Going RED!

One of the daughters from "Casey at the Bat" - and hello, she is powdering her nose on the base - aside from the whole baseball thing I am totally on board with this

Alright folks, so I have been in love with red hair for a VERY long time.  It started out many moons ago with a cartoon on the Disney Channel called "Casey at the Bat" - he was a redheaded baseball player who had a bunch of daughters with pretty red ponytails - I was hooked.

Ann Margaret

Next came Ann Margaret in "Bye, Bye Birdie" - ironing her hair, wiggling around singing songs - I fell in love with her and her hair.

Shani Wallis

Next came Shani Wallis singing "I'd Do Anything" in Oliver! - singing, corsets and strawberry blonde half up/half down hair situations - I was all in.

The next chapter was "The Little Mermaid".  Ariel twirled a fork through her ginger tresses, sang "Part of Your World" and I was all about mermaids, more singing and, again, red hair.

Christina Hendricks

Emma Stone

Kate Baldwin at a benefit I got to do her makeup for this past December

As of late Christina Hendricks on "Mad Men", Emma Stone in anything and my girl, Kate Baldwin, have been reminding me that red hair is singing a siren song that remains loud in my ear and I finally submitted. 

This shows you how much I love you guys because these are NOT flattering photos from the wig store ya'll - Grey and Jessica felt like the strawberry blonde washed me out

And it gets worse - I am not meant to be a short-haired person

8KG

7RR

My good friend, Jessica Myhr, is a fantastic stylist who is very opinionated about hair color and so we went to the wig shops to try on various shades to see what we liked.  She then recommended her hair colorist and stylist, Grey Wolf, who I had a consult with.  The three of us discussed colors - I apparently am drawn to orangey-er colors like Marcia Cross but I have cool undertones so they didn't think that would be very flattering on me.  So, after much discussion, we settled in on doing highlights instead of a single process so it would be less serious on the grow-out front.  I really liked Goldwell Hair Color's 8KG and Grey decided to do two parts of that with one part of Goldwell's 7RR which is cooler to balance the brassiness of the 8KG.

Grey mixing colors

LOTS of colors!

Before Shot

Getting the back of the head highlighted first

Cut to the day of the hair dying, Grey decided to add two more colors to the mix as well as using a combo of 8KG and 7RR so he ended up working with FIVE colors for my full head of highlights.  It took about four hours but once he was finished it looked REALLY natural since it was woven in with the brown from my natural hair color via the highlights.  He did the back first and then rinsed it, mixed new colors and did the side and the front.  I have a lot of hair and it's super long so he said he wanted to do it that way since the colors "turn" or something if they're in the air for too long.

Next time (which should be in 9-12 weeks) we'll do 3/4 highlights, the time after that we'll do 1/2 head of highlights and then start all over with a full head.  It'll get more red each time as slowly my natural shade gets colored red more and more.  I may go in for a gloss in the middle of highlight situations if I need a boost.  I'm just writing this all out because I had a really hard time finding info online for brunettes flipping to red - it's mostly about blondes doing it which is a lot easier. 

After getting it cut Steve starts to curl it up

With and without curls - he had to curl the heck out of it because I was going to a show and then sleeping on it and then shooting for Veria in the morning. 

The next day I went to my good friend, Steve Berg's, house and he cut my hair about 5 inches (it had been a while) so I was all ready to go on camera for Veria Living the day after.  Steve cuts hair dry so it's great if you need a cut after you get color since you can't wash your hair for a number of days.  He's very fancy and does all kinds of celeb's hair and is a super fun guy!

The finished product shooting the next morning on set!

At Grey's suggestion I picked up Aveda's Madder Root Shampoo and Conditioner and will use them once a week and continue with my Carol's Daughter Monoi Shampoo and Hair Mask the other time/week.  I don't get to wash my hair more than that because it'll fade more quickly.  So, dry shampoo is going to be my friend!

To read Going Red - Part II click HERE.

Grey Wolf is at Grey Wolf Salon - 256 West 15th Street (between 6th/7th Aves) - 646.479.0788
Full Highlights are $250; 3/4 Highlights are from $150; 1/2 Highlights are from $135.  Glosses (in between highlights) are from $80.  Prices subject to change.

Steve Berg is in Greenwich Village and his email is stevegberg@gmail and is $150.