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!