Reverse "Skunk Stripe"

Lol, I couldn't resist.  I put my hair up this way today and had to take a picture. 

Days since last color:  128
Days since last pixie cut: 308

Days until I don't look ridiculous anymore: ????  :P

On a side note:  Gawd that henna gets red as it fades.  When dyed fresh, the indigo balances it out to a nice dark burgundy, but indigo is not color fast.  Goodbye indigo, hello blazing red.  The day I can cut off the last bit of that red I'm gonna have a party.

4 Months dye free and we have a piggy tail

It's been 4 months since I dyed my hair and 10 months since my last pixie cut.  I can finally put my hair back in a piggy tail (with the help of a headband and some barrettes).  Having short hair thoughts again, but I'm *so close* to just being able to swig it back in a ponytail and fuggetaboutit.  Which is really where I want to be......I think. :)

Chillin' in the office. :P

 

Woah, silver streaks.

Piggy tail....with help.



I just added cod liver oil and biotin to my daily multivitamin, along with some protien powder that I mix with water and drink for breakfast.  I'm a chronic breakfast skipper and while that's great if you're IF'ing (intermittent fasting) and catch up on nutrients later in the day, I often don't.  I only eat meat one meal a day, really and that's not enough protien, I know it.  Hair, skin and nails suffer so I'm seeing if the supps will help. :)  Will be a couple months before I'll be able to tell if there's a difference.

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!





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!

Ground Zero

 Here I am today with the remains of an 8 month old Pixie Cut.  I've trimmed the bangs regularly, but the rest of it has been growing out from *wicked* short since last September (2013)

Don't get me wrong, I really like this color.  The 50/50 Henna/Indigo mix goes great on my hair. 

What I AM tired of, is looking like this after two months.

Skunk Stripe!

My hair at the roots is like four different colors.  I am SO busy, no time for natural hair dye!  So here we are at ground zero.  Exaclty 69 days since I last dyed my hair with Henna/Indigo.  I'm wondering if I will be able to stick it out......or if I'll let it grow for another two months and then get another pixie cut?  Hmmmm...

Time Changes

2007

This was me.  I was 30 years old, with an abundance of lovely brown hair.  The red highlights you see are from Henna/Indigo dye that I used to cover my few greys, but aside from that, this is a good representation of the color of my youth. 

In the last seven years,  my hair became less abundant and much, much more grey.

I continued to color, more frequently, with Henna/Indigo, occasionally slipping into the world of box dyes, only to return to Henna with slightly fried-and-still-red hair.  Henna might be limited on an epic scale in the color department, but it does not harm your hair, and the finer my hair became, the less it tolerated the harsh chemicals. 

ANY color is better than showing your grey, right?

That's what I thought for the longest time.  I was saddened at the loss of my lovely brown and hateful towards the changes that come with aging.  Depressed.  Angry.  Tired.

I am over it.  As of today, I vow never to dye my hair again.  I've created this blog to chronicle the changes in my hair as it transforms from a badly-needing-a-dye-job skunk striped mess to what I hope will be a graceful and lovely salt and pepper grey.  What shade of grey am I now?  Over the next few months, we're going to find out!