I'm worried about being perceived as trying
too hard a little bit.
People might look at me and think I'm having
some kind of crisis.
Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm from Brooklyn.
I'm taking my salt and pepper hair and I'm
turning it blue.
Before we get into this transformation, don't
forget to subscribe below.
I've been working in the photo industry for
longer than I care to share.
And I'm going through this transitional period
now where I'm in the middle of a divorce.
We separated after eleven months of marriage
and it was abrupt.
I'm trying to kind of find my footing again.
I'm transitioning back into just focusing
on myself.
I do not feel ashamed to be in my mid 30s.
I don't feel ashamed to be gray.
But I am starting to feel old, which I think
is more about your mentality.
And so I just look in the mirror and it doesn't
feel true to who I am, and when I'm living
right now.
This hair color is helping me with that transition.
I think people are gonna be really supportive
outwardly, but I suspect that people will
be thinking that I am having some kind of
crisis.
I don't think there's
anything wrong with trying too hard.
I'm just doing this for me and I'm excited
about it.
Bring on the blue!
Let's come on back.
So what made you pick blue?
I'm going through a divorce and I just wanted
a really big change to kind of reflect the
big change in my life.
You've been thinking about this for a while,
right?
Yeah.
Maybe... a couple of weeks.
I had blue hair in high school, so I just
thought it'd be fun to do it again.
Why not?
The blues, the purples, and the greens
are going to last a lot longer than if we
were doing any type of pastel colors.
And I'd kind of go through and pre-lighten
some of your hair with lightener.
And then once we get it to a nice blonde,
what we'll do is I'll take you up to the shampoo
bowl.
We'll preach tone you so that you have a little
bit of a blue hue.
Then we'll bring you back to the chair, we'll
dry you completely, and that's when I'll be
applying kind of the more darker cobalt, midnight
blues into like a lighter blues.
We'll let that process for about 20 to 30
minutes.
Then I'll bring you back upstairs.
We'll rinse you, bring you back down and get
you all styled.
Great.
I started seeing greys is around the age of
twelve.
People on the street often come up to me and
ask if my greys are real.
It's so attractive to people that they think
that it is intentional and they asked me where
they can get it done.
And I just tell them, you know, I grew it
myself.
It's all stress.
We're gonna wait till you're about a nice
blonde.
We'll take you upstairs
and we'll tone you and then bring you back
down and put on the blue.
How are you feeling so far?
I feel great.
I'm really excited.
Awesome.
I kept my hair really long for my wedding.
I grew it out.
Right after my wedding I cut it all off.
And I just feel physically lighter and buoyant.
After my hair transformation, I'm hoping that
I'll feel exhilarated.
I might feel some regret, but I think that's
good.
You know, it matches the complicated feelings
I have about my marriage, too.
You know, this is a really
painful process.
But just like blue hair will grow out, this
pain will grow out.
But I also think it's just really fun.
I've had this kind of serious gray hair for
a long time and I want to look in the mirror
and laugh.
I want to remind myself not to take things
too seriously and that I can still have little
adventures, even if it's just a little haircolor.
So we just got rid of a little bit of the
warmth kind of through the mids and ends.
Then I'm going to get you all blow dried straight
and smooth, and then we'll go in with the
deeper blues melting into the lighter blues.
This is really happening now, huh.
There's no turning back now.
I don't want to turn back.
That is blue.
That is like 90 percent Cookie Monster right
there.
So we don't have to bust through any previous
color.
The health of your hair
isn't a huge issue for me.
We'll do a deep conditioning treatment on
you today.
And I do recommend probably buying a deep
conditioning treatment just to use once a
week at home.
In high school, I wanted to dye my hair turquoise
and my mom let me do it.
Very lucky.
She always let me express myself and it feels
fitting to have that hair again now.
This particular color is so reminiscent for
me of my adolescence.
And I feel like in some ways I'm kind of having
a second adolescence.
I just want to look
into the mirror and see adventure and possibility
and youthful energy.
All right, you ready?
Yeah.
Oh, my god I love it.
Oh, awesome.
It looks great!
Yeah?
It's super-
softer than I thought it was gonna be.
I look like the ocean.
I want a little fish barrette, can swim across
my head.
I love it so much.
It's got so much a dimension and movement...
Just feels effervescent.
Making the choice to do something for yourself,
to give yourself a hair color that isn't trying
to cover something up is a really strong way
to announce your presence in a room.
And that feels empowering.
Thank you so much for watching.
If you have any more ideas for Hair Me Out,
comment below.
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