Charli Says…

Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

Back in the days of my 20s, I was gothy, and loved being colourful on my head… Uh before all this new trend!

All these colour phases were performed at home by myself. I had little to no damage to my hair or scalp.

So, one fateful day I decided to stop being a cheapo, and I was going to treat my son and I (who was only 7 or 8yo) to a salon day followed by a meal.

I asked the beautiful hairdresser who was Polish, blonde and very ambitious! She was a pure delight! I mentioned the colour I wanted, which was red. She set about doing the preparing and had to “strip” my hair of the natural colour, and then dye over the top. As I say there my scalp began to feel very warm, then hot, so much so I was sweating. I quickly told the hairdresser of such a thing, and she told me it does “tingle” a little. And I accepted her feeble reasoning, and continued to chat with my son. I told her again the heat was building to an uncomfortable level. She agreed to take it off as it was light enough to dye. At this stage, I started to question what I was doing my scalp felt soothed by the cool water on it, and she dyed me and I looked fantastic and the day was great!

The following morning I woke up and went to the toilet, as I was washing my hands I look at my face in the mirror. The horror. The front of my scalp was flaking so badly it was chunky! I burst into tears, I spoke to my mum and she was like wow that is bad!

I had to wear a hairband for a few days whilst I tried to soothe the burnt skin. I tried everything to make it look less hideous! But there was nothing I could do. I noticed that in the following months more and more of my hair disappeared and I was mortified.

The weird thing is, the one very British thing about me, is I complain when I am not happy! But for some unknown reason, I cannot remember, I never complained to them. I just sunk into an even deeper hole of self-hatred. I felt like I was less of a woman. I haven’t gained my hair back. But I am more at peace with it now. I just wish that I went back and showed her what she had done to me. It destroyed my self-esteem!

The moral of the story is, when you are deeply affected by someone’s actions, don’t question your right to put them in their place! Your feelings are valid and worth fighting for, as no one will do it for you! XxX

PS. By the way, that doesn’t mean if someone makes a genuine mistake, I mean if someone could have avoided something happening and they didn’t, then complain XxX I don’t advocate trolling and just being nasty. XxX