mix of denim blue and lilac

So my hair colour was only done a week ago but as the wisteria at the salon made the lengths of my hair a lovely colour, it simply toned my roots from bright yellow to white. Plus at the salon we normally leave the directions colour on for around the 15-20 mins advised but when I do it at home I can leave it on for an hour to give a better colour.

But I didn’t have much wisteria colour left so instead mixed my leftover lilac and denim blue to see if it would make a similar bluey silver lilac tone to the wisteria.

Here is the result:

Way more blue than expected – hope it fades as quickly as other blue tones have in the past as I have just over 2 months to get back to a nice pale lilac for comicon – the plan now is not only Ametyst from Steven Universe but also the Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2

Review TRESeme Boutanique Nourish and Replenish Mask

This stuff is magic! I have only used it once so far but didn’t leave it on for long (it recommends 3-5 mins).

The lengths,and in particular the ends, of my hair were super dry and damaged from bleaching – going a sort of rubbery texture that snapped when brushed wit and a sort of fluffy candy floss when dry. I missed my old glossy hair and this worked way better than the Body Shop Beautifying oil I had been rubbing sparingly into the ends.

It was on offer in Asda (down from about £5 for a tub to £3) but it is worth every penny. Although I have thick long hair I didn’t need to use much of the mask for it to be saturated.

I will probably try a spray in and leave oil some time soon so watch this space.

Lilac hair

The Silver dyes I had liked (overtone and Pravana vivids) were proving tricky to get hold of and since the Amethyst cosplay I’m building up to in May/June will need light lilac hair I thought I’d try Directions Lilac.

My hairdresser recommended re-bleaching over the lengths as well as the roots (bringing the total number of bleaches up to 4). In going to use a olaplex hair mask again too to help look after the condition but was pleasantly surprised at how light a colour was achieved and how good a condition my hair was left in.

It took almost 3 tubs of Directions to colour my long thick hair.

The result is very pretty but a little patchy. I’m hoping continuing to use my silver/violet and pink shampoos and conditioners will help even out the colour over time. The pink is still needed on the greenish ends but in general I pressed the blue end of lilac so may mix some Denim Blue into the Lilac in future or buy the Wisteria shade. Anyone try these before??

More silver experiments

So about 4 weeks after the wedding, I only had a little overtone go deep vibrant silver left and mixed it with the two tubes of Pravana vivids smoky silver.

It achieved this lovely colour:

Unfortunately, both the overtone and Pravana vivids chromasilk colours are expensive and hard to get in the UK (especially when needing 2 or 3 tubes to cover thick long hair) so I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep this up

I’ll continue to use the various silver care shampoos and conditioners mentioned before too.

Next hair appointment booked for in about 3/4 weeks in time for the work Xmas do and just before I move house. Might well be trying out what the lilac and perhaps the denim blue shades of directions go like as they are much easier to get hold of and more affordable.

Thinking of trying the wisteria too – anyone have any experience of it??

oVertone Vibrant Silver deep treatment

So the top up of Pravana Silver I ordered didn’t arrive in enough time to use before my friend’s wedding so I applied oVertone Vibrant Silver deep treatment.

I used up most of the tub (easily 3/4 if not more) as my hair is thick and long even after quite a trim recently.

I had really wanted to try this product after watching a YouTube video that compares different brands grey and silver tones on white extensions so you could see which were bluer toned, darker, lighter or whatever: https://youtu.be/wJCj7W6aNeM

This is the result:

It looks less blue and more like a medium lilac grey in real life.

I’d 100% use overtone all the time if it wasn’t so expensive and a pain to import from America (I got this tub for about £30 on eBay).

Here are some pics from the wedding and Halloween party:

Olaplex hair treatment

I’d heard Olaplex was a miracle – you can add it to bleach to make it less damaging or use it as a hair treatment after bleaching. It strengthens hair And rebuilds bonds damaged by bleaching.

I mixed it up as a hair treatment and it’s made my hair super thick and soft (although the ends are still a little crunchy but nowhere near as bad as you’d expected from bleaching over previously bleached hair twice in a day!)

Going silver…surprise pastel unicorn hair 🦄

So this is how faded I got my hair after 4/5 weeks of fading.

The hairdresser bleached my hair twice and then applied two tubes of Silver chromasilk vivid demi permanent by Pravana that I had been warned by others had made their hair a dark, gunmetal grey silver.

What I got was not as expected but beautiful!!!! It is now lilac fading down to a pale aqua mint colour. The pictures don’t really do justice to how much lighter the hair is now.

In hind sight, I think I needed more than two tubes as I lave long thick hair. (My hairdresser has advised me to try the smoky silver colour from the same range to top it up).

I have a whole bunch of lilac, silver and blue dyes and colour treatment shampoos and conditioners to experiment with now so watch this space.

Vitamin C and washing up liquid fade?

So after 2/3 weeks of washing with clarifying shampoo and the occasional dabble with pink shampoo my 2 year build up of teal dye was not shifting :,( it was fading enough to look a bit ropey and I normally would have redyed it by now but not faded enough for my liking – I’ve only got another 2 weeks until I’ve been booked in to go silver.

I decided to try a vitamin C and washing up liquid mix I’d read a lot about. I used fairy washing up liquid, clarifying shampoo and 3 asda effervescent high strength vitamin c and zinc tablets.

The result? Nothing very notable. There is a tiny bit of fading but as I washed it with pink shampoo and conditioner after, not any more than I might expect from just washing it twice. A lot of my hair came out on my brush after but I don’t think it was from chemical damage just that washing up liquid leaves hair quite tangly.

It was left quite dry and damaged so I picked up a John Frieda Core Repair clear conditioner – just one wash later I’m really impressed at the repair!

Fading out teal to make way for silver

So I have decided I will try out silver hair for my friends wedding in a month or so. It will also be a step towards the paler colour needed for a comic con coming up in June that I’d like to cosplay as pilot Amethyst from Steven Universe who has very pale lilac hair. In the meanwhile, unlike the purple that I was really fussy about getting just the right tone, I’m happy to dabble anywhere along the grey white silver pastel blue and lilac spectrum.

The only downside to going silver is that my favourite brand of semi-permanent colour, Directions, don’t exactly do a true silver – their “silver” is a lilac toner that is meant to be good for maintaining silver hair but doesn’t actually dye it a grey :/

I’ve contacted my local salon who were brutally honest that even with just over a month of fading I’ll probably need to have my hair bleached in order to achieve a silver tone and that my hair could be quite brittle and straw-like after. (See a future post about Olaplex for strengthening and treating bleached damaged hair). She was reassured when I said that the demi-permanent dye I will be bringing with me to apply can create a dark gun metal silver rather than a pastel white one (see upcoming post on Chromasilks Vivid Silver). I’m very lucky 🍀 they are up for experimenting and happy for me to bring my own colour but it’s always best to ask or see what the professionals advise!

(I will post about the silver/lilac maintaining products I plan to use soon).

So I’ve switched from using my L’Oréal pure colour non-sulphate shampoo and conditioner to using TRESemme’s clarifying shampoo and a sulphate conditioner.

I’ve also bought some pink toning shampoo & conditioner by London Bleach called “Rose”. I thought I’d try this after watching this YouTube video where someone used it only once or twice over faded mint green hair and managed to achieve a grey/lilac tone: https://youtu.be/Z9kmQd9Vkcw

The idea is that to get rid of green tones, I can neutralise them with pink as it’s opposite in the colourwheel. (This is why if your bleached hair goes brassy yellow orange you’re advised to use a purple toner).

The first time I used the pink stuff I had already switched to the sulphate and clarifying combo but only for a few washes so it didn’t really do much but then again my teal hadn’t been as pale as that in the video. (Guess that means teal is a very hardy colour at least).