Thankfully, none of mine have been permanent (like getting tattoo eyeliner after drinks in the middle of the night); most of them have been related to hair, like impulsive short haircuts, changing colors on a whim and, um, being a little careless with the wax…
After tossing and turning through a particularly bad night of insomnia a couple of years ago, I decided to wax my brows. Myself. At home. Exhausted. Even though I’d never done it before (uh oh!).
Out of my mind with fatigue, I was even less coordinated than usual…so I accidentally removed half of my left brow.
There’s a lesson here, my friend. Attempting beauty procedures on yourself for the first time is usually NOT a good idea when you’re delirious. 🙁
What’s the most impulsive beauty decision you’ve ever made?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
ive always been pretty impulsive about my hair.
it is always a bad omen when i get a succession of bad hair days — chances are the hair will get chopped off. even if i had been growing it long!
Me too! I’m less impulsive these days, though. Thank goodness my stylist talks me down from the ledge (she does it often!).
Aren’t you growing yours out right now?
yes, i am. at first, i was just going to grow out the bangs. when the bangs grew out, it looked better.
when i decided to go heat free though, i realized i need longer hair to get away w/ not blow drying. short hair requires a bit of heat for it to look good. so i just said, fine ill grow it out. let’s see until when i hold out!
When I was younger I used to cut my own fringe, and I considered straight fringe dull and boring, so I made it uneven with some sections much shorter than others! When I look back at those photos nowadays I feel kind of ashamed and try to persuade myself that that kind of hair was fashionable back then.. I doubt it, though.
GURL… don’t even get me started on bad hair. I grew up in the ’80s. ‘Nuff said.
Kind of impulsive but really not the most well thought out. I decided to get a brazilian blowout 2 years ago when it was fairly new and only a few salons around did it. Since I knew I’d be spending a decent amount for it anyway, I decided to go with one of the top salons in the area. I put my faith fully in the salon and the stylist, ended up dropping around $600 and…the treatment barely worked! My hair looked nearly the same the very next day! After looking up why, I realized the stylist had done the treatment incorrectly. I complained, went back, and she attempted to fix it by doing an “emergency” fix. That worked for about a week, but by that time I was so annoyed that I never wanted to go back or hear from them again. So I let it go. To this day, I’m angry I didn’t yell and scream for my money back or write a horribly scathing review on Yelp. I’m never spending that much on any salon service again! My curly hair is just fine, thank you.
I’ve decided to give my hair a trim (it ended up lopsided so I looked like Salt n Pepa) and relaxed my hair myself (hello bald spots) so I was impulsive as can be!
I remember that cut! My friend had it (on purpose) and it was fierce!
When I was in high school, I dyed my hair alot, which damaged my hair. (I didn’t go crazy and dyed it neon green or whatever, but I dyed it mostly black, dark red and dark brown.) I stopped dying my hair after I graduated from college and my hair is healthy now. Good thing you can cut hair and it’ll grow back fresh and new. =)
Your story is my story. Hair twins!
I’d just bleached my hair out to white/blonde and was feeling a little freaked out that my naturally strawberry-blonde brows looked stupid with my new hair. I tried to sleep on it, but wound up getting up at 2am, driving to Walgreens and bleaching my brows (well, I waited until I got home from Walgreens for that, lol). Biiiiig mistake, they looked so stupid. I wound up dying them (I know, bad me) back to a brownish-blonde.
OMG Karen I had a pretty similar eyebrow de-forestation disaster last weekend! I was being overzealous snipping away with a few stray strands on my left eyebrow.Being Ms. Butterfingers, my hand slipped & I ended up snipping off a a major chunk of my left eyebrow!!! Its growing back & is less prominent now.For once I’m glad about my fast growing eyebrows! LOL 😀
That’s a cute pic! I’d have to say I impulse-bought those limited edition Chanel lipsticks at Saks… The black, black blue, and black red ones. What was I thinking? 🙁
I think the most impulsive beauty decision I’ve ever made is a toss up between two things. First was the “highlights” I had my friend talk me in to when I was 14 (we bought a frost and tip kit from the grocery store and applied the highlights in her bathtub). The second was the eyelash extensions I just had done when I was in Manila for a weekend about 2 weeks ago…don’t judge-they were only $20 and turned out fabulous (luckily)!
Not to toot my own horn.. but I have pretty awesome hair. It’s especially awesome when it’s long. So after my wedding, we flew down to Mississippi and I cut it all off (chin length). Holy pumpkin face. Then it was finally down to my collar bone and on an especially snowy day, I cut bangs into it !!!! AHHHHH !!! Wool tuque + a short fringe = hot mess. But i’ve realized that this is a cycle I go through every 5 years.. I’ve gotta get on that post-it note.
Karen, I routinely sinead o’connor my eyebrows as well, mine is due to boredom and those tiny little 10x mirrors which act like a vortex for concentration 🙁
Ahh, those mirrors are my downfall!
I’m sorry that I’m laughing at your brow misfortune; I’d be mortified if it were me, too. 🙂 Like many others, Impulsive decisions for me usually involve cutting my hair. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it for weeks lately. Oh, wait, that makes it NOT impulsive. HAHA! Every time I get the urge, I look at my bulletin board. There’s a picture of me with my last impulse cut. Remember when I said “high forehead, look terrible in blunt cut bangs”? Well, this doozie is a short bob, just below the ears, with blunt cut bangs…about 2″ above my eyebrows. Epic fail. And, note that I don’t look good in hats. HAHA!
You know what was bad? The 30 seconds right after it happened. I remember standing there with the strip in my hand thinking, “WAIT. NO! NOOOOO!” LOL…
Your story made Lloyd Christmas proud, btw. 😉
Oh, my. I feel your pain on that. When your brain is frantically searching for the Undo button. 🙂
Yes! The actual Lloyd would have been like “hey, twin!”. The kicker was that I had to go to a hair show shortly after. You know it’s bad when your normally complimentary industry associates are like “Um, is that the style up there in the sticks?”. HAHA!
When I was in college, I decided to stray from my tried-and-true awesome high stylist because I didn’t think the salon she worked in was “upscale” enough (whatever that meant when I was 19!). So I booked an appointment at the most expensive salon in the area and ended up with an orangey-red, cheek-high “bob” with short bangs. I love short hair but the cut was horrifying and the color was worse. I went crawling back to my old stylist and begged forgiveness.
I don’t really do impulse beauty decisions (or if I do, they usually turn out to be okay)… I guess the worst one was when I figured I wanted wavy hair for photo day at 08 (I have straight hair) and I went to the salon… and at the end I ended up with perms like a 40-ish secretary in the 90s sported… I spent all my night combing out the waves and curls out of my hair to have a decent enough hairstyle next day…
18, of course, not 08 🙂
I think mine was eyebrow related too. I once shaved my with my razor because I was sick of the unibrow. I didn’t shave off all my brows, but the results were not becoming, so say the least.
I trimmed my own bangs when I was 12, but they wound up too short! Luckily, my hair grew quickly back then, so i wasn’t embarassed for too long. 🙂
I bleached my brown hair Baywatch blonde and waxed my brows for the first time in the same day. I think it might have been the waxer’s first time, too, because she took my caterpillars down to a thin line. The hair looked terrible because none of the toners my colorist tried would change the color from straight up banana yellow. SO….my whole head/face area looked BUSTED.
I let the brows grow back and found a better waxer who understood that “clean it up” does not mean make me look like Pink from The Wall. I waited the month my colorist advised before putting the darker tint on my hair (I eventually had to chop it all off because it was too damaged). All in all, it took about a year or so to get back to the old Sarah with brown hair and cleaned up brows.
The most impulsive beauty decision I ever made was to try to shape-up and trim my afro. I messed up the setting and cut a landing strip over my forehead. It was hours before work. I wrapped my head in a scarf and ran to the wig shop. When I got home, my husband shaved the rest of my head and I wore a wig until my afro was back to an acceptable length. 🙂 Don’t mess with your hair when you are having an anxiety moment.
I also tried to wax my own eyebrows once with pre cut strips. The strip fell on my brow before I could center it, so when I pulled it off I was missing half a brow.
That’s my nightmare!
Baby oil, or w/e oil on hand is your best friend here. I had a major disaster once (my brow still isn’t right 10yrs later) but discovered the magic of oil to remove those pre-wax strips if you misapply it.
Nowaways, I still do my brows, but reserve strips for tidying up ONLY! Then I carefully pluck closer to the brow to neaten up. Those x10 Mirrors are great for half-blind people like me though 🙂
A few days ago, I was feeling really impulsive so I decided to cut my own bangs after letting them grow up for over a year. It actually turned out really well though and I needed the change.
I usually have my hair fairly long but about 2 years ago, I let a stylist convince me to get an inverted bob to about chin length and while cute, I felt like I was about 15 all the time. No short hair for me anymore.
I got a Chemical Peel that costs $400, without any thought or look at my budget. 7 days later my face was flawless, but it put me in a jam for a few weeks
I once gave myself my own bikini wax. It was the 4th of July and I was going to a pool party and was desperate! Nothing horrible happened, but the contortions involved were pretty ridiculous.
Hi Tara,
I know this story all too well. One thing I’ve discovered that helps: sitting on the floor on an old towel!
Actually yesterday I got all my hair cropped right off. It’s beautiful, I feel so confident. However, when I was 13 and a tortured soul I went to a high-end salon and got it buzzed right off! Got bullied like hell in school and it took ages to grow back. Also, once when I was drinking really heavily before I entered recovery I whacked a load of peroxide on my black hair and left it for nine hours. Result was stripy orange and white hair. Took a long time to get over that bad boy…
(This is a pic of my haircut right now if anyone is wondering…. in love with myself a little bit! http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/303922_10150852492915173_519025172_21231536_1186766300_n.jpg )
Any Urban Decay palette is usually a pretty impulsive money decision!
Hi Alison,
Love the new ‘do. It’s so spunky! 🙂 What products are you using to get that nice lift in your bangs?
I have been known to cut my own hair. I get bored easily, and I’ll just take a pair of scissors and lop it off into a blunt bob. I haven’t done it in a while, but I used to do it quite a bit!
Definitely getting keratin straightening treatment. Was visiting my mom who’d just had it done and she called her salon and they had an opening that day. No thought went into something I’d have to live with for 3 months. It definitely made drying and straightening my hair last winter easier, but I don’t know that I’d do it again. I like my waves.
Steph! It’s nice to see you. How have you been?
A week before my wedding, I decided to try a new, ashier dark blonde hair color because I wasn’t liking how brassy my current color was. Ended up with greenish-gray tinged blonde. Emergency trip to my very sympathetic and kind stylist, and fixed me up. I don’t mind switching things up, but that was the wrong color at the wrong time. What was I thinking?!
LOL your eyebrow halfing!
I did the same thing… and I’m still suffering.
Currently I am thinking bright hot pink pixi cut hair… after I graduate college and have a “real job” I’ll never be able to do it again. Hmmm…
i’m sorry karen but i can’t help but laugh..at you brows..and your pic..:D
mine was also had to do with hair..
i remember chopping my bangs..i was only 8 then..lol
on my teenage years, i chopped my locks again..and i have thick hair..haha!
i looked like dora the explorer!lol
but i never wax my brows..especially when i’m not in a good state of mind..i just pluck them..
anyway,there’s always a bright a side in everything..you’ve learned something,right?hehe..
(btw, you look good in that band aids!:D)
I chopped my bangs as a child…all the way to my hairline!!! That takes the cake for anything I’ve done to date!
A couple weeks before my wedding back in 2006 I decided that I wanted to dye my hair from red back to its original dark brown color. Let’s just say dyeing your hair when it’s already colored is a VERY BAD IDEA. (Especially if it’s naturally wavy/curly. Dry hair ahoy!) It dyed it black! I have porcelain fair skin, so the combo was not the best thing, either. I *had* to wear makeup or I looked like I was sick. I ended up rushing to the salon down the street from my house to get it fixed. Lesson learned: do not try new makeup or hair color out right before an important event!
…Oddly enough over five years later, my hair is now naturally a dark brown/black color. And it looks good.
I took half an eyebrow off one time too. I had 2 glasses of wine and decided to do my eyebrows. Not a good combo.
Getting my hair coloured bright red and get an asymetrical bob like Victoria Beckham a few years back.
I´ve since changed the colour to a more natural red using henna (I am a dark blonde) but the cut has stayed more or less the same. :o)
Hmmm….
Probably getting a hair wrap at summer camp when I was little. I let this girl do a hair wrap in my hair with friendship bracelet string… Since we were both 10 at the time neither of us new what we were doing and so she just did random knots with the string around a lock of my hair. It came out OK but I had to cut off the piece of hair to get it out! Took me forever to get that lock of hair back to my normal chest-length hair.
My most impulsive beauty decision (this could change by my next hair appointment) was in the third grade. I wanted to have hair just like my friend’s, shoulder length, as in bottom of the hair resting on top of the shoulders. So I got my almost waist length hair cut that short. Due to that um…experience, I haven’t had my hair majorly cut length wise since then (6 years).