Comfortably Leaving My Comfort Zone...

My Self Care Hair Care Transformation Continues

Is hair color self care or vanity?

I've never been a shallow, concerned with my looks, kind of person. I hardly ever wore make-up, rarely got 'dressed' much, as I work from home, and never did much of anything at all with my hair.  

I have thick, wavy, dark hair... no doubt it's one of my best features.  And, I used to pride myself on keeping my gorgeous locks 'healthy.'  I didn't use chemicals... hardly ever used hair spray, and almost never blow dried it. 

But, as I've transitioned into my 40's, with a second divorce helping this particular 'decade' of my life to bitch slap me right in the face... 

... and meeting Mr. Right Now, who always graciously notices anything I do to look nice, pretty, sexy, etc... 

I've not only come to care more about my outward presentation of myself to the world... I've also come to feel the need for a... transformation. 

I've been going for the mermaid look... slowly.  

First I had to bleach my hair three times, just to get it light enough for purple to take... 

Then it washed out almost immediately.  Granted, I was washing it a lot.  A lot more than usual for me ... 

And now, my roots are dark again, so I'll need to bleach it again before I can try to color it again.   Which is an all day, minimum 2 person job.  

My girlfriend was going to do it a few weeks ago, but she bailed on me.  My darling Mr. Right Now would be more than willing to do it for me.  In fact, he bleached it once for me, and dyed it blue for me a few weeks ago. 

Unfortunately, as willing as he is to spoil and pamper me... he didn't do very well with the bleaching or the dyeing, so... 

In these past few weeks, I've experimented with trying to get a mermaid looking using those colored hairsprays you can buy at WalMart.... yea, don't bother.  That stuff makes hair stiff and strawlike. 

I experimented a few ways, and these are some of the ways the colored hairsprays experiments worked out: 

Meanwhile, I've been looking at different mermaid hairstyles and the 'styles' of them. 

Here are some of the mermaid hairstyles I've found and like:

Mermaid hair style considerations:  Color combination, direction of color. 

Mermaid hair colors usually include blue (such as ocean blue), and a light greenish color like teal, aquamarine. *There are several styles that also work in a purple/violet color, and a fewer number of styles that work in a 'fuschia/pink' color. 

Options for the direction of the color(s)... 

Too many choices... makes it so hard to decide! Google Images, Pinterest and YouTube be cursed!

When it comes to the 'style' (or direction) of the colors in a mermaid hair style, there are more than a few options...

Top color bottom color
Dark on top, light on bottom,
Light on top, dark on bottom
Top, middle, bottom color
Dark down to light
Light down to dark...
Colors weaved in



I really like both of these...

They're both only two colors, but weaved in, which may be a little bit more difficult than trying to just do 'top to bottom.'

 I honestly don't know. I tried watching YouTube videos to get a feel for the 'technique,' but those have got to be the most boring videos in the history of ever!

Choices, choices, choices... 


I kinda like this one on the right a little better than the one on the left, and actually, right now, as I sit here writing this, I realize why,,,

The one on the left is only two colors, and it's top to bottom and weaved in... only, it's only weaved in on the bottom... that might be doable.

So... Decision Making Time... 

I had thought to just dye my hair purple, and use the colored hairsprays, waxes and chalks, etc... to 'style in' the mermaid look when I wanted to.

Purple would be the color least likely to look tacky, after all.

But the more I look at the different mermaid hairstyles... the more I like the blue and green colors.

A Dramatically Subtle Mermaid Hair Style

I also really love this one... the subtlety of it definitely grabs my attention.  And sometimes, subtlety is far more attention grabbing than the blatant, "Look at Me!" message that most of the mermaid styles, and well, let's face it... 'non natural colors'... styles.

Got a favorite style of your own?  

Leave a comment and tell us about it... feel free to link to a picture of it!