Extensions: Synthetic & Human Hair

Extensions are my new favorite thing. I cut my hair after the fun bleaching damage, and I expected a lot more to be taken off than actually was. The first extensions I bought were synthetic ones from eBay, I would've obviously bought human hair, but all the ones I could find were extremely pricey.

This is my normal hair [ignore my face, I'm getting over a cold]

These are synthetic eBay $10 extensions. They are actually fantastic quality, they were however like 24" long and its a weird process to cut them down.

THESE are actual human hair ones from abhair.com, they aren't bad, but they are kinda stringy. Still nice though, the clips are fantastic.

I believe I posted another picture somewhere of my curly synthetic extensions. I also posted the link to the eBay shop where I bought them. I super recommend these synthetic extensions, especially the curly ones. They are thick, real looking and feeling, everytime I put them in for work i get a ridiculous amount of compliments.

Sometimes human hair isn't worth the money, there are synthetic extensions that should be considered. 

Hair cut, Brunette, & Extensions!

2 weeks ago today I started the brunette to ginger to blonde transformation, and today, I went back brunette.

My hair was mostly a strawberry blonde, and I actually liked it, however my hair was mega damaged, and my roots were already coming in and being noticeable after 2 weeks. So, instead of dying my hair myself, I bit the bullet and went to the professionals at Hair Cuttery. Prior to this I had bought dark brown hair extensions from Ebay, from this store to be exact: http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Seller-Premium-Clip-In-Hair-Extensions-Full-Head-Weft-real-good-as-human-hair-/190900877543

They are synthetic, but much to my surprise felt and LOOKED like real hair. I bought the 19" curly ones, which are effing long. I brought them in with me today at the salon so they nice lady could match my hair to the extensions, and they now match seamlessly.

After discovering my new found hair extension obsession after ordering this first pair, a day later I ordered 100% human hair extensions from abhair.com. I haven't received those ones yet, but the reviews on them are amazing, and despite being human hair, they were amazingly affordable. Especially because they were on sale, and still are at the time of this posting.

Before Brown:

Brunette:

With extensions: 

I still really need to practice putting extensions in, I also think I really need to get these ones cut. It is awesome for looking like a mermaid, but they are extremely long. Yay!

Followup After Bleaching

I was well aware of the fact that bleaching my hair several times in 2 days would significantly damage my hair. Unfortunately I'm one of those people that has to see it to believe it, as I'm an optimist who likes to believe that things aren't really that bad.

Now, my hair was damaged before. I had split ends and slight dryness, but NOW, my hair doesn't really feel like hair. Dry doesn't even begin to describe it. When my hair is wet, the only way to describe how it feels is wet & rubbery. When air drying, the time it takes to dry is about 3X what it took before.

Needless to say, bleaching 3 times in 2 days is not a good idea for anyone. As much as I want longer hair, having long dead hair is not ideal. My plan is to go get a nice short haircut, and order some hair extensions online. If my hair is feeling healthy enough after the cut, I need to dye it back to dark brown. Yes, even after all I did to it, it needs to go back.

Exactly a week ago is when I finished my hair dying marathon, and even though that is such little time, I already have dark roots appearing. Initially when I had the idea to go blonde, I didn't mind the idea of touching up my roots every now and then, but I need to force myself to leave my hair alone and stop dying it. Especially after dealing with how it is now.

Going from Orange to Blonde - Bleaching part 2

Ran out to Walgreen again today, with orange hair, which was fun, but I picked up several other things to help my hair get to where I want it. Especially because I work early tomorrow and there is no way I'll go to work with the way my hair is right now.

First I picked up this:

The difference between this one and the one I used in my last post, is this is the 'Maxi' one. I NEED the orange out of my hair, and there is a ton of it. 

Last night I wet my hair, put a lot of the purple shampoo in it, and wrapped it in a towel for about an hour. It didn't remove a lot of stuff this time. I think the difference from this time when I did it was that it was the red dye, not brassiness from bleaching. Because as I said when I started doing this, my hair was initially a brownish red color. 

Other things I picked up were:

Another bottle of Jhirmack purple shampoo, this one was a dollar cheaper, and was a dandruff shampoo, so why not? I picked up this dye, because this is one of those Garnier Nutrisse Ultra For naturally dark hair dyes. My hair right now isn't dark, but I'm thinking if this stuff can make black hair blonde in one step [as it claims], it can make a difference on orange hair [if the bleaching doesn't]. Also, on the box it calls the dye "Bleach-Free Lightening Technology." SOLD! I clearly don't need to bleach my hair anymore.

This is after the Maxi Bleach:

It is blonde, with slight orangey tones. It is a ton better than it was before. Before it was pretty much solid orange. 

At this point I am so tired of dying my hair. I can't believe I spent my 2 days off from work pretty much in the bathroom the entire time bleaching my hair. 

The last step I'm going to do now is dye my hair the Nice'n Easy 103 A color: Medium Neutral Ash Blonde. I've heard that ashy colors counteract orange tones. I really am praying that when I wash this dye out it'll be a cool ash shade. I really don't want to go to work tomorrow looking like an idiot.

Plus, the sooner it turns out a great color, the sooner I can do some serious intense repair work. I have naturally curly hair. Super curly, super frizzy, super hard to tame without using a straightening iron. 

So, this is after the 104 A coloring:

This was mostly disappointing. The only plus after using this was the dye took out most of the orange. I kept the dye on for about 45 minutes as the directions suggested, and while it was on I THOUGHT I could see my bleach blonde roots darkening to a nice ashy color. That didn't stick though.

I'm not satisfied with the current color, but I need to deal with it for a while so my hair can heal. I can feel the dryness of my hair, and to help my hair a bit I gave it a good trim. I'm going to sleep with a good conditioner on my hair tonight and wash it out in the morning before work. 

The next step for my hair? Looking up reviews for another cool ash blonde color. 

Splat Lightening Kit & Nice'n Easy 103 A Part 1

If you saw my last post, I decided against trying that red. Since the last time I dyed it red it failed horribly. I splurged at Walgreens and bought all of these:

I've heard really good things about the Splat brand in general, and really great things about the bleach they make. Ok, I bought the Super Blonde by Loreal as a backup in case I REALLY need another bleach. I'm keeping the receipt because I don't think I'll actually need it. Last, the Nice'n Easy Medium Neutral Blonde as it's called, looked awesome. I want a cool ashy blonde. 

My current hair color is... brownish red? The red tint stayed after multiple color oop'sing after the last time I dyed it. The roots are a lot lighter than the length of my hair.

As a precaution to the inevitable damage that will happen to my hair I got these:

Redken brand is known as one of the best, and most salons use their products. This shampoo by them claims it can soften the damage and help rebuild hair, which I believe because it has protein in it. 

The second thing is an argan oil deep treatment. It strengthens, and prevents further breakage. 

The third is John Frieda full repair conditioner, which got good reviews.

Last is Aussie's 3 minute miracle, which is known as an inexpensive great repairing conditioner.

I have 2 days of off work in a row so I wanted to get started as quickly as I could! Here we go!

Well, my first impression of Splat is that they didn't give enough bleach. I have shoulder length hair and  didn't have enough to go over some parts of my head. I don't even have super thick hair. I'm glad I bought the second bleach kit.

This is my hair after using Splat:

It did lighten my hair, and yeah, mostly to a light gingery color, but I did dye my hair red a while ago, so I expected this. Most of my roots are blonde, but there are patches of brown where, as I said, I couldn't really go over because there wasn't as much product as I thought there'd be. 

Next up: The Born Blonde hair bleach:

That stuff is great. There is a significant increase in the amount of product you get, and it is less expensive than Splat. I also prefer the consistency. It is more of a non drip creme, and Splat is more of a liquid.

I ended up dumping a lot of the Born Blonde down the drain because they really do give a lot of product, but it is great knowing that you can completely cover your head and get all the spots you need to.

Tip: Whether or not you use all of the bleach, wash out the container before you throw it out. It is possible for pressure to build up and the bottle to blow.

The following pictures are after the second bleaching. I'm super fluffy.

My hair here is a strawberry blonde! It isn't bad, but I really want the reddish orange out. For that I won't bleach or dye, I'll turn to my Jhirmack brand purple shampoo. Instead of jumping in the shower and using it, I just make my hair damp, put the shampoo on, and wrap my head in a towel. It says on the directions to rinse after 2 minutes, but I usually leave it on for upwards of 30 minutes. It is a miracle shampoo that really does get rid of orangeness the more you use it. 

I used this stuff back when I ombre'd my hair. 

This is day 1, tomorrow I will take more of the orange out of my hair and actually dye it with the Nice n Easy color. 

Redhead Part 2?

So, I'm not exactly sure what color my hair is right now. After the horrible experience I had with the Vidal Sassoon dye, I Color Oops'd my hair either 2 or 3 times afterwards to make it look better. The length and ends of my hair are a brownish red, which is fine, but the roots are a significantly lighter reddish color.

I've been dealing with it for a few weeks because it honestly isn't that bad, but the thing that bothers me the most is the roots being so much lighter. I'm not completely set on what my plan is next for my hair, but I still really want to be a redhead. I had great vibrant red hair years ago, it was professionally done and cost me a mint. I really don't like going to the salon to get my hair dyed. Yeah, it's more convenient, but I've had so many bad experiences at salons, mostly with haircuts, that I try to avoid them. Plus, I think its fun to dye your own hair.

Anyways, there are several Garnier Nutrisse box dyes specifically made for naturally dark hair. Most of them are nice reds too. This one is the one I'm seriously considering, the results that I've seen have been a beautiful bright red shade:

Later this week I have 2 days off in a row. I think that's when I'll go for it!

From Brunette to Redhead!

I've been a redhead before, and it was the look I got the most complements on. Everyone loves red hair! I've missed it and want to try to go back. I currently have had dark brown hair, which is my natural color, but I had to dye it to get it back.

Today I'm trying a product I've never used before: Color Oops!

Previously when I've gone from black to light brown hair I've used a combination of Rusk's Elimin8, and Manic Panic's Flash Lightning.

The red dye I've chosen is also from a brand I've never used, but had solid reviews: Vidal Sassoon's Pro Series.

The red is '5RR' which is a beautiful, vibrant dark red. I know very well that red hair fades the fastest, I read reviews for this shade where multiple people state that it didn't fade nearly as fast as other reds. 

Color Oops: It smells. Which shouldn't sway you from buying it, but it smells bad. They include a plastic cap, which is great, because the consistency is not what I expected. It is pretty watery and runny. I have shoulder length hair and I questioned if I would be able to cover my entire head with the product, but it turns out it was just enough. If you have anything longer than shoulder length hair, you'll need 2 boxes. 

Before Color Oops: 

Dark Brownish Black Hair! 

After Color Oops:

Holy crap.. my natural hair color!!

Also, excuse my fluffy hair. I have naturally insanely curly hair!

I DID NOT EXPECT COLOR OOPS TO WORK!! I had literally forgotten what my natural hair color had looked like, I have been dying my hair since I was 13. When I got out of the shower I was swearing with excitement! I was really skeptical about this product, but now I am a massive supporter! I could literally go on for hours about how well this worked! But I realize I need to shut up and get to the actual redhead part. 

Vidal Sassoon 5RR: The steps are easy, combine bottle 1 with 2 and shake. When I was putting the dye [bottle 1] into bottle 2, the bottle got a hole in it and it took me 3x as long to put the dye in. It was also extremely messy. So, If you buy this brand, be careful on this step. 

When combined the dye is really creamy, and it doesn't drip. However, I barely had enough dye to cover my head. I don't have long hair at all. Using other brands, I ALWAYS have extra dye that ends up being thrown away, there was literally no extra dye this time. 

That being said, this dye is horrible. Horrible horrible horrible.

My hair was very light after using color oops, light enough to definitely get a solid red color, but here is what happened:

From far away it looks deep brown, if you stand under a light and look closely it is super dark red.

I understand that dye goes on dark at first and lightens with washes, so later that night I washed my hair a few times and although a ton of dye kept coming out, it made no difference. The worst part was the two toned-ness of my hair. This is what my roots looked like:

My roots were a nice vibrant red! It looked like my scalp was bleeding compared to my hair.

I also dyed my hair about 2 hours before I had to go to work, and didn't have time to fix it. So I put my hair up and wore a giant headband.

I got off work at midnight and drove to a 24/7 Walgreens for another box of handy dandy Color Oops!

So my hair now looks pretty much the same after the first time I Color Oops'd it. The roots are a little bit lighter. But I'm going to live with it and stop messing with my hair for a while!

Tips:

Although the box of Color Oops says you can recolor the same day, I wouldn't do that. I recolored 2 days later. Your hair colors better when it is dirty, because of the oils in your hair. Also, after using Color Oops my scalp was a bit sensitive. It was broken or damaged, just a little sensitive. 

I wouldn't recommend Vidal Sassoon. Not only did the dye not work for me, it was incredibly messy. My bathroom looked like a crime scene, my skin was covered in dye that was really difficult to remove,  one of the bottles I needed to combine with another ripped and made it difficult to combine the 2 bottles.

The 1 good thing that came out of this was discovering Color Oops and how much of a miracle product it is, even though the packaging looks like its from the 90's. 

Nice 'n Easy Foam hair dye review

Well I did it. I dyed my hair dark again. I feel more like myself when my hair is dark, it is like a security blanket. I did like my ombre hair, but I didn't love it enough to keep it.

ANYWAY!
When I know the color I want to dye my hair, I look up video reviews and tutorials on youtube. I'd never tried foam hair dyes because I'd always thought they were a joke. How could a foam completely cover your hair? Well, they actually work great. I'm surprised.

This is what I bought:

This is what the inner contents look like:

It is very straight forward. Combine 1 &2, mix gently, attach foam cap. It isn't a pump top, you squeeze the bottle, I had zero issues with it.

Before:

After:

I'm happy. I'm expecting it to fade more the the actual dark brown after a few washes, but I love it. My suggestion with any foam dye is to be very thorough. With regular dyes, you can tell where you have covered because the liquid is heavy. The foam is very light, it does turn liquid-y when you work it in, but I had to go back a few times and cover patches I had missed.

I recommend foam dyes, I didn't expect that!

Here we go again?

I need help. Mental help. So, before my ombre hair adventure I had black hair for a couple years. I've always loved my hair when it is dark. There is something about it that boosts my confidence. I've had my ombre hair now for a few months and I love it. I really do, but Pinterest has ruined my life and I keep seeing pictures of beautiful dark hair and now I'm feeling the urge to darken my hair again. Not to black, but to a dark brown with black lowlights. I'm not exactly sure how to make black lowlights a thing on my hair, but thats what the caption said for this amazing hair picture:

Should I or shouldn't I? HELP ME!!

ImPress- Press on manicure review

I never really buy press on nails, but my friend & I decided to get matching nails for work. I've seen ads for imPress & a coworker had positive things to say about it, so here we go. Now, they do not require nail glue, but my friend used it with hers because it will make them last longer. I'm all for that, especially because these are about $7.99 or so.

After:

They give you a lot of size varieties, which is smart, but I do suggest getting nail glue if you want it to last a while. It is sticky, but I could already tell if you scratch your nail against something, there is a good chance it would come off. They are gaudier than I normally like my nails, but since I'm doing this with a friend, I can handle it. It is a good product, I just wish it was less expensive. 

UPDATE: About an hour later, the length of the nails were driving me insane. If this happens to you too, I suggest you take nail clippers and shorten them. I was worried that would split the nail and ruin it, but it clipped like a regular nail. I'm much happier now.

Nails of the Week

It's a Nails inc. kind of week.

Everytime I go into Sephora I find myself gravitating towards Nails inc. polishes. They have a large variety including the best spring colors I've seen so far. The polish on the right is their 45-second drying top coat, which actually does dry in that time. The 3D glitter on the left is my favorite glitter polish I own, it equally distributes the glitter in each stroke, so 10 coats aren't needed to actually make your nail glittery!

Finished result: 

The picture makes the blue appear paler than it is, but voila!

Products:
Blue Polish- Chelsea physic garden
Glitter- Maida vale
Top Coat- Kensington topcoat caviar

^Those weird names are the ones listed on the bottom of the bottle

Ombre Touch-up!

I'm in a very very good mood. I have finally done with my hair what I've wanted to do, and it turned out great! Either my last post or the one before I posted a picture of the hair lightening kit I bought and explained how I was going to use it. Since I initially used Feria's Wild Ombre on my hair, I loved the application brush that it came with, but I didn't wash it and keep like I normally would have [because I'm a hoarder]. Instead I bought a bunch of thin combs and applied a bunch of the dye and combed it through to make it go on evenly. I recommend this trick.

Here is a before:

At this point, my hair's ends were a caramel brown, it was pretty, but I wanted it lighter.

AFTER: 

                                                  

It is sooo much more blonde now! All I can say is you MUST BUY JHIRMACK SILVER SHAMPOO!!! It is a miracle shampoo. If you have any orange in your hair, it'll get rid of it. It'll make the blonde blonder and more beautiful. 

I'm just glad I finally have my hair the color I wanted it to it can heal now. Before I dyed it again today I got a trim so it could be healthy again.

Happy coloring everyone!

Touch Up

Ok, so after using the Wild Ombre/Jhirmack purple shampoo combo, I am very very very happy with my hair. However, I do want to make the ends blonder than the Wild Ombre initially made it. I want to point out again that it didn't make my ends as blonde as it should've, but that is because I had red dye on my hair.

SO: I just bought this L'Oreal Paris Super Blonde lightening kit. I've watched reviews for this product on youtube, and I'm super confident I can get the level of blonde I want on my ends. Before I do this, however, I plan on getting a trim on my hair. I already have minor split ends, and since this is bleach, and although the reviews for this product state that it leaves hair undamaged, bleach is bleach.

I'll do another picture tutorial when I use this. So check back!!

New Favorite Nail Polish!

Every time I go into Target I start my trip around the store in the cosmetics department. Pixi Nail Polish is a brand I had never read reviews on or seen anywhere except Target, but it is hard to resist buying a bottle when you see all the vibrant & electric colors they stock. 

The 2 colors pictured above are the 2 I bought, because I can't resist pink, and these two colors are even more beautiful in person. I problem I usually have with nail polish in general is the amount that it chips. I work in retail, and the daily grind usually chips my nail polish within an hour of working, and my first time trying Pixi I wasn't expecting a big difference, but I was surprised with the result!

This is literally the best nail polish I have ever used. I literally had it on for 3 full weeks before it chipped or looked dull at all! That isn't an exaggeration at all either! I have tried a wide spectrum of nail polishes. Every time I go into Sephora I take full advantage of their nail polish bar, where you can remove your current polish and try out their brands, [Sephora brand, Nails inc, Dior, Julep, and more!]

and when I do this I also use a base coat and top coat to keep it looking great. Now, the Dior polish that they have there is $23 a bottle [!!!!], when I used it after a few days it chipped and looked mangey. I don't know if I expected more from it because of the designer brand and the price, but I was not impressed at all. Pixi polish is $8 a bottle, which might be more than you want to spend if you are used to Revlon, Maybelline, or Wet & Wild brands, but I assure you, it is worth spending the $8 for something that is completely worth it.

Hair follow up & Recommendation!

It wasn't super easy to see the results of my hair when I dyed it  over a week ago, but a lot has changed to it, for the better actually.

I wanted ombre hair, but to get my natural color back on top I needed to dye it my normal medium brown.  Of course with brown hair dyes it is well known that the dye will initially be much darker than the box shows, it does fade however, and my hair is now exactly how I wanted it to be.

When I first used the Feria product on the bottom part of my hair, it turned out more orange than I would've wanted. This isn't the products fault, my hair was a reddish brown before hand, and I expected as much to happen.  NORMALLY, I react to fix my hair rather than thinking it out, for example, the bottom of my hair being orangish, I would immediately want to dye it to make it better looking. HOWEVER, I did a little homework and fixed my hair, without damaging it at all.

There is a miracle product out there called Jhirmack Silver Shampoo.

The shampoo itself is actually purple. If you've heard of purple shampoos you will know that they help take out brassiness, yellowing, and orange tones in hair. That is EXACTLY what this stuff did to my hair. The bottle suggests leaving on for no more than 2 minutes. What I did was mix a good amount of this shampoo and a good amount of a deep conditioning mask. I left it on my hair for 45 minutes and the result was better than I could've hoped for.

My hair is much more blended now, and is more of a reddish blonde. Zero orange. I've used the shampoo several times now for the 2 minutes it suggests, there are still subtle changes after each use. I can see more blonde pieces coming through in my  hair.

The great part is that this shampoo isn't hard to find. It is at Walgreens, amazon, and was at my local grocery store. It is only $4.99 too so it won't break the bank.

Self-dye job: Feria Wild Ombré

I finally did it! Half because I've waited so long to do it, half because this is the last day free I will have for a while. I did take before and after pictures, I didn't take videos or pictures during the dying process.

I should start of by saying, this post will be good for people who wanted to dye their hair color first back to their natural hair color. My hair at this time was dyed a light reddish/brown, it was enough of a difference from my natural color to where my roots were already showing 3 weeks later. SO, in my previous post I showed that the boxed hair dye I bought to match my natural color was Clairol Perfect 10's Medium Ash Brown.

Now onto the pictures.
This me before the Perfect 10 brown dye:

This is after Perfect 10 brown dye:

I only did the dye about halfway down my head, I didn't want to dye all of my hair, then put the ombre bleach over the newly dyed ends, that would triple the damage. Ok, I spend a good amount of time on Pinterest, especially looking at ombre hair. I think it is a good idea to find good ombre hair pictures that you would want to try on yourself. It obviously may not turn out exactly like the picture, but there are so many different ways to place the ombre highlights, that it can be helpful to have a visual in mind. 

SO, here is the final result after using L'Oreal Feria Wild Ombre 070:

After the initial shock of "holy crap my hair is REALLY two different colors" wore off, I was able to see how good parts of it turned out, and some things I would've done differently. 

The good: There isn't a color shelf, which is what I was really afraid was going to happen. It gradually fades down to the lightest color, which is actually a bit more blonde than my bathroom lighting shows. I also like how the gradual fade is also on my face framing pieces, it looks great for when my hair is up.

The bad: I think I went slightly too far up in the back, especially underneath my hair. It is really hard to see how far up you are going, so I would suggest having someone there with you to either do it, or give you a point to stop so you don't go past it.

The difference between colors is more than I would like, however I know for a fact it'll change in a few washes when the brown hair dye on top fades down to the actual color I want it to be. I will post more pictures in a few weeks, or whenever the brown fades out more. 

I do suggest this product though, it is infinitely more inexpensive than going to a salon, and the results are still great!

Tip: After you apply the bleach, and you begin to wait the amount of time it suggests, wrap the bleached hair is foil. It'll contain the mess, and you can move around without worrying of getting bleach everywhere.

Ombré hair

I recently made a big change to my hair. I went from long, black hair to shoulder length reddish brown hair. The reddish brown was really an accident, I lifted the black out of my hair in a 2 day bleaching & color lifting extravaganza. I then planned to dye it light/medium brown which is my natural color. For some reason it turned out a light brown/red, which is actually very pretty, but my roots are starting to show and I need to figure out what to do.

Ombré hair is something I have always wanted to do, however I am very cheap about some things, and getting my hair dyed at a salon is one of them. In comes L'Oreal Feria Wild Ombré! After watching dozens of videos on Youtube and reading countless blogs I figured out which of the 3 colors I wanted, and found it at my local Target to buy.

So, this solves the bottom half of my hair, but now my issue is the top. The other day I also bought Clairol Perfect 10 in Medium Ash Brown, the plan so far is to dye all but the ends of my hair this color, than putting the ombré on the ends, and building it up a little bit to the middle to get the gradual effect.
After all of this, I plan on using a hot oil treatment to get some shine and life into my hair. My favorite thing about ombré is that it has enough visual interest to not get tired of it, and isn't wild enough where it isn't appropriate for work.