Decisions, Decisions...

so.........
i'm thinking of giving up the red hair. WHAT?! yeah. for a few reasons, but the biggest one is tea tree oil.

i recently asked a question on the LovinLocs group about what kinds of shampoos i could use to really clean my hair without using using a clarifying shampoo. actually, i think i was asking about Dr. Bronners shampoo. my sister got a free sample of the almond scented one (y'all know i'm a fiend for almond scents!!!) and i wanted to use it, but i had heard in the past that it was a clarifying shampoo. but people were always referring specifically to the peppermint one, so i had to ask to see it all Dr. Bronner shampoos were clarifying or just the peppermint one. turns out they're all pretty much clarifying shampoos :-(
i'm sure most of you already know this, but clarifying shampoos strip everything out of ur hair, the built p product, the gunk, AND my hard to maintain color. red is one of the hardest colors to have because the molecules in red dye are so big they wash out easily. so i try my darnedest to stay AWAY from any type of clarifying treatment. plus it makes my hair dry and hard. y'all also know what a fiend i am for conditioners and having soft hair, so i only use clarifying shampoos on rare, rare occasions, maybe like once a year or so if that!
but in my quest for answers about the Dr. Bronners shampoo, i learned about a few other things that strip color treated hair faster, including apple vinegar rinses and TEA TREE OIL!!!!!! WAAAAAHHHH! i LOVE tea tree oil! i use it in my homemade spray that i make for my hair. i talked about the tea tree and peppermint conditioning mist that i bought recently that i love so much. i use it all the time!
recently, i've really noticed that every time i shampoo, i loose a lot of color. i see all this deep pink froth going down the drain. at first i thought it was because i didn't rinse well enough when i colored my hair and this was just the excess color coming out. then i really started paying special attention to making sure i rinse until the water runs clear. but then, the next time i shampoo, more color washes out! i was feeling really frustrated until i put 2 and 2 together and realized it must be the copious amounts of tea tree oil i use in my hair!
also there's just the hassle of keeping up with the color. its just hard to do. i have to wash my hair less often than i would like to keep the color vibrant longer. then there's the wet factor. if my hair gets wet, the red will start to bleed. so, for example, one day at work we used the water table because it was so hot out and the kids splashed me and my hair got wet. then the red started bleeding and i had this bright red color start to belled down my WHITE tee shirt. it looked like a majorly bad case of ring around the collar! LOL so all this has led to to think maybe i need a break from the bright red. maybe let this fade out and then go for a reddish brown for a bit.


i'm really sad, guys. i don't know what to do...