read this before you get the viral skunk hair

in 2021 i decided i was ready to be more creative with my hair and got the skunk hair. i had it for 6 months before deciding to switch back to dark hair.

𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫???

the skunk hair consists of bleaching your fringe or the framing pieces of your hair to a blonde that’s closer to white (also called the money piece), and other random bunches of the inside layers of your hair. the end product should mildly resemble a skunk.

despite loving this hair to death — at some point i wished to have it forever, there are many things that having this hair adds to your life that i never knew before i got it done.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

i had to visit the salon twice to get my hair to a blonde that was closer to white than yellow. i’m sure most of us have pretty dark hair, this becomes a problem when you’re bleaching it, as it involves removing some pretty strong pigments from your hair. i had to bleach my hair 3 times to get my desired colour and take a break in between to avoid breaking my hair.

the first round of bleaching took me about 5 hours including a haircut. when i left the hair salon, my hair was still orange. it wasn’t blonde. i had to take a break for a week to ensure my hair didn’t fall out, before going back again to bleach it to my desired colour.

𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡

once you get it, it’s like a race against time 𝙏𝙊 𝘽𝙀 𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙔 𝙃𝙊𝙉𝙀𝙎𝙏. because i’m a perfectionist, i started noticing in a month that my roots were growing out… i mean that’s normal. but because it was such a huge contrast from my natural hair colour, it became super obvious to me. i ended up getting it touched up after two and a half months because i just couldn’t bear to look at my hair.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬…

having skunk hair is a 𝙃𝙐𝙂𝙀 commitment, not only because you have to maintain your hair well for it to be healthy (something i’ll go into later), but also because your versatility goes down.

it’s a pretty edgy and distinct hairstyle that 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝙇 outshine your outfits if they fail to match its energy. this was perfect for me at the time because it forced me to be more experimental, but when i wanted to wear softer outfits, the whole look didn’t bode so well.

when it grows out, the streaks look kind of thin, naturally because the blonde isn’t close to the root anymore. your hair is more free to move around the further away from the root it gets, giving the illusion that it’s thinner when it’s actually the same width.

it’s also kinda messy and underwhelming to look at when it’s not styled (especially when it’s grown out), so i always had to style it when going out to look presentable.

i also had small bunches of hair fall out or break off when i didn’t maintain it properly/skipped steps in my hair care routine.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

girl…let me tell you. the maintenance was kind of time consuming… but probably because i’m a bit lazy as a person. purple shampoo is 𝘼 𝙈𝙐𝙎𝙏 if you want to avoid your hair getting brassy and kinda orange (i used the 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗼 — $29.90). it was a little bit of a hassle because i couldn’t just put it all over my hair, just the hairs that were bleached. so i had to fish the hairs out from in between my layers to put purple shampoo on them. my skin would also get stained purple if i didn’t rinse it off properly.

on top of this, i tried a variety of hair masks to ensure my hair didn’t get dry and break off. i didn’t use a specific one but i remember using the tester sized 𝗸𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝘇𝘇 𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝗸 ($77 for a 200ml tub) before trying an array of others. but i’ll be honest, it wasn’t convenient so i didn’t really use hair masks regularly. with hindsight, i probably should have put in more effort.

something i 𝘿𝙄𝘿 do often though was use hair oil. i used the 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝗶𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘂𝗺 ($25 for 70ml), but i can’t seem to find the exact listing on shopee anymore 😭. i did switch to the 𝗼𝗴𝘅 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗶𝗹 ($18) when i moved to london because it was easier to get. i preferred the latter because it had a thicker consistency and i used lesser product. but if you prefer a more lightweight formula, i would go for the former.

i really should’ve also gotten olaplex, but i didn’t. so i don’t really have much to say about it other than it was highly recommended by my peers, but i didn’t think it would’ve been worth it considering most of my head was still dark.

𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧?

despite all the things i just mentioned, i still would 100% do it again. the skunk hair was such an iconic look for me, because i really dived head first into self exploration and experimentation during the time frame that i had it. it’s all about timing, i might not want to do it now because i want to explore other hair styles, but i do have it at the back of my mind every time i go to the hairdresser.

lmk if you guys ever thought of doing this hair style or have done it!! i hope this was a useful guide for u x

#Haircolor #skunkhair #hairinspiration #dyehair #bleachhair #lemon8review #lemon8recommendations