Sports Research Biotin

I have heard good things about biotin in the past, my friends who are growing out their hair swear by it. I've had this weird phenomenon with my hair for the past year or two, where it grows, but the layers don't seem to. I mostly wear my hair curly, so it isn't really noticeable, but when I straighten my hair it is obvious and looks pretty terrible to have these layers at an awkward length.

I looked into different types of biotin and came across the brand 'Sports Research' on Amazon. It is extremely high rated in general, and especially for their high potency biotin product. Reading through the reviews, many people also posted pictures which is what sealed the deal for me.

So 3 days later I got them in the mail and immediately started taking them, 2 pills a day.

The pills are small and soft. No aftertaste, no real smell.

Before taking the pills: 

I'm making sure my hair will be the same for these pictures. I figured that since the issues can be seen better when it is straight, that I'll have it that way for these pictures. When my hair was straight, the ends were thinner than the top, my weird layers gave my hair an odd shape and I just plain hated it.

After 1 week:

After 1 week alone I knew I was in love with this product. LOOK HOW DIFFERENT MY HAIR IS!! The biggest change is the layers, which really miraculously grew. My hair overall has much more volume, especially the ends which were very thin before.

After 2 weeks:

I just finished week 2. At this point I have noticed growth in the overall length and my hair has become much thicker than it was.

I have been good about consistently taking these pills twice a day everyday for a little over 2 weeks now. I honestly believe that they are working as they claim to, and I think it shows in the pictures. Most noticeably when comparing them to the before picture.

I will continue to take pictures every week, and I'll post the results :]

Letting the Professionals Do Their Job!

I haven't posted in many months, and I have done a lot to my hair in that time. Mostly touching up my roots to keep them black, but more recently I used color oops in an attempt to either have my hair just back to brown, or go back to having ombre hair.

I'm a big fan of Color Oops. It works reaaaaallly well. But it has its limits. I've frequently used Color Oops, dyed my hair a different color, changed my mind, re-Color Oopsed, over and over again. The very first time I used the product [I posted the results on here], I'd been dying my hair black for YEARS and after using the product it 100% went back to my natural brown color. No brassiness or orange tones.

The reason I say Color Oops has its limits is because the last 2 times I've used the product it doesn't have the same even result it used to. My hair will become extremely brassy all over, the roots will be a different color than the rest of my hair. Now, it still lifts the black out, but it just works differently on my hair.

I used the product again early last week. My roots were fire red, the bottom half of my hair was dark dark reddish brown, I had work the next day so I dyed over all of it with a medium brown hair dye I had in my house. It covered the red, but the roots were then lighter than the rest of my hair [which I knew would happen]. It didn't look BAD, but it just looked like I had roots that I needed to dye since they were so light. I then went to Walgreens and bought Garnier Ultra For Dark Hair dye in Caramel Brown. It is supposed to lift your hair to this beautiful light shade of brown if you have dark [un-dyed] hair. I'm an optimistic idiot who thought 'Hey, maybe it'll still lift my ends'! Nope.

At this point I'm not even positive on what the ultimate goal for my hair was. All I know is that I wanted my ends to be lighter. For so long my ends have been darker than my roots. Weirdly, the last few times I had re-dyed my roots black to match my black hair, the dye had been washing out and going right back to brown.

The point of this post is that I was tired of trying to fix the mistakes I was constantly making with my hair, and I made the smart decision to go to a salon and have them dye my hair. When trying to decide what I wanted I was browsing my hair pins on Pinterest, and found this beautiful picture:

My favorite thing about this picture is how her roots are darker and fade to that beautiful red color. I wanted to pick something where I could do that. I want my hair to grow out and for it to still look beautiful and there not to be a need to touch it up every few weeks. 

This is the most recent before picture: 

And this is after the wonderful lady at Mario Tricoci worked her magic:

My roots area is a beautiful brown, and it fades into a light red. I'm in love!

So life lesson: Although I can be stingy on lots of things, don't destroy your hair by dying it yourself, messing it up, re-dying, re-fixing; just go to a salon and pay the money to have professionals do it!

From Never Working Out - to Everyday Fitness

On a different note from what I normally post, I wanted to post about fitness. Working out has never been a priority for me. I work full-time and could never find the motivation to even really go for a walk down my block. But, my priorities shifted almost 2 months ago to where I now find health very important.

I am a type 1 diabetic, I was diagnosed 14 years ago when I was 10. I've been good about taking care of myself and controlling my diabetes, however 2 months ago extreme low blood sugar caused me to black out when I was driving and roll my car 4 times. I walked away from the accident with perfect health except for having 13 stitches in my left upper arm.

Having a near death experience causes a lot of introspection and especially if you are in a rut like I was,  makes you evaluate your life and make necessary changes to better yourself.

Now, my sister was in a near fatal car accident 2 years ago and afterwards wanted to work on her fitness to celebrate her survival. She has since gone from never being a runner to running many 5k's and half marathons. She has always wanted me to do them with her, but I have never been motivated to make the necessary changes to be able to participate- until now.

On November 23rd there is going to be a 5k in the town my sister lives in, and we are both going to do it together. This will be my first race, and I need to train a lot for it, because up until recently, I haven't been running since high school gym class.

So what have I been doing the last few weeks? I have a few apps I'm using: Nike+ and 30 Day Squat Challenge.

The Nike+ I got because my sisters use it to track their runs. And although at first when I was just walking I would use it, it is motivating for me to try to beat previous times I have set. I wouldn't even label myself a novice runner yet, so I know there is much to still be explored with this app.

The 30 Day Squat Challenge was something my sister wanted me to do with her. It will initially give you tips on the correct form to do a squat, and each day you will check off the amount of squats they want you to do. I believe the first day started out with 30. After I go out for my run/walk, I come home and do the daily squats. Even on days I don't go for a run, the days where the squat numbers are high [today I did 120 of them], you will feel the burn in your legs and sweat.

Now, something I bought to wear when running and doing squats is a waist trimming belt. I don't like the name of it, because when you hear that it makes you assume I'm talking about wearing a corset or something, but it is really just a belt you wear when you workout that helps you sweat. I bought this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RDZV46/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like wearing it for multiple reasons. It makes me feel like I'm getting more out of my workout than I would without it, it'll make you sweat like crazy, and when I'm running, it compresses my belly enough to wear I don't jiggle when I run.

The last app I use is called Happy Scale. You can enter in your current weight, your goal weight, and it'll give you milestones to hit. They recommend weighing yourself when you first wake up after using the restroom, and it graphs your weight loss or gain. I've used a lot of weight tracking apps before, but this one is my favorite.

I've lost a couple pounds since I've started these methods, and it has made exercise a part of my day that I look forward to. I'll try to stay updated with my progress!

Vidal Sassoon Merlot Vibrant Red 5RR/ L'Oreal Absolue 300

I have 2 days in a row off from work [which never happens], so that means I'm going to do something new to my hair. Because if I totally screw it up, I have an extra day to fix it! I really want red hair, but I've also been playing with the idea to dye it light brown. I already have a box of red dye and that won out.

Now, at this point, my hair is a weird auburn-y color, with the ends being a sort of red. Sorry if that is a confusing answer, but my hair is kind of confusing at this point. 

[I'm super fluffy here because I didn't style my hair after blow drying]

SO: Red is the goal, but since my hair is dark in some points [and I'm nervous it won't be very red], i'm using this product first:

I can absolutely guarantee my hair won't turn out blonde, but this should lighten the dark enough to make it a nice red when I dye it with the Vidal Sassoon. Plus, I'm curious how this stuff works. I have tried to find picture reviews, but they don't seem to exist.


AFTER:

Uhh yeah, Well, it did lighten up certain parts of my hair, I of course can't judge this product too much, because I have dyed my hair for years. If I had virgin hair, i'm sure id get better results.

Its very patchy. I didn't expect for there to be as many dark patches as there were. The bad thing about that is, with the red hair dye, my roots and other places will be bright red, and the dark spots will be dark red.

Plan B:

Brown hair it is! I don't want to risk screwing up my hair by making it red and being super uneven. I've wanted to try this Absolue product since I heard about it.

After using this, I am not a fan. I have used foam dyes before, and they do work, but they require you to be thorough. It is nice not having to mix part A with B and C, but the results were horribly patchy.

The foam is so light, it is difficult to tell where you actually put the dye, because it doesn't change color to show you like liquid dyes.

Overall this is how the color looks, not bad until you compare the ends to the roots. Now, I've dyed my hair for 10 years, I know how to do it. But this dye makes it way to easy to miss areas. I have areas completely missed, roots untouched, blah blah blah. I don't recommend this dye, which is unfortunate. 

High & Low Priced Makeup

Despite hair being the #1 thing I post about on here, I actually have a lot more interest in makeup. It is a sickness. My favorite thing to do is mix high end, pricey items with cheaper drugstore buyable items. I figured I'd post today about my look for the day and share with you the products I used.

High Priced: 

Naked 3 Palette [Buzz] by Urban Decay

High Beam Highlighter by Benefit

Full Exposure Mascara by Smashbox

Low Priced:

Just Bitten Lip Stain [Twilight] by Revlon

Dream Bouncy Blush [Plum Wine] by Maybelline

Scandaleyes Eyeliner by Rimmel

Cameo Girl Eyebrow Kit

Fit Foundation Sticks [Porcelain & Coconut] by Maybelline

Ok, so I used 2 different foundation stick colors, because I use those to contour my face. I like using the Fit sticks because they blend, it is foundation so it provides coverage, and they are inexpensive. 

                    Fresh Faced                                              My contouring pattern

                      

                                           My overall result

For the longest time I only used nude lip colors, but I've recently gotten into using dark berry color stains. I highly recommend Just Bitten brand. I sweep a little amount on my lips than press them together, and even if you drink a lot or lick your lips, it won't come off. 

Stripping black out of hair, and after

My very first post on here was about ombre-ing my hair, now that spring has sprung, I think it is time for me to lighten my hair again. I was planning on going to a salon to have them do it, but yeah, I'm too cheap, and Feria's Wild Ombre works well.

My hair has been black for months and months, and I do love having dark hair, but I need a change.

Here is my current hair, holding my best friend Color Oops:

My previous times using Color Oops, my hair has come out my natural medium brown shade. Now, the suggested time for keeping the product on says 'no more than 20 minutes'. I however got distracted watching an episode of Star-Crossed, and left it on for like 40 minutes. I'm smart. Anyway, I think that is the reason I got the results I did.

Results:

This made me super happy. The picture isn't the best, but my hair is a light reddish brown. It is a BEAUTIFUL color! Now, I did also buy this:

However, I bought this intending to use it with the brown I thought my hair would turn out. I don't think it would look great using this with the color my hair currently is. And I don't want to double dye my hair like I did last time I ombre'd it [dying it brown on top and then bleaching the bottom]. SO, I plan on returning the ombre, and keeping my hair like this for a while, and then keeping my hair in the red color family for a while.

FOR EXAMPLE: I was at Walgreens with a friend, and we discovered this incredibly awesome, vibrant shade:

It's Vidal Sasson's shade Runway Red! It looks even more bright and vibrant in person! We didn't buy it, but we were both curious what the results would actually look like, and in googling up a storm I found a blog where a girl had this beautiful result:

So, yeaaaaah. That is an amazing color. That is where my head currently is. 

Long time, no post

Since the last time I posted, I yes indeed dyed my hair back to black. And I love it! But, of course, Ive had it for months now and I keep stumbling across adorable hair pictures on Pinterest that make me want everything but my black hair. I spent 10 minutes in Ulta today staring at all the various hair dyes, trying to talk myself out of Color Oopsing the black out [since I've proven it actually works], and dying it ombre again.

The last time I ombre'd my hair, it wasn't a disaster, but I wasn't the happiest with the placement of the ombre. Which is why, as much as I love doing my own hair, I'm considering letting the professionals do it. The big thing I saw on Pinterest, and now really want is balayage hair. Which is pretty much just a fancy way of saying nice highlights, slight ombre [?].

Example: