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. 

My many shades of hair color

For those who read my blog regularly you know that since I started this blog back  3-4 years ago, I have always had fun colored hair. The artist in me loves to express my personality through my hair. I don't wear make up and I am not much of girly girl, more of a tomboy type, but I love hair color. For me I express my love for art and music through my hair, clothes and jewelry. 

I love heavy metal, rock and absolutely love going to concerts. The louder and crazier the better. I have always dressed in ripped jeans, lots of black, studs, leather and skulls. I was wearing skulls and ripped jeans as a teen. I also was dying my hair lol. I am blonde so it is easier to change the color often. 

I have tried every color and many different dyes, I have done it myself and now have a professional do it because it lasts longer. I use pravana hair dye now and the pigment is so much brighter and holds longer. Two summers ago I went from just dying the underneath layers to doing the ombré all over. I loved it and have been playing with different color combos ever since. I have dyed my entire head and I had the black underneath with black lowlights and white blonde highlights for a couple years in my mid twenties, it got very popular so decided to go to a red and blonde then got pregnant so just went natural. 

After I had my daughter I wanted to go super blonde so I started bleaching my hair myself which lead to boredom with it all being one color, that's when I started dying the fun colors myself again. The store bought dyes don't last and usually wash out a lot the first rinse. I started looking for a colorist and eventually my business baking led me to a party one night that I had a table set up at and I met a lady that was doing the hair for the fashion show for the event, she gave me her card and I eventually went to see her. I had not let anyone color my hair since before I was pregnant and the lady who did color my hair for ten years had moved to Texas. 

I started out just adding lowlights to add some pigment back to my hair along with contrast because It was super white blonde. After a few months I asked her about adding some pink and the rest is history lol. Like I mentioned above I started with just the underneath layer, then led to two layers one pink and one purple. Two summers ago as soon as the school year ended and I knew I didn't have to worry about people thinking, wow look at her, lol I went ahead and did the ombré. I had her dye the underneath purple and then the ends of all my hair a ombré purple. It came out amazing, I had the perfect blend of lilac, purple and then a bright darker purple on the ends. 

I kept that for almost two years adding some orchid, which is a pinkish purple. I loved it and then after this passed summer I decided I wanted to try the blue shades. In the passed I have posted many photos of my hair but got some recent shots of it that look pretty good. With the blue it is harder to see in photos the true colors. The purple was a lot easier some shots it would look more pastel but then some shots it would look really vibrant. 

If you are curious how I continue to lift my hair with out losing it or ruining it, my hair dresser introduced me to Olaplex, they have three products, one you add to the bleach when stripping or lifting the base, to help protect the hair and make the process be able to stay on longer without burning the hair, step 2 goes on after color to seal, protect and make it look amazingly healthy, and step 3 is a take home product you can use to continue to help reverse any prior damage. I highly recommend this product, it can be pricey but worth every cent 

Here are some shots from previous posts:  

 

Those are the pravana vivids purple ombré. I got this color done in March and it lasted till October. I got more compliments on my hair over the two years I wore the purple and pink then any other color I have done. Will probably go back after this summer. I stopped worrying about what parents at the school or anyone would think, I love it and enjoy it, so I am going to rock it. 

Below are some photos of the blue shades and you will see it either looks super bright or dark. 

This shot above you see more of the purple but this is the blue not the purple, I do have purple in it and even some pink still that didn't come out, plus she blended the underneath with purple, a royal blue and neon blue, then have some pastel and neon on the ends. 

Here you can see more of the blues and some of the purple. I use to wear my hair straight always but the coloring made me start to curl it, braid it and wear it wavy. 

Here it looks more of a dark almost navy blue. 

Funny I posted this photo on my IG and heard rumors I was being accused of touching up my photos. I don't have airbrushing or any editing software on my iPhone lol, barely have room for my photos always deleting photos and apps. I have pic tap go and vsco which you can add a filter or adjust colors etc but I don't touch up my photos and all of them are taken on my phone. This is the lighting, this shot was taken in front of white doors, with one over head light, it appears to be very bright and washed out my face. I laugh when people accuse you of retouching your photos because they don't have photos recent of themself and use old photos always. I promise I am not airbrushing or touching up my photos it lighting. I hardly ever wear makeup either, only for special occasions or if my face is breaking out which happens once every couple months. Also I have been accused of getting Botox lol, yes I have a post on here about my migraines and that I now use prescription Botox for the control of my migraines. It has been a life changer but it does not change my look at all. It is applied to the hairline, two shots between my eyebrows and the rest of the 34 shots all together are in my head, neck and shoulders, not my face. I have joked with the doctor about giving me some extra shots but he does not administer Botox for cosmetic reasons only for medical reasons. I am only 37 and I have always had a younger face, I take care of my skin and only issue I have since having kids is sunspots I get if I don't wear sunscreen daily. I always laugh when people have to act like high school even as grown thirty something women with kids lol. I don't have time, back to my hair, just wanted to clear that up really quick. I am horrible at taking selfies and practice more now that I post more shots of myself on here and my IG. I wish I could touch up or retouch some of my photos lol. 

Here you can see in the above photo some of the color but on the black cardigan it looks almost navy blue. My hair is super long, I am growing it as long as I can, hard because my hair is a lot of work but I am trying not to flat iron it or blow dry it like I use to, and let it just be so it can heal from all the heat styling snd color damage.  I have super strong hair trust me, it has been though a lot lol. 

The above photos are hard to tell the color due to the bright light, light hides a lot of things and can mask a lot of things but it can also change the appearance of colors. 

I took this shot outside on my patio when the sun was going to down some and not as bright, I am in the shade under a covered patio but this is the closest photos since I had it colored months ago in October, of the actual colors. 

As you can see it is fading on the ends but the middle section is still super bright and vivid. I love the neon blue, and pastel blue, of course the purple also. The purple is my favorite of all the shades I have used. 

 

Some of the blonde hair around my face has had some slight bleeding of the blue, which I worried about because if you are or have ever been a blonde green is not a color we want lol. I don't think anyone wants green hair, lucky for me mine is more of a turquoise or teal shade. 

I will be getting my color done in the weeks to come and decided one more go with the blue, I want to try just the pastel and neon blue. Ty for reading and if you are wanting to do this to your hair I recommend going to the salon. 

Wore my hair curly today have had it in a braid for a week or so probably since I have been cleaning or working around my home. Got lucky and captures some almost true to life color to show you. Finally lol