Worst "Beauty" mistake you've made?

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I had waist length hair, partly because my husband and I wanted it long, and partly because it saved a fortune and lots of time at the hairdressers if I only went every 2-3 years to have it trimmed.

Then my fashionista friends persuaded me that it was messy, that although it was straight, it wasn't mirror flat straight, and if I had it straightened, I'd look ever so neatly presented.

Well, I did it, and didn't really notice much of a difference. And six months later, it's really, really dry and not smooth like it used to be. I've tried oils and stuff, but am beginning to suspect that I'm going to have to cut it all off. It catches and tries to break when even I try to finger comb it, which is not good.

Anyone else with unfortunate attempts to look nice?

There was a girl in high school I admired (for her rebel tendencies I guess) who used to pluck or shave her eyebrows to just a thin pencil line so I did it too. I didn't think it looked bad at the time, even though my brother told me I looked like a clown. Also cutting your own hair after an argument with your mother is not a good idea.

Henna

picture it, it was the seventies, I lived in Berkeley, I ran the streets like a raggamuffin gypsy hippie girl and we decided to dye our hair 'naturally' with henna. Lucille Ball could not have been more of a carrot top Titian red orange hair that looked for all the world like I had become Bozo the Clown (tm) or I Love Lucy.

The syle was long untrimmed hair flying free. Or long braids. Short or shaved hair only meant one thing, that the crabs or lice situation had gotten completly out of hand.

dealing with change is never easy.

Merle

Have you tried leave-in conditioner meant specifically for long hair? Herbal Essences has "Long-Term Relationship" hair stuff that's supposed to help with stuff like that. I think it helps at least a bit. Also trimming the very ends, like when you run your fingers out through your hair, where you get to the point where a lot of it has already broken off and it's thinner, trimming those bits off is pretty safe and helps keep the ends nicer without being "risky" like an all-out trim or haircut.

there's a conditioner for damaged/long hair... my daughter has long hair (down to her knees) and uses a special conditioner (biosilk silk therapy) when trying to comb it out when it's dry/damaged. it's a little pricey, but you really do only use a drop or two at a time. if you've damaged your hair, it's damaged and you'll have to wait for it to grow back in. in the meantime, the biosilk stuff makes dealing with it a lot easier. avoid blow dryers, don't comb your hair when it's wet, don't brush it too much. good luck with it!

me... sigh. when i was 22 i went with a friend to a hair salon. i wanted big, loose curls (my hair is wavy and was extremely thick at the time). they put me under the heat with a perm solution and I came out looking like i had a brillo pad on my head. tight ringlet curls. basically, an afro that stuck out 8 inches from my head all around. because they'd used a harsh perm, it was in very brittle condition - if they tried to do anything else to it they'd have destroyed it completely. the only thing i could do was cover it with a bandana and wait until enough of it grew out that the damaged parts could be cut off. took about two years.

oh, my daughter says to try garnier fructese (?) 5 minute mask (?) - it comes in a neon green tub. she says to leave it in a few hours and then wash your hair and it really helps. you can buy it at target for about $6. use a LOT of it - globs of it. she says it's disgusting while it's on your hair, but it really makes a huge difference.

if you're in the uk, try boots intensive hair mask. comes in a little tub, she says it's awesome and wishes we could buy it here.

that's quite an image, merley.

Well one time when I was a teenager I put maybe about half a bottle of this kind of styling lotion gunk in my bangs. That was unusual for me because I normally hate the feel and odour of hairstyling products, I won't even let my hairdresser put mousse in it. Anyway, the gunk dried and made my bangs hard as a rock and they looked like I had used bacon grease. Back then I also used to put on mascara but it would end up leaving dark circles under my eyes, even when I only applied it to my upper lashes. I decided my lashes are naturally attractive looking and my hair looks its best after a good ol' shampooing.

Fake spray tan on my legs. It was the first time I'd ever tried any fake tanning and I didn't know how much I was supposed to spray on. Well I guess I put on a little too much and by the end when the tan had developed, my legs were very very VERY orange. I was exfoliating everyday for at least a week or two.

gah, so many mistakes...

I will only say a couple.

I used to use fake tan and blue contact lenses (my natural eyes are green/brown) I dont know what possessed me it looked awful.

I also had my hair cropped off for a 'pixie' cut but it looked hideous and showed my pock marks off to their disadvantage.

One time when i was still into fake tan, I bleached my mustache and it left a big white patch where i had done it Doh!! ! I was so upset.

I don't think I could pinpoint an exact "worst"....
I have managed to learn from my mistakes for the most part, so I don't do things that are as bad as what I have done in the past. When I was in the 6th grade, my grandma took my sister and I to the local old lady hair salon that a friend of hers kept in her garage for perms. Our hair was so rail straight that home perms would not take..and my grandma had a thing about perms. I imagined that I would get cascading spirally curls like the lady on the Pantene commercial. Instead, I wound up with a horrible old lady bouffant. It was ghastly...

There were other times in the past and down the line when i have cut my own hair and dyed my own hair or gone to stylists who did horrible things to it...I used to use manic panic and I would experiment with mixing colors on different parts of my head for really weird results....

I mostly just leave my hair alone...whenever I do something bad to my hair, it is a sign that I have been having self-esteem problems...

I am glad that the last horribly foolish highlighting job that I gave myself actually looks good...also I documented on video the cutting of my own hair, but I did not do too bad a job of it....finally, I actually had a real stylist fix it...

I've done a couple of bad things to my hair. One was when I cut my own bangs. And anytime I cut my hair short, it never looks good because of my small chin and round face.

I went to a hair salon called "Captain ZigZag's"
But I didn't know that was its name at first. In fact, I didn't even know the place had a name, because its name was covered up by a tall tree growing directly in front of the building.

But anyways, I went in because I was going to college at the time, and this place was directly across the street from my classes. There was a dry-erase board in their window that read, "Student Discount!" I found that enticing enough to go and get a hair-trim.

The lighting inside was dim and the mirrors were somewhat dirty.

I only wanted my split-ends trimmed off, but the stylist convinced me to let her "layer" my hair. When she was done with that, she convinced me to thin out my hair, because it was extremely thick and curly.
My hair was still sopping wet when she showed me the "finished" results. I took a quick look, and it looks alright from what I could tell, so I paid her and left quickly. I couldn't take the smalltalk anymore!

As my hair dried, I realized that she had cut my hair extremely short and unevenly. It was so short that I couldn't even gather it all into a ponytail! It was hideous! I had to wear a hat for months.

I had a moment of clumsiness while using an electric razor to trim my hair, and ended up having to shave my head.

I've also been guilty of inept application of make-up. And excessive use of Pomade.

I stopped wearing make-up because I was so bad at choosing products and applying them correctly, was not interested in learning more, and the stuff is expensive.

I am still afflicted with Plumber's Crack on a FAR too regular basis because I just can't find pants that don't slide down and start to fall off while I'm wearing them. If I can fit into a pair of pants to begin with, it won't be long before they stretch enough through wear to bring on a bout of Plumber's Crack (usually unbeknownst to me at the time). And belts don't help. When will it end??

then, there's the time i used the self-tanning stuff.

i turned orange. all over. it was hideous.