Mini Rambly Update

My sister Emily graduated from Massey University today! My aunt has the photos on her camera, so I'll post those at a later date, just a couple from my phone for now. Dad's face in that last photobooth picture is cracking me up. It was a beauuutiful sunny day, this weather is so ridiculous and amazing for May. The graduation ceremony itself was actually really enjoyable, I suspect it wasn't as long as those some of my friends have attended because it didn't drag on at all. Emily looked beautiful as always, and it was lovely celebrating with the family. Super proud of my little sister!

I ended up coming back to Wellington after dinner tonight rather than going to my parents' house. My birthday on Friday is going to be pretty busy with a couple of medical appointments (lucky me!) and just celebrating with Charlie, so I think I'll do some big time cleaning around home tomorrow and hopefully some drawing once my workspace is tidy again... Busy weekend ahead with another Arthritis New Zealand event on Saturday (I'm speaking on a panel) and a family lunch on Sunday. May is mad.

I'm being really common and listening to this song a lot lately. Those of you overseas may have already heard it after it got some Buzzfeed attention. To be honest I didn't see what the fuss was about when I first listened. And something about her face reminds me of someone from my past I have no good feelings towards. But after that one listen I had it stuck in my head and went crawling back to it again after a couple of days of  repeating 'royyyals... ruuuler' under my breath. I love her hair in this video so much. Super styled I guess, but it still kinda sorta makes me want to stop damaging my hair with straighteners and let the curls go for it... When I was at high school I used to wear it curly a lot, and it formed such nice ringlets. It's so damaged and dry now that no matter how many treatments I try, the curls just frizz apart. This post is going somewhere really boring so just watch the damn video and goodnight. Haha.

 

Brunette

After much consideration, I've dyed my hair dark again over the weekend! I had almost an inch of dark regrowth above the blonde which looked horrible, so something had to be done. I definitely considered slapping some more bleach on to both fix my roots and try to lift the colour even more, but finally decided against it. While my hair responded amazingly well to DIY lightening and didn't feel even remotely like straw, I just didn't want to risk frying it.

I contemplated dying it a "fun" colour and letting it grow out, but the only colour I'd want is a very light purple - which I figured would probably just look like a botched toning attempt in my amateur hands.

I did some more Googley research into going back dark, and read some horror stories about green and orange catastrophes... the general consensus was for yellowy-bleach blondes to first go bright red, and then medium brown over top of that, so that's what I did.

I let the red (Schwarzkopf Brilliance 37 Hypnotic Red) dry to see what it looked like, as that had been a colour suggestion from my friend Vikkie. But it really doesn't suit me. I think I could make it work with a made up face, but being realistic my hair colour needs to look acceptable with my natural lazy-day flushy cheeks. It really, really did not.

So after giving that look the big thumbs down, I brushed through two boxes of medium brown (Schwarzkopf Live Salon Style 4-1 Medium Brown), waited, rinsed, and followed up with loooads of conditioner. As always with those damn brown hair dyes - it's much, much darker than the pictures on the box, and yet still the red is shining through. But that's okay - far superior to green at least.

So goodbye, blonde. It really was fun while it lasted, but while I definitely don't regret it, I probably won't be doing it again. Unless I can manage to let my natural colour grow to shoulder length - maybe I'll re-evaluate (this is unlikely to happen).

Vlog: Moving and Hair

I know, I know, I look like an oompa loompa. It's not a very interesting post, I warn you. Oh, also the purple toner conditioner is called Natural Look Silver Screen Ice Blonde.

I've started a new channel to upload vlogs on for my blog, because all my previous videos have been uploaded to a channel I made in 2007. My best friend/(then) flatmate and I made a channel with the plan of creating vlogs together but that never really happened and it became my channel. It was named after our other flatmate at the time for a laugh, but since I'm not even in contact with him anymore I figured it was about time I changed it- a little weird if someone who knows him now stumbled across this blog!

This was my packing progress late last week, and this stack is about twice the height and width now! Sooo relieved we're getting a moving company.

EDIT

I forgot to say, Wallace was the top photo in Friday's pet blog on NZ news website Stuff. He's been on before, but since he was at the top this time he made the homepage for a little while. Proud!

Hurr

I decided to do a little blog post about bleaching my hair for anyone who's interested. As you know, it was a very spur-of-the-moment decision, so I didn't do very much research- oops! After bleaching I watched a bunch of YouTube videos from mostly people in the USA and UK. They seem to have plenty of beauty supply stores, which is something I haven't really heard of in Wellington at least (though please let me know if I'm overlooking somewhere!) So I saw my options as being box bleach from a supermarket/pharmacy or a salon, and obviously I went for the DIY option because I'm cheap. And probably a bit stupid. I don't know of anywhere that I could buy a tub of bleach and bottle of developer off the shelf as I've seen online.

• 2 x Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde in Ultimate Lightener
• 1 x Garnier Colour Intense in Very Light Blonde
• 1 x Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde Toner
• 1 x La Riche Directions in White Toner
• 1 x pack of hair dye brushes
• 1 x plastic shower cap

Before the bleach, I had my natural dark brown hair colour down to about my ear lobes, and then below that was a redder brown colour, which was faded from a black I dyed around two years ago. I applied the two boxes of Ultimate Lightener in the same amateur method I used to dye my hair dark in the past- slap it on, rub it through to the ends. Fortunately it provided a better coverage than it probably should have, there's a little bit by my roots in the back of my head that I missed, but you can't see that when it's down or in a ponytail. I left the bleach on with a shower cap for over an hour, and when I washed it out the natural part had gone a pale yellow blonde, while the ends were a much brassier yellow (but not orange, phew!)

I applied the Blonde Toner, and left that on for five minutes as instructed by the bottle, then blow dried my hair. Around an hour after drying it, I used the Very Light Blonde colour, and only left that on for around 40 minutes before washing it off, blow drying it, and straightening it. I don't think that dye did anything at all, as you probably could have told me! Just thought I'd give it a go at the time haha. All the above products were purchased from City New World supermarket.

Yesterday (four days after bleaching) I got the La Riche Directions White Toner from Calico Jacks in Cuba Street and a pack of hair dye brushes from 2 Cheap on Manners Street. This time I'd watched a lot more videos and read more information so I had a better plan when it came to application. I parted my hair right down the middle, then on each side to my ears, to make four reasonably-equal sections. I painted the White Toner on a section, rubbed it through, then moved to the next section going back back, front front. Once it was all covered, I combed it through my hair then left it on with a shower cap for around an hour. I rinsed it out and conditioned with Blonde Toner and normal conditioner, then blow dried and straightened, and that's the colour it is now, above.

The ends are still a different colour to the top, but allover it's been significantly lightened by the White Toner, and I'll definitely be buying it again. I've read reviews from people with hair that sounds similar to mine, and they applied the White Toner twice which took it to a very pale yellow and then white blonde. I might apply it again in a week or two and see how that goes (or even just to the ends) but for now I'm happy! Won't feel like such a clown when I go back to work next week haha.

Clearly I'm no expert, in fact many of you are probably laughing at me right now! But if anyone has any questions, fire away!

Light

You know how teenage girls go through that phase where they suddenly bleach their dark hair blonde and everyone is shocked and then laughs about it behind their back? Yeah, I never did that. Until I was 22. Oops!

I was in the supermarket this afternoon and could not decide whether to go purple or red. I must have stood there for 20 minutes. Eventually I realised my eyes kept creeping back to the bleach colours so I thought, stuff it, it's only hair, my job doesn't require a particularly high standard of appearance so why not try it while I can?

It's definitely more yellow/brassy than I'd like, but still better than I feared half-way through! And I have some purple toner to use. Almost had a panic attack waiting for Charlie to get home from work. I am sooo dumped. He actually kind of likes it. Or he's very kind and feels sorry for me, which is fine too.

What I do really love is that the blonde goes very nicely with the raspberry beanie (knitted hat... tuque?) I won from Holly Knitlightly via Carly's blog. Squeak!

Hurr

Sorry I've been absent yet again, haven't been well for several days but have finally been to the doctor again so things should be getting better. I'm at my parents' house at the moment, and heading back to Wellington with them tomorrow. I got a proper haircut today since it's sooo insanely cheap up here- $35 and she even took the time to dry and straighten it. Would struggle to get that in the CBD for double that price- it's ridiculous.

I can't sorry, I need to wash my hair.

Horoshima Mon Amour

I found these film stills completely by mistake this week- was Googling for information about nuclear bombings and explosions, and found these in image search. They're from a 1959 film which I've never seen, nor heard of before, called Horoshima Mon Amour. The actress's name is Emmanuelle Riva, and my word don't you just want her hair?!

You need to know this. And this.

This is what my hair does when it dries naturally. Frizz-freaking-city. My life was changed in the mid noughties when I discovered the wonders of the ghd. (Can you tell I'm hard pressed for exciting updates?)

Something vastly more interesting to report is that I had a consultation about my next tattoo after work today. Sorry Mum and Dad. Decided to go with Simon at Alc HQ now that my previous artist has gone back the the UK. Looked through Simon's portfolio on the weekend and his work really impressed me. I took in some horribly-drawn ideas that I did far too late last night, but with a good idea of what I wanted in my head (helpful!) It's going to be an aviation themed tattoo, and I arrived at Alc today to discover Simon's a flying-nerd himself. Freaking perfect. May be a few weeks before I can actually get it done, but majorly excited to see what he comes up with. Stay tuned.