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!

The Transformation Journey Begins - Self Care, The Non-Natural Hair Color Metaphamorphisis

I thought I wanted a change... but what I really wanted was

A Transformation

Even though I like the 'rainbow' look, it's not a look I want to wear every single day.

I also liked the "Mermaid" look and that was something I felt I could live with having every day, but since I was going to be 'new' to non-natural colors, my plan was to go with a purple, which wouldn't be 'too' outrageous, and then use colored hair sprays to give myself 'temporary' rainbow or mermaid looks on days I wanted it, while maintaining a safe distance from the 'commitment' of making it my 'daily appearance.'

And it took me almost another full year to finally start the transformation process.

Because I have dark, dark, dark, almost black, brown hair, not a single 'non-natural' color would take if I didn't bleach my hair (or 'lift the natural color') first.

That's one reason it took a year... I kept looking for something that wouldn't require me to bleach my hair first, because, as I knew...

Bleaching My Hair 3 Times... 

It took 3 bleachings, once I finally started the process, to get my hair to a light enough color for these non-natural colors to take hold in my hair.

This picture on the right  is what it looked like after the 2nd bleaching... there was still quite a bit of 'pink' and 'orange' and just all around 'brassiness' in it... so back to Sally I went in search of yet another bleaching kit...

And this picture on the left, is the color of 'blond' I got after bleaching my hair for a 3rd time. It's possible that I may have gotten it even lighter, and gotten a better result had I left the bleach in a little bit longer, or simply used a different bleaching or color-lifting product to begin with, but... live and learn.

And then, it was so damaged from the bleaching, that I wanted to let it grow out a little bit, so I could cut the damage without losing too much length, before adding more harsh chemicals to it.


Then... AAAAACKKK!!!  Just as it grew out enough for me to be ready to cut it, my wonderful children and I found ourselves under a full frontal attack of head lice!

And just in case you don't already know this, no salon can cut your hair when you have head lice.  So... ya gotta get rid of that sh*t.

And the chemicals for doing that are just as harsh as the bleach for your hair.

I waited a good 2 and 1/2 weeks for the lice killing stuff to take effect, combing through it with the amazing "Robi Comb" every single day...

I wasn't sure they were all gone though, as my head was still itching like mad....

But I couldn't stand the blonde anymore.  ( I was definitely not born to be blonde. My skin tone is too dark and my eyes are too dark and too deep set, to pull it off.)

Dyeing My Hair 'Ultraviolet' by Manic Panic. 

So I went ahead and dyed it, using Manic Panic's absolutely gorgeous "Ultra Violet."

But, two days later, my head was still itching like crazy, so I used my lice killing shampoo again, figuring it would kill off anything that the dye didn't.

And that literally STRIPPED, so much of the violet out of my hair, that my color now looked like "Halloween Witch" gray, black and purple.



So, my girlfriend came over two days after that, and cut it for me.

Adding 'Rockabilly Blue' hair dye by Manic Panic

...And we decided to 'work in' a blue over the 'faded' parts of the violet... only.... the blue almost completely overtook my entire head and almost all of the violet, and so now, it's blue.

Once it 'fades' out a little bit, I'll pull out some sections, bleach them again, and add the violet back... and maybe try something else...

For now, I'm planning to buy pink, purple, green, and teal colored 'hair sprays' and use them to create different looks with the current blue.