Credit: Jason St. Angelo, The Huffington Post
"It's just hair!"
Anyone who has ever been unhappy with a haircut or dye job has at one time or another heard those three hard-to-believe-in-the-moment words. Sometimes, it doesn't feel like just hair. Whether it's a bleach job gone bad, a color mix up, or having your stylist run out on you mid-dye, sometimes dreams of changing your look can be more like a nightmare.
With a little help from our Facebook followers, we've rounded up the worst of the worst hair-dye horror stories. Check them out below, and share your own in the comments (bonus points for photos!).
"I dyed my hair burgundy and all of my hair fell out. #Collegedreams" Chanel Parks, Associate Style Editor
"In 8th grade, my friend Sara and I hid in my bathroom and bleached big chunks of hair in the style of '90s blocking using Jolene Facial Bleach. At the time it was WAY COOL, but I'm so sad about those photos now." Meredith Melnick, Editorial Director, Healthy Living
"I dyed my hair black for Halloween once. It was supposed to be one of those theater dye jobs that only lasts 4-6 hair washings. It lasted nine months and turned my hair eggplant purple. It took two trips to the salon, totalling 12 hours in the chair, to bleach it out and color my hair back to its natural auburn." Facebook user L.A. Mitchell
"I used to dye my hair strawberry blonde using permanent hair dye. When I went to study abroad in Nantes, France I realized my hair would need a touch up before returning home at the end of the semester. I put it off for over a month, and then bought a box of hair dye at the Marché. I carefully translated the application instructions using my limited French hair vocabulary, terrified that the color wouldn’t match or I would apply it incorrectly. At the end of October my friends and I threw a Halloween party and my roots were so bad that I wore a hat as part of my costume. Late that night I returned to my dorm and decided enough is enough. So with liquid courage as my crutch, I applied the color to my hair and then promptly fell asleep. I woke up to a tingling pain spreading over my scalp. The instructions said to leave it in for 20 minutes, but I had left it in for 3 hours. My hair survived, but I lived out the rest of my study abroad with fire engine red hair." Facebook User Kristen Dwyer-O’Connor
"The worst tiger stripe-style platinum highlights you could imagine. I went elsewhere to color-correct before any photos could be taken." Alena Hall, Associate Editor, Third Metric
Credit: Jason St. Angelo, The Huffington Post
"I once tried to dye my hair a sort of dark brown with a hint of red. My mom didn't mix it up correctly and it turned out exactly the same color orange as my Pomeranian dog." Facebook user Melinda Otteson Gray
"One time my hairdresser got into a fight with her boyfriend while the dye was soaking into my hair. She stormed out of the salon and didn't come back for 45 minutes. Another stylist went to get her, and she came back wasted with the glass from the bar still in her hand. Needless to say, I didn't like my dye job." Facebook user Lila Corby
"A friend once dyed my hair purple with a (very) semi-permanent color. We went to the beach shortly after she did it. I stupidly went into the ocean, and when I came out, not only had the color all come out, it came out all over my skin. It looked like a crime scene." Jamie Feldman, Associate Style Editor
"I had black hair and of course, wanted blonde. My friend agreed to bleach it and 'suddenly had to leave' halfway through the process. My boyfriend had to pick up where she left off and then ran out of dye. I had to plead with the ladies at Sally's to let me into their store after hours to get more (while they shuddered in horror). My hair literally turned cartoon yellow, and because I was in nursing school at he time, hats, scarves and bandanas were forbidden. The girl next to me in this picture had blonde hair. Sadly, I did not." Facebook user Elise Dickey
And a haircut story, because horror stories aren't exclusive to dye:
"I went to Supercuts one time and as she was cutting my hair, I made it clear I wanted a TRIM. With long hair, there is a level of trust always as you genuinely can't see what they are doing back there. At the end, I was on the verge of tears as I was left with a bob. She also laid the news on me that she would in fact not be willing to blow dry it (no one in the salon would) so I walked out hysterically crying with unwarranted sopping wet short hair. Needless to say, I now go into hair cuts like an injured fawn, literally questioning their every move as I sit there in desperate need of a Xanax." Facebook User Alexandra Kaplan
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