I'll never forget the day that I bought my first box of drugstore hair dye — it also happened to be the day I experienced my biggest beauty fail to date. Clocking in at 13 years old, I convinced my mom that if I had saved enough pocket money, then I clearly had enough judgement to make my beauty vision work. I wanted stripy, pop princess-blonde highlights, and I wasn't going to let anyone stop me. My mother — wanting to avoid a mess of tears and door slamming — caved and even volunteered to give me the highlights herself.
Thinking it was a good idea, I watched her give me tasteful, subtle highlights in the bathroom mirror... and when she left to go get a cup of tea from the kitchen, I quickly grabbed the wand and gave myself some random, hasty strokes in an effort to amp up the blonde-ness. The outcome? Straight-up Dennis Rodman leopard spots all over my head.
My point is that no matter how long you've been in the beauty game, everyone has a story of blunders and trips. I spoke to 11 beauty lovers via social media and email, and below are their biggest beauty fails.
1. My YouTube Disaster
This was the fault of my best friend, Tom. Tom heard from a friend of a friend of a friend (or something equally as vague as that) that there was this YouTube video that helped you cut your bangs into a perfect "V." All you had to do was gather up your fringe and twist it between your fingers a couple of times, and then snip at the highest point you want your bangs to fall. The end result was supposed to be immaculately symmetrical bangs.
That was not the case.
2. Kacee's Trial Of Errors
Kacee, 27, learned a bevy of lessons in close succession. The best one was where she figured out that running a just-used 400-degree straightener underneath water wouldn't cool it down so she could throw it in her purse and go. Instead, it'd fry it into a hissing, sizzling mess.
Kacee also tells me, "I've learned a cotton ball will never be a great lip gloss blotter. And putting a Band-Aid on super sensitive skin and then ripping it off will leave two mysterious marks on your face — and it will take weeks for your skin to grow back." Let's be thankful that she learned those lessons for us.
3. Georgina's Extension Blunders
When you're just starting out in the world of extensions, it can be easy to take a misstep here and there. Style and lingerie blogger Georgina Horne of Fuller Figure Fuller Bust learned that the hard way when she wanted to make her dark red hair longer back in her teen years.
She reminisces, "For me, it was definitely the cheap, wrong colored hair extensions! I should definitely have splashed out on a color match and something less shiny!" Err, or maybe she was ahead of her time and started the ombré look? No?
4. Nikki's Heavy Hand With Blue Eyeshadow
When you have a deep, strong love of makeup, you might oftentimes let yourself get carried away when it comes to trying new techniques. Style blogger Nikki Free from Nikki FreeSTYLE proved just that, telling me, "I love makeup. My linen closet runneth over with eyeshadow palettes and makeup brushes, not towels, wash cloths, or sheets. But loving makeup is one thing. Being able to apply it properly is a whole other ball game."
You can probably see where this one is going. A makeup enthusiast usually loves to experiment, and that sometimes leads to hilarious situations. Nikki continues, "I discovered the joy that is YouTube makeup tutorials. After about an hour and a half of watching the latest and greatest videos by some of the most popular beauty and makeup bloggers, I thought, 'Wow. That's easy enough. I can do that.' In the end, it was a disaster. I didn't quite realize it was until my husband said, in response to my, 'How do I look?' question, he said, 'Like the Jack In The Box restaurant mascot.'"
Brutal honesty. I guess you fall off the bike and get back up on there.
5. Kathleen's Sunny D Hair Shade
When Kathleen, 27, was 17 years old, she decided she wanted to be blonde, but knew it would be practical to take it in steps. So instead of going full gold, she went to the hairdresser with a picture of Keira Knightley circa Pirates Of The Caribbean, hoping to get that shade.
Kathleen shares, "To this woman, this translated to thin platinum highlights on my dark brown hair, which was NOT what I was going for. So I took matters into my own hands. Several hours of boxed-dye test strands and changes to my original vision, all of my hair came out the color of Sunny Delight!" (She sadly destroyed all pictures of that hair color, so we don't have an example.)
Sometimes a vision changes halfway through the beauty experiment, right?
6. Megan's Tan Lines
Many of us have had an experience where we've gotten a little too liberal with the tanning oil on the beach, but style blogger Megan from Curves, Curls, and Clothes has a tan line story that comes from a different angle. She learned the hard way that sunscreen doesn't always work, telling me, "Did you know sunscreen has an expiration date? Well, I sure didn't! After a full day on the lake and reapplying my sunscreen as the bottle said I should... I was confused as to why my skin felt hotter than a shirtless picture of Idris Elba! Turns out... I should have checked out that bottle a little closer!"
Someone pass that girl the aloe!
7. Kellie's Lipstick Debacle
Have you ever worried that you had lipstick on your teeth? The simple mistake can be mortifying, right? Well, what if you had it smeared on for the whole duration of a vlog? The ante has been upped, my friends.
That's exactly what happened to style blogger Kellie from And I Get Dressed. Kellie recalls, "I once shot an entire YouTube video with lipstick on my teeth. A lot. A loooot of very dark red lipstick over my front teeth."
The worst part is probably that she loved the job she was doing, going on excitedly about her new hair color and sharing a recent haul. That's when she finally realizes her mishap. "At first I was mortified and super annoyed that I would have to reshoot. But in the end I totally posted the video and decided life was grand either way!" Now that's the way to bounce back.
8. Julia's Home-Bleach
Julia, 24, is what you might call fearless when it comes to her hair. Always game to try any and every color, it seems like she's in a salon chair more often than not. But one time, her adventurous streak went wrong.
It all happened when she decided to give home-bleaching a try. "Oh God, never, never again," she cringes. She started off with black hair and wanted her top layers to be a sandy kind of blonde. Julia explains, "So instead of wasting money at the salon, I dyed it MYSELF with bleach and it turned into that." I think anyone who's ever gone from dark to light is familiar with that brassy shade.
"The roots were actually a pretty blonde, but the rest... no." The pain is real.
9. Gavyn's Big Chop
About two years ago, style blogger Gavyn Pickens from The Curvy Cutie did what many natural-haired gals call "the big chop." This was the second time she had the big chop done, but this time around, she decided to do it herself.
Gavyn recalls, "I purchased my very first pair of clippers, randomly chose a guard, and proceeded to cut. Not only was my cut too low, at one point I cut it so low that I tried to 'correct it' by creating a deep part. Let's just say I have never learned the meaning of the word 'confidence' more than those weeks with a self-made haircut." You live and learn!
10. Alison's Platinum Disasters
It seems like almost everyone and their mother has had a run-in with a platinum disaster, and style blogger Alison Gary from Wardrobe Oxygen is no exception. Her story begins when she tried to dye her naturally brown hair platinum for a second time, and at 3 a.m. no less.
Alison shares, "The second time, I had a job as a retail trainer and traveled around the region not only training managers but also schooling them on appearance and dress code. Somehow I thought a 3 a.m. dye job with a box of Ultra Blue would look cool, but I ended up heading to Pittsburgh to train a new manager with hair the color of a cantaloupe." At least she had an ice breaker.
11. Foundations For The Lose
When buying drugstore beauty products, it can sometimes feel like a blind leap of faith, but none more so than buying drugstore foundation. Style blogger Jamilyn from Style Over Size remembers her experience, sharing her foundation woes:
"By the time summer hit when I actually used the foundation, it was too light, and I looked a hot mess. Thank god, BB creams and tinted moisturizers started to come out in more shades. For me, keeping it simple when it comes to my beauty routine has been my saving grace." Rather than mess around with guesswork, sometimes it's better to just skip it altogether.
From terrible dye jobs to questionable haircuts, I'd wager we've all had beauty mishaps that make us want to cringe. But it's so much better to laugh at them and share our blunders than dwell on the negatives. After all, the mishaps are just going to keep coming.
Images: Courtesy Interviewees
