hair 6/16/12

Here's a bit of an update of my current hair. I've been touching up using Ion Color Brilliance purple, but the last few times I mixed their Sky Blue with purple. My purple was still fading to a reddish/pink, I think just because my hair is naturally brown and bleached it becomes reddish/pink so that's constantly under my purple. I need to neutralize the red more, and I think putting in more blue gives the purple a better hue.

I also bought the dye in bulk from Sally's supply as its cheaper to buy more at once and the purple was sold out in all 3 stores near me - So that's why I bought online.

I know it will take me a long time to go through all this dye, so if anyone reading this is interested in the purple or blue, feel free to comment or email me if you want to buy any. I can sell at $4 + shipping which ends up cheaper than buying it on their website in a quantity of less than 12.

So here it is, the purple and blue mixed.


An update about using Ion Color Defense After Color Sealer - It DOES work, I think the color is lasting longer and staying vibrant longer - HOWEVER it makes my hair oilier sooner. The very next day after showering, its oily looking and its not like that when I don't use the Sealer.

I've stopped using it during every shower, and I use DESERT ESSENCE Organics Lemon Tea Tree Shampoo & Conditioner ( http://www.amazon.com/DESERT-ESSENCE-Organics-Lemon-Shampoo/dp/B004GWCCJA/ref=pd_sim_bt_3 ) to keep my hair from getting oily so quick. I'm hoping it doesn't fade out the color too much, but I much rather have clean looking hair than purple oily hair..

I still do use the Ion color sealer immediately after dying my hair and during a wash every once in a while, but every shower is definitely too much and your hair will get oily looking fast.

No negative comments at work still so still hoping all over color will be accepted once I get to that point.

There is my kitty Lolita. Also you can see how my roots are looking. I actually have not bleached since last time, and this color grasped onto my roots a bit without bleach.

 

 

And here's more of the tshirt I'm wearing! Its a bit tacky maybe to some people, but I think its a cute print of a corset and makes a plain comfortable t shirt look a bit nicer with this design.

outfit 5/26/12

Sadly blurry, but the best full body shot I could get. Reason number 50 I need to move out with my boyfriend: have some one to take pics lol. The timer feature on my camera doesn't focus most of the time.
 [also my terrible bedroom I'm sick of..]

You can see what my full hair looks like currently-- Its Ion Color Brilliance and its slowly going to be in all of my hair, but right now its just the front/roots so I don't fry my hair trying to bleach black out.

I'm wearing Tripp NYC's lace shrug and I loove it so much. Its obviously very light and just a nice way to cover up in summer.

Here's a way better photo of the shrug from this blog:
http://absinthrill.blogspot.com/2010/06/shrugs-by-tripp-nyc.html

Shirt is by Living Dead Souls and I love it too.

Here you can just see my current hair more. I know its weird/bad that only the top is colored, but its just a really bad idea to bleach dyed black hair. So its just going to be a long wait for my hair to grow out.

I like makeup, but I never really learned to do it well so I never do anything interesting/different. My eyes usually just have one color powder or eyeliner and that's it. I'm also really bad with lip color because I constantly chew/bite my lips soo it never stays on, and I gave up on trying!

Purple Hair - Ion Color Brilliance

I've been dying my hair black, and adding small bits of purple to it on and off for years now. But my dream hair has always been all-purple/violet.

I honestly just feel like its the most aesthetically pleasing hair color. I just love the way it looks. I truly wish it wasn't a 'weird' color because I seriously don't like the attention it brings (and how hard the upkeep dying is!) I just wish it was a mainstream accepted hair color so I wouldn't worry about having it at work, or having people look at me because of it, or judge me.

Here's some random images of what my dream hair would look like: (sorry I didn't save sources or credit)

Definitely click to make it larger for more detail!

Even though these images are my favorite hair, I probably won't ever have it this bright/light. So my goal isn't really those exact colors- just any kind of purple hair dye (that will not turn pink) that lasts is my personal goal right now.

Special Effects Deep Purple
The dye I've used the most is Special Effects Deep Purple. I like the color it gives, but its horrendous at staining everything. It will stain your skin, scalp, anywhere it touches and it will take days and multiple scrubbings to get it out. I resort to using not-good-for-you cleaning bleach to rub off dye that gets on my face... terrible idea, but thats just how strong the stains are. Soap and even "dye removers" will not get it out.

Its also horrible to your shower and you must clean it with bleach as soon as you get out. AND you need to be careful your wet hair doesn't drip onto clothing/bedding/carpet or it will stain.

So the color and staying power in my hair is wonderful, I'm just too tired of the staining. It will keep bleeding even weeks after dying, the water will basically never run clear. Even when its dry, and you rub your hair- your fingers will be purple.

Manic Panic, Raw, & Splat
These I'm just lumping into one category because they give me unsatisfactory results too. The biggest issue is that my natural hair color will NOT take purple dye. I must bleach it. The above brands, even their most dark purple-- ends up light & almost pink on my bleached to blonde hair. I just don't like the colors. Especially Splat. It came out a terrible pink I was not expecting. Raw & manic panic also have a hard time holding onto my hair..

Ion Color Brilliance Brights Purple
I may have found MY purple finally! I like this most of all because it does not stain anything but hair! So amazing! My scalp is free of dye, and even little bits that were on my face easily washed off. My hands are not stained after the shower the way they always are with Special Effects and the shower wasnt that stained!

AND I love the color! In my opinion, its more of a blue/silver/gray base than other purples. I'm sure I'm not explaining it right - but basically I can see that when it fades, it will probably fade into a gray-violet rather than a bright pink.

Here was my hair dye adventure this weekend.
Before image; my hair is a combination of Splat fail, and Special Effects Deep Purple and after image is boxed-drugstore-bleach. I must bleach my roots for it to hold my hair, and I decided to bleach the rest of it so new-purple would have a lighter base.

Then I used Ion Color Brilliance Brights Purple - that can be bought at Sally's Beauty Supply. You can find it on their website too.

A couple things that I did to make SURE my experience was a good one: I put a cap on and blow dried it with heat. I kept it on for a few hours and randomly would heat it every so often. To wash, I did not shampoo my hair after. Shampooing may clean your dye out too much, I only rinsed for a very long time in cool water. I HATE cold showers, but I tried my damnest to keep it as cool as I could stand.
I then used "Ion Color Defense - After Color Sealer," counted to 120 (my way of figuring two minutes).

To finish, I took a deep breath, leaned my body away from the shower as much as possible and rinsed in ice cold water. They say this "seals" in your color, and you should do this at the end of your shower.

The photos are really hard to do, the lighting is just bad in my home. But to me, in person, I am very satisfied with the color and the non-staining skin/bathroom of this dye and I plan to keep buying this and eventually doing my whole head!

 

So as you can see, this isn't the color of my "dream" hair, but for now I do truly like it just because the dye is easy to work with and its not too pink. I work in a corporate office environment, and I think this purple is better for me than the bright purples I put in my collage.

Can't wait till my black grows out more and I use this dye again!

an introduction

I'm thinking about blogging. I've always found myself stifled with blogs because I lose interest or I end up spamming it with fandom and then feel stupid when it's filled with "yay harry potter" "omfg hugh laurie is so sexy" etc. Soo if I start this blog, I'm going to make a rule about no fandom stuff.

I think I'm going to also keep a rule of 'no rants'/long analysis/discussion of 'deeper' things like social details/opinions/life thoughts because I end up typing things and ending up feeling stupid reading them later too.

What I want to do is something shallow and motivating. As weird as that sounds, I need the shallow part because I've always wanted to fix my image up and I think I'm going to finally do it. I want the motivation of a blog to post fashion photos, or home decor, or updates on my hair or something.

I'm going to use blogspot because this is where I find so many interesting gothic blogs. I haven't seen as much currently updated fashion/home decor on Livejournal, and I really dislike the format of tumblr, since I like to type a lot.. and I dont understand the commenting/replying on tumblr.

Anyway things I hope to put in this blog--

1. Updates on my fashion re-haul. I think I currently have an image of frumpy geek alt girl (I feel weird labeling myself goth) but I've always wanted a fancier/gothier/sophisticated look so I may start that. Nicer blouses and skirts. etc.

2. Hair, eventually I want more purple in my hair, or all purple. I havent decided how I'm doing this. I feel like my first step should be to buy a plain black wig to have a way to hide the "purple adventures" once I start.. I foresee lots of crappy looking roots growing out, and bleach disasters, PLUS I work in a corporate office so I want a safety like a plain wig before I start putting more purple in.

3. I may post random vanity/cosmetic comments and pics like if I did my nails in a way I like, updates on my braces, or cosmetic procedures like laser hair removal.

4. Hopefully I'll discuss home decor soon. I plan to move out from my parents soon and have always dreamed of decorating the way I love. Dark colors, fantasy/goth objects.. etc

I think that's it. As I said, I want to keep this 'light,' and at a loss for better words- "shallow" or image/style-centric. Clothes, home decor, etc... because I enjoy reading those blogs.

We will see!

As a start here's two pics of me. One is casual me with my boyfriend, one is me on the way to an event I got to dress up how I wish I could look everyday. No edits, my camera phone just loves to wash me out which I'm fine with!

I love how I look here and when I scroll up to the other pic I just go "ew." At my face, hair, skin color, teeth, smile. I don't know why, I think pic one is "ok" but I dont get the same feeling as I do looking at the second one! So this is kind of my goal. To LIKE how I look more often. Rather than 'dress down' or dress normal to fit in with friends or keep people from judging me. If I want to use super pale makeup and wear a fancy blouse I should be able to whenever I want, etc!

Lets see what comes of this blog!