Beauty by a Sparrow

The end result 

This was where things got interesting.
Bleach gets hot, and as it lightens hair it gets a bit warmer. Moisture tends to drip and leak through the foils, which I knew from the last time I was blonde. As I sat in the chair, though, my hair slowly (but surely) began creeping from a 6 up to an 8, with 10 being the absolute BURNING hottest and 1 being nothing. Soon my scalp was getting to a 9, and it was at this point my hairdresser noticed quite a bit of leakage, so quickly teased my ends and applied lightener. Within ten minutes I almost couldn't stand it, but hadn't said anything because hey what do I know? (I'm not a hair dresser haha) When my hairdresser felt my hair and said "I've NEVER felt hair this hot, we need to get you to the basin NOW!" I panicked slightly. 

Lightener had also leaked onto my shirt, so my lovely hair dresser threw it in the washing machine - meaning for the remainder of my appointment I was topless. Ha. 

Here we are, waiting for the lightener to do its thing, hoping my clipped-closed wrap stayed closed so no one would spot my bra.... Chilling.. Chilling... 

Believe me, I know a tiger striped head ain't attractive, but it didn't stay this way for long. Once all my hair had been washed, my hairdresser had the base to start working up to the blonde you saw above. 

 (I know, sexy right?) 

My salon has recently started using NAK hair colour, promoted as 'the soft colour range'. It's pretty cool, the choose your tones, pop them in this bowl that's then WHOOSHED around like a salad drier, to achieve the perfect colour. I wasn't sure what to expect, because I was used to old products, but the end result looked pretty. Did it feel softer than the old colour products? Not so much that I noticed, but I must mention that my hair was a tad dried out after the process. Not due to anything my hairdresser did, simply because going from such a dark shade to a light colour isn't a great thing to do to your hair, no matter how healthy it is. My saving grace was that my hair is extremely thick, so breakage isn't as big of a deal because there is, seriously, that much of it. 

I've washed my hair twice since Thursday, and I've been using John Frieda Everlasting Blonde shampoo and John Frieda Color Renew conditioner, which is purple as it contains toner, STOPPING brassiness (yay!)

It hasn't even been a week and I've received so, so many compliments and comments. Weird as it sounds, although blonde isn't my natural colour, I feel more like myself with this as my hair colour over brunette shades. I'll keep you all up to date with how my colour is progressing, and all I'm doing to keep my hair healthy and my colour looking fresh! 

(Before: Brunette balyage                                                After: blonde and bright!) 

Tweet tweet xx

Stay tuned... My next post will be all-21st related, including a tutorial! 

As you can see my blonde was very brassy, re-growth coming through, the ends were dead and it was a struggle to deal with, and unhealthy. Something needed to change because as most blondes will tell you (even the natural ones!) it's not an easy colour to keep up. 

Ignore the awkward facial expression, I think I was in shock. 

This is a few hours after the dye job, so you can see the dark marks on my skin. It took a little while to get used to seeing my own reflection! This was February 2014 - new semester, new hair. 

Fast forward to May 2014, and my re-growth was looking GREY. GREY! I'm only 20!
My hair wasn't turning old, I'd just misjudged my original colour. I'm naturally a very, very cool blonde/brunette colour, and unfortunately, against a bold, almost auburn brunette, that colour looks grey, even though it definitely isn't. My second attempt came out much, much better, richer and slightly lighter. 

As you can see the balyage has been pulled up a little higher, almost level with the cheekbone, which again softened the dramatic dark dye job no. 1
I loved this colour and the ombre, but as with all blonde ends, they began to split. That's why August this year I opted for a lob! 

To a full head of foils and full fringe by the middle of 2012

 

I'll keep you all updated as I go from brunette-balayage back to blonde! (Fingers crossed it's not a disaster zone!)

Tweet tweet xx