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. 

"Petunia" Top

Another beloved piece from my vintage collection:

 This beautiful top has a delicate mix of pinks and purples and an asian-inspired flower print.

 I'm not usually a fan of collars, but the collar on this top lies pretty flat and is pretty understated, so I don't have a problem with it.

This top comes from a company called Pykettes. I've seen a lot of this brand in thrift stores around here, and I'm guessing it may be because Pykettes, which was made by Pyke Manufacturing Company, was based in my local area. A lot of their shirts scream "little old lady" to me, but some are just too pretty to pass up. They do have some lovely patterns!

Here's how I'd wear it:

Petunia by princesszandra featuring black pants

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. 

Black Floral on Sheer Purple

I picked this dress up for a whopping $8 at the thrift store. It really is a ton of money for a thrift dress, but I bought it anyway. I loved the fabric, and I felt like I could make it more wearable. The brand is called New Raves, and it seems to be from the 80s.

I should have taken a before photo... oops. Anyway, step one was of course to remove the shoulder pads. They were huge.

The dress used to have a very huge top, and the skirt was fitted until it hit about mid-calf, where it flowed out.

I decided that step two should be to unpick the skirt from the top. I cut inches off of both so that the top is now a bit more fitted, and the skirt is a bit shorter and has more movement throughout.

For step three, I decided to turn the rather high round neck into a small v, and I added a tiny collar detail to it.

I've worn the dress with a full slip under it, but it would benefit from being lined. That will be step four. Maybe someday.