Waaaaaay back in highschool, I used Sun-In to blondify my naturally dark blonde/light light brown hair. And I had fabulous results, unlike many of my friends, who ended up with tangerine colored hair. Or worse, burnt sienna. I am not altogether sure why I stopped using it, but I think it had something to do with the stigma attached. It’s a pretty fair statement, I believe, to say that using Sun-In makes you kind of a dork.
As an adult, I’ve gone to an actual hair salon person to have my hair highlighted. This has cost various amounts depending on the hairdresser, but most recently, I’d been spending $120 EVERY EIGHT WEEKS for highlights. How insane is that? I did this not only because I liked the results, but because I enjoyed talking with my gay hairdresser. Gay male hairdressers have historically been some of the funnest people ever to talk to, and my guy was no exception.
HOWEVER, about 3 months ago, I told Dame I was thinking about quitting my hair guy and buying a bottle of Sun-In. Her response? “NO” along with a look that clearly SCREAMED, “If you use Sun-In, I may no longer be able to be friends with you.” After some discussion about my good high school results, she reluctantly agreed to continue our friendship even if I went to the dark sun-in side.
So I did it. And I am happy to tell you that five dollars and 3 months later, I am as blonde as I would be if I continued to see my gay hairdresser, except now I have more money to spend on other completely frivolous things. Even Dame has commented on my successful blondeness - I’ve made a believer out of her!
I would like to know about our readers’ haircoloring stories and/or nightmares. Have you had a run-in with Sun-in? (See what I did there?)
Yes, I had a few run-ins with Sun-In when I was a teenager. My natural hair is dark brown, but when I am in the sunlight, it does get lighter highlights. Unfortunately, Sun-In does NOT enhance those highlights. It just made them brassy and orange (along with a PERM! aagh!). I learned my lesson and now let my hairdresser handle it for $80.00 a pop every 4-5 weeks. I’m glad it doesn’t affect you the same way, Mock. Go shopping with all that money you’re saving!
My mom never used to buy Sun-In for us…my sister and I used to use strange concoctions of lemon juice and peroxide (straight from the cabinet). It’s a good thing I was a teenager in the 80’s because I looked like a combination of Alanah Currie from the Thompson Twins and Cyndie Lauper most of the time…ah, memories…
Alas, my very, very dark brownish/black hair scoffs at such products, so I was never able to join in the Sun-in. (sniffle…sniffle)
Oh, man. The memories. Sun-In is how, in high school, I made my dark-blonde-with-lighter-blonde-mixed-in … into true blonde with white streaks. To keep it from being like straw I soaked it in Mane-N-Tail for at least an hour at a time every weekend.
I saw this the other day in Wally World and chuckled. As I bought some “real” hair color so that I can pretend like I’m still blonde at all….
Professional coloring? Most of my friends who do this have worse results than I do experimenting in Wally World! (And I still have some Mane-N-Tail under my cabinet….)
I used Sun In the whole summer before my senior year. I too have light brown hair and Sun In gave me some nice highlights but by the end of the summer, my hair started to look brassy. So one of my friends and I went to Walgreen’s where I bought my first hair coloring kit. I thought it would be simple just to color my hair brown again….right……in turned green. Very green. This was the day before school! When I went into the washroom at school the next day, the first thing out of some wench’s mouth was “is your hair green?”
My dream was to have hair like my Japanese friends… so one day while I was waiting for my normally long hair to grow again after a horrible hairdresser experience (those that start with you looking through a magazine then “make it like that!” forgetting the model in such pictures would look good even bald with a turd as a hat)
So I told my mom I’d use her black hair die… And my younger sister hearing that grabbed the box and locked herself in the bathroom.
Me wanting even more eagerly for a “change” went and heard my mom “you looked so nice blonde…” forgetting that
1. that was when I was 2 or 3 before my hair started to lose most of it’s curls & turn brown
2. my skin tone makes (especially when I’m tanned–and I tan easy) blond hair look fake / unnatural
3. mom’s got this amazing nutsy sadistic side of her..
So mom hands me a bottle of peroxide and there I go…
Conclusion:
An hour later mom was rushing us to the (also gay and extremely talkative) hairdressers down the street…
My sister to try to remove all those black stains all over her face…
Me to cover the CLOWN hair, white at the tips and carrot-orange at the roots.
You guys should’ve seen the scene of me entering first and all gossipy gay hair dudes and the ladies going immediately quiet and just all staring at me I’m horror!
When I later tried going back to brown me too had GREEN hair… I remember in Chemistry lab class some boy analysing out loud what substance / plant lived on my head…
Ah, memories. My mother would never let us buy Sun-In, so my older sister would practically soak her head in lemon juice before going out to lay in the sun, slathered in baby oil. As an extremely fair-skinned redhead, I never participated. Today she is a hair dresser who’s obsessed with tanning (she owns her own tanning bed) and coloring her hair. She looks 35-37 while she’s only 29, whereas I am constantly mistaken for a teenager (which is difficult, considering I’m a high school teacher). The moral: Natural is better.
I have to agree with Rachel. I am a strawberry blonde and I have never colored my hair. My sister used sun in though, with pretty good results. The darker the hair, the better chance of the orange look I think.
Mane ‘n Tail!!! Holy crap, I forgot about that stuff! It smells bad, but it actually worked great for my 80’s perm!