THE HAIR THREAD

[jemly]

a thread to talk about your hair goals / experiments / fails / wins / products etc. consider this a RANDOM THOUGHTS: HAIR thread 🙂

when i joined BT years ago, i was at the beginning phases of growing out a shaved head, after a decade of cropped pixie cuts and avant garde styles as well as defying my natural texture. my hair is past my shoulders now, and am fully immersed in this world of hair care and styling that i had been absent from for so long. 

this thread can be about anything. thoughts, questions, anecdotes that you feel like sharing but for whatever reason don't want to start an independent thread about. cheers !

[TopazBeth]

You're too kind! xoxo

[unfungirl]

@TopazBeth the blonde pixie is my favorite! i get a total carey mulligan vibe- so cute!

[TopazBeth]

Aw thank you -- Carey's hair was definitely one of my inspirations!

[StephanieBT]

Wow, you really rock the pixie! I'm very jealous of your natural color too, it's beautiful.

[fatimamummy]

@TopazBeth You gotta share your DIY technique to go blind again. I lightened my hair colour just a bit and made a mess of it. You look beautiful in all hair colours and cuts.

[TopazBeth]

I would guess it takes more work for naturally dark hair! Here's the process that I repeated probably five or six times until I got it to the level I wanted:

Spoiler

• Thoroughly coat hair with coconut oil, put on a shower cap, and let it sit for an hour. This both protects the hair and supposedly also helps the bleach chelate.
• I diluted my bleach with shampoo -- something I read that makes it gentler but still effective. I mixed two ounces of clarifying, sulfate-free shampoo with one ounce each of bleach and level 30 developer. The internet warned me against using anything higher than 20 as a non-professional (because of how fast it develops and how long it can take to apply the bleach if you're not experienced), but my hair was so short at the time that I took my chances.
• I would leave the bleach on for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how my hair seemed to be holding up and whether my scalp was getting irritated. Starting at 30 minutes I checked it every 10 minutes.
• Rinse THOROUGHLY with cool water. If you think you've rinsed enough, keep rinsing a little more. 
• After this, I would do another coconut oil mask for 45-60 minutes, and then because I'm foolhardy and stubborn, ignore the advice to wait a few days before toning and jump right into it. For my platinum, I used Wella T-18 with 20 volume developer for 30-45 minutes.
• You're really not supposed to bleach more often than every 6-8 weeks, but again, because I'm foolhardy and stubborn AND impatient, I was doing it every 1-2 weeks. I would have stopped if my hair had seemed fried after any treatment, but the coconut oil masks and shampoo dilution seemed to work!
• For maintenance, I stuck to sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner, washed my hair maximum 3x a week, used purple shampoo (Clairol Shimmerlights) whenever I started looking brassy, did deep conditioning 1-3x a week, and used a leave-in conditioner every day. 

[fatimamummy]

Thank you for sharing it all @TopazBeth That is good info and also makes perfect sense how you escaped the damage. 

[heartsmyface]

Oh I love you current colour and also the one in the top right!  

[mrsbaine]

Love you as a blonde!!! I love the platinum too! I love your cuts! 🙂 Do you see a trend?!?! 🙂 

[missjeanie]

Your current cut is how I always want bangs to look on me... sadly I usually cut bangs after a few drinks or a break up and the never look like this, mostly due to my hair type but possibly also since it's done with little planning lol!

[Gwenhwyfar]

SO MUCH BETH *heart eyes*

I'm loving seeing everyone's hair journeys.

[malday]

Beth I keep forgetting you were brunette at some point!!!

[TopazBeth]

Me too, haha.

[jemly]

yayyyy thank you all.

i have so much to talk about since i actually have hair now ! at some point i want to share photos of my hair journey. but for now i'll talk about my current hair.

i really need a trim, and i need to get my color refreshed. i have naturally very dark warm-brown hair. i dye it a cool-tone black., which isn't MUCH of a difference but when i do it i always feel most like myself. but i haven't gone in ages because.... last autumn i cut baby bangs myself and they looked awesome for a week, and then with the slightest bit of growth turned wretched. i just wanted them to grow out before i had to look a professional in the eye. they're now just slightly past my eyes.

i also feel like i need a game plan before i go in. i was thinking of lightening the ends a bit just because it looks a bit metal. but my ends are the most damaged, do i really want to do that to them ? so ! that's one thing i imagine i'll be figuring out through discussions in this thread 🙂

[Gwenhwyfar]

I love your longer hair, Jem! I mean, I've loved all iterations of your hair styles that I've seen--you literally look good in everything--but your natural curls are so lovely and you look great with longer hair. I can't wait to see what you do next. 🙂

[malday]

If you really want to lighten the ends, I say trim the damaged bits, let it grow out to your desired length and lighten away!

[heartsmyface]

Lighter ends will show any damage more (it seems to glow!!!!) so you'd have to go for more frequent trims.  Other than that I say why not!  

[jemly]

@heartsmyface i just wanna looks like pj harvey *cries*

[malday]

Good lord PJ is such a babe

[heartsmyface]

@jemly  Do it!!!!  You can say you did  and you can always dye it back after;). 

[heartsmyface]

Oh boy!  My hair has been on quite the color journey the past few years and is now taking a (maybe short) bleaching break.  Anyone remember my brown hair?  Yeah I barely do.