Random shallow thoughts that flit through my head while working

[cupcake_goth]

I am (once again) bored, bored, bored with my hair.

I want to strip all the black out of it, and dye it a deep pomegranate-wine red.

I'll probably never do it (the upkeep! the color staining everything that my hair touches! the complete freak-out stroppy_baggage would have!), but I've been thinking about it a lot recently.

---

I swear I will eventually write interesting and thoughtful posts again, maybe even Real Soon Now. Just as soon as I get my brain back and have a bit more free time. (So, maybe NOT Real Soon Now, because the chances of me having both a working brain and free time in the near future? Not high, let me tell you.)

Comments

[recalcitrant-lj.livejournal.com]

Cons:
- the upkeep
- color staining everything

Pros:
- a stroppy_baggage freak out

[bittergourd.livejournal.com]

i am with Gray on this...

the Pros far outweigh the cons...

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

...I am so tempted to agree. Of course, he might LOOM at me, but I think I can cope with that from a distance.

Still, notwithstanding the obvious temptation of freaking out Monsieur Baggage, the downside to hair dye might be the impact it would have on your ensembles. I don't think that the wine red would work as well with the black and pink as the black does.

::thinks::

It would look good, though, most likely. Hmm.

Trust the Force, Luke.

[poetry-lady.livejournal.com]

If you use only non-ammonia-based colors, there is a technique that can be used that helps seal in the color, with minimal running/dripping/staining. But the colors must be non-ammonia-based, or your hair will fry. It involves foiling the hair with the color, using a flat iron to steam the foil packets, let it sit a bit, remove foil, wipe hair hank, use the flat iron again on the just-wiped hair. Then, don't wash it for at least a day.

It really helps my purple streaks stay, and if you don't wash your hair every day, the color stays vibrant for quite a while. Jen's been doing it for over a year now on my head...

[pvcdiva.livejournal.com]

wow - I bought the wrong brand of hair dye recently, and it requires heat setting. This might be a way of using that as it's ammonia free.

Trouble is this is way more fiddly than I can manage on my own (absolutely hopeless at anything beyond the most basic slapping on of the colour on with a tinting brush) and I only have a professional steam iron which is beyond fantastic for clothes but suspect it would destroy my already fragile hair

and oh fuck but the leggiest bastard spider just crawled across the monitor. have beaten it to deather with a postcard, but scared the crap outta me!

[poetry-lady.livejournal.com]

I don't do this to my own hair--my "semi-sister-in-law" does my hair.

Probably not the iron for hair--Jen uses one of those ceramic-plate straighteners, professional grade, so it gets hotter than the one I use at home to just straighten my hair.

Good luck!

[heartsease.livejournal.com]

My red doesn't stain everything. In fact, I have big fluffy white hotel towels that get pink, but the color comes out in the wash without bleach. I do have to dye every 4-5 weeks, but it's not so bad.

Of course, I am a bit biased... but black/pink looks fab on redheads. The only hard thing is find good lipcolors. ;)

[theblackdeer.livejournal.com]

Girl, purchase some fun wigs.

[shoindiematrix.livejournal.com]

Eh, we all love the randomness. ^_^ Personally, I love the coloring too. Thankfully, mine is only now starting to grow off, after about 4 or 5 months, and it's just at those first little "peeking" stages.

[pvcdiva.livejournal.com]

I share your pain.

I am having the same hair angst. I stripped as much of the the winter dalliance with black out of my hair in early summer as was possible without frazzling it completely, and put the pink back in. Trouble is I couldn't get all the black out, and the pink fades in a single wash to this murky orange, like it's having trouble sticking to the bleached bits, so the upkeep of the colour is proving very time consuming.

I cut about two inches of bleach fried ends out - actually, 'hacked it off with dress making shears' is a more accurate description of my barbering skills - and thinking maybe I should just take it all off and regrow my natural blonde. It's not so much that I want to go back to my natural colour, it's just that I'm toying with the idea of having long hair again and that's not going to happen if I have to keep up the bleaching of my roots to keep the pink.

/sigh/

and to get my hair long would take about three years of growing it

[girlgoth.livejournal.com]

I recently (about 2 months ago) bleached black out the top of my hair and have light pink in there. Shampooing it lightens the pink a bit, but doesn't take it out.

What kind of pink are you using? And how close to platinum did you bleach your hair to? (sorry, I was a hairdresser for over a decade and I love to try and help with hair questions). ;)

[e-juliana.livejournal.com]

1) The red would look FANTASTIC on you.

2) However, I suspect that you going red would have to mean a redhead going black as a means of preserving Balance and Order within the Universe.

3) My hair rejected the black. Drat it.

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

No, no, no! What you want to do is keep the black, bleach the roots, dye them pomegranate, and have Tarvek Hair! When the red fades, you will have Perky Goth pink-and-black hair.

Well, OK, it takes about 6 months' worth of bleaching the roots and touchups to get the full Tarvek effect. But one of the girls in my Lindy Hop class looked very shiny with just a month or two's worth of red roots.

I have had very good luck with the N'Rage colors not rubbing off on stuff except right after the first shampoo or two. Not sure if this is because purple and deep blue are less run-prone than red (just like clothes) or if the formula works better. I know the blue is giving me less trouble than Manic Panic did.

[girlgoth.livejournal.com]

Have you ever used Special Effects hair color? They are superior to Manic Panic and the like and are more vivid and stay in better than any other vegetable dye I've ever used on anyone. :)

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

Haven't tried Special Effects yet, no. I think I've seen them at H*t T*pic.

I seem to recall there were different blues, purples, and blue-black. Which would you recommend for shades on the more purple side of blue, or blue side of violet? Is blue-black dark blue or just a cool black?

[girlgoth.livejournal.com]

They are very pricy at HT. I've heard good things about ordering them here http://www.amphigory.com/special_effects_hairdye.html where they are only $8.99 a bottle.

I have yet to see a blue black from them, but they do have quite a few blues, and purples (don't use their black). Blue Velvet is the darkest blue and is pretty much the color of blue ballpoint ink. ;) If you mix it with Deep Purple, you might get a darker blue tone. Both of those colors are in the same family, just one is a blue and one is a purple. ;) I hope that helps!

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

That's a great link, with the picture galleries of customers' results.

Thank you!

[imflying.livejournal.com]

There is the possibility of lightening it just a shade or two to be able to get it to the color you want. Call me for details.

[girlgoth.livejournal.com]

It is very possible. If you take the black out with stripper or bleach, the first color it turns is brown, then dark red. Then you add in the deep wine color and condition it very well. Since you'll be only lightening it a bit, you hair will still be in excellent condition and will not be fried. Also, if you use something like Special Effects on your hair, it will grab hold of the bleached hair and once it is done, will have minimal bleeding. To do the roots, you would only need to get them lightly bleached, and then redo the red. It's only one step more than coloring it a permanent color, and with the bleached hair, the red/wine will stay in longer. You can use a color tinting shampoo if you want to keep it more brilliant throughout the month.

You can also get shampoo and conditioners (like at Sally's or other beauty supply places) that will seal in the color and keep it from bleeding any further. They also have balms and styling products like that too. If you go to a beauty supply that you need a license, let me know and I can get you my discount. :)

So yeah, I'm totally an enabler. ;) I am so loving my black and pink hair and I think everyone who can should be able to have the hair of their dreams with out the fears of yesteryear of color bleeding and the like. :)

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

You people in your bonafide metropolitan areas!

I *wish* we had Sally's in Humboldt County. None of the local stores are really equivalent. However, the grocery stores often have the full line of Manic Panic or Punky Colours because, well, I live in one of those crazy hippie college towns. If I get down to the Bay Area, you betcha I'm going to find a Sally's or something. The clerk at the one outside Portland had pink & purple hair and recommended N'Sync because she uses it.

[girlgoth.livejournal.com]

LOL! There are quite a few beauty supply places here, like Karen's and Sally's, but most of them are license-only. I've found though, that you can find almost anything from Sally's and the like online, and just have them sent to your house. ;D

I posted a link in reply to your other comment to a good place that sells SFX online for cheaper than HT does, and if you can, I would totally try SFX. Once most people do, they never go back. ;) I've been using them professionally since 2000 and I absolutely love them. I don't do hair anymore, but I still have at least one of almost every color in my bathroom cabinets so I can do my hair whatever color strikes my fancy...lol. ;D