Fixing Hidden Ash Hair Color Before 2020 Ends
Two days after arriving in a highland city where my grandma is, I decided to visit my favorite salon of an acquaintance there.
If you are wondering how dare I catching a flight home for Christmas and New Year in this corona time, well, I finally got myself swabbed with an Antigen test. It's like the combination of PCR and Rapid Test (higher accuracy than the antibody one), which costs IDR200k at the CGK airport. I had myself tested a few hours before the flight with a friend, and it was something. I heard if we took a long steady breath in while the nurse is doing the nose plugging, it wouldn't hurt. In my case, it didn't, but it was super ticklish, like holding a sneeze so bad for a long time. It made my eyes teary since the nurse was so spirited in twisting the bud inside for a while for fun (at least that was how it looked to me). I wanted to try swabbing her nose back, but I was in a hurry catching a flight (3 hours of spare time was a close call due to the long queue and walk, I should try 4 hours next time). Still, I'm thankful for the nurse's hard work.
Now back to this salon of an acquaintance. I found her thanks to my cousin, and I like how she has the same style and taste as me. My first impression when I first went there was that she was so pretty to me. I remember she asked me something like, "Lil sis, you are so beautiful! I think I saw you often before. Were you living in X city during school?" Long story short, we came from the same hometown that she even knows my small name, but I didn't even know her existence before! But now I'm a fan. I'm always drawn to older women that are pretty, strong, and driven. It's just that they are so empowering to be around.
2019 was the last I went there for a haircut, so upon seeing me, she bursts, "Yona, pretty Yona! I almost didn't recognize you. You look so much younger and taller. Are you still growing tho? You must be!" I laughed it off and shook my head. In my defense, I probably looked younger because I wore no make-up, and I looked taller because I'm underweight. Oh, but how I missed this jiejie, haha. Then, I consulted my home-dyed and self-cut hair. She took a look at it and smiled. She asked me what color I'd like. I said ash and brown, and I've always wanted to have the ash hidden in the inner layer. She caught on fast and immediately suggested black for the outside layer instead of brown so the ash can stand out from the inside.
Below is the coloring result captured in-door. The thing about ash color, it sometimes looks brown-ish in cameras. :(
My whole life, I have never had such dark black hair since my natural color is dark brown, but the idea seemed intriguing. Even up until now, it's the black hair that caught my attention first in the mirror. It makes me feel cold but fresh, and it fairly contrasts my pale complexion. I woke up to this hair everyday thinking, "My hair so dark like satan's soul. Ooh, but check the ash out." I'm fond of this monochromatic combination. that I want to keep them permanently.
Pictures below are up close in an outdoor setting:


When I think about it, I started to like ash-colored hair thanks to my childhood crush on Danny Phantom. :p
More selfies incoming (pardon the bare face):
Lastly, you might also wonder about the pretty jiejie I talked about before. After we snapped some pictures together, she mentioned looking cobby standing side by side with me. I just had to stoop a bit while she tiptoed a bit, and voila: