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

How to remove green hair (direct dye)

Well then, my beautiful faces!
We all knew this day would come...I'm proud I managed a whole 8/9 months with one hair colour (give or take a few minor changes), do you remember my blog post I published back in April, where I dyed my hair green, with the help of my beloved sister. and I SWORE I wouldn't change it for a long time, green was a ridiculously hard colour to remove so i'd keep it for ages... (link HERE)  well I did keep it for a good long while, in retrospect to the lifespan of previous hair colours and styles. But the green/turquoise mermaid epicness that was my hair is no more. I killed it.
...and now I'm ginger. Remember... I tried doing this the year before when I had Galaxy hair and the green just WOULDNT GO. (link to that one here)  well this time I found something that worked.

First of all a background on my hair. It was black, with green highlights, then black to green ombre, then I decided I wanted an all over green so I had it Alpine green, into Apple green, into Spring Green (all dyes are by La Reich Directions dyes) and then as we hit summer I went full mermaid turquoise.

Black to green Ombre

Alpine Green/ Apple Green/ Spring Green

Apple green all over

Multi Colour (I got bored but this faded within two washes)

Turquoise

I couldn't recommend La Riech dyes highly enough. They are long lasting and grab well on damaged hair. Especially the green and blue tones as they are horrific to get out. After doing a lot of research I found new products becoming available on the professional market that were specifically aimed at removing fashion colours and Direct Dyes; Joico Colour Intensity Eraser, Malibu DDL, and Loreal Efassor. 

 

I've not linked any of these as they are easy to find on amazon and ebay but range HUGELY in price. After looking at reviews I decided "screw this" and saved up to go get booked in at my local salon. After a consultation and getting all excited the timing and funds just werent going to be friends and I had to resort back to looking into DIY and risking it myself. And that's where my darling sister stepped in...(again).
After looking at reviews and youtube videos I decided to opt for the Joico Color Eraser as it has the best results and was designed for direct dyes, as was the malibu one but they were so expensive and I ended up finding the Efassor for sale in my local Sallys. (around £6.59 exc VAT) and I ended up getting that instead. Even though it says its for use on oxadised colours, so technically it wouldn't work on a Direct Dye, but the lovely girl in the salon said this was the product she was going to use to remove my green anyway so I figured its worth a shot! All these saches come with the option of different lifts depending on colour, saturation and damage to the hair. My hair was badly damaged but it needed a high lift so rather than mixing with water I chose 20Vol developer but I also mixed in some Color Secret 2 Step hair Strengthening system.  I've linked the salon/trade size pack which is £32.99 but I got a single shot "try me" kit for £2.99 also in sallys)

Before/After Indoors/After in Direct Sunlight

I mixed it together exactly as the instructions say and very carefully, quickly and evenly applied it all over my hair but I avoided my roots as it can still lighten your natural hair, I wrapped it in tinfoil (classy) and sat in the sun for even all over heat. After 20-30min I washed it off and voila!






 As you can see the results were pretty darn epic. I already had a whole pinterest board dedicated to my new colour but the dye I had bought to match came out quite "flat" when I did a test strip so my sister suggested we add another colour to the mix as a kind of toner, to create a multi-tonal effect. I knew that I still had some green residue and I wanted a Copper shade, but i'd need more red tones to cancel out any green still left in my hair so I opted for a slightly redder colour that originally wanted and equally the darker colour we added as a toner was red-based rather than copper based too. We added more of the 6/47 to the Roots then we did to the ends as the roots came up brighter than we wanted as they were still my natural colour. (I had about an inch re-growth).
I noticed my hair felt amazing as I was washing the dye off. I had a few rough feeling ends and a lot of breakages throughout this process due to now having very heavily processed hair, but i've just got to look after it and be nice to it now, and it shouldn't need re-colouring until my roots come through again.

But as you can see the results were epic. So much better than last years disaster which saw me give up on my redheaded dreams and go brown (then green) and although I know i'll miss my mermaid hair on occasion I feel a lot more like "me" as cleche as that may sound, with this vibrant copper/red colour. I will confess though that as soon as my hair is longer and healthier, so probably summer time, I do want it ombred, as my pinterest board is full of images of Lau P from Le Happy.com. But thats another adventure for in a few months time. Until then, if I ever have any money I may invest in some extentions instead! 

XoXo

Hair Chalks; The Scam.

I'm usually the last person to put-down a company for getting on-board with a new trend, let alone many companies at once- but all the companies who have jumped on the Hair Chalk bandwagon should be ashamed of themselves. Especially the prices they're charging for WHAT it is. Most of them will say their's is "better for your hair" etc...but the truth is, chalk is chalk, and someone just happened to discover that wetting your hair and applying a coloured chalk meant the colour stayed, for a few days at least... and brands have taken a simple idea, slapped their name on it and charged TRIPLE or even more then what it is actually worth. The only reason this outrages me so much is becasue at the moment, not everyone has a lot of money about, but they want to keep up with the latest trends- which is perfectly acceptable, especially when its a trend that is supposed to be so quick and easy! But the poor souls are being lead to believe if they buy this brand-name chalk it'll be better then artists' Dry pastels- which may i add i bought for the grand total of £3.00 for 34 differet colours.
You can even get them on ebay for 99p! But the brands claim you must buy their individual colour chalks at rediculous prices when at their core they are all the same. They very rarely actually have any added ingredients that will benefit your hair- at most some oil. But all that will do is stop the colour taking as well to your hair. With hair chalks at the end of the day all you are doing is filling the opening in the folicles of your hair, with a dampened coloured powder and sealing it in with heat. It'll wash out in 1-3 washes. Its a temporary, quick-fix "weekend fashionista" trend. Which is what makes it so popular!
You can leave work on a friday at 17:00 with plain boring hair, and by 18:00 have pink dip-dye effect or multi colour rainbow streaks which will be gone by work Monday morning! It's an accessible trend that everyone of all price-ranges can access. You just have to make sure it is the dry pastels/chalks you use and not artists oil pastels etc... the key is the powdery substance.


I just hate to see people thinking they NEED to buy the espensive brands when it's really not nessisary. I've included a list below of brand names should you want to check them out anyway. But honestly, just go to your local art shop or search Ebay for "hair chalk" or artist pastels... and you'll save yourself a small fortune.
Beauty should be accessable to everyone, not just the ones who can afford brand-names.
XxX

Fudge Urban Hair Chalk @ Superdrug (uk) £5.99 / $9.85 (US Dollars)


Hair Color Chalk (haircolorchalk.com) £9.72 / $15.99

Hot Hair Huez (hothairhuez.com) 4 Chalks for £9.09 / $14.95

Or last and very much LEAST:
L'Óreal Hair Chalk £15.00 EACH / $24.67

Beauty Blog; New Skincare regéme, L'Oreal Skin Perfection Review. (Product list, prices and links are the bottom)

As a training Beauty Therapist I've been learning a lot about correct skin care routeines. As a young girl I was quite happy and content with cheap make-up wipes, and that was it, that was literally all that I'd use. Looking back now; well that's just terrible! Make-up wipes are now the bane of my life! I literally cannot think of anything else that is sold in the beauty industry as a "quick and easy make up removal" option that actually would be better if you just left your make up on! They have a stupidly high alcahol content, which dries out your skin, this means your top (horny) layer just frazzles up into flakes and then you get dry skin, all the while all you've actually done is remove about 40% of the make up and smooshed the rest around your face and further into your pours, Then you wonder why you get spots! Use soap and water, with a moisturiser at least!

Rant about wipes over- I now always make sure I use my usual Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise routeine. I have always, in the past sworn by Boots No7 range, their Protect and Perfect range was just amazing on y skin type which is sensetive, with an oily t-zone and dry-normal cheeks... if you were wondering.
When I first discovered the L'Oreal Skin Perfection i was galavanting down the isles in Superdrug and saw these beautiful pink packages and bottles staring at me... yes indeed i did get drawn in by the packaging, but LOOK HOW AWESOME!



Anyway, at first all i bought was the cleansing milk and velvety soft toner, as my No7 cleanser and toner were low and i didn't have a lot of money, and the L'Oreal skin perfetion was a lot cheaper, as it was on a half price offer. I have to say I used it once, one night before bed and noticed an immediate change in my skin. Literally, my skin was so soft i can't even explain how amazed I was. So naturally I then wanted it all!
So I went out and bought the L'Oreal Skin Perfection Eye Cream, Serum and the Day Cream. I was actually excited to see the results! Of course the Cleanser and Toner worked wonders already, that night I used the day moisturiser as I still haven't found a night cream yet, and woke up the next day to the softest skin I think my face has ever had. Even my Husband said my skin looked lovely and fresh. I used the Perfecting Serum, which is best descriped as feeling like a primer in texture on your skin, it smells lovely too, then used the Day cream over the top with some of the brightening eye cream around my eyes and for the first time in a very VERY long time i found that i didn't use any foundation to cover my red cheeks and nose, i just patted on some powder and done my usual eye-liner, brows and mascara. I have to say i'm hooked on the stuff. They do have a tinted cream (L'Oreal Skin Perfection Blur) but even the lightest shade is a bit too orange for my skin tone, and I don't think I need it. I honestly feel so confident in my own skin at the moment thanks to this product!


Complete Product list and Links (Superdrug)
L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3in1 Micella Solution £4.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Blur £12.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Day Cream £14.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Eye £12.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection serum £16.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Soothing Gel Cream Wash £4.49
L'Oreal Skin Perfetion Velvety Soft Toner £3.99

I know it all may seem a bit pricey but even if you only add one of these items to your daily skin regeme I'm sure you'll see results. It's well worth it.
Enjoy!
XxX

Christmas mini-haul, L'óreal skin perfection toner and cleanser review. (warning, also includes rant about ungreatful brats included)

CHRISTMAS WAS HERE; it's been and gone, time for the Easter eggs! Actually saying that, you may think i'm joking, but i used to work for a large supermarket and they have Easter eggs delivered ready to go out on boxing day. Also at the corner shop up the road from me they started selling Easter stuff about 3 weeks ago...

I love Christmas, its my favorite time of year. I love the food, family, friends, snuggling infront of the T.V and of course the gifts. My husband and I didn't have a lot of money this year, most of the gifts i made, or we bought in sales etc... And we didn't ask for anything as we knew money was tight for others too, but i still got quite a good haul.
I also got a bit of money to spend in the sales, i did hit Primark on boxing day with my sister but i literally bought one thing as we were rushing and that was this beautiful Pink one button blazer, in a really soft cotton fabric, only £7!

I also treated myself to some new Cleanser and toner, it's the new L'oreal Skin Perfection range, in the pink packaging. Cheaper then my No7, protect and perfect and 100% better for my skin. I have quite sensitive combination skin, oily t-zone and dry cheeks, so i needed something that covered all three bases, the No7 stuff was the only product i'd ever used that didn't dry my skin out too much nor make it too oily, and didn't bring me out in spots or redness. This new L'oreal Skin Perfection range is AMAZING. It completely changed my skin after one use. I don't have the day or night cream yet, but i will. It's now going to be my new range. I've been ordered to stop using make up wipes, and you should too, the chemicals in them and alcohol content are insane! So cleanse, Tone and Moisturise all the way ladies!!! The cleanser and toner were on offer, usually around £7-8 each but i got mine for £5-ish, plus you get your Superdrug loyalty points so it all adds up to money off later on!


I also treated myself to some True Match Minerals, Powder foundation in 'golden ivory', as i was using a Revlon matte finish creme but it was clogging my pores and was visible to the naked eye. I cannot rave about this True Match Minerals foundation enough! It's so easy, and even and just gives you a lovely glow. If you have a spot break out i'd still recommend using a concealer underneath but no more caking on thick cream foundation! It's around £14 from Superdrug (UK)



Now for the rant, i'm literally outraged by what is summed up in this article: Brats on Twitter
Now i'm not going to go overly 'High and mighty' because i do understand the pain of getting a gift you didn't really want. But sometimes that's how life goes kids! If you don't like it, be honest but not in a horrid way and just ask if you can exchange it, don't beat the sh*t out of your mum, or cry, or say your parents ruined your life because you got a white iPhone and not a black one... you know what i'd do...sell it because i bloody hate apple, but also i'd say oh i didn't really want the white one, thank you though, but is there any way i could get it changed for a black one. DON'T smash it up and throw it at your mum! OR alternatively you can just shut up and be f*cking great-full you got a present from your parents at all and not drop-kicked on your ass out the house. I swear that a few in that generation have a few thousand brain cells missing, or a few they just share between them... I'm horrified that my kids may be worse! But then i remembered, I'm awesome and my kids wont get away with any of that. I'm pretty sure my kids will understand life in all its wonder, no religion forced on them (if they want to be religious they can, and i'll help or support them), there will be no over the top outbursts because they ripped their school trousers while they were having fun. And i'm certainly not allowing them to become some of the spoilt brats I've witnessed this Christmas. I want my kids to grow up still looking at the stars and wondering and imagining the impossible.

****I do whole-heartedly want to explain too that this is the daily mail so their representation of all of the kids these days is only based on a biased view of a few twitter accounts, and by no way should allow everyone to tar all of that generation with the same brush.

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! :)