DIY Hair Bleaching

Several people have asked me how I got my near black hair to near platinum without completely ruining it, so I thought I'd give a little tutorial/advice on how it went down!

I'm still in the process of getting it more silvery and eliminating the brass, 

but here is generally how to pace yourself, keep it healthy,

and get rid of that orange color we all hate!

First of all, I take B Complex Vitamins every day. I've been doing this for years.

My hair is thick and strong and healthy and grows really fast, 

so my hair had pretty good protection before I even started. 

Most Important Thing Ever:

DO NOT. DO NOT. DO NOT DO THIS IN ONE DAY.

Seriously, you will fry your hair and it will fall out.

It took me over a month to get it where it is now, 

and even that may have been too soon

This is what I started with 

At first I wanted to color it a bluish and purple color, but being poor I decided to do it myself. I (stupidly) bought two boxes of Splat Color, Lusty Lilac and some Aqua color. It comes with bleach and 20 volume developer I think. It's very cheap bleach and I do not recommend it.

Nope. That's how you end up with this: 

Such an ugly orange color. But I trudged along and covered my head with aqua and purple, which resulted in this (which I actually liked) 

After about a week I lost that pretty color and it went into a muddy orange-purple mess,

so I decided to wait one week and go another step. 

Here's my process: 

Everything required to properly bleach your hair can be found at Sally's Beauty Supply. 

Here was my haul the first time:

L'Oreal Quick Blue Bleach (bucket size!)

40 and 20 Volume Developer (40 is SUPER strong)

Wella Color Charm Toner in Light Ash blonde (eliminates the brass)

  40 Volume Developer is incredibly strong, but my hair was so dark that I needed it. I followed the directions on the back and mixed it with the exact instructed amount of bleach, because it's really easy to fry your hair with 40 volume.

 When bleaching, divide hair into three sections on bottom and three on top. Most importantly, start bleaching from tips to root. Bleach works by heat, so in order to get a nice even tone, wait to do the roots until like, the last 15 minutes. I was under for about an hour+, which brought me to this color (it was a lot brassier in real life)

Usually at this stage people's hair gets fried, stretchy like bubble-gum, or falls out.

Mine was still in really good condition.

How? INVEST IN THIS. Seriously, it's a life saver. 

Also, I didn't wash my hair for about a week, and I didn't blowdry it at all.  

I waited one more week after my first bleach to do it again.

This time I used my 20 volume developer with the bleach and left it on for about an hour. 

At this point my hair started getting a little mushy, so I left deep conditioner in my hair all night.

I waited another week, taking good care to condition it and not blowdry it, 

and then bleached it again (for only about 30 minutes this time)

This color came out: 

Still kind of yellow, but it was definitely getting closer to my desired color.

And finally, waited two weeks and then bleached it one last time: 

This is the last bleach I'm willing to do. I started crying when I first came out of the shower because I thought all of my hair was falling out, and then I realized that hair naturally falls out in the shower when you haven't washed it in a while.

The little hairs on my neck are white and stretchy, so I'm worried about them falling out. I try not to even comb my hair when it's wet because it causes so much more breakage.

All in all, still healthy!

 How to go from brassy to blonde

 Toning hair is so important. I learned that the hard way. It eliminates brassiness. 

So I will be using the toner about once a month, and in-between I'm using Shimmer Lights purple shampoo which is the best thing ever. 

I've only used it once and my hair is already a more silvery color.

I'm taking very good care of my hair in preparation for the terrifying day when I have to touch up my roots (which is soon because my hair grows so fast).

Start and finish:

 Bleaching hair can be inexpensive, but it is so important to do lots of research and take good care of your hair. This took over a month and will require lots of maintenance, but I love it!

Two most important things:

Pace yourself. Do not rush the process or you will fry your hair.

Invest in DEEP CONDITIONERS, TONERS, AND SHIMMER LIGHTS SHAMPOO

Fluting!

Here's my newest piece that my friend Cassie commissioned for her senior recital poster.

I really enjoyed working on it, and hope that I can get more of this stuff out there!

Here's my original:

And here's her final product:

Anyway, I've decided to start doing more artwork and getting it out there.

I'm by no means "professional", I've never even had real training

But I sure enjoy it and love it with all of my heart

I'm going to be setting up a DeviantArt account this summer

Look for good things coming!

"Free" "Time"

Due to my husband's departure to Boise at 5:30 am this morning, I will be home alone for the next several days, meaning that I am in full control of the PS3, kitchen, bed, and floorspace for beadspriting. I can have all the solo time I want!

Hah, oh wait. That free time thing I don't have. 

I have officially entered the realm of impossible tasks; I literally (read: literally) have had no time to do anything besides homework, classes, practicing (barely), tutoring, and occasionally sleeping. Me sitting here, feverishly typing away, is the first time in an incredibly long time that I have had a moment to myself, and I'm actually skipping a class as we speak. I know I shouldn't complain--I'm the girl who loves to stack her life full of every single possible activity--but I guess this is the semester that I finally came to the realization that I physically can't do everything. I can't be the best at everything. I have to let some things go. Even though I am still excelling, I'm feeling my physical and mental abilities dwindling--on the days that I do get an hour or two of "free time", I'll head to the gym to eek out a heart-bursting workout to make up for the previous day I missed. Besides my evenings with Ethan, this is pretty much the only time of day where I feel completely serene and free. 

Bonus points! I've been PRing in all of my runs the past two weeks, and I've been trying to do at least four miles every day. I guess that's a good thing?

I love all of my classes, and I think that is my problem. It's just not enough for me to do well, I want to really make a difference in each one of my classes. I don't simply go to complete assignments and get a good grade. I want to immerse myself as deeply as possible in all of the subjects, for they are things that are directly applicable to my life, so why waste my time trying to slide by instead of blowing everyone else out of the water?

It's actually thrilling--trying to do everything. It's proving to the world that there are real superheroes: ones that can teach, perform, create, analyze, write, etc. I want to be all of these things. 

However, in my quest to be great at everything, I am coming to the realization that I can't keep this up. I have to unlearn learning. I have to realize that not everything is a top priority. I need to make a change.

So how does one prioritize when everything seems equally as important?

I tried something new out today. I had a big quiz on IPA consonant locations today, and instead of freaking out and crying because I didn't have enough time to study in-depth, I just didn't do it. I didn't try to study every waking second; instead, I read some articles online, listened to music, practiced my viola. 

And you know what? I rocked that quiz. Sure I glanced at the material and reviewed some notes, but instead of slamming my head against the wall in stressful agony, I filled the few minutes between classes with things that relaxed me. And I felt better. 

It's give and take. I'm slowly learning how to take, because between tutoring a million unresponsive and underdeveloped students, drawing commissions, practicing and playing for a million musical things, reading eight books for each class, preparing classroom lesson plans, cleaning the house constantly, helping friends with their dilemmas and trying to impress my teachers, I am feeling kind of neglected. 

I recently read an article for my elementary music methods class about how children should just be allowed to play during their free time. PLAY. With no purpose, no educational intent--just pure, free, playtime. It was studied that children who were allowed to just play games of their own imagination instead of the ones with a structured educational plan and purpose, learned so many important lessons on self-regulation, behavior, cognitive development, etc. It is immensely important that children are given "free time" to alleviate stress, regain attention, learn social skills, and develop better abstract thinking. 

Should this be any different than what we as adults do? I feel like we value productivity so much that those who really take advantage of "free time" are looked down upon as lazy or unmotivated. I do not believe this to be any kind of boon to our society. Adults, too, should be allowed to "play" with no educational purpose or practicality. If you wanna play video games, do it! If you want to read a book or write poetry or make bead sprites or sleep--do it!! 

So, starting after next week (the week of hell), I am going to set time aside for free time, even if it means sacrificing a few 100%s. This does not include: going to the gym, sleeping, eating, or cleaning. And honestly, I don't really want it to include computer either, unless it is involved with writing poetry (I'll be too tempted to finish that last assignment or paper).

I don't care if it's lazy or unproductive. I just want it to be free.