Hairdressers rant: From hair fiasco to loving the hair again!

Ok so, 

Where to begin?

I wanted to write this blogpost since a couple of weeks now, because I feel like I must not be the only one with this issue: 

Hairdressers.

Sigh. 

I don't understand most of them... 

So, for those of you who are new on my blog I'll give a quick recap: 

I am a natural ashy blond, got sick of my bleh color and decided a couple of years ago I wanted to dye it, so I did and I went to a salon to get my hair dyed. 

I asked for a Mary kate Olsen colour which is something like this:

 (the one on the middle) 

Let's say a Venetian blond. I got weird purple/brown. Yuk. That was the start of my mess, because it had purple/red pigments in it, up til a year or so ago I always had to deal with this weird red shine in my hair - this has been confirmed by professionals: red is the hardest to get rid off. 

So scroll forward in time: After a couple tries, I discovered this awesome girl at Tony & Guy who did both my friend and me, and we looked - well the hair :D - reaaaally awesome, exactly what we wanted. The celeb style blond a la Jeniffer Aniston/ Jeniffer Lopez / Sarah Jessica Parker. 

Love it.

Then I moved, so I was obliged to go to a different hairdresser, so I went with Aveda in New York. Good lord... That was some story: I had to pay +200 dollars (the plus stands for the extra 20 ish percent tip, if not more) for a hair color that was just completely messed up.

I asked for this:

(I cant find the exact picture, but it basically came down to this:)

How To: highlights at home | Ombre hair | dye your hair at home

My promised hair pictures <3

I started dyeing my hair in 2010 and continued coloring it ever since, apart from 2 times where I decided to go to a hairdresser because I was bored of my color, and wanted something new.

Those two times, I've been the most disappointed I have been in these last 4 years. 

I will tell you a bit about it now, and then I will explain to you step by step what technique you could use to avoid having to spend money while you can do the exact same (or better) at home. 

To start, I would like to admit that there are really awesome hairdressers out there, but to find them is a real quest and it is very rare you will bump into one that does exactly what you asked for, and even more. 

I once had the pleasure to work with someone called Sandrine who worked at Tony & Guy, and she was the best colorist I have ever met. I wanted J Lo meets Jen Aniston hair with a lighter color at the end of my hair points, something I had naturally, but I wanted to exaggerate that look. Maybe a little bit of a semi ombre "avant la lettre".

I showed her some pictures, and to me, it is even more important to stress what you don't want. 

I went with my best friend, and, even though we were both kind of demanding customers (I want this this not that definitely not that, and I do not want to walk out of here with a bill exceeding 200 dollars kind of customer) we really got a great customer service.

We both got about 10 minutes to talk to her, and she was super lovely, she explained the process, she spoke about the color range, showed us several hair samples, explained how we could reach that hair color, you know, something where you normally hear:

"that is not possible miss, your hair is too dark for that, the only way to go blond is to put in highlights, and this way you will come back every 2 to 4 weeks and after a while you will get blond".