. This tends to be an unfortunate trend on older heads, where I’m seeing a really unflattering combination of thin, fried out hair the color of canned peaches or dried out beets on too many pastors at a recent conference. If this is you, please see your colorist or get a friend to help you. And remember that deep conditioner is your friend.

2. Red hair requires careful application if it’s a home job. Again: get someone to help you! I saw at least four women at the Festival of Homiletics with aubergine-cast auburn hair with big black undergrowth patches at the back of their heads. I am pretty sure this wasn’t an intentional goth design but a testament to how difficult it is to get that color applied evenly. Make a party of it! Invite a pal over, have sangria, and color each other’s hair! Just take it easy on the sangria or you may, as PeaceBang once did, wind up with hair the shade of Ronald McDonald. Also: that purple-shaded red is really hard to carry off; especially for white women. Proceed with serious caution.

3. Henna is not better for your hair than chemical colorants, sweetpeas. In fact, it coats the hair shaft something terrible and can be very damaging. It’s also hell’s own work to correct if you screw up. Not to mention that it stinks so badly that you’ll want to avoid the entire human community for the first few days after coloring, and you don’t want to have to do that, do you?

7 Replies to “Bad Red Hair”

  1. I think red hair is beautiful, but it is also the most difficult dye job to maintain, from what I have been told – except for blue; blue hair apparently starts fading within seconds of drying.

    A good friend of mine who normally colors her hair red is moving to Hawaii, so she is going to stop with the red color. It’s too difficult to maintain in the constant sunshine, she says. Here in the Pac. NW, with all the clouds, it’s not so bad. I’m proud of her sensible-ness!

  2. I love red hair- as long as it is a warm colour and applied properly.

    I had mine red a few times.
    (But gave up colouring myself in teenage-days. I rather spend some Euros and make sure it works out well)
    Almost the same colour you have on the photograph.

    Concerning the picture: I think the colour is great on you although you look a bit pale- but this is probably either because of the alb and/or the light.

    But I think it looks great with a gentle suntan.

  3. That is NOT Becca Manning in that picture, is it? If not, then my college buddy has a twin. Is that bride Becca? [Nope, that lovely bride is Jessica Carnahan Alexander. – PB]

  4. I don’t have an opinion on red hair. But the smiles on the faces of that couple make my heart sing.

  5. This is in response to the poster who said blue is harder than red. It used to be, and it definitely does fade, but it is possible to maintain a lovely blue so long as you are willing to go for a sort of ever-changing blueness, and touch up fairly frequently. I”ve been wearing my shoulder-length hair blue, in shades from light turquoise to deep midnight for about three years now. I use at least two different blues when I dye – lighter for the roots and darker for the ends. And obviously I bleach the roots out to as close to white as possible before applying the blue. On the already blue (but starting to fade to paler blue) sections, I just add more blue. Never rebleach! And I condition like I own stock in the conditioner companies. I get hot oil treatments periodically and I use a lot of leave-in conditioner. My blues of choice are Punky Color Turquoise, Lagoon Blue and Atlantic Blue, and Manic Panic Turquoise and Midnight Blue.

    If you’re going for red rather than blue, you still need to do the conditioner thing like crazy. Not conditioning is what leads to the overly processed frazzled hair that won’t hold color and looks ill.

  6. I love your red hair, PB.
    That was a wonderful day. Thank you, again, for being there and marrying us so well. The service was everything we had hoped and we remember it with deep joy.
    For those who are interested, Will and I have just passed our 3 year anniversary (going on forever) and continue to spend a lot of time gazing happily into each other’s eyes.

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