Monday, June 16, 2014

Henna's a B*tch

Lol.  M'kay, I know I said I'd check back in around August, but I got some ideas in my head over the weekend, tried some things, and wanted to share the results (or lack thereof!)

I really, really don't want to cut my hair super short again (but probably will), and I had heard that a certain treatment with Vitamin C breaks the molecular bonds (as if that's possible!) that Henna dye has with your hair, thus lightening it.  I also heard that "Blue Shampoo/Conditioner" cancels out yellow/orange tones in your hair and that you can make your own with food coloring and conditioner.

Oh my. 

Okay, so lets start with the color of my hair, unwashed, first thing in the morning.  Yeah, first thing as in 4:30am-the-dog-woke-me-up first thing.  Here you go:
 So, I want to see if this Vitamin C mix would actually lift any of this god-awful orangey color out of my hair.  (or at least lighten the root area a bit for a softer line of demarcation).

What you're supposed to do is crush Vitamin C tabs (30) and mix with clarifying shampoo.  (I use Juice Organics Brightening Shampoo)  Apply to damp hair, cover with plastic and let sit for an hour.  If you try this, don't use the flavored chewables.  I had sticky orange sugar flavor running down my face/neck for an hour.  Not cool. :P

The hour was up and I rinsed, blowdried, and was left with............
......very clean hair. 

Maybe, just maybe a smidge lighter than it was before, but not that noticable.  You're supposed to be able to do this repeatedly (which I might) to pull some of the (g*damned) henna out of your hair.  It did not dry my hair out and left it soft and shiny.  (lighter, is debatable)

Now, the colorful part.  I mixed some blue and a smidge of red gel food coloring in some cheap Suave conditioner with the intent of letting it sit on my hair and cancel out some of the orangey-yellow brassiness going on.  (wishful thinking sunshine!)
 
After conditioning my hair with this mixture for 10 minutes, I rinsed it out and.........

Not much changed.  :P  Lol.  Maybe it's just a hair less bright in the brass department, but not much.  The virgin hair at the roots really looked silvery and oh so cool after the blue conditioner, but the rest of the length really didn't have much of a change in tone.

The Suave conditioner had 'cones in it, (my Juice Organics Conditioner doesn't) so I'm not used to the way it makes my hair feel.  Slick and tangle free, but too slick.  Good luck with a piggy tail slick.  Smells nice though.  Reminds me of back in the day when 'cones first came out and Pantene was all the rage.

Anyway, so that's my little early morning adventure.  Back to the long-slow-distance work of growing out the colored length.  Later!



Monday, June 9, 2014

As slow as.......

Watching grass grow?  Paint dry?  Molassess?  I'm pretty sure waiting for hair to grow out has all of the common cliches for slowness beat by a long shot. :P

I feel like someone at an AA meeting.  "Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm going grey.  It's been 86 days since I last dyed my hair."  Lol.  It's a good thing I REALLY don't want to do this hair color thing anymore.  Otherwise, I'd be so tempted to just Henna! 
 
Only this little bit of growth in a whole 86 days?!?  This is going to take for-ev-er.  
 



But think about it.  September 2013 was the last time I had a pixie cut.  My hair was this short 9 months ago:

 

I've trimmed the back and the bangs to shape it as it grows out, but otherwise it has not been cut since.  Hopefully, another nine months and most of the color will be grown out enough to trim.  That brings us to when......next March? Oy.  I really don't want to get another Pixie cut.....Think I can resist the temptation?  Will check back in around August!