by Lana Stockton

Created on: December 11, 2008   Last Updated: August 19, 2010

When I was a senior in high school a friend of mine came to school one day with green hair. And not on purpose. A couple of days before that she had bleached her hair blond, didn't like the color and tossed in a different shade of blond. That's when her hair rebelled and did the green thing.

I avoided coloring my hair for the longest time because of the possibility of a green rebellion doing it's thing on me.

One day my stylist, David, picked a strand of my auburn hair, examined it, then popped the question:

"Would you like to be a model in my show?" he asked, still playing with my hair. David had that creative glint in his eyes. "You've never colored your hair have you?" he asked. I shook my head. "Perfect! I've been looking for someone with virgin hair."

David was amazingly creative. Expensive, but well worth the price. After training at Vidal Sassoon, he was ready for his first hair style show. Not everyone gets invited to create a fashion on the competitive stage, so David was more than just a little excited that day.

Virgin hair, I found out, was a head of hair that had never been touched with any coloring product.

Even though I decided against being in the show, David encouraged me to play with color. He knew I was leary of putting anything other than shampoo and conditioner in my hair. He just didn't know why.

I gave in to his suggestion of trying different kinds of temporary color before graduating to something permanent.

I started with a bottle of color enhanced shampoo that was to be used in the shower. It was supposed to be as easy as shampooing your hair. I stood in the shower with sudsy brownish shampoo all over my head. I waited...and waited. Standing fifteen minutes with suds on my head waiting for the color to set was NOT as easy as taking a shower.

The color shampoo lasted only a few days, so I graduated to a box of temporary color. After all, I reasoned, if I didn't like the results I could wash my hair until the color fell out. On the box it said the color lasted through only a few washings, so I figured the worst case scenario would be a few days of frantic hair washing to get my own color back again.

Everything turned out fine. I actually liked the deep, chocolate brown and began using temporary color regularly. I finally graduated to letting David streak several shades of permanent blond, light brown and chestnut through my natural color.

With the fear of green hair years behind me, I've since enjoyed experimenting with different shades of brown, auburn and blond.

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