When women want to make a change, it often starts with their hair. From cuts and color, to wigs and extensions, women frequently use alternatives to spice up their appearance.

One of the most common of these enhancers is hair color, which can range from blond, red, brown, black and everything in between.

Even though hair coloring can lead to a glamorous new look, there are people who have not had pleasant experiences with hair dye.

Clisha Simpson, a junior in political science, said she remembers being younger and her mother “experimenting” with dye on her. Simpson said it worked well for her mother, but she was no so lucky.

“I was in seventh grade and I let my mom dye my hair,” she said. “I had streaks in my hair [and it] broke off in the streaks.”

Simpson said that the new streaks damaged her, causing her to get a new hairstyle.

“I had to get a mullet,” she said. “The back was long and the top was short. [Before] it was to my shoulders.”

Despite her bad run in with hair dye, Simpson said that she still colors her hair.

“If I get color again I make sure a professional does it,” she said. “You have to be careful and make sure the person doing your hair knows what they are doing.”

Having a professional color hair is the safest way to prevent damage according to Sharon Creech, the owner of N Style Hair Designs, located in the Mission Valley Shopping Center.

“We have to fix a lot of color when [people] do it at home,” Creech said.

Creech said she that applying color incorrectly without proper maintenance can “eat your hair up.”

“Just lifting [the hair] about three levels would be safe to do,” Creech said. “You wouldn’t go from a two to a ten or above.”

According to Creech, a level two would represent black and level ten would be one of the lighter blondes.

She also said that the salon does not dye hair when women are pregnant.

“We tell people that because of what we hear in newspapers [and the media] about what it can do to the fetus,” she said. “Just to save myself, I always tell [pregnant women] to ask their doctor.”

Creech said that her salon has a college business and the the process of coloring hair is not short.

“Depending of [what the client wants] all over color and highlights takes about two to three hours,” she said. “If they just want roots [touched up] it’s about an hour and a half.”

“Most of our walk-in customers are college students,” Creech said. “Because we’re so close to State we do kind of target the students.”

Other students on campus have hair their hair colored with professionals to avoid complications.

Brandy Shields, a junior in middle grades education, said she was 18 when she started dying her hair – on separate occasions she has bleached her hair, dyed it red and put blond in it.

Because of a hair dye mishap with a friend, she said she understands that importance of having a knowledgeable professional color her hair.

“My best friend [had her hair colored] and she had to cut three inches off of her hair because it broke off really bad,” Shields said. “If you don’t know the person that’s doing it it’s bad because it can break your hair off.”

Like Shields, Stephanie Conner, a freshman in psychology, said she knows someone whose hair has been damaged by hair dye.

Conner said has seen girls whose hair looked “fried” because of not properly caring for their newly dyed hair.

“I try to use a lot of conditioner,” Conner said.

Although she knows of the potential dangers of hair dye, Conner said that doesn’t stop her from coloring her hair.

“If you’re smart about it and take care of your hair and keep it trimmed it’s OK-just don’t overdo it.”