Killing it Softly: To Dye or Not to Dye
With spring just around the corner and pastel easter eggs on my mind, I’ve been loving all the new My Little Pony hair craze that’s been popping up through my pinterest feed – peachy pinks, sky blues, mint greens, and frosty lavenders.
For those of you dying for those light and airy pretty colors, but don’t want to go permanent, try hair chalking. You can easily purchase a single chalk pastel stick or a whole kit from any local art supply store to safely use on your hair. These fun temporary colors can last as long as a week depending on how often you wash your hair.
source
What you’ll need:
Soft Chalk Pastels (not oil pastels or chalk)
Gloves
Comb
A spray bottle filled with water
A cup of water
Flat Iron/Curling Iron
Blow dryer
hairchalk.jg
from http://hairchalking.net
Instructions:
1. Comb hair. Take a small section and dampen with a spray bottle
2. Dip chalk pastel in water and rub into hair while twisting hair and coloring in a downward motion. Evenly distribute color by rubbing color pigment into hair.
3. Blow dry hair
4. Flat iron/ curl iron your hair to seal and set pigment into hair. If you only want the color for a day or two, disregard this step.
Notes: Cover your pillow cases because hair color easily rubs off.
source
Hair Chalking:
via freepeople
And for the PROS…
I must emphasize that unless you have naturally platinum white blonde hair, achieving a truly pastel hair color requires lots of patience, maintenance and a week of gross brassy hair color. You will want to make sure your hair is as close to white as possible. This will require multiple bleaching sessions, spot bleaching, toning with a purple toner and using purple shampoos. Purple shampoos and toners cancel out yellow/copper pigments. Toners will also help even out the color in your hair to achieve an even color throughout your hair. I highly recommend going to a salon to attain the white platinum hair color. And for those who live or will be visiting the Long Beach, CA area, I highly recommend booking an appointment with Nancy Vo of D’aversa Salon.
Now for the color. Choose any semi-permanent hair color creme like Manic Panic, Ion Color Brilliance Brights, Directions, Raw. I used Manic Panic’s “Ultra Violet” to for a blueish purple hue. DO NOT add color directly to hair. Depending on how light or saturated you want your hair color you will only need a dime size to quart size amount of dye.
What you’ll need:
Semi Permanent Hair Dye
White Conditioner
Mixing Bowl
Application Brush
Gloves
Old Tee
Instructions:
1. Start by filling a small bowl with about 2 cups of white conditioner (depending on how much hair you have). The reason why you would want to use white conditioner is because you’ve worked so hard on getting that white platinum hair color. You do not want to add and yellowish tones. Any color you see in your hair products will be absorbed by your hair, so be careful with what your are using on your hair.
2. Add a few drops of your preferred hair dye color to the bowl of conditioner. If the color looks too light it might not show up in your hair. Do a strand test before adding more color. It is always safer to go for a paler pastel than ending up with hot pink hair, when you’re going for cotton candy pink. If your hair is light enough then essentially, the color you see in your mixing bowl will be the color of your hair. You might want to dab the color onto a paper towel to see the actual color.
3. Apply your concoction evenly onto your hair making sure you massage it evenly and avoiding any dry spots. Leave in for 15-20 minutes. Usually the longer you leave it in the bright the color will appear.
Notes: To achieve an Ombre gradual fade like my hair, I started with a more saturated hair color + conditioner mixture on my roots. Then I added double the amount of conditioner in the mixture and applied it in the mid section while making sure it was evenly blended to the roots.
Take care of your hair! After all the bleaching and toning you want to make sure your hair has a least a week of resting in between bleaches and has been treated with hair mask and deep conditioners. I use Organix Moroccan Argan Oil Renewing Conditioner
and One ‘n Only Argan Oil Restorative Mask
Enjoy and happy dying!
Ode to the bag
The bag, whether we carry it on our shoulders, on our waist or straight up in our hands, is the undisputed accessory of choice. In some way, it carries us through the days. A bag can fit the seasons, fit our moods. A bag will follow us anywhere. A great accomplice to our looks, we all feel slightly undressed without it.
Sources : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
