If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have noticed that my hair colour has changed! I decided it was a good time to give the red hair a rest for a little while and have something a little easier to maintain in the first few months of being a new mum. As much as I love my red hair, I did have it for way over a year and the up keep was difficult. I dyed it every 3-4 weeks and had to bleach and dye my roots every 2/3 months. Sadly, it was a lot of work for something so pretty. I did feel it was time for a bit of a change to.
Of course firstly I had to try and work out what hair colour I wanted to be. I decided to stick around more natural colours than bright intense ones. I figured they would be the most easiest to look after and also the cheapest to get hold of down the line seeing as any super market does them. I had a good play around with this little online program I found, Taaz to try and get some ideas. The following four pictures are the result.
These are all more or less colours I have been at some point in the past and did enjoy. I was very drawn towards the black hair as I loved how it gave me a bit of a snow white look but then I remembered the problems I had the past 2 times I went this colour. One being my roots would show very quickly and because they are blonde they looked very odd, the other being trying to get the black out once I was bored of it. I damaged my hair quite badly stripping black out when I was younger and it was a very lengthy task. In the end I thought blonde would be the best way to go. My natural blonde hair hopefully wont show too much when my roots come through and even then I don't think they would need to much attention to get rid of. I already knew it would suit me but It has been around 5/6 years since anything close to my natural hair colour was on my head. It would take some getting use to.
I had a couple of influences on how blonde I would go. The beautiful Miss Mosh was one of them (first image), her blonde hair always looks so flawless. Another influence was the very stunning lady on the front of the Sculpture Pin Curl tool box that has been sat on my dressing table for a few weeks now.
First of all I had to get the red colour out as much as I could. I did a bit of research and found that using a colour stripper to be the best way to go. I also knew from the past that bleach would turn it (a very fabulous) orange.
This was the first one I saw in Priceline and the only one that hadn't sold out already due to a mini sale they was having. This one was super easy to use but did have a little bit of an odd smell about it, but then all hair products do. I popped in the colour remover and left it for 30 minutes like the instructions said. I kept checking what it looked like in the mirror occasionally and I could defiantly notice a difference pretty quickly. There was another part to this remover called the Buffer, basically it was something you used in your hair to rinse it to help break up the colour further. I was not expecting to see my natural hair colour after using this, just wanted the brightness taken out and for it to be a lot easier to work with.
I think it did a super amazing job for only having used it once. I wasn't up for buying another one to get more of the red out because these cost $24 even when on sale.
I don't have progress pictures for the next few steps because the colour change wasn't to much in between.
Next I did two short rounds of bleaching, only half way through did I notice that I had bought the blonde high lighter powder and not the normal blue powder. I was a little annoyed at this but it did tone down a lot of the red/pinks. I was using 30% developer.
After the bleaching I put the above lightener in. At this stage it was all trial and error because I didn't really have any clue to how my hair would take to each stage. This one however took a lot of the pink, yellow and orange tones out to the point of just having darker spots. I could already see almost white blonde parts starting to show in areas but the most of my hair was very orange.
I posted this image to Instagram and Facebook and a few of you told me you really liked this colour. It was actually a little different to the image in real life. I looked like someone who really had no clue what they was doing with their hair and couldn't afford to get it fixed. Also the patchyness underneath was not a good look.
Following this I did go out and grab some of the blue bleaching powder and did a couple of spot bleaches on the darker areas. This really helped to even it out as much as I could!
I didn't want to bleach my hair any more so I turned to a toner to finally get rid of the orange and yellow tones still left. I have now used this twice with amazing results each time! I shampoo my hair, rinse and then pop this in for the required 5 minutes and wash it out! It really is an amazing product and I know the next few times I use it will make even more of a difference in my hair but it was time to give my hair a break.
I think the end product turned out amazing considering my hair was red not long before. Since I took this image I have toned my hair once more.
All of this was done over a 4/5 day period!
I had to let my hair breath a little in between each step. Thankfully because my roots are blonde already, I could avoid putting the bleach on them each time and just stuck to the ends.
I wasn't keen on being blonde at first, each time I looked in the mirror I felt odd. I didn't think it suited me at all. Today I was staying at home but decided to style my hair and do my make up to try and make me think otherwise. I am so glad I did! I am absolutely in love with it. It does need to be toned maybe once more and then every month or so from today to get rid of the last of the yellow tones but I am happy with the colour it is now.
I do feel the need to point out that what I did to my hair is a lot of stress on it and I would not recommend it to any one who doesn't know how their hair takes to bleaching. I don't like going to hairdressers and have only had my hair dyed by them maybe twice now and each time they mess it up. Oh and they cost so much money! I have tortured my hair far worse than this in the past and my hair survived, I just get dry ends. I was willing to risk the ends going dry this time as I am getting it cut this week. I wouldn't have done this if I had recently bleached it but seeing as I have been red for some time now my hair had become a lot healthier than it use to be. I also know how strong my hair is and what different products would do to it. I am not a professional, I just know my hair very well.
Everything I used to dye my hair was bought from the Australian shop, Priceline and ended up costing me under $80.
Blonde suits you darling :) Love it! xx
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