Back to purple...

Purple Hair 

For decades I have played with hair dye, I have been every color imaginable. I get my natural hair dyed and only have played with or worn extensions either to help family or friends in beauty school, to promote or model a brand of extensions, or to help give my own hair a break like this summer from damage of coloring or styling. I had very long and healthy hair before my red adventure, I decided around the holidays to transition from a rose gold, orange melt to a red melt or ombré. I had different tones of red painted on, also known as the balayage method and I know from previous times red is not my color but wanted to do it again. After only two weeks I was over it. To me red, even though I did bright red and a purplish burgundy red, is to much like a natural hair color and I tend to get bored with normal colors. 

I have been blonde since birth, my natural hair color is blonde. I'm an ash blonde with gold tones. I had gorgeous natural blonde hair my entire life till around the age of 14 I started playing with using food color and markers to dye strands or the tips of my hair. I went to Christian private school my entire life and it was in a way a rebellious thing. I also was always into the local music scene and a lot of the female bands had funky cool hair colors that inspired me to want to experiment with my own hair.  When I was 17 and had moved out of my parents home I started dying my own hair with hair dye. First color was bright red, then black, blue, purple, pink you name it. I went back to blonde for two years around 20 and after my wedding I went back to the fun colors. 

One day I decided I wanted black lowlights with my platinum white blonde hair. My hair dresser at the time was so against it but I finally talked her into it. She refused to dye it black right away so we went slowly going from white blonde to adding some auburn highlights. It looked pretty but I wanted something extreme. The next visit I went a dark chestnut brown underneath and had sliced in chunky lowlights the same color leaving my platinum blonde. I got so many compliment and was working at Home Depot at the time so I would have people stopping me in the store to photograph my hair to take to their stylist. Finally I was ready, I told my hair dresser make it black, it was really a hard style to do it takes someone with a lot of talent and patience to dye black lowlights with white hair, you have to be careful for bleeding, running, and spots. The best thing is with the white hair that she could just apply bleach to remove any black that would touch the white, but she really had to work several times to perfect the layering so it all blended. I had a bottom layer of solid black, then the middle was white, and finally the top layer was chunky slices of black to white stripes. Sounds skunky but I have to say it was cool and I had never seen anyone else with anything like it. It didn't take long before everyone had it. I was actually known in our area for my hair and always was stopped to have people photograph it or ask for my stylists name and number. I worked at the Hard Rock hotel and casino during this time and I rocked that look for many years adding a few color pieces here and there. I got into the feather and color clip in pieces also for some time. After it got to where everyone was rocking the color and it was a lot of much younger girls I decided it was time to go back to fun colors. Purple and blue have always been my favorite colors so I went with purple underneath and blue streaks with my blonde on top. Then for years I had the ends or tips colored, underneath fun colors maintaining my blonde on top for jobs, briefly worked at the school as an aid for kindergarten and was subbing so had to be able to hide my colors so stuck to a pastel pink only underneath I could braid then pin up so you couldn't see it while I was working. 

One decision I made early on in life is that I could not work at any job or for any company that had rules or policies against self expression, like having tattoos, I refuse to work anywhere I can't have my tattoos visible or be myself. I am an artistic person, and I'm a real person I don't like to hide my personality or quirks that make me unique. I had a job once working for a large company as a manager and they made me wear long  pants to hide my ankle tattoos, I never had any visible tattoos other then my ankles and one on top of foot, most of mine I strategically placed in spots that are covered but since getting older and running out of spaces I now have one on my arm, planning to get another on my wrist or inside of arm. Luckily I work in an industry where being creative and unique are appreciated qualities. I also refuse to have an employer tell me what color I can dye my hair. No one is going to tell me how I can dress, color my hair, if my tattoos can be seen and so on. In this day and age everyone has tattoos, piercings or they dye their hair. I think my styles and tattoos are all tasteful, and I don't think they should be something people are judged by. It use to be if you had tattoos you either had been in prison, were trashy or some type of negative judgements we're always made. When I was younger and hung out in the tattoo shop often I met doctors, lawyers and all kinds of people of all races, financial classes, and walks of life. It is sad when people judge you based on your appearance; tattoos, hair color,  or how you dress.  I am an artist, I love to create, I always have since a very young child. If I'm not painting, drawing, designing, making crafts, dying my hair, or whatever I'm coming up with creative ideas. I carry my Polaroid or camera in my bag, along with my notebook for writing down ideas or things that pop into my head throughout the day. Part of being an artistic person is expressing your artistic side through how you dress, how you look and so on.  My style is part of who I am and is a way of expressing my own eclectic and unique taste. 

Over the spring I went metallic, I wanted silver hair and I got it. I got bored and did the colored metallics, had the rainbow metallic, silver and purple, then wanted easy to maintain for summer, some colors bleed more which leads to ruining clothes or bedding. I went silver in May and wore it till it faded mid summer. Then I resorted to touching up my color at home ordering my Pravana colors, diluting with white conditioner and I also dyed my old clip in or tape in extensions silver then another set purple tones, this helped me when j got bored to play without damaging my hair. I wanted to let my hair have a god solid two months of no bleach, no dye, and no flat iron or hot tools. I did it, was so hard but I accomplished it. My hair has gotten a lot healthier, and is slowly growing back after losing 12-16" of length. I had to cut my hair an angle bob with it being really short in the back with a longer angle in the front. My underneath and ends were the most damaged since the darker red took several bleaching to lighten to a pastel pink. 

Wearing my Ettika Paradise fringe head chain and stacked leather choker a collaboration with Ettika and Free People. Graphic tee is from BohoCircus on Etsy and the suede style wrap is Full Tilt from Tillys.  You can use the code BOHOBABE to save $10 off the head chain from Ettika

Here is the debut of my new color. If you have seen my prior purple that was done with extensions and toner, then using a new color depositing shampoo similar to purple or silver shampoos for reducing gold in blondes for me it was keeping my silver or creating a purple base. This shampoo line turns your hair purple it does not tone or reduce gold so do not recommend using unless you want colored hair. I will post a review in September with the purple shampoo and conditioners that will give you tips for maintaining your purple color of if you want to boost your silver, tone down a gold or orange tone in blonde hair and more. 

Will add more photos taken in daylight, I have a cold I came down with this weekend so felt bad when I got home hence the sweatshirt, I basically got into my pajamas and went to lay down. Hoping I can fight it off since my little one has her birthday Friday.  The above photos were taken in doors with yellow tone light so the purple doesn't look as vibrant or true to color.

Enjoy my new purple and silver hair. I went in to the salon today with grown out roots and white hair. My stylist used two tones of Pravana purple, I got a beautiful multi dimensional purple and silver color. My roots are purple so I don't have dark brown or black looking roots since my regrowth always looks darker since my hair is almost white, to achieve the silver you have to start with a blank canvas which is as white as you can get your hair or the silver won't grab on. I truly love how my new color came out and can't wait to show you more shots of it. Depending on the light you can even see some blue tones. 

Off to bed crazy busy week ahead of me. Have some beauty product reviews and lots of new clothes from Pam & Gela, Chaser, WildFox, SilverJeans, Spell and the Gypsy, and then accessories galore. Can't wait to share my fall style staples. Peace love and light always xoxo. Remember to always be yourself.