Back To Black

Never thought I'd say this, but it got pretty exciting here in Hamden, CT the last few days! You probably heard about The Great Blizzard of 2013 that swept the Northeast last Friday night. Well Hamden's been getting some major press because it turned out that we got hit the hardest with 40 inches of snow! Which only sucked slightly. For me anyways. I was snowed in from Friday until this Tuesday morning, but I had heat, hot water, internet, cable and a ton of projects to work on!  It's amazing how much you can get done when you know you can't go anywhere even if you wanted to. It was fun, for a while. But I'm certainly not going to go full Lohan and attempt to get house arrest anytime soon.

Now that I've been busted out the big house, life has to get back to normal. And by life I mean my hair.

See....what had happened was....

 I cut off the majority of my ombre hair but was left with some icky ends that didn't make the cut. (pun totally intended) 

So after a few weeks I was left with this lovely stuff on the ends of my hair. 

 So I picked up this. L'oreal Root Rescue in #2 Natural Black on clearance for $5.08 at Target. 

It's been decades since I've bought anything that came with gloves attached to paper. Sigh....memories.

The product itself was done well. You mix the color right into a thin bottle that has a plastic bristle brush on the top. That brush made it a breeze to apply to my ends and really cut down on the mess and time. I imagine if you were doing your roots a contraption like this would be ideal.
I considered saving the bottle for future use, but then I realized that I've basically given up on coloring my hair because I'm too lazy to do the upkeep, so it got recycled. 

The instructions called for 10 minutes and I did that and washed it out and all was well in the world. My hair was back to all black again and I felt good about life. (Sorry, forgot to take an after photo. I guess i was too busy feeling good about life)

That is until a week later when my ends began to fade. I was actually shocked at how fast it was fading. I could tell the difference with each shampoo.  Maybe now I know why it was on clearance. Should have known, but those bright orange stickers just call to me!

About 4 weeks of procrastination later, I'm left with this lovely dirty pond color. 

Clearly, something needs to be done. 

 And since the Blizzard of 2013 has ruined my sleep patterns, 

I decided to use this Revlon Colorsilk #11 Soft Black $3 at Walmart at almost midnight. 

This didn't come with a fancy brush top applicator. But I did get my gloves attached to paper!

 20 minutes, a shower and blow dry later, my end match my roots and all is well again!!

I'm really hoping this one doesn't fade as fast as the L'oreal did but I am expecting at lest some fading. Which is fine, I'm just hoping for no more swamp colors strands. 

Currently my hair looks great and I have a really good blow out going! Unfortunately, I'm going to eventually have to go to bed where my hair will be shamelessly attacked by what I only imagine is some sort of secret pillow army that comes while I sleep and makes my hair look like a dollar store wig.

Damn you pillow army. Daaaammn you!

La Vie En Rose

Soo sorry kids! I know my presence has been spotty at best lately, but I haven't given up on this project! Life has just happened to throw some things my family's' way lately, as it tends to do, so I've been spending most of my time in DC helping my sister out with my new niece which has been taking up most of my time and is the reason I'm way behind on my blog here.

But just because the posts paused doesn't mean my love of products has! I've been trying out tons of new things because I'm sooo excited about fall and winter and all the deep and rich colors that come with it.

With that in mind, I decided a few days before my birthday last week that I needed a new color in my hair. Something to ring in my thirty second year and something new for fall. And with that....I went pink!!

Products:

Kaleidocolors Lightener in Blue

Salon Care 20 Volume Cream Developer

Punky Colour in Flamingo Pink and just a tad of Purple mixed in 

I followed the steps I did when I did the teal hair, but this time went far more smoother. 

I LOVE the pink! And I'm excited that it actually came out the color I wanted, which was something of a hot pink, but not flat, more of a true magenta, and that's what I got!  I love it so much that I wish I had bleached more area to have more pink, but I did this the day I got a haircut after 10 months and after losing 2 inches of hair it felt short, so I stayed conservative with the bleach......this time. 

But now I have new hair, a new year and a new season. All things I love! 

The Girl With The Teal Hair........oh yeah, and a dragon tattoo. Don't judge me.

At the end of 2011, I was on the interweb researching beehive hair-dos (don't worry, I'll get to this, one day). Somehow during my hair research I came across this photo.

Since I was on hiatus from the Hair Coloring World for the last 7 years I hadn't paid much attention to the ombre hair that was taking over the world. But once I saw this photo, it stuck with me. 

I decided in December that this was indeed going to happen. But, I was going to do it smartly. I even showed the photos to my hair dresser (who I haven't seen since. That's right, I said December and yes, it's currently July). I told her exactly what I was going to do and she confirmed that I was on the right track. We agreed that doing just the ends would be smart because that part I can just cut off before another round of donating my hair to Locks of Love and it would only set me back a year with the donation.  I can live with that!

I was going for that beautiful teal above, but I knew, from past experiences with blues, that it's difficult. Unless I was willing to bleach my hair white, which I wasn't, I knew the color would be more of a green teal rather than a blue. And I was ok with that. I would be more than ok if the color came out like this:

                                 

I did research late at night when I couldn't sleep and I told myself that I would wait at LEAST until the spring to do it, until my hair grew a bit longer, to see if the desire would pass and just in case it was a horrible mess and needed to be cut off. 

Finally in May, I could wait no longer.  I set aside a night and my hair got to this:

After using L'oreal Quick Blue Bleach and Salon Care 20 vol Developer, twice and N'rage Twisted Teal

Not bad for a bathroom job right??  The color was much greener than I was anticipating and was rather subtle. Yeah....subtle's not really my thang.  As the week went on, my hair got washed and the color went down the drain. It turned very quickly into a sickly green that I didn't care for at all. 

 I did another round of color to get it to the right color and it was a success.

For a day.   Le Sigh. 

Eventually, I spent a full evening taking out the color in my hair with homemade potions and mild bleaching. I ended up rebleaching my hair and started fresh by using every tip I could find,  and FINALLY,  after over a month, I got it right! 

 

   This is my hair currently (unstyled). And after washing! 

The color has stayed bright and true and I quite love it!

So after all the steps, resteps and products that I went through for this, I have a list of products that have worked the best for me. Along with some tips that have saved me from wanting to give up and take to a life of hat wearing. (not that I don't wear hats a lot anyways)

Products:

• Kaleidocolors Powder Bleach in Blue
• Salon Care 20 Vol creme developer
• Punky Colour Semi-Permanent Dye in Turquoise
• Super great conditioners like ApHogee Intensive Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor or Aphogee 2 Step Protein Treatment.

Tips that WORK for Unnatural color dyeing:

• It goes without mentioning, but read the labels people. There are in fact a few semi perm colors that are to be uses on damp hair. The majority don't require that, but just in case, read. 
• You don't need to use heavy duty peroxide aka, developer. Always use a lower volume and work your way up to a lighter color. I used a 20 vol and bleached my hair twice the first time, and once again a week ago.  My hair is definitely healthier than it would be if i went full out for a 30 or 40 vol. I shiver at the idea of a 40 vol. 
• Use the best conditioner you can after bleaching your hair, like the Aphogee ones I suggest in the product list. And if possible give your hair some time alone before going for another round of bleach or even before dyeing.Be good to your hair. 
• Use semi perm color on shampooed hair. NO CONDITIONER. this is crucial. I believe I actually had conditioned my hair the first time I used the color which is why it didn't stick. 
• Research fade colors on unnatural colors. Unnatural colors will fade. They can not be made into permanent colors, it's going to take some upkeep, so be prepared for this.. Kids on the internet have plenty of blogs and posts telling you what happened to their hair. Do some research. It will save you from hating your hair.
• After you rinse your dye out, rinse your hair with white vinegar. It works just like an Easter egg! It really helps the color last.
• Create your own toner conditioner. Mix some of the dye into and white conditioner until you can see the color. Use this on your hair after shampooing every time and it will help to deposit a bit of the color back into your hair while you condition.  It took me a few weeks to realize that the conditioner I was using originally was a slight yellow color. Yellow + blue = green. Not what I was going for. Don't forget basic color theory, folks. The toner conditioner is the easiest thing you can do and it will help the color last the most out of all the steps. 
• Paint your nails before you do dye. Even a clear coat will do. As you wash the dye out of your hair, gloves on or not, natural porous nails will get tinted. It's much easier to use polish remover to take off the tinted polish than it is to scrub the tint out of your actual nails. 

And that, is how I ended my Hair Color Hiatus.