Peach Highlight and Set

Friday, April 24, 1998

Today I experimented with my first-ever highlights. I arrived at my usual salon at about 1:30 p.m., and found my stylist free, with one lady in various sizes of small Velcro rollers under the dryer and a friend waiting for her. The male barber was absent, probably out to lunch.

The stylist washed my hair and placed me under the other dryer for it to dry. She then prepared the foil and hair lightener for my adventure. When my hair was dry, she had me sit in the styling chair, and began the procedure. Starting in front, and working toward the crown, she sectioned off small strands of hair using a special rat-tail comb, placed foil under them, and applied the lightener with a brush. She continued the process by working down on my left then right sides, then did three sections in the rear, on the right, in the center, and on the left.

By the time she had finished, the strands in the front had been adequately processed, and she unwrapped them one by one, wiping off the lightener from each with a damp tissue. She then proceeded to do the same to other sections in the same order, and finished the process with me at the shampoo bowl. She shampooed my hair again, then applied a conditioner and had me wait.

While the lightener was being applied, other dryer stopped. After I was left at the shampoo bowl, the stylist combed out the first lady into a short, fairly curly style for her blonde hair. She then left with her friend.

The barber returned, and began cutting a woman's hair using a straight razor to thin it in back, and scissors on the top. He then proceeded to wrap her hair in several sizes of small perm rods, applied the solution, and placed a towel over her head for it to process. He then had a sequence of three men in for haircuts.

As I was under the dryer, another lady with fairly short hair came in for a shampoo, blow dry, and style using a curling iron. She had dark hair with some brown tint.

The Result

I was very disappointed with the result. While normal single-color processing is something that most neighborhood salons can do successfully, it seems that a color specialist is necessary for more complex coloring. I had ended up with a lot more blonde hair than I wanted. And I had two conferences to attend beginning on the following Friday, and was nearing the point of panic. I knew that I shouldn't have anything drastic done immediately. I searched two large drugstores for the temporary hair color sticks that I had used earlier for touch ups to my roots, but couldn't find them. Fortunately, I still had some at home, and, together with a newly-purchased hat, was able to hide my drastic change when I needed to. I resolved to wait until I would normally have my hair colored in two weeks before attempting a more permanent fix.

Thursday, April 30, 1998

In preparation for the conferences, I had a subsequent set on April 30, 1998. This was entirely on medium pink Velcro rollers. Pictures of the set and resulting style are shown below. Note the area of the blond highlights.