Nicole B. Loves......: What should NOT happen when you color your hair

*Update*

This post was from about 2 months ago on my old blog. My scalp still itches a bit here and there but I think my scalp is extra extra dry now due to what it went through. I’ve been paying extra attention to my hair and scalp. Treating it to deep conditioners and oil treatments and only washing it every 2-3 days. I’m hoping to do a “patch test” in the next few weeks just to make sure I don’t have another reaction as I did below. It’s still blows my mind that happened. Fingers crossed I can get these gray’s covered soon!

Oh and fyi….. I no longer resemble Sloth. Thank you baby Jesus!

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Epic fail!!

This is what I looked like a week ago, no joke.

The first picture is from Monday morning. The temple area of my face to back towards my ears was starting to swell. I woke up and washed my face and thought,"is my face/head really this fat all the time?" Then it kept growing....

The second picture is from late Monday night into Tuesday morning. I already went straight to the doctors in the morning so remind you I had Prednisone,Claritin and Benedryl in my system. You can see here how the swelling is favoring one side of my face over the other and still growing.

The third picture is what I looked like when I woke up Tuesday morning. So not cool! A few of my friends on Facebook said I should have told everyone I was in a cage fight and kicked some girl ass. Must remember that for next time (if) I have a half swollen face again!

The fourth picture is what my husband told others what I looked like, Sloth from The Goonies. Nice uh? Finally by Wednesday morning, much of the swelling subsided and my eye was slightly puffy.This all was from getting my hair colored and highlighted on FRIDAY NIGHT! Yes, I went to my normal girl at my normal salon- an Aveda salon which is really a great product. Back track a few months to May. I went and had my hair done before I went to a college reunion to see many of my girlfriends I have not seen in years. Besides my normal all over color, I opted for some highlights also. So pretty. I noticed over the weekend though my head really itched and I figured my scalp was just really dry due to the weather changing and the hair coloring, etc. No biggie, it went away. That Friday. Went to have the same thing done, this time with a few more highlights since it is summer and it's fun! Plus, the following Friday, hubby and I were leaving to head across the country to Washington to visit my brother-in-law and family so I wanted to be prettied up! All done, cut, colored, highlighted and pretty, I went home Friday night happy. As Saturday went on, I noticed, grrr my head is starting to itch. Call hair girl and she said come in on Sunday so she can look. Sunday now, head really itches. She looks, see's no redness, no swelling, no bumps (though I swear I could feel) and decides it must be just sensitive/dry scalp. She gives me some shampoo samples to try and sends me on my way. Sunday night I wash good, get any leftover dye out and then BAM! you can see what happened come Monday....

Needless to say, I had an allergic reaction. To what? We are not exactly sure. I did a lot of research and it seems some people can form a random allergy to a chemical in most hair dye's out of the blue. I don't think it's that though. With more research hair girl found out that the salon had recently(within a few months, um Hello May!) the developer they use. Hrmmmm interesting.

Hair girl though thinks it could be also the higher volume she had to use due to color and the highlights. Makes sense. But now I need to be extra careful next time I get my hair colored. So annoying! I am only allergic to one medication that I know of and now this!?
In the end the manager of the salon refunded me all my money for the color and highlights. It was $$$$ so that was the least she could do. I'm pretty easy and laid back but I could have been a real pain in the ass about it all, but that's really not who I am. I am slightly annoyed though that the manager said to me on the way out "Good luck hun (I hate that) finding someplace to get your hair colored." Really? I just finished getting a manicure and already said i'd let hair girl still cut me but now you are pretty much shunning me from coming back? I would have hoped she would have said let's try some different developer next time and do a patch test? Let's see if we can make it work...... but all I got a was a "hun" and a boot out the door.

I sit here 2 weeks later still scratching my head as I write this…..