The History of This "Hair"

I don't know if this has been done before but I did a forum search and there has been none in this forum.

I thought it would be interesting for some of us to fess up and post our hair history. I don't think anyone can top mine, but probably someone has.

I think this will make some of you feel better about your hair.
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Hair history:

Prior to all of this: daily curling using an iron.

Dye Job: L'Oreal Feria Black
Perm: train wreck
Dye Job: Garnier Nutrisse Black
Perm: to fix the last one, good results
Dye Job: Garnier Nutrisse Black
Dye Job: Revlon Colorsilk in Brown
Stripping color: um...
Dye Job: Clairol Ultress in Dark Chocolate Brown
Dye Job: Revlon Colorsilk in Black
Dye Job: Clairol Ultress in Black

That's the end of it! All natural from now on.

It's only because I have very coarse Asian hair that I did not go bald. My hair is still surprisingly decent.

I've done too much to my hair over the years, but I'll list some milestones.

1-17: Long hair, sometimes as long as down to my butt, slowly creeping up in my teens. No products, no hairdryer. Issues with tangles til puberty.

Junior High: Grew out my bangs for the first time. Never had them short with long hair again.

18: Got my senior pictures taken and then chopped all my hair off the next day. Cropped short. BIG change.

18: Began the love affair with the bottle-- hair-dye bottle.

19-20: Grew my hair long again.
20: Permed my hair. Thick hair + bad perm = frizzy nightmare. Came to my senses after a few months and cut it all off. It was kinda cute short and wavy.

24: Stopped dyeing my hair after a running joke started up about me not knowing my own natural haircolor anymore. Cut off all the colored ends and grew my hair to shoulder length.

24 1/2: Realized my natural haircolor is no longer medium auburn but mousy brown. Fell off the bandwagon and went red again.

25: Lopped it all off again. Went from red to dark brown recently. Loving the dark brown.

Styling?
Long hair: Always up in ponytails or buns, no styling products

Short hair: Devout pomade/wax user.

I don't use a hair dryer unless I'm in a supreme hurry for something important. I've been known to wear my hair wet to school, work, and anywhere else I might go after showering in the morning.

Haircolor? I've done everything from dark blonde to bright reds to black. Tried purple once but it washed out immediately and I was left with deep red.

I doubt I can even remember everything I've done with mine. I'll just try to remember some of the biggest.
When I started high school was the first time I was able to do anything at all with my hair. I, of course, had it done short and soon after that began dyeing it black. It stayed black for like two or three years, until I got bored of it and tried to bleach out the black. The black didn't budge, but the attempt resulted in the strangeness of me having black hair with blonde roots.
After the black all went out (fortunately, my hair was still short, so it didn't take as long for me as it does for a lot of women) I had kinda wheat or golden hair for a while, until I got bored of that and did it auburn for a while.
Unfortunately, upon leaving school, I got really lazy with my hair for a year or two, and by the time I paid attention, it was halfway along my back and just habitually ponytailed to get it out of the way :-( . Ick! I took it about shoulder-length from there. . . guess I still wasn't fully out of my ick-slump :-P . . . and for a couple of years after that it kinda fluctuated anywhere between the chin and shoulders, though I did play with dyes a lot in that time, most notably my many attempts to get my hair to turn blue. Whether I bleached first or not, it would usually look green, for some reason :-( . I still have never been able to get a good blue, and have resorted to collecting blue wigs to satisfy my blue-hair fetish, at least for now.
Anyway, after I felt I had done the bob thing to death, I finally went back to short, which the stylist was glad to do, if only to get rid of the weird green-tinted blonde that remained at the ends of my hair :-P . I stayed away from dyes for a while, until I noticed a very visible grey streak at the back of my hair, and began trying to cover it up. I've been self-conscious of that ever since :-P .
The next big change I made to my hair was a buzzcut I did for most of a year, and of course I didn't dye during that time, as at that length it's pretty pointless. I liked the buzz because it was very easy to care for, though-- no styling or fuzz necessary :-) .
The buzz exposed my large forehead, something I had tried to keep covered for years. Evidence of the weird things I think while lazing around in my bed, one morning I suddenly figured I looked like Taiki Kou, so I spent the next four or five years trying my best to perfect her very distinctive hairstyle :-) . Um, yeah, an explanation of her hair might be in order at this point. . . for the most part, it's relatively short and she wears it combed back, with these cute little flippy bits at the back. . . but coming out the bottom is a very long ponytail. . . probably have to see her to understand more than that. But yeah, I mastered the shorter part, and figured how to get some good flippies going pretty asily, it's just the pony didn't work out well :-( . My hair is fine and prone to being dry if it gets long, so the pony looked kinda pathetic anyway, but on top of that, it wouldn't grow any further than the middle of my back. Very frustrating. Anyway, dye-wise, I tried to play it safe during that time, mostly staying to shades of brown. But I did do red (like almost primary red) streaks once, had an attempt at blonde streaks that went horribly wrong and had to be covered, and towards the end began trying out some really bright shades of red. Probably all the different dyes only helped contribute to the pony's demise, I know :-P .
Once I couldn't stand dealing with the pony anymore for various reasons including condition, I got rid of it and have been doing it short since. At the current moment my hair is a kind of reddish-brown simply because I put brown dye over a bright-red I had in, but I'm considering tying to make it lighter, since they have all those new high-lift home kits out there. Hopefully those won't cause the problems I've had with lightening in the past.
Okay, I'm sure no-one read that all the way through, but that's most of it. . . or at least the highlights. . . of what I can remember. . . Blee. My hair has been through a lot in the last half of my life, probably to make up for the fact I wasn't allowed to do anything with it in the first :-P .

Shortish bright auburn wavy hair
Longer, the hair turned darker and straighter
LONGGGGG, midback, and copper. Messy. Tangled.
Not quite as long -- less messy.
The big chopchop, cut to an ugly poofy style
Got it cut shorter
Even shorter!
It's too long now. I need a buzzcut. :)

Fun thread! I have very few milestones, so here goes:

Age 6-16 long, waist-length blonde hair

Age 16 went from waist-length to a "Dorothy Hamill" wedge in one swoop, because I wanted to be "mature" and not look like a little girl any more. Yikes! My mom came with me. I still have a lock somewhere that I saved from that cut, well over a foot long I guess. The style actually looks pretty cute in old photos, though very dated and "70's", and I grew it out before long.

Age 20 went from around mid-back or so to short layers all over, after a misunderstanding with the hairdresser. Took forever to grow out.

Has been long ever since, usually around bra-strap length, and I'm now 44. I guess some highlights along the way were wearing it braided & coiled on my head at my wedding at age 26 (the marriage later ended, but the long hair continues!), and how thick and shiny it was during two pregnancies, at ages 28 and 31. I've never colored my hair, which has gradually gone from light to medium blonde, and I'm starting to notice more and more gray hair, which looks white on me and kind of gives some natural highlights. I'm thinking of going short, which the man I'm dating would like, but I'm not there yet.

Hey LaCerca,
Thank you for your lovely compliment-- it really made my day!

Anais

I'll be sure to email you.

Anais