Plans for Summer Hair

That is the worst title I can give this post but I don't know what else to call it. I have just started the journey to getting pastel hair and I'm trying to go about it with patience because I want healthy, beautiful hair by the end of it.

Before I start, this post will have many pictures and videos. However, I will have texts in between each. This won't just be a collage of pictures I promise! It is long but I swear I have good videos at the end for you to check out if you want to get pastel hair.

I have already bleached my hair (twice), toned it, and dyed it an ashy blonde. The last part was because I freaked out about how light my hair was. I essentially did like it but it was such a shock to wake up to it and I constantly forgot how light my hair was. Plus, my mom was just not ok with it. Even now, she looks at my hair weird when I have it in its "curly" state.

Now I'm wishing that I had been calm about it and let my hair rest for a bit before going over it with bleach again. But no. Now I'm deep conditioning it every time I wash (every 3-4 days) and waiting until my roots are unbearable so I can get my hair to a very pale blonde, basically platinum.

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to get pastel hair by August. I'm hoping that maybe I can make it before then if the next time I bleach and tone my hair comes out the way I want it to! However, I'm still stuck on what color to go once I go pastel. Lilac/violet seems to be the most common and it is very pretty. I don't even like purple though.

This is what I've been seeing more of and what I like best. It's essentially silver hair with a very deep purple sheen. I think it's pretty nice but I don't think I could go with silver hair with my complexion. Even though this pale blonde doesn't go with my complexion either. I just don't like it for myself, if that makes sense?

This is also a nice alternative. It's a very pinky violet sheen with a very pale blonde color. It's almost like only the tips are this pretty color. I don't think I would like this color very much. I feel like it would only show in certain lighting and otherwise just look like an all over color.

I honestly love this color on Xiaxue and I would love to try it. She had her hair pink for many months. However, in every picture she put up her hair looked like it was a different shade of pink. Here it looks like a light pastel pink.

Here her hair looks much more vibrant. In a lot of the pictures she took in natural light or outside her came looked to be this color. If she took pictures with artificial lights it ended up looking like the previous picture or lighter. That is my only dilemma with pink hair. I don't want the fake, wig looking hair that might make me look like a hood rat that doesn't know how to do her hair.

This is a picture I see all the time on tumblr and always reblog. I absolutely adore it! Her hair (which might be a wig) is this perfect turquoise color, she has a cute pink ruffly hat, she's wearing a leather jacket with studs, her makeup is glittery and impeccable, and she's eating one of the best fast food restaurants. I would never want such bright hair but I might try it in the future if I ever get to dressing so alternatively.

Now this is the color I would want overall. It is the perfect mix between purple and blue called indigo. It would probably change shades depending on the lighting but I would still love it. Because it is in between pastel and neon I think I could pull it off quite well.

I love seeing colors like this but I feel it is too dark. It's like an aquamarine color and reminds me of mermaids. I don't think I would like it on my head though.

This is a color I would love to try! It's like a dark mint green, a very light turquoise. I might try this first before I do the indigo color. I love mint green and this seems like such a cool way to do it. I've seen other version of minty hair and it just looks like pale blonde hair dipped in food coloring. Very strange.

Since I've already done research on how to bleach my hair I decided the same thoroughness would be needing when going about getting lighter hair and then coloring it a pretty color. This time I decided to check out YouTube since I knew I would find plenty of info there.

Lots of girls put up videos on that site about their quirky hair choices, but I was able to sift through most of the demonstration ones and was able to find a few that actually talked about the process and gave good examples of what products to use.

This video is called "how to get silver, white, or platinum blonde hair" by xxmichaeljames. He does great quality alternative makeup and hair tutorials. This one was very entertaining (as his videos usually are) but it was also very informative. He gives you different alternatives depending on which direction you want to go with your light hair. I found this to be helpful for getting my hair light enough to get other colors and to get my hair back to a light color after getting such colors. This is definitely worth watching before bleaching your hair! This is also the link to the product he talks about at the end of the video.

This video is called "Pastel Hair? (and how to get it!)" by beckysblog. I liked this video mainly because of her energy and because of the products she used. Her method, however, I wouldn't recommend. She ended up coloring her hair a darker color not long after she had it done pastel because it was costing her a fortune. If you watch the video, you will see why. Her method is not the best but she did give me good ideas on what products to use and definitely what NOT to do when it comes to getting pastel hair.

This is my favorite video that I have found for pastel hair. It's called "Pastel Silver/Purple Ombre Hair Tutorial" by brittkneegirl1. This is one of the videos that are made by people who made all the mistakes and found everything out after already trying so they're trying to share their knowledge so others won't make them. She does ramble a bit and she does wear extensions but she does show what color she had the dye once it was mixed with conditioner and what it turned out to look like. She basically got that silvery purple sheen that I talked about in the first picture. She has also kept her hair around this spectrum since and her hair is very healthy looking so I believe her method (which is the most common) is sound. She has another video on coloring her extensions. Her most recent one is about coloring her extensions in My Little Pony colors (pastel rainbow I guess) and can be found here.

This video is very short but it is by the lovely snakebitesparkles. I suggest watching her videos because she has a variation of videos on all the colors and experiments she has done with her hair. Most of the colors are shades of pink or purple. She even has a video on how to maintain pastel hair and another on going blonde. She is very entertaining and likes to try new products all the time. I like her videos because she tries out almost anything on her hair, which is basically what I do. I've found a few good products thanks to her videos.

This is a really long post but I wanted to post about all my findings and my opinions. Plus, I need to find things to blog about so I can entertain whoever reads this. I swear every time I see the counter go up on readings of my posts I get so happy because I feel like I'm actually saying stuff people want to know about.

I know that not many people use blogger unless they themselves blog but I plug these posts on tumblr so I hope my followers there enjoy these things. No music video since I've put so much stuff in this post already!

I bleached my hair!

I bleached my hair over a week ago since I wasn't going to have a hair appointment for a while and I already had 2 inches of root growth. It wasn't looking pretty so I was feeling adventurous.

First I did a little research. I knew that with how dark my hair was, aside from the highlights, I could only use bleach to lighten my hair. I was able to find many videos and few good articles on at home hair bleaching. The article that I used on the day I bleached my hair was this one.

It was very descriptive and was set up for a few different scenarios depending on the person's hair. It even has a list of products to use while bleaching and after the whole process. I used some of the products suggested but I did my own research to find out what would be best for my hair type.

 Here is a picture of all the products I purchased. These can all be found at Sally's Beauty Supply.

For the bleaching process I used Ion Color Brilliance Powder Lightener, Clairol Pure White 30 Volume Creme Developer, and two packets of Ardell Red Gold Corrector Plus.

After bleaching I had to tone my hair. The article I got most of my info is a bit dated and Wella no sells toners with names. When I went to Sally's I couldn't remember the number of the toner I wanted so I just went with what sounded right.

I think there are five toners, T10 Pale Blonde (the one I got), T11 Lightest Beige Blonde, T14 Pale Ash Blonde, T18 Lightest Ash Blonde, T35 Beige Blonde. They have the same names for the hair color so you have to make sure there is a T before the number.

After some further research I found that T10 is actually Ivory Lady (yay!) and T18 is White Lady. This does explain why my hair came out to be such a light color.

This is my hair after being brushed out. I know it looks crazy and fried but it was actually quite soft. Looking back I wish that I had kept it that color but I freaked and so did my mom so we went to CVS so buy a darker blonde color.

I was able to find Clairol Perfect 10 in Light Ash Blonde. It just made my hair have a beige yellowish blonde color. I like it but I definitely want to lighten it so that I can have pastel hair in August. For now I am deep conditioning every time I wash my hair so that it gets more life.

This is my hair in natural light and straightened after using the Clairol Perfect 10. As you can see, it is still VERY blonde. I completely love it when it is this color. But for it to pick up a good light color I will need it lighter.

Artificial light and my hair is "curly". This is as good as it curls at the moment since it is still recovering. I like the slight wave though. It's a nice change.

Here you can see that my hair is a lot lighter at the roots and darker as it goes down. I blame that mostly on my root growth since it is easier to bleach virgin hair than it previously processed.

I also have a few streaks of orange on the top of layer of my hair because that is where I had the bleach for the least amount of time. Once my roots grow out again I will bleach those pieces again. I may use a toner too just to lighten up the color.

To get back some life into my hair I have been using Ion Color Defense After-Color Sealer and L'Oreal Natures Therapy Mega Moisture Nurturing Creme. Also for shampooing I've used Clairol Shimmer Lights Original Conditioning Shampoo, but I want to try the LUSH purple shampoo if it's still being sold.

Well, this has been a productive and non-rambly blog post. Maybe my next will be about my plans to try pastel hair and new makeup styles. We'll see!