Vanity Strikes Again!

A few months ago (about 4) I blogged about researching a "safe" temporary hair color. I posted that I had done some research and found Clairol Natural Instincts Demi-Permanant. So I'm officially making a post that says this brand is NOT temporary!!! I decided that black would be fun to play with. I did blond in college, red in high school, highlights my first year working, but black was new. And what the heck? it only lasts 28 days, right??? *Not Quite.* After 4 months (and using Dawn dish soap to wash my hair) it was STILL in there, but only in the middle, the roots and ends were my natural color. So I was stuck with a mess. I turned to my stylist who suggest a bleach/shampoo wash would work...but it didn't...neither did just the bleach wash. So now my hair was slightly lightened from the bleach, but still black from the "temporary" color in some spots. So I had to color it again, another demi-permanant that my stylist matched to my natural color...but it didn't work because it was too light to color that !@#$%^ black!!!!! So we had to do a shade darker...and I'm back to dark brown hair, which is what I went in to fix!! (At least now it's all one color and not splotchy).
So what did I learn from this?? First, if you're trying to be green and natural--STICK TO YOUR NATURAL hair color!! I'm not really sure what part of adding chemicals to my hair to make it change color seemed OK to me, but now I've learned my lesson. I also learned that coloring your hair while pregnant can make it do funky things. Had I KNOW I was pregnant when I did the black I never would have tried it, but I didn't and I did so now I have to live with my mistake. It's just like the acrylic nails. I sit in that salon and everyone around me looks so PRETTY! I have on my maternity yoga pants and a too-small sweatshirt of my husband's that I've claimed that I don't care if it gets bleach splashed on it. It all combines to make me think, "I need this to look pretty, just like them!" (FABULOUS marketing by the way salon-folk!) But then my little girl (?? the ultrasound tech said she was being uncooperative so she's only 60% sure this kid is a girl.) fluttered a little and put things in perspective for me. I remembered why I started on this whole journey 3 years ago when I was pregnant with my third. I don't want ANY of those chemicals leaching into her little world, no matter HOW much I feel like I need to beautify myself.