10 Commandments for Coloured Hair Care

I have had every kind of coloured hair. Box, Salon, Powdered fruit drink. Pink, red, brown, black, ombré, opal, platinum, two tone blond and brown, two tone purple and blue and galaxy. Many people wonder how I still have hair on my head.

Me, for now.

My recent hair experiment lead me to type up this blog. I am a mixture of Jeffree Star and Kandee Johnson.

Here are my 10 commandments for keeping hair on fleek:

Thou shall take pre and post hair colour care.

Don't wash your hair 24 hours before bleaching and 48 hours after colouring. What? You heard me. Not washing before colouring makes sure that the hair gets less damaged. It's protected by it's oils. Not washing afterwards make sure the hair colour bonds to the hair. Yes even though it's dried and you already carried on with your life, there is still sciencey things happening. Even if you just bleached your hair you must wait.

É note: If you are planing to get fashion colour hair. Be prepared to spend a while in a salon/ bathroom. My galaxy hair took me 5 hours by myself and the Barbie inspired hair took me 2.5 hours in the salon. It may take longer as my hair was already like a Level 7/ 8 on the bleach scale.

5 hours of questioning every decision I've ever made

2 and a half hours of thinking of the final scene of Barbie in Rock 'n Royals

Thou shall cleanse hair sparingly. . .

I had to “train” to get my hair to need a wash twice a week. Mondays and Thursdays. See I can even tell you the days. The more you wash the more the colour fades. Over washing also causes damage to hair. For days I just want to shower, I bought a more robust showercap from Dischem. Other days dry shampoo is your friend.

é Note: If you are going the lighter or full on blonde route, purple shampoo is a must. It tones out yellow and lessens brassiness. I also suggest to only use it after the second/ third wash because depending how pigmented it is it can tint your hair purple. Not ideal.

. . . and with grace

Here is where you have to read labels. Not all shampoos are the same. Sulphites causes colours to wash out faster. I use Tresemmé Naturals. It has a low SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) content. It's a basic foaming agent you get in anything that bubbles. Toothpaste, Floor wash, face wash, dish soap, if it makes bubbles, it's in it. (Queue those Facebook posts and e-mails with factoids telling us how bad it is.)

Then when you wash, ONLY wash your scalp and condition ends. You don’t need to shampoo your whole head. As you rise it rinses over the length of your hair, which cleans it. Also the condition only the ends and the length.

Thou shall not do excessive mechanical or heat damage.

Don't rub your hair dry with a towel. I squeeze out most of the water and just wrap my head in a towel. Let the towel do the work by sucking up the moisture. (Also make sure to use a towel that you wouldn't care to get stained. Though it would be a conversation starter if your guests ask you why the towels are tie dyed pink.)

If you have long hair I think that the Invisibobble type hair bands are the best. I don't get as many tangles or breakage with them as with normal or rubber bands.

I also stopped using a hair brush and opted for a wide tooth comb. I'm less likely to rip out my hair with it. It's also the best for combing out wet hair.

I also stared embracing heat free styling. I let my hair mostly air dry. If I have to, I make sure to spray it with heat protection before styling it. Here is an educational film by Guy Tang.

I also switched up my cotton pillow case for a satin one. Here is mine from MrP Home. I also found them to be better for my skin. They also don't make those weird sleep marks on your face.

Thou shall maketh time for conditioning . . .

Once a week I super deep condition my hair. Bleaching is damaging and if it's not treated it will feel like hay.

B*tch stole my look!

I switch up between natural and commercial. Sometimes I smear on some coconut oil. This I leave on from a half an hour to unlimited. When I clean house I leave it on for 8 hours. I also like castor oil.

Commercial stuff I like Garnier's Honey Treasures mask. Or just normal conditioner. I leave it is for 30 minutes and my hair feels great. Also try Palmer's Coconut mask. That stuff changes chemically damaged hair like a boss.

. . . And useth finishing oils

It was a trend so most oils were phased out. Luckily in ZA most women have ethnic hair and ethnic hair love the moisture oil gives.

I usually use oil after I washed my hair. It makes the drying process faster and makes my type A1 hair more manageable. Sometimes, especially more in winter, my ends feel gross and dry so I just work in some oil on the ends of my hair.

Thou shall nourish thyself for hair in future

Now not all of us get those free blue gummy sweets for our Instagram. #Spon #ad. But there are things you can buy for a fraction of the price. If you have a good Multi-vite you are already good to go but because I know I put my hair through a special kind of torture: Bleach

I like Vital's Hair, Skin and Nails gel capsules. They are literally available every where. Dischem, Clicks, Checkers, PnP and even on Takealot.com . If you want to take the vegan route try Natura'sCombin Assist tissue salts Hair and nails. They are also available every where online at Faithful to Nature.

Looks may be easy to come, yet decide on how thy display

I started a hash tag to group all my hair selfies. #Kyknoudiehare. It was two old ladies who obviously didn't think I could understand Afrikaans: Look at the hair. Like I'm not a person. I had people physically stop and stare at me with their mouths open. (For me weird hair feels like normal hair as my Instagram feed normalizes this for me. I follow A LOT of fashion coloured hair women. When I see other unicorns, mermaids, mermicorns I always compliment them.)

Because my hair to so bright, I tend to lean more towards more “natural” coloured neutral make up. I'm not really going for pastel Goth, club kid, Harajuku, cos-player look that is normally associated with fashion colours. Fashion hair with other excessive colours (make-up and clothes) can quickly look like a costume. Even my eye brows are still their normal colour.

If you are not doing the fashion colours and you do a change like from brown to red/ blond or blond to dark you still need to change make-up. When I dyed my hair dark brown after being blonde for seven years I felt like I looked weird until I got a darker brow pencil and got darker lip stick.

Love they hair as is discolours or fades . . .

And it will fade. But not all colours fade equally. Blue and green become muddy but purple and pink become a cool pastel colour but then the roots come out. * eye roll *

Here I usually enlist the help of Platinum/ purple shampoo. Recently, since I coloured my hair with it, I would mix some of Renew's Perfect Colour with it's in-box conditioner with a few drops of the colouring. That is then tones out some of the weirdness.

. . . and know the one that will who will assist when if fails

Let's say it's been 10 weeks, by then your hair is going to be looking pretty real. You need someone to make you come right. I tend to mess with my hair on my own because I understand the basics of hair and hair type science but we can't all be our own Guy Tang.

Come though for us Guy

Now and then it's best to get in a chair of a professional. Look for someone who suits your needs. I had the worst experience at a more high end salon where I spent a lot of money and just got treated like someone they wanted out of their seat for the next one. The next time I went I got second rate service from the stylist because she double booked me with a bride so I got stuck with a junior stylist who couldn't stop complaining about how the other juniors should be helping her.

At the moment I'm at a more old school stylist wit a two chair salon where we judge people who think they can colour their hair blonde in one sitting with a home kit. We also laugh at people who mess up their hair at home and she has to fix it.

If you aren't confident colouring at home, buy the colour and most stylist will assist you with application. They are trained and have the knowledge and the right tools for the application.

That is my commandments for healthy coloured hair. Amen to healthy hair.

é

January 2017 Favourites

And that was it for the first month of the year. Here are my favourites of the month of #Saltbae:

Essence Brow Designer in DarkBrown:

I have a bit of a sparser brow these days. I used the Blond for a while and as I changed my hair I changed the pencil.

This is available at Clicks, Dischem, Red Square and some Pick 'n Pays For R29.95.

Renew Perfect Colour in Passion Pink, Royal Sapphire, Purple Fantasy and Ocean Burst:

This purchase came from over watching Guy Tang. My Little Pony galaxy hair was calling me. Now there are unfavourable reviews on Instagram and their Facebook ads' comments but hair colour is actually chemistry and especially with fashion colours it's a gamble if you don't know. Personally the only problem I had with this kit is my own limitation. I loved it. It's a good product for a great price.

In my temp kits I got the powder and developer to pre-lighten. (I am a person who peroxides monthly and this stuff is boss)

100ml of colour cream. (A bonus, as the other brand that does fashion colours only have 50 for double the price)

2 conditioning treatments (Bonus tip: as my colour was fading in toned it with a bit of colour cream I had left mixed with a conditioning treatment)

Gloves, leaflet and mixing brush

AND a bottle of shine serum. (I LOVE that stuff. I'm glad I have 3 extra bottles so I can use it FOREVER)

Now I did this on my own in my guest bathroom . . . okay, my husband help with the back of my head. I went to my stylist and she was impressed with the results. She lifted part of the colour and there were real opal hair vibes. I will be buying the Ash Blond and taking it to her so we can mix a blue grey.

Woolworths Mens jeans:

WHAT! MENS JEANS!

Yes, I bought man pants. I wish to live in a world where men and women’s wear are created equally. Why are women's wear so expensive? An plain T for men: R39. Plain T for women: R80- R100. Why does a size 14 (38) in women’s come to my thigh and a men’s 38 (14) fit well? Why is one shop's 14 over size and another I can just pull up just past my knee?

I guess those are mysteries we will never solve. (Please don't come here with your 'men are bigger' stories. 38 is the inch measurement of the waist and 14 is another sizing unit for 38.) Also men’s jeans are made out of more robust material.

Potatoes:

I did not jump on the January diet wagon as I am already cutting back on bread, pasta and the starch section of the food groups but I can't leave potatoes. Baked, mashed or fried. I've scaled down the amount but I will never stop eating the potatoes. I'd rather have less than stop.

Went for an Eye Test:

For a new part of my Favourites series I thought I would add a health item instead of more food. So last month I went for an eye test and got two pairs of new glasses. On most medical aids eye tests are 100% covered.

I made an appointment at Torga optical. They have an option of buy one frame and get another free. They have a range of all kinds of glasses. That is actually why I went to them. The test was quick. I went in on a Wednesday and Saturday I could already go and collect my glasses. I had to pay in an amount but I got 2 pairs of fully functioning glasses.

Meitu

Recently there has been an influx of this app's popularity. This is my go to app for filters and editing.

The new Hand drawn feature will make you look dreamy A.F.

Window Shopping:

In real life and online. You can look and take in all these beautiful things and your bank balance stays the same. From furniture stores to just swatching my arms full of make up. Cost: R0. I especially looking at clothes that are nice but I'll never wear. Same with some lip sticks. My Takealot wish list also grew to almost a 100 items 3 quarters of it is things I will eventually buy, later.

I recommend that this can only be done with certain people or by yourself. I had experiences that involved a super judgemental people who just shops for themselves (immediate anxiety trigger) and I'm one of those people who loves pieces and colours even if it's not for me.

That's my that.

é

Flower arranging

When I started this blog I want to teach you cheap, easy life tricks some make impossible or make it seem like you need a life time of knowledge to perfect. Decor, style, cooking, make up and other nitty gritty things people are afraid of because there are professionals in the field. I'm not saying you should learn how to rewire your house or bend and weld your car a new exhaust. Some stuff needs a pro.

Flower arranging is one of those things I feel that, if using your logical human brain, is easy. Here is my way of arranging a bunch of flowers:

My supplies are

Flowers

A Vase

Scissors

Bleach

Sugar

You can use any flowers in this arrangement I used roses. In the other picture I used a mixture of flowers in a standard bouquet. Now I know a lot of things like doing a minor service on my car and how to work my complicated tumble drier (I physically had to read how to use it. And friends who also bought one also told me how they battled) but I don't in general know flower names. I know like roses and lilies and stuff but I go for colours I like or what fits the room. Mostly the colour I like. You also don't necessarily have to use flowers. Some stems with leaves or even herbs can look fresh and chic.

Now vase sounds fancy. Like you should spend R200 on a container to arrange your flowers. I don't have money or time for that. Really? Like for real? I use a simple washed mayonnaise bottle. Ina Garten doesn't have time for that. She uses drinking glasses (See easy tips #50). Put that R200 or more back into your pocket.

To stretch the life of the flowers you can add one teaspoon bleach and 2 teaspoons of sugar to about 1 litre (4 cups) water. I mix it in with a chop stick.

Measure your flowers to your container. Remove all leaves from the stem that would be under the water line

Cut the stem to an angle for more surface area to absorb water. 

To arrange just use your natural mind of symmetry. We all have that. It works on the concept of 'If it looks right, it is right'. Use what looks right to your eye. With the height and colour. If the colour and size of the bloom does not look right, like if there is too much yellow or what, just move it until it looks right. Use what your eye tells you because it's a thing your mind does naturally everyday. Probably without you even noticing.

Place and Instagram that shit.

É tips:

• Check water regularly. The purple roses lasted a good week and a half so I had to refill the water a bit
• Buy yourself flowers. Fo' real. On a budget? There are some bunches for R35. You don't have to buy every week/ day or even month. But just do it.
• Don't stress too much about the arrangement or knowing the names. We use lipstick for blush. Blankets for throws. Linens for table cloths. Martini glasses for pudding bowls and bananas for eggs baking a cake.
• If you have extra leaves from a standard bouquet, layer it around the edge of the flowers.
• Remember to remove all leaves that would be under the water line. They could rot and become all weird and slimy in the water

Hope this let's you start having more flowers in your living areas. What's your favorite flowers?

é

MacGyver Manicure

Now I know some readers may not know who Macgyver is (My spell check want it to be Maguire tsk tsk tsk). He is in the league of Chuck Norris and David Hasselhoff's Michael Knight. He would be hand cuffed to a rail, locked up in a steel cupboard falling from a plane plummeting into the ocean. He escapes and stops the bad guy with a bobby pin, toilet roll, an empty egg carton and a battery. All kinds of bad assery.

Here is my way of making my nails last:

Clean off previous polish push back your cuticles and file your nails. I choose to use nail polish remover for acrylic or gel nails as it doesn't dry out your nails. Wipe down the nail instead of trying to make fire wiping up and down and left and right. I also recently started using a glass nail file. It's much gentler than normal nail boards. I choose also NOT to buff my nails. They are already so thin I don't want to thin them out even more. Most base coats act as ridge fillers.

Start with a nail primer. This removes the oils from the nail for better polish adherence. Now we don't have Sephora with their Formula X here in South Africa. (Why? Is it because we are African?) So I tested a few DIYs like lemon juice and apple cider vinegar but the best so far is vodka. I bought a few nail polish bottles from Westpack, filled one with vodka and it just works. Paint it on and let it dry.

Next paint your base coat. Not clear polish. A base coat. I know some brands sell clear polish as base and that's just not good enough for me. I know Essence has the type I wanted. It's milky and when you paint it on the texture is a bit rough. But due to the stores I go to, don't really like to restock. WTF. So I resorted to make my own plan. I used Pink Armour “Nail Gel”(Yes I will put that in inverted commas as it's just normal clear nail polish tinted pink) and added some Maizena (Corn Starch) until it became milky. (Storing is tricky as the corn starch settles at the bottom over time. Before using I mix it up a little with a toothpick)

Paint your colour then base again. Then colour again. It's best to set aside at least an hour for nail painting. Make sure to leave proper time to dry. The more layers you add the longer it takes to dry. The best I can explain is that as you paint the next layer it 'fuses' with the previous layer it wets the layer making it fragile for squishing and smudging. 

Cool tip: Use Prestik to hold the polish bottle. 

Do your nail art. I enjoy Regular Show. As ain't nobody has time for intricate character designs I did the title screen background with sponging.

Even if you did not do a design, paint on a top coat. It gives it that extra shine and make the polish last that bit longer and seals in the design. With sponging it's like the blends better.

Clean up the edges with nail polish remover and either a q tip or a brush. Last step is the difference between a salon manicure and a DIY. Oil. You could go all fancy and buy a cuticle oil. I'm too cheap for that. I bought lip gloss roller bottles from wespack and filled it with extra virgin olive oil. You can also use coconut oil, sweet almond oil or a mixture. You can buy small bottles of each at clicks and dischem that are for medicinal use (Usually by the calamine lotion and caster oil.)

Smear it on each nail and rub it in to your skin. We've spent all this time removing oil and that dries the nail bed and cuticle out. The real trick is to cuticle oil every time you wash your hands. Just because I write it here doesn't mean I do it. I ain't gonna lie. I try to every night before bed.

You also have to top coat every night but by the time my nails chip or flake off (depending on the quality of the polish) I'm bored of my nail design anyway.

That is my Magyver way of doing my nails. What is you unusual trick to make polish last longer?

é

Doing Business with people . . . with purple hair

For a while I have been following Pretty Pandora on Facebook. As you could guess I like my oddly coloured hair and with Pinterest sparking more interest in all the colours of the rainbow hair it was only a matter of time before I started looking for product to give the same result.

The hard part was picking the colours. Especially since she got a teal colour in earlier that week (Mermaid hair!!!) I was in the My Little Pony vibe so I got electric purple, deep blue and a flaming pink. It was as easy as I in-boxed Pretty Pandora and placed my order. She gave me banking details with a reference I must use. The day she received my payment she posted my tubs.

Here is how I used the product:

A bowl you don't mind messing up

Conditioner or I used normal Previous Christmas’s unused Body lotion

Gloves are a must

An old damaged towel

Foils if you do peekaboo highlights like I did or want colour only on certain places

Highlight brush to mix and apply colours

A shower cap to limit mess

AND the pretty Pandora dye powder

This is how sectioned up my hair

I didn't colour my whole head. . . YET. I just wanted peekaboo colour that I could hide and didn't colour close to my face

Hair dresser tip: Fold foils about 2 cm over a piece cardboard. I hacked up the box the dyes came in.

The cardboard keeps the hair steady on the foil

And with the help of my sister we foiled my colours in. Pink, purple, blue, pink, purple, blue

After this I put on a shower cap and did a few things around the house

Pretty's instructions are to leave it in for an hour though in our conversation she said she sleeps with her colour over night (Semi permanent colours need all they can get to last) I left mine in for two and a half hours.

This was two weeks on after colouring

Top tips For maximum results:

• Don't condition your hair before you do this. This dye gets mixed with a conditioner so your hair sucks up the colourful goodness of the powder.
• After colouring keep washing to a minimum. Opt for a dry shampoo or baby powder.
• This works best with lighted hair. The lighter the hair the brighter the colour
• Wear a shower cap or wrap a plastic bag around your hair. Heat assist it the colouring process. (Good call sleeping with it. Everything stays nice and warm)
• The old towel must also be used for after colour drying.Unless you like rainbow towels.

Pros:

• Was so easy to order
• Easy to understand instructions
• Fun variety of colours
• Cheap compared to other very similar products. Three tubs for R180 Postage included
• Awesome specials

Cons:

• Post office is so slow (Hopefully the business grows enough to afford a courier company)
• That I didn't find this company sooner
• That you probably haven't ordered yet.

Thanks for the great service and excellent product Pretty Pandora!

What Pretty Pandora Dye colour would you colour your whole head?

é