Blue dye fun... with HAIR

OK, OK, this isn't a clothing post. And it isn't even about thrifty finds. It's about hair dye. But... it's about DIY hair dye, and that is something that I LOVE.

So since I love to dye my hair all the time, my friends have started coming to me to dye their hair as well. I've also done some cuts, but I assure you, I always make it clear that I'm totally not a professional...although I might like to be.

My friend called me last night and asked if I could come over and do her hair today. She wanted a chunk on the side to have peacock colors.

We started with piecing out the chunk of hair that we were going to dye and separating it from the other sections of hair.

In order for the funky colors to stick, you've gotta bleach the hair first. Unless you're like already a blonde.

Soooo, I mixed up some bleach powder and peroxide (30 vol--her hair is thick and dark) at a 1:1 ratio and covered the section of hair to be dyed. Very thoroughly.

We let it sit in her hair until the hair was nice and light. Tip: never leave bleach in your hair for more than sixty minutes. It's not really accurate that bleach will make your hair fall out, but it is going to severely damage it. Like super duper fry it to death.

We rinsed out the bleach and had some lunch.

You wanna put the dye on dry hair, so we dried up the bleached portion of hair and slathered on the dye. 

When dying your hair a funky color, you want to leave the dye in your hair as long as possible. Well, that is if your doing a funky color that's sans peroxide, which is practically all of them since it's really rare to find permanent funky colors. Anyway, leave it in as long as you can; it's not going to damage your hair. It's just going to help the dye stick.

We rinsed out the dye after we couldn't stand waiting any longer, and much to our dismay, the color had not taken the way we hoped. 

It might be hard to tell from the above picture, but the dye was basically just a super thin wash of teal over the bleached blonde. My friend bought the dye, and it wasn't a brand I've ever tried before. It was Color Jamz. I won't be buying it. I was quite unimpressed. 

I didn't want her to hate her hair, so I took her to my house and slathered some more dye on it. I used Ion Color Brights in aqua for the top bit of color.

I LOVE Ion Color Brights colors. They are super sticky. We also used N Rage in purple plum for the darker part of her hair. It's also fabulously sticky color.

We let the color sit for a while and then washed it out. We dried it and took some pics of the finished product, which I think is awesome. 

Blue or Purple?

I LOVE this dress. I got it at the thrift store for like $5. Just like this. There were no changes needed. OK, so maybe I took in the sides a tiny little bit, but I didn't even have to do it.

This dress is awesome, and someone just got rid of it, and then I got to buy it, and now I get to wear it, and I love it. So, yeah, that rocks.

This is why it's worth digging through the racks. 

Also, this color: is it blue or purple? I say purple, but it's kind of in that weird middle ground where some people say it's blue. 

DIY: Jacket Dyeing Renewal

I bought this jacket ages and ages ago, like I was in high school when I bought this. I wore it a lot back when I bought it, but for some reason even though I've kept the jacket all these years, I haven't really been wearing it much for a long time.

The original state of the jacket. Yeah, that pin is covering up a stain.

When I did this dye experiment, I decided to take a chance and throw this old jacket in the dye as well. This was the result.

I didn't take a lot of care to make sure the fabric dyed evenly, and I love the uneven look of the color. AND you can't see the stain anymore.

I love the look of the buttons, which didn't take the dye, along with the dyed fabric.

Here's the cool part: since I dyed this jacket a few weeks ago, I've worn it like six times. It's awesome, and this jacket totally has a new life now. I'm definitely going to try dying other pieces that I've stopped wearing.

Floral Blue Alteration

I picked this dress up at the thrift store a couple years ago, so I don't remember how much it was, but  it was probably about $5. It doesn't have a tag, so I wonder if someone made it at home. I wore it many times just as it was when I bought it. I loved it, but eventually I felt like it was just not actually that great. I don't know why or how, but one day I just didn't love it anymore. I put it in my closet for months, always meaning to wear it or alter it, but I never did until just a couple weeks ago.

Here's the only "before" picture I can find. It's literally the worst, so it might not be super helpful.

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I shortened the sleeves. They were 3/4 length before. And I shortened the skirt. It was mid-calf, and now it's just barely below the knee.  

This skirt may not look it, but it's HUGE. Hemming it took HOURS. There was just so much fabric to deal with. It was crazy.

Anyway, I feel like it's much more wearable now, and my love fore this dress has definitely returned!