Green/ Mermaid Hair.

That's right people. I have kept a hair colour for longer than 2 months. ARE YOU NOT IMPRESSED.

Admittedly it's changed from the La Riche, Directions "Teal" to a new combo of colours...
allow me to show you...

If you go to my first green hair post HERE. You'll see the original colour my sister created. Now we're here;

I have used a combo of Alpine green/ Apple Green / Spring Green, but I have recently ordered some Midnight Blue to add to the combo to begin adding more blue tones throughout to make it an awesome mermaid extravaganza.

I'm actually totally in love with my hair like this. I have seen a few people in recent weeks try and re-create it but mines still better. Im also avoiding bleaching it like i used to because 1) As we discovered before green is just the worst colour to remove...and 2) it's actually quite unique to have right now, although "mermaid" and "sea" hair is on the rise on Instagram.

I have to top it up once every 2-3 weeks so i find its always changing colour too, which is doubly awesome.

I buy all of my dyes from Salon sellers on Ebay for around £3 a pot. Although recently I have noticed the prices creeping up to around £3.50. 

Original directions website is HERE

or for inspiration from the Directions Instagram go HERE

(this is not sponsored) 

I'm going to stop apologising for this now... i do it too often.

My hair...again...meh. Sue me. It's not fallen out yet. So i'm still winning.

 This was my Hair with the bleached patch turned Silver using the Colour Freedom Silver at home Dye. It lasted a while but all too soon the yellow undertones from bleaching began to shine through and the idea of having to keep dying my hair with the amount of chemical processes it need and would keep needing just worried me to the core. So i opted to go for a better (slightly) option of going back to a fun colour and a dye that is better for your hair, Ye good olde La Riche Directions. 
 After Pinteresting the Hell out of a variety of different colours, and looking back at old photos of myself i decided...1) I definitely suit dark hair better. 2) I wanted almost like a baliage/ombre look with a dark colour and a bright unusual colour. and 3) I wanted to go back to my darker style. I've tried pastel, i've tried girly, I've tried sophisticated, I've tried 50's style. Withcy, Morticia, Gothic loving me is still in here and is about to be re-unleashed.
So i opted for Black/Alpine Green.

Next i enlisted the help of my Little sis and personal colour stylist when i want a big change and am too scared to DIY it. We went to Sallys to get the black as i needed to go for something with cool tones in to counter the reddish/brown on my hair. We opted for a Wella Kolestone in 22/0 (black) 
with a 20Vol Developer.

 She sparingly and for as little time as possible, lifted (with bleach) parts of my hair needed to be lightened for the green, then painted around the foils with the Black colour. 

Once that was rinsed off we went back over the bleached areas with the directions Alpine Green, as it needed to be applied on wet/damp hair and covered all of the lightened areas and left to develop for 30min or so, not that it needs that long. Usually on the packaging it recommends 15 min, especially on damaged hair, which mine definitely is now. 

The End results were freakin' beyond my expectations, with minimal damage too (there were a few breakages but nothing dramatic). And as we all know from previous posts...green is a horrible colour to get out of your hair...so i know i wont need to keep on top of it that often...other than my root re-growth. So it'll give my hair the much needed rest it deserves. 

 

XoXo

More Green Hair Issues

I finally get my hair a colour that i adore, that suits my skin tone, looks natural and will be low-cost on up-keep....YEAH RIGHT!!!
First off- It's my own damn fault....for wanting crazy galaxy hair colours...the La Riche Turquoise is a beautiful colour but forbid anyone who wants to lose the green locks!!!

My lovely Ginger/Copper tones still have streaks of green on the ends and through some areas, and as the colour fades the green really shows through...especially at work in the artifical lighting.
I tried re-dying with the same semi-conditionng colour i bought (see previous post), but the green still lurked. Then i went out and bought a pernanent colour, the Live XXL in Mango- which is new, and beautiful by the way...but still the green is there like an unwanted fetted aura of doom....

Short of bleaching and re-dying which i really want to avoid all i can do is go more red to combat the green tones (if you know your colour wheel red is opposite to green so they cancel each other out and make brown)...my idea was to go red, like rich deep red, then get some micro-loop hair extentions in a ginger/blonde to add tones to my hair, maybe even ombre it...

I'm annoyed though, and dont want to admit defeat. It makes no sense that a semi-colour would last so long as the colour doesnt attatch to the cortex, but insted to the outer surface of the hair, although the running theory is my hair was damaged and the green got in the coretex...so technically bleach is the only way to remove...merrrgh.
Anyway rant over. I have a week or so to decide so im going to do more research.
Have any of you had similar issues? Or know a solution?
Thans for Reading!
Xoxo

Hair Update: From Galaxy Hair to Winter Red also...Getting Green out of your hair is a TASK.

So. As you all know...I change my hair like the Seasons. this time quite literally. I was a super awesome Purple/Green/Blue Galaxy inspired Ombre hair colour for the summer. I loved it. But the upkeep was irritating. As much as I love and adore La Riche Directions'colours because they are semi colours and my hair grows like weeds, I found I was having to re-do the roots every 2-3 weeks. On the plus side the colour was always vibrant.

 

   But because it was the Directions Plum transitioning into Turquoise, when I couldn't afford to buy more colour I had to let it fade. And although the Plum colour stayed really vibrant the Turquoise faded to a Cow-pat green shade and it had to go.
I was watching a lot of Guy Tangs Videos. Looking at all of his amazing colour combinations, his colour melts...inspired completely but lacking the skill and time/money I took to Pinterest instead to research Autumnal colours and natural looking colours.
After a week of evenings spent on Pinterest, getting distracted by other pretties I settled for a beautiful rich Auburn/Ginger colour. My brother is Ginger and we have a similar skin tone. Being Part Italian and Part Scottish I'm quite lucky in the fact that I'm naturally very pale but I tan very easily and go a lovely Olive colour. So I know most natural shades of hair colour suit me. I was tempted by a chestnut brown but I've been there before. I wanted something different.
   So first step was to bleach bath my hair. Your mixture should be equal parts bleach powder/developer/shampoo. Try and make sure you use a plain basic shampoo so nothing will counter-act any other chemicals. The bleach powder I used was the High Lift BBlonde Blue powder bleach by Jerome Russell (£3.99 Superdrug) and a 20 Vol developer from Sallys that we stock in our salon. The shampoo I chose to mix was also one we just stock in the Salon; IQ Intelligent Shampoo, Deep Cleanse (£8.00ish). I left this mix on for between 20 and 30 min. and it resulted in lovely blonde roots, a slightly orange secondary colour and a sludge green smear through the ends.

 





I then had to counter-act the leftover green, and to neutralise green you need to add a Red colour and this should bring it down to a brown tone. As a pre-pigment I used the Chilled Ed-stain from Aston and Fincher, Usually you need a RED to counteract a Green but as I was going for a copper colour I didn't want a red pre-pigment to interfere with the final colour so I used the Ed-stain in Orange.


This neutralised most of the green tones, made a sludgy brown/ginger tone but there were still green tinges certain lights.

 

From there I used my Final Colour; Matrix Color Sync In 6RC+. It is super conditioning, has a self contained Primer and lasts long enough that my roots would need re-doing anyway. This colour can only be developed using the Matrix Color Sync Developer or 'activator'. I have linked them but they may only be available to salons. Amazon will probably have it. Anyway... That first colour came out lovely, multi-tonal but had patches of green still visable in the light.

So being a perfectionist. I waited a week and re-applied to the troubled areas and it came out an amazing bright copper colour. 

I'm so happy with the final outcome. All my Autumnal clothes go well with my hair (greens/browns/reds) and it really makes my eyes look more green, doesnt look odd against my pale skin or freckles and my brows even match without having to dye/pencil them in. I'm really happy with it and I'm hoping this will be a colour that stays for a good while. 

Thanks for Reading! xoxo