DIY Ombre: Bleach Dark Brown Hair to Blonde Without Too Much Damage

So, before I put the purple in my hair I did an ombre using bleach. Last time I did a DIY Ombre at home, I used box dye and pretty much fried the shiz out of my poor hair... I tried everything known to man to put some moisture back into my frazzled hair, but eventually I just had to cut most of it off and start over. This time, I wanted to try and protect my hair as much as I could , so I did a few things differently...

First, I went to Sally Beauty and bought  ION Color Brilliance Powder Lightener, ION Sensitive Scalp 30 Vol Developer and Wella Color Charm Toner in T18, 'Lightest Ash Blonde'. Then I went to Walmart and bought a jar of Coconut oil! Coconut oil has been widely purported to have great moisturising and protective benefits for hair, so I decided to try it out and see if it worked.

1. I coated my hair in the coconut oil, enough so that it was fully saturated, but not dripping. Note: I've also heard good things about protein filler and conditioner baths, but I have only tried coconut oil so far.
2. I mixed 1 part bleach powder with 2 parts 30 Vol developer. 30 Vol is the highest you should go if you have dark brown hair, in order to not damage it too much. I applied the bleach mixture to the ends of my hair and worked up with my fingers, blending it by just dabbing it and rubbing it from the top down, getting a little higher each time. TIP: Use dishwashing gloves, they have textured bumps on the fingers that help with blending!
3. I wrapped my head in saran wrap/cling wrap and left the bleach in for 40 minutes, heating it for about 20 minutes with my hair dryer. The ION Sensitive Scalp developer was amazing, it didn't sting my eyes or burn my scalp at all. After 40 minutes, I washed my hair out thoroughly with plain water, making sure to wash until all the coconut oil was gone. TIP: Sometimes the coconut oil can leave the hair feeling slimy/oily so really make sure you wash very well to get it out!
4. If your hair is as light as you want it, then you can move on, however mine wasn't quite where I wanted it, so I repeated steps 1-3. Note: My hair still felt quite smooth and hydrated after bleaching it twice, I can only attribute it to the quality of the bleach and the coating of coconut oil. It wasn't in quite as good a condition as before bleaching, but it was much better than last time I bleached it!
5. I then mixed 1 part 30 Vol Developer with 1 part Wella Color Charm Toner in T18, 'Lightest Ash Blonde', applied it to where I had bleached my hair and left it on for 20 minutes. This is to cancel out the yellow/orangey tones in your hair after bleaching. Note: You can use coconut oil before applying this as well, but I didn't.  I have heard of some people experiencing the toner not grabbing onto the hair because of the coconut oil, so I didn't want to risk it.
6. Washed it out really really well with a generic brand Purple Toning shampoo from Sally Beauty and viola! This was the result:

My hair is still semi damp in this picture, as I didn't have time to dry it before I dyed it purple. I think the blending is pretty good (for having done it myself! Can't see the back of my head..) and I love the light brown to white blonde progression! It's definitely a lot less orange than last time I bleached my hair. My ends are still relatively soft and retained moisture without a lot of bleach damage. This is pretty amazing, seeing as I went from dark brown to white blonde at the tips! I definitely think the combination of the protective coconut oil and the ION Sensitive Scalp developer helped a lot with avoiding damage. I hope this helps next time you plan on bleaching your hair!

I'll be posting about my custom blend of Special Effects dyes to make a pretty purple very soon, so stay tuned!

Brown to Purple Ombre Hair using ION Color Brilliance Brights Lavender

I Bought This

As I've mentioned before, I like purple. Purple hair has been on my lust list for the looooooongest time now, especially lavender, pastel, almost silvery unicorn hair. I absolutely adore it. Honestly, I wanted to have my whole head a silvery, pastel purple colour, but I just can't deal with the maintenance and continuous bleaching that that would entail. So, I had the option to either do some purple highlights/streaks or do a purple ombre... of course I took the easier (and trendier) route and did an ombre!

First, I did a DIY Ombre at home. The first time I ever did an ombre, I used box dyes, but this time I didn't want to fry my hair so badly =_= so I bought some supplies at Sally Beauty and bleached the mid-lengths of my hair to a light brown, fading into white blonde at the ends (which I'll write about in another post, also how I protected my hair from too much damage!). Then, using ION Color Brilliance Brights in Lavender, I dyed the lower half of my hair. Now, I ended up doing it twice because the colour didn't show up as much as I wanted it to the first time. The ION Color Brilliance Brights are a very thick, drier consistency, so I added a little water to make it easier to saturate my hair and it ended up with a creamier texture, like you see below.

I then tried to completely saturate my hair and left it on for 60 minutes. As I said, I did this twice, using 2 tubes of the ION Color Brilliance Brights in Lavender, and ended up with a pretty nice, vibrant purple shade on everywhere my hair was white blonde. The colour didn't really show over the darker parts of my hair though.

These two pictures above are after curling my hair a bit with my GHD flat iron, a few days after dyeing it. I really liked the silvery, lilac shade of purple, but it didn't quite cover as much of my hair as I wanted it to.

My hair then faded to this silvery shade about 3 weeks after dyeing it. It still looked pretty, but I was ready for a more PURPLE purple shade, so I decided to dye over it with some Special Effects dye, which I'd heard a lot about. That I'm saving for Part 2 of my Purple hair post though!

Overall, the ION Color Brilliance Brights in Lavender was a pretty good product, especially for around $4.50 for each 2.05oz tube. They also had a special at the time, which was buy 2 tubes, get 1 free! So I got 3 tubes for around $9! I think it works best on very light, white blonde hair because it's a more pastel shade.

Stay tuned, I'll be posting Part 2 of my Purple hair journey using Special Effects dye in the next few days :)

Click here to see how I bleached my dark brown hair before dyeing it purple with very little damage.

Revamp Your Style: Add Instant Glam to Nails with Rhinestones.

There are so many weddings, beach parties, and other special events in the summer that it's the perfect time to revamp your style and add a little glam. Adding rhinestones, and maybe a little glitter, too, to manicures is a super easy, yet effective, way to bump it up to a sparkling new level.

Rhinestones are an affordable and easy to find nail art material. You can find wheels of the crystals in many shapes and sizes at any beauty or nail supply store for under $5.

Check out these ones from Born Pretty Store!

It's as easy as...

1. Paint your nails with 2 or 3 coats of your desired shade.
2. Pick up a rhinestone with tweezers/a wet toothpick and place it on your almost dry polish. You can  make a pattern, such as a flower or bow, or place one at the top of your nail for a modern glam look.
3. Seal with a thick layer of top coat and viola! It adds an extra dimension to a boring old style.
4. Done!

TIP: If you place the rhinestone and dont like it, just push it into place gently with your tweezers/toothpick. It should move easily, as long as your polish isn't too wet.

Below you can see a couple of ways I've added rhinestones to enhance a manicure look.

The rhinestones and the glitter gradient that you can see in my first manicure example above, are super easy, pretty way approaches to nail art. They add that extra something to both looks that instantly glams up the manicure. This is such a simple trick to add a bit of sparkle, I can see myself using it time and again for special events.

The rhinestones are quite durable in the nail polish. I've never had an issue with one coming off or chipping. The rhinestones I've used in these examples are also small enough to be practically unnoticeable in daily activities. I'm a big fan of over-the-top deco Japanese nail art, but sometimes the designs are complicated, and a little impractical. A simple rhinestone design is reminiscent of the deco style, but a lot more manageable.

What do you like to do to give your nails a bit of instant glam?

This post is part of BlogHer's Revamp Your Style editorial series, made possible by Schick Hydro Silk.

Easy Nail Art Using Metallic Markers

Who loves easy nail art??

Me, that's who. And there is pretty much nothing easier than this! If you can hold a pen, then you can do this. I saw a tutorial on Pinterest that used Sharpie metallic markers to draw on little hearts and patterns onto nails, but the problem was that everyone in the comments of the post said that it smudged when they applied top coat. I decided to try it for myself anyway but couldn't find Sharpies at my local Walmart, so I picked up these Max Pen Ultramark Metallic Markers instead.

What I discovered was that the Ultramark marker will actually rub off with a finger or with water, but weirdly enough won't smudge with top coat the way the Sharpie metallic markers do. The Sharpie markers only rub off with rubbing alcohol but then smudge with topcoat... makes no sense to me.

All you do is:

1. Paint a base colour and let it dry completely
2. Draw the design you want with the metallic marker
3. Give the marker about 30 sec/a minute to dry
4. Do a thick layer of top coat with a light hand, try not to press or drag on the nail
5. Done!

Yesterday I did a quick post on my Cherry Blossom nail art and I used the metallic markers for the design. It was so quick and easy and looks beautiful.

Please forgive my dry hands, it's Winter y'know. To see how I used the metallic markers to achieve this design, check out the video below!

I'm still working on the quality of my videos, please bear with me! I'll be posting a lot more videos, so don't forget to subscribe ;)

What I love about using the Ultramark metallic markers for nail art is that they're non-toxic, they rub off easily if you make a mistake without ruining your base polish and they make it so easy to do more intricate designs. Best of all they were only around $4 for a pack of 6 markers! I will definitely be getting value for money out of these things. Who says we need to be a slave to brand names.. I actually bought the darn Sharpies afterwards.. and they smudged.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and let me know if you try it out. I know I'll be incorporating the metallic markers into my nail art from now on :) It just makes getting a clean line so much easier!

Dip Dyed Ends: Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink

So being the type of person that gets bored easily, I thought when I redid my roots I might as well just go ahead dye the ends of my hair pink too.

Enter Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink. A semi-permanent apparently glow in the dark(?) hair dye that I've seen a few other bloggers use recently. I got both the dye and the brush from Sally's Beauty Supply, the dye cost around $10.

I just did the ends of my hair and left it in for about 90 mins. It washed out easily and I didn't have any staining problems.

Now, I didn't prelighten my hair as I thought it would be light enough (I bleached it recently after all), but perhaps I should have. It didn't turn out quite as pink as I'd have liked and has a bit of an orangey tint to it. It also seems to have faded rather quickly.. pretty much gone after 2 weeks. I'm thinking maybe I got the semi-permanent when there is a permanent dye I should have gotten? Can anyone enlighten me if there are two types of Manic Panic dye?


Here's my FOTD! Using products from Daiso (video on that coming soon).

I think I may have to go to a hairdresser to get that true, cotton candy baby pink.

Have you tried Manic Panic dye? Or maybe you have a recommendation for me for next time?

I cut my own bangs! Are they cute, or am I crazy?

Ok, so in Australia we actually call it a fringe but being in the US I figure I should throw in some local flavour :p

Fringe, bangs, whatever you call them, I think I usually look better with than without. As I have a rounder face, a sideswept fringe helps to elongate it and make it look slimmer.

Whenever I go to the hairdresser, they never seem to cut as much of my fringe as I want them to, so I prefer to do it myself. I just bought a pair of hair scissors, sectioned off the front of my hair and cut it with the tips of the scissors. Now, I am in no way a professional and I am not recommending you do it yourself ok, so don't blame me if you diy your fringe and it turns out hideously! >_<

Here's how mine turned out.

I think it looks pretty good, I do see a couple of places I need to even it out a bit, but overall I think I did an ok job. Lol, maybe I'm giving myself too much props.. what do you think?

My hair is so dry and frizzy right now. I think I haven't been using my hair treatment as much as I should be. I'm going to be trying out a keratin hair system soon, so hopefully it will help restore some moisture and shine. I don't wanna look like a scarecrow anymore ;__;

Another pic just for vanity's sake.

Yep, I know my roots are showing... I already redid them and dyed my ends pink! Post on that coming soon ^_^V

Have you ever cut your own hair? I've cut my fringe before, but I wouldn't attempt to give myself an actual haircut. I cut my best friend's hair into a bob when we were 13. I thought it was pretty good, but I think her mother might beg to differ LOL.

DIY Ombre Hair using Box Dye

>>>>Click here to view my updated (and less damaging process) DIY Ombre!<<<<

Ombre, Ombre, Ombre!

Trying this trend at home can seem a bit daunting, but it's not too difficult if you just follow the steps and is definitely cheaper than going to a salon. I've been wanting to diy ombre hair using box dye for a while and finally took the plunge last weekend. I had some dark regrowth from dyeing my hair a light brown shade previously, so instead of just bleaching the ends, I followed a tutorial I googled but I wanted a more dramatic result than the person achieved. I mean, what's the point in killing your hair and scalp just to get a barely noticable result?

This was my hair colour before:

 

So, Step 1!

Using Clairol Born Blonde, I followed the instructions and fried my hair for 90 mins until it turned this ABSOLUTELY stunning trailer park orange.

I posted this photo on Facebook and my mother almost had a heart attack lol!

Step 2: I then used this light ash brown to get rid of the horrible orange blonde and give my hair that cooler ash tone that is so popular in gyaru styles.

Because of the bleach, the light brown ended up being an ash blonde.

Step 3: I gave my scalp a break and did the third dye process the next morning. I applied this light natural brown on my roots, and blended it almost halfway down, being careful to not get any on the ends of my hair.

I left the ends untouched, so I would still have that gorgeous ash blonde at the tips.

After I washed it out, this is the result!

DIY Ombre Hair in natural light

DIY Ombre Hair with flash

DIY Ombre Hair phone pic

Ombre Hair using box dye

I'm completely in love with it! It turned out exactly as I'd hoped :) It looks a bit lighter in the sun, but you can definitely see the gradiation.

BTW my scalp now has flaky patches from getting the crap burnt out of it, bleaching it and dyeing it twice. A friend told me to expect major dandruff for the next week -_- Because my hair is now super dried out from all the processing, I got a leave in treatment to (hopefully) restore some moisture.

I've heard good things about this treatment, so I'll let you all know how it goes! I have used it once and liked it, so here's hoping it continues to meet my expectations ;)

Have you DIY-ed a favourite hair trend at home before? Or do you prefer to go to a salon to liven up your locks?

>>>>Click here to view my updated (and less damaging process) DIY Ombre!<<<<