Hair covered model

It probably didn't help that I was feeling sick, miserable, and sorry for myself (I was in the doctor's surgery after all). But that's not entirely fair; I've been a hairstylist for over 25 years and I just love hair and everything to do with hairstyling, and more than that, I'm passionate about it because I'm sick of seeing people with terrible hair- people that don't know any better, that have been ripped off... people putting up with bad hair when it's so easy to have great hair. So yeah, I was at the doctor's, but when I see bad hair, especially bad hair color, it gets me fired up and I've gotta do something about it.

As usual there were dozens of people in the waiting room. As usual I was desperate for it to be my turn. Every time I looked up, hoping my name would be called, all I kept seeing was a whole heap of people with really bad hair colors- I mean really bad!

Get me out of here, I was thinking.

Blonde hair color

The twenty something woman sitting directly across from me had an (almost black) re-growth of about 4 inches that suddenly became a repulsive orange/brown before finishing a putrid copper/gold tone.

A middle-aged female next to me had her hair tied back, exposing fuzzy grey/black roots, dark brown mid-lengths and bright cherry-red flashes. Forgetting about the ghastly roots, the color combo on her warm complexion made her look even sicker than she probably was.

Don't these people have mirrors in their houses, I thought?

On the other side of me this guy was wearing the side effects of a home color job gone terribly wrong. It was a nauseating orange that was clearly supposed to be brown.

As I turned away, an elderly lady walked right into my line of vision. Her lank black hair, that hung way below her shoulders, made her an unmistakable likeness for the wicked witch Dorothy threw water at.

Okay they're all sick, that's why they look so bad, I told myself.

Messy curly hairstyle

But then I caught a glimpse of the receptionist: a reasonably attractive teenager with the worst yellow-blonde color I've ever seen. Her eyebrows made it obvious that she's a natural brunette attempting to see if blondes really do have more fun, but the trouble was her hair was terrible and not really blonde at all! Forget blondes: do yellows (with hair breaking off at the ends) have more fun too? I don't think so. And she wasn't even sick, so what was her excuse for looking so bad?

I was tempted to think I was over reacting. After all it was only hair color- nothing too important, right?

Then it was my turn to see the doctor. Great, I thought, until I almost fell over when I saw his ash-green hair. Oh no, it seemed he'd been using one of those hair color creams out of a bottle that was supposed to slowly give him a natural tone. I made a mental note to tell him some hair coloring tips, like he was using a metallic pigment and should toss it out. It's bad for his hair, and possibly his health too. Some doctor!

Talk about a bad afternoon.

Frizzy hair

And it didn't get any better. Everywhere I went I saw people with shocking hair color. It became blatantly obvious to me that a very large percentage of the population had no idea at all about hair color, hair color types, procedures, suitability, dangers, and straight forward hair care. Worse still, it was looking like a large number of so-called trained hair color "professionals" were responsible for creating these disasters and, believe it or not, charging people lots of money for the "pleasure" of them too.

It's not on, I almost said aloud. I was determined to do whatever I could to warn people about how easy it is to get bad hair color, but also, to let them know it's even easier to get great hair.

This is my wake up call to you: don't be victims of bad hair color! Read this series about hair color and get the information you need to look great! Part two is coming soon...