New Hair; From Purple Sludge to Smooth Blonde Balayage. (and I shaved my head)

Ooops I did it again, I played with My hair...got lost in the game...and then it went shit...

Pretty much sums it up in one bi-line right there.

 I was ginger. I was FINALLY the ginger of my fiery dreams and I got bored, BORED. Well that's very simplified, actually my Pops died and I went into a spiral of panic, and realisation about my own mortality and to distract myself I went for a hair overhaul... Insta regret. It wasn't until I emerged from the coma of grief that I realised what I had done...I'd dyed my hair PURPLE...why? Why did I suddenly want purple. I had Ginger hair because i'd always wanted it, and as a bonus I could now cosplay as Triss at Comicon, but those plans were cancelled anyway so I guess with the freedom to have any colour I went for the most ridiculous, other than my old green, Damn I loved that green..Anyway. At first I dyed it a very deep, level 3 Dark Violet Blue. This was my first mistake.

This was my lovely "Before" Ginger, using Goldwell Top Chic, 8KG and a KK mix with 20vol.

Then straight over that I slapped on a Framesi 2001 3IB (i think)

You can already see in this image why it was a HUGE mistake. First off; the violet tones will go brown because of the warmth from the ginger underneath which you can already see happening around the top, and then on the ends where it was lighter, more damaged and porous, it went more blue/green. 

So not happy with it being a million different shades I let it fade out a bit, only took two weeks...to turn into this:

Just a weird brown, with hints of purple.

And then I got my friend (and also a hairdresser so I wasn't mixing it wrong) do put on a vibrant Purple which I really loved. And even she was impressed with how vibrant the colour was.

This was the Framesi 2001 5IV with a 20vol Proxima Developer. And it looked stunning.

But the groundwork to my hair had already determened that this hair colour would be THE HARDEST THING TO KEEP IN MY HAIR. No matter what shampoo I used, how long I went between washes, the longest it stayed this vibrant for was 3 washes...so about 8 days, and then I was having to re-dye it again. 

Then my depression from my Papa passing really kicked in. I had a "fuck it" moment, shaved off the side of my hair, like i'd been wanting to do for 4 years, as evidenced by my pinterest board of side shaves. But I just thought, do you know what...life's too short, I want it done. BOOM. 

And I rock this btw...just not the color as it turns out. It was lovely while it was vibrant, but I was so low I just didn't care about keeping up with dying it every two weeks and gave up. This is what it looked like after two weeks of washing it with a colour protect shampoo...

Shocking. But yeah, as I said, i'd given up at this point. I then started using Head and Shoulders nearly everyday for a solid month to deliberately fade the colour out. I also decided to book myself in to get something done to it professionally. I had no idea what I was going to get, but anything was better than this mess. 

So, by the end you can see I still had quite purple roots and green/blue/brown ends. 

This is when the magic happened. I went to Victoria Jaynes Hair and Beauty (Yeovil)  and over the course of 6 hours she worked some mad magic with the help of Olaplex and Loreal Hair Colors.

And after hours of work she created a masterpiece of balayage and blond glory!!!

I mean seriously! Mind= BLOWN this was my hair and this IS now my hair. I'm over the moon!!!

Even my badass side shave doesn't look as out of place!

    I am just so happy. It really does pay to invest in your hair and have a professional do it. Plus the use of Olaplex is pretty much the only reason I think I still actually have hair. I cannot rate it highly enough!

 If a salon near you is trained in using it and provides and Olaplex service, then do it. 

(side note other salons may say they provide a hair bond protect/repair service, but Olaplex is PATENTED technology and cannot be duplicated by other brands so don't fall for second rate treatments)

Overall  I've had my new hair for about 5 weeks. I use Silver shampoo to combat any ginger tones I did have and it looks lovely. I cannot fault it at all. I am so happy.  

XxX

I have Red Hair!!!

I finally decided, after months of drooling over fellow bloggers' red hair that i was going to ditch the blonde and go Red... I freakin love it. I kept a slice of blonde in my fringe thats a tad pink now but its amazing. One thing i've noticed; i get a lot more attention from guys. Usually i dont notice men looking, i'm married i dont give two poops about other blokes... But i have to admit it's been noticeable and quite a bit confidence boost.
Only downside ive noticed so far is it hasnt taken too well to the ends on my long side,.. I think its because it has been bleached ao much from my white blonde it's too damaged to absorbe anymore dye! I've been to sallys today and picked up a Indola red (think thats how you spell it) and a 6% peroxide. So im going to just try and keep on top of it fading for the next week or so until it's a solid colour. But even the faded part looks LUSH it's like a rasberry colour! Nom! Overall i love it!

White hair tutorial (from black)

Hello dolls! 

I actually get stopped in the street and asked how i get my hair white, and seems as i usually turn into a dribbling mess of useless information i thought it would be easier to direct them to my blog! 

It used to be jet  black... I was dying it with permanent at-home dye from the age of 16; i was a proud goth so no mocking! :p 

I decided after my wedding in September 2012 that i was fed up with the jet black look, because I'd been dying it so long with at home colours i had to phase it out so from the September up until the December I started it dying it with semi-permanent colours and using lighter shades, so black/brown, then brown then chestnut... but obviously the years of abuse meant no matter what i did the ends of my hair were stuck with the Ebony hue... SO i chopped all of my hair off... I literally tell no lies, i went from ass-length hair to short almost pixie crop.

From there; because I'm impatient and didn't want to wait for it to grow out i used a B Blonde at home lightening and bleaching kit, TWICE in one night... **WARNING** my hair and i have always had a good relationship, i am by no way saying that you should bleach your hair twice in one go... it will damage your hair! especially if you have lovely long hair it'll break, dry out and snap off! 

Anyway- make sure you use blue powder bleach, it helps to combat any yellow tones, the first bleach was for 40 min and was with a 12% peroxide .. it burnt my scalp, i wont lie, i shall not be doing that ever again, it was then followed by a conditioning treatment and another bleach with a 9% peroxide (this was the best) for 30 min, and it brought my hair to this yellow-ginger colour. I then put a Koleston colour from Sally's in ash blonde over the ginger to try and neutralise it and left it as a strawberry blonde for about 3 weeks. 

It was a nice colour but not the one i wanted, so then it was another 40 min bleach with 9% peroxide which left it like a custard colour all over with white bits. I then dyed it with another Koleston (with 9% aswell) this time a Special Blonde in 12/81 (from Sally's £10.99). I Also used a toner from boots in iced platinum which was pretty naff and left my hair purple (some toners do this anyway and it does wash out so don't panic!), and a week or so later I ordered some Directions by la Reich white toner - which was actually the best toner I'd used and i now swear by it! So i ended up this lovely white colour;

 Now, white hair does involve upkeep and you do need to be so so nice to your poor hair, especially if your naturally dark. Toner is a MUST, as is a purple/tone correcting shampoo, I've tried a lot of different brands over the past few months but nothing beats the PRO:VOKE Silver shampoo from BOOTS (around £2.00)- it smells nice and if you use any strengthening conditioner as well it leaves your hair so soft. 

Twice a week toning shampoo from Boots

Other toning shampo's I've used, the PRO:VOKE on the left is by far the best, its a daily use one. 

Now more recently because i feel so bad about the way I've been treating my hair i have started using a L'oreal Paris at home Dye, one of their "Blondeissims" range in "Extreme Platinum". Its still damaging obviously as it still has peroxide in it etc... but it smells lovely, and the conditioner is amazing! (I wish they sold it separately). 

Basically, with this at home dye, it's got your usual peroxide, and colour mix, but also powder and a high shine elixir that you add to your mix and you end up with this thick, floral smelling white dye, it's non-drip so its so easy to apply, especially if you're just doing a root touch up like i was...

You do have to leave it on for the full time stated other wise you'll end up with CUSTARD HAIR and make sure you use the conditioner it comes with! ALso that you use your PRO:VOKE toning shampoo the day after (and more of the conditioner). My hair feels so soft and healthy now and i love it. Can't fault the colour...well other then the first time i did it i didn't leave it for the full 40-45 min and ended up with custard roots... 

EVIL CUSTARD ROOTS

Willing to answer any more questions i can...just ask! :)