(no subject)

[the_rck]

I actually did a little writing last night. I think it was only about 150 words, but it broke through the block I had on that story.

I had trouble falling asleep last night. I think it took me two or three hours. I also woke every two or three hours, needing to visit the bathroom.

I gave away two boxes of mint tea to our cleaning lady yesterday. I still have two boxes of other types of mint tea that nobody’s going to use. I need to weed out the other teas that nobody’s going to use. There’s a ginger tea Scott bought that’s just plain nasty to me. I don’t know if anyone else would like it, but there’s a lot of it. Stash’s decaf chocolate hazelnut tea isn’t worth keeping, either. If it was caffeinated, I probably would, but it’s got all of the black tea flavor I don’t like without caffeine.

Scott tells me that, as of yesterday, work wasn’t planning to run anything this weekend. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that’s true because it would be really nice to have him home all weekend.

Cordelia says she wants to dye her hair. She has long, dark brown hair, so I’m not sure how feasible it will be without destroying her hair. She first said that she wanted rainbow colors in the lower half of her hair. Then she said maybe purple instead. Anybody have any suggestions?

Comments

[lunabee34]

If she has dark brown hair, she will have to bleach it first for rainbow colors to stick in her hair. With dark brown hair, she should be able to achieve red or darker brown/black without first bleaching.

Upkeep for red and rainbow colors is pretty hard, too. They fade very quickly, so no hot water on your hair, not washing every day. You can also expect a certain amount of bleed onto your sheets, towels.

When I had purple highlights, all my pillow cases had purple streaks on them.

[havocthecat]

I would bet that a consultation with a hairdresser on what she will need to do (the length of time for the bleaching, possibility of multiple bleachings needed, how long the dye will last, the amount of damage she expects to her hair), would come in handy.

It might be more work than she wants to do to keep up the hair dye work! It would be for me and my dark brown hair, plus there'd be a lot of damage, which is why I've never dyed it and thought I'd maybe give it a try only when I go all the way grey.

[the_rck]

I found some stuff online talking about spray on hair color and gel hair color (both temporary) and a couple of different people talking about using eye shadow and hairspray for temporary color. Right now, I'm pitching those as things she could try.

But, yeah, we're going to have to consult a professional and do research and all of that.

I've not actually considered dying my hair. If I take after my mother, I won't go gray much at all. She's 70 and still has mostly dark brown hair without dying it.

[kyrielle]

That or hair chalk would be a lovely way to experiment with various looks. I'm sure it won't be precise to how a proper dye job would look, but at least she can find what she does/doesn't like.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods nod*

I think you can minimize the damage.

I've dyed my hair pretty continuously for the last almost twenty years, and it isn't particularly fried. The only times it gets that way is when I swim a lot.

Of course, keeping it short helps. LOL

[havocthecat]

See, I think the keeping it short thing definitely helps? Because I have a friend who spent 10+ years dyeing her hair all kinds of amazing colors, and she mentioned that she'd had to cut it short due to the damage.

[lunabee34]

Well, and I don't flatiron my hair. I do blow dry it sometimes, but not every day. I don't wash it every day. All those things help keep it from being damaged.

Using lots of heat (especially multiple sources, like blowdrying and curling iron) and washing it every day can fry a dye job.

And I use really moisturizing shampoo/conditioner, etc.

I have definitely had times where my hair was damaged but not as much anymore now that I'm not dying it very far from my original color.

[the_rck]

Hm. I don't know if the no hot water on the hair thing will fly. It gets cold here in the late fall and through the winter. I don't see Cordelia being willing to take tepid or cold showers.

She wants to get it done professionally (doesn't trust me not to botch it), so I'm thinking that I'll ask her to do the research and talk to some salons about costs and upkeep and all of that.

[lunabee34]

I wouldn't say *never* use hot water, just that the more you do the more you destroy the color.

I think if she gets it professionally done, it will look good, but it will be a two process color and thus be more expensive and more time-consuming. So first, they'll have to bleach it which will take awhile and then they'll have to color it which will take awhile.

After that it'll be a one process to refresh and won't take as long.

[umadoshi]

Oil slick colors are darker than rainbow but still quite bright, and don't require bleach. I don't know how much damage results long-term, since I just got it done for the first time and keep my hair above my shoulders, but the lack of bleaching is touted as a huge advantage on the minimal-damage front.

[lunabee34]

Oooh. I didn't realize that. So they show up on dark hair even without bleach?

(please tell me you're posting a picture? I'm about to die to see it LOL)

[umadoshi]

Yep! Just posted a pic on Twitter.

My natural color is a fairly medium brown, and that color is without any bleach or anything. It's obviously be a while before I know how well it lasts, but my stylist said that it should do fairly well, and once we've done it a few times it should last longer between touch-ups.

[lunabee34]

Gorgeous!

[rmc28]

My hair is dark brown and I've never been able to get it to hold colour without bleaching first. Because I hate handling bleach, I've only done this at the hairdresser. I went through a phase of having some long blue or purple "flashes" in my hair: what I found was that the hairdresser colour would fade over about 6 weeks, then I would redye with vegetable-based home dye (brand Special Effects in the UK, no idea if they exist in the US), which would then also wash out over another 6 weeks. By that time it was 12 weeks since the original cut and my hair needed a tidy up anyway, and I would usually get a fresh bleach+colour of the flashes back to the roots.

I still washed my hair in warm water, daily or every 2 days, and got stains on my towels and pillowcases, and had to be careful about my hair being dry before I put on clothes I cared about too. Because of the length I was keeping my hair, some of it was getting bleached 3 or 4 times before getting cut off, and it was getting pretty strawlike by then.

(icon for this comment is me fresh from the hairdresser, http://rmc28.dreamwidth.org/436360.html has a pic from the first time I touched it up at home which shows it quite nicely I think)

However, I haven't actually dyed it for several years. First I had a baby that pulled my hair, so I kept it clipped very short for 15 months; I had just grown it out long enough to think about going back to my local hairdresser when leukaemia and chemo came along. I am seriously considering getting it done again now my hair is growing back so well, but I keep having other things to spend my "stuff for me" budget on. The current idea is to get a standard "highlights" pattern bleached, and then put coloured dye over that. That should mean a lot less repeat-bleaching of the same pieces of hair, but have a similar partial-colour effect which I liked.

[lunabee34]

My experience with bright color was really similar to yours. In fact, looking at your picture, we had pretty much the same haircut and color placement except mine was purple. That blue looks fantastic.

Your comment reminded me that my US hairdresser had little bottles of color you could buy to refresh your dye job in between and thus prolong visits as you describe doing.

[zhelana]

I once got a dark blackish purple color that I managed to dye my hair without having to strip the natural color since you can go darker just not lighter. That may appeal? But I don't remember where I go tit as it was my freshman year of college

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

I hope you get your wish and Scott is really off all weekend.

Does Cordelia have any friends that have successfully dyed their hair? Most of my friends get it done at a salon.

[the_rck]

I don't think so, but she's had a teacher who did, last year's math and science teacher. Hm. Maybe I should ask that teacher where she gets it done...

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

She'll have to bleach it if she wants bright/light colours, maybe bleach it in more than one step. This *will* damage the bleached part of the hair (even if done professionally), but the hair will look fine if conditioned every wash. I'd advise watching a few YouTube videos on bleaching hair if she's doing it herself.

The good thing is that hair grows! If she (or you) hates the results, the dyed part can be cut, if she's just doing the lower half, and eventually she'll be back to the original length.

(My hair is naturally dark brown - currently glow-in-the-dark ruby).

[the_rck]

I'm going to try to get Cordelia to talk to a hair stylist. We need to know cost and what's involved in upkeep and all of that. I don't want to make the required phone calls, so I guess her doing that will be the first test of how much she wants this.

[icecoldrain.livejournal.com]

She's going to have to bleach it to do bright colors. I didn't want to bleach my own hair because that can be a disaster if you've never bleached your hair (unless someone who bleaches their hair/other people's hair is walking you through it). One of my friends ended up with a melty thing happening when she tried to bleach her hair! Luckily, it was just the tips and she ran off to wash it out before anything else happened.

Anyway... I'm getting a tiny bit off track here lol. Your best bet is to go in and have her hair done. You guys can dye her hair all the fun colors at home if you want, but she'll def need a pro to do the bleaching. I dyed my hair purple, but I didn't bleach it because every salon I went to wanted to cut my hair really short to bleach it. idk what's with everyone and wanting to lop everyone's hair off in my state lol.

Beware that lightening your hair is harsher on it than darkening. It's something to make sure she's aware of before you bleach it. However, if it's done right and you guys take care of her hair after, there shouldn't be a problem. I used to lighten my hair back in hs and the only time it messed with my hair is when I decided to do highlights myself, which dried my hair out like whoa lol.