Testing, testing; Layrite Pomade

So for those of you who haven't heard of the Hawleywood Layrite, (or heard of, but never used) I thought I would give you my thoughts on this product, my first impression. I've never used such 'fancy pomade' before. I've stuck with various cheap stuff! The kind that you get at your everyday drugstore. I'm not slammin' drugstore products at all, I love certain things, but some of the pomade, or waxy stuff you can get there has always kept me wondering: I's this really how it's supposed to feel like?' I was never truly impressed I guess is what I'm trying to say. (If anyone knows of a good, cheap pomade, please let me know!)

One of the cheaper brands I've tried is Dax-Wax, which is around $6. Despite of hearing a lot of horrible things about this, I decided to try it out myself to see if it really is just a piece of crap. My issue with this product is the fact that it's too thick and super greasy (for my taste) which made it difficult to work with. It also has quite an unpleasant smell in addition to being a bitch to wash out of the hair. I think you need a special shampoo or something to get rid of everything, and really, who wants that! I ended up throwing it out, not a big deal due to the price and also knowing that my Layrite was on the way! I'm not going to tell you not get Dax-Wax, there's many out there who like and use this product - but I'm under the impression that most of them - don't. Either way, if you wanna experiment and you dislike it, you're only out six bucks! Or, you can take my word for it and save your money for a rainy day..

Another pomade that I haven't tried myself, but after what I've heard I feel it's kind of similar to the Dax-Wax. It's the legendary Murray's pomade which have been around since the mid 1920's (Correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm under the impression that this is the kind of stuff you don't wanna put in your hair unless you want it stay there *giggle*. It's unexpensive as well, $3 online for a 3 oz can. However, if you're a rockabilly 'greaser' dude doing pompadours and slick backs, you most likely want a lot of hold and probably wouldn't mind looking a little greasy! I guess there's a reason Murray's have lasted all this time..?

Now let's move on to the good stuff. Hawleywood's Layrite original pomade is $14.99 (4 oz can). You can also supersize it (like you can with everything in the US, *cheap (true) shot*), and get the 32 oz can. But for normal use, if your not a hairstylist or anything like that, I say the 4 oz will last you plenty.

The first thing I noticed when I opened it was, naturally, the color. It's kind of an orange color. The second was the smell. It doesn't smell bad at all, but I can't really put my finger on it. In a way it's a familiar smell.. both me and my boyfriend stood with our noses in it, sniffing and trying to figure it out. I'm really bad at defining smells, and I usually end up with a weird conclusion no one else gets.. Anyway, like I said, it's not a bad smell, and the scent sort of gets weaker when you get it in your hair. I concluded with the scent of summer and retro hairsalon. (...) The jar says that the fragrance is "parfum". Yah, thanks!

You use it on dry hair, just rub it in your hands until it softens before you apply it in your hair. 




The texture has kind of a rubbery feel to it, mixed with play dough. At least that's my first reaction. It softens up really nicely once it gets warmed up by your body temperature. The pomade is water soluble, so it's supposed to wash out just fine when you wash your hair. I actually believe I could sense a little bit of the smell (just a teeny tiny bit) left in my hair after I'd washed it. The pomade "grease" itself was all gone, but it was the scent that stuck. This can all just be a combination of my strange nose, overanalyzing and - a not so thorough hairwash (which is kind of gross and weird..) Moving on: Depending on how you're using the pomade - if you just want it on a little section of hair and not all over; seriously, you only need a tiny amount on your hands. It's better to add more if you need it since the pomade is kind of heavy. Adding too much will leave you with nothing less than a hot mess! The thing about pomade which for example you won't find with any hairspray or hairgel (at least none that I've heard of), is that you're actually able to comb through your hair after applying it. It doesn't dry to a hard consistency, and it makes the hair work with you not against you. The pomade also adds shine to the hairstyle, making it smooth and controls fly-aways. "For pomps, DA's, flat tops, spiking, parting, or whatever your hairstyle will be, it will LAYRITE." Quoting the jar. Got to love play on words. Am I 'riiiite?'

About the pictures of the hair: I made a faux bang type of thing, using the pomade on straight hair, not curling my hair first to see if it actually helped me with shaping and controling the hair - and it did! Really good I might add. I hardly used anything for this, just touching the surface of the pomade with my fingers. Overall impression with this is that I actually really like it, and I'm well on my way to being a Layrite-junkie. You know, wanting to do my hair all the time just so I get to use it.. The only thing is the price, which I guess is okey if you factor in that it'll last me a really long time and the quality is good. (Also the design is completely hot!) By the way, if any of you have a reasonable answer to what the smell of this pomade - please tell me!! It's driving me, insane.

Next on my list of pomade's I want to try out are: Schmiere Pomade and Suavecito Pomade. The color 'dots' next to the Schmiere Pomades shows what color the pomade's are. Oh yes, pinky/coral and bright blue! That's awesome. I read about the Schmiere Pomades on the thebobbypinblog and was mesmerized. Need to get my hands on them ASAP!

Tattoos

So, this friday, I got to build on my Pin Up tattoo on my left arm. I got two green orchids and strawberries surrounding the cupcake. I also got some blue for the background of the excisting Pin Up tattoo. This is only my third tattoo session (including the poem lower on my left arm which isn't visible in the picture) and I have to say I get more and more hooked, each time I do it. It's like a beautiful rush, and I just love it. Plus, this is the first time I didn't faint or feel faint! I guess you could call that progress, right?

Here's the "before and after". The new elements are still a little red and the colors haven't really, emerged. And also it's a polaroid that one of my friends who came with me took of the process. Fun! The artist behind the tattoo is from Latvia and his name is Rokadz. He was coming from a Tattoo Convention when he decided to visit a friend of mine for a while, sleep on his couch and do some at-home tattooing. So when I heard about this talented and not too expensive tattoo artist from my friend (which also had the tattoos to varify the talent), I jumped on the chance.

(The colors in the pictures I upload to my blog always end up looking washed out.. and I don't know how to fix it!) So here's the different angles of my arm which show's the two orchids and jummy looking strawberries! I'm really, really happy with it! The blue color as well. I think it just added to a nice composition. Another thing I was really happy with was the good price I got on this! It took three hours to finish the tattoo, and Rokadz wanted $310, which was a hundred dollars less than what I expected. The Pin Up tattoo cost me $930, which seemed insane at the moment when I handed over the money. But now I feel it was one hundred prosent worth it - I'm absolutely in love with it, and I haven't regretted it a single time.

Virgin Snow

This weekend I touched up the roots in my hair with bleach and gave my hair a long needed trim! (I wanna thank my boyfriend for being a trooper and holding up a mirror so I could see the back of my hair while bleaching.. So, if anyone is in need of a pro 'mirror-holder', I can hook you up!) It's been over a year since my hair has felt the serious touch of sharp scissors, so to save money, I took matters into my own hands. Spoken like a true cheap ass SoB. Before I cut it, my hair was shorter in the back, and longer on the sides. This is the curse and after effects of cutting a bob hairstyle. Also, it was all in one length, no layers, which makes it difficult to get the desired effect - especially with vintage hairstyles! I like to think of this bob style as an 'n-shape' - which I then cut into a 'u-shape.' Right? U-shape; Longest point in the back, gradually getting shorter towards the sides and shortest in the front. So, now my hair looks significantly shorter, but oh so worth it! After the cut I felt I was in kind of a daring mood.. So I chopped some layers into it as well! Maybe it was the bleach seeping into my brain, or just plain craziness - but it actually didn't turn out too shabby! (Or did it..?) At least not with curled hair. Unstyled it looks a little.. well, chopped. After butchering my hair, I was ready for Manic Panic amplified Virgin Snow toner! Or, two days later I was ready - after giving my hair a break from chemicals.

Here's what my hair looked liked after I had saturated each individual section with the toner. I used big hair clips and sectioned of small sections (total of 12, I think) and rubbed it really well with the toner. I started in the back, since this was the area where the yellow really got to shine. After going over my entire hair, I took whatever was left on my hands ran it over the roots - since that area didn't require that much attention because of recent bleaching. I'd made sure that I still had some toner left, and I went over each section one more time, to make sure I got the toner everywhere. I waited about an hour before I rinsed my hair, making sure that the water ran clear before I considered myself done. As I got my hair wet, the color of my hair looked grey or silver-ish. I panicked. Eventhough I know, that the color your hair is when it's wet is not what it's going to look like dry. I also could see a little bit of orange still clinging to my hair in certain areas. So to quickly get rid of my worries I got my blow dryer and ---

-- after five minutes of apprehensive blow drying, still not completely dry, I could see the color better. And, as you can see, it's not silver, nor is it grey! Hurray! I think I actually stood in front of the mirror for about ten minutes just staring at my hair.. running my fingers through it and smiling. Yepp, I'm that vain.

In these pictures I just wanted to compare the before and after.. Hopefully it'll be obvious which is the before and which one's the after. Even though the Virgin Snow didn't quite take in some areas, (I suspect this happend as a result of too little toner) like my bangs and certain patches that look a little weird with hints of yellow - it's certainly MUCH lighter and 'cooler' than what it was. Now I'll just have to see how it fades, and if it'll be worth a second buy. But the way things are looking this far, I'll most definitely be back for more! - and probably getting two jars of toner. Eventhough my hair is really fine, there's still quite a lot of it, so with two jars I'll avoid not having to 'ration' the toner like I did this time. I wish the color was permanent and not just a toner! Dang it! Anyway, my overall conclusion: Success!