I JUST KILLED THE COOKIE MONSTER

..Although, not really. I just dyed my hair. I'm trying a new mixture of several different shades of blue, going for a deeper shade. Stargazer colors in 'Royal Blue' and 'Coral Blue.' Also mixing in Manic Panic 'Bad Boy Blue', which is the one I've used on its own before. I'm discovering that I like the consistency of the Stargazer colors much better than Manic Panic. It's much thicker and less liquidy than Manic Panic. Also, it seems to be much easier to spread around on the hair and it gives a more even result. Plus, I find that it last a whole lot longer than Manic Panic.. So sad, since Manic Panic has been a favorite of mine. Oh well, the 'Bad Boy Blue' shade has been discontinued anyways! I only have 3 more bottles of Manic Panic left, so I might as well start looking for something new.. Or something old.. Something borrowed, something BLUE. 

What's YOUR favorite hair dye? 

Do you have any experience with crazy colors such as Manic Panic or Stargazer? 

Hair Styling Q&A

Here's a little list of the most frequently asked questions I get on my channel. So for those of you who can handle this long rant - Ready, set, GO!

HAIR STYLING QUESTIONS

1. Where did you learn about hairstyling?

I find inspiration from pictures of old starlets, newer retro inspired looks, and of course watching videos on YouTube. When I see a picture of a style I like, I just try to recreate it on myself and find out what works and what doesn’t. I’m not a stylist, it’s all trial and error.

2. My hair have layers, will it make it more difficult for me to do vintage hairstyles?

Now, I get asked this A LOT. Somehow many are under the impression that retro styles were achieved with same length hair. But no, with all length hair the curls will lay gathered at the bottom of the hair. With layers however, you will get that beautiful waterfall look of waves/curls. I often mention ”The middy haircut” as an example of that. (Picture below) I’ll not og into further detail about the cut here, but if you want to know more LisaFreemontStreet has several videos where she’s addressing ”The middy haircut.”

Authentic Vintage Hair Techniques -The 'Middy' Haircut

'Me and My Middy' - How to ask your Stylist for a Middy Haircut

3. a) I have really long hair, will your styles work with my hair?

a) If your hair on the longer side, it’s natural that the results won’t be the same on your hair as it would on shoulder length hair or even shorter. You can still do the settings, but don’t expect the same effect. In the 1940’s for instance, long hair just wasn’t that common. Women normally kept their hair on the shorter side, and that’s what the different hairstyles are designed for.

b) Can you do a style for really long hair?

When ever someone asks me if I can do a style for long hair, I always send them a link to ’ilovegerardo’s channel on YouTube. For those of you who don't know about her yet, she’s got gorgeous, thick, long hair, and she does plenty of pin up styles.

4. My hair is super curly, can I still achieve a vintage hairstyle? I always refer to the following video to show what you can achieve, even though you have curls. (Note: not every starlet had natural straight hair.) This is based on the book Vintage Hairstyling by Lauren Rennells. Watch it here.

HAIR COLOR QUESTIONS

5. What is the natural state of your hair and natural hair color? My natural hair is straight, and the natural hair color i dark blonde.

6. How did you color your hair blonde, and how should I do it?

The bleaching process depends on your natural color. If you’re uncertain about how to bleach, ask a stylist for help. I bleached my hair myself. I bleached all of my hair twice in six months, before I decided to try and get it white. I then started using Manic Panic Virgin Snow toner. The toner got rid of the yellow tones, and really does work! Also, it doesn’t damage the hair, since it’s a toner (means it’ll wash out) and feels more like a conditioner. I touched up the roots with bleach every three months. (Read about the first time I tried it, here. (Note: The toner only works on hair that’s bleached, and generally needs touching up every 2 to 3 weeks. Check out the Manic Panic toner, here.)

7. How did you find the guts to color your hair? (blonde, blue etc.) I’ve had a lot of different colors.. Blonde, black, orange (not on purpose), white, red, orange again (still not on purpose), pink, lilac, purple, blue… and I don’t find it all that difficult to take the risk and trying something new. If it looks like shit, then jokes on me I guess! But I all boils down to wanting change, which I do, and enjoy, while some might be more cautious. Just the way it is.

HAIR ACCESSORIES, MAKE UP & STYLING PRODUCTS

8. What kind of styling products do you use for pin curls/hot rollers etc.?

For pin curls: I start of with dry hair. Before rolling a pin curl I spray the section with water, to get it damp. After brushing them out, I spray with hair spray, nothing fancy. If your hair has difficulties with holding the curls, you can spray with a setting lotion. The same goes for sponge rollers, pillow rollers.. any kind of wet setting. For hot rollers, I spray with heat protectant spray before rolling my hair.

9. What kind of clips do you use for pin curls and where can I get them?

I use double prong clips. They look exactly like in the picture. I bought 50 of them really cheap on Ebay. Just search for : ”Double prong clips” and go crazy!

10. Where do you get your flower clips? This is one of the things I always mention in the info box: I use clips from Belle Blossoms.com. The best I’ve every tried, and the most gorgeous!! ’Heather’ is the owner and designer of this company. I've already written several posts about some of her flowers here on my blog, with the label; Belle Blossoms.

11. What kind of lip color (reds) do you use?

I always get aked this – and I always use one of Julie Hewett’s shades from the Noir collection; Nude Noir, Belle Noir, Rouge Noir, Femme Noir, Coco Noir or Sin Noir. High quality, awesome red lipsticks. One of my best make up buys – ever. Take a look, here!

12. Do you always dress in the vintage inspired/rockabilly style? How do you handle weird looks? I used to dress more in vintage inspired clothing a year ago. Now I’ve gone more back to the way I used to dress before vintage, and also trying new things, ’cause I enjoy that. And I still enjoy beautiful vintage dresses every now and then. But when my hair was ice blonde, retro was basically my every day style. And as for people staring, (I’ll quote Cartman from the Out of control teens episode: ”Whatevah! I do what I waunt!”) Um, yeah… Basically the same essence as the question above; if YOU want it, then who the hell cares if people look. They’re probably looking cause you look too damn awesome.

Also, whenever you ask me questions, you’re most likely to find the answer in the info box under the video. Eventhough I am aware that most of you don’t bother reading them – I write a lot of stuff there, and it’s quicker than waiting for me to answer. ;) Hope this helped some of you, and if I've left something out, please let me know!

XxX

Introducing Cotton Candy hair

So my first (techniqually second) experiement with Manic Panic hair toners. I used the 'Cotton Candy Pink' on a couple of sections underneath the top part of my hair. I started out by pinning all the hair from my ears and up, out of the way. I took medium sized sections, placed a piece off foil underneath it and pinned the hair and foil together with double prong clips while attaching it to the root of the hair. This held each section seperated from the hair that I didn't want to get any pink toner on, and the foil made it really easy to just 'paint' the toner on. After coloring I wrapped up each section and waited about an hour before I rinsed the bottom part of my hair over the sink in cold water to lock in the color.

The blue clip is holding the hair that was underneath and in between the pink that I didn't want to get toner on. This was after I rinsed the hair and after I blowdryed it. Even though it looks bright pink in the jar, the name is definitely more true to the actual color. It's cotton candy! Oh, and here you can see how badly I need to bleach my roots. That's hot! I enjoyed trying out the pink toner, it doesn't show as well when I have my hair down, which is fine. I just wanted a little something extra, nothing too crazy, and I like it!

This week I also figured out how I wanted to create my glamorous side swept updo thingy. I'm kind of happy with it, but of course it can be perfected. The flower is this months blossom from Belle Blossom.

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!

Manic Panic Easter!

Well, easter is right around the corner. I love easter, because I love candy - and that's that. Any occasion where I'm able to eat more candy than usual, I'm completely for. I think maybe the fact that I'm high on sugar practically 24/7 is the reason for my sleep deprivation. But I just can't help myself, 'cause that sugar is just too sweet!

I wanna dye my hair. I've bleached my hair for 3 or 4 years now, and that's counting all the time it took for me to go from pitch black to brown, to brown-ish/orange, orange/yellow and finally blonde. I've dreamt of having red hair for years now, but after the hassle of getting my hair from black - to another actual color, I've sort of been putting it off. Plus, I've been looking for a cool toned blue/red color, not an orange/red which would make me look sick. And, let's not forget the commitment it takes to have red hair. However, putting the red hairdye on hold for now - when it comes to blonde, I'm really not a big fan of those yellow toned blonde colors. I like the more cool tones, which is what I have now. I find that it suits my skintone better. Eventhough my hair is really, really.. really, blonde at the time, I would like to find out if I could get it even more extreme! So I recieved a tip - Manic Panic's Virgin Snow. I've checked out Manic Panic before, but for red colors. I never even though of looking at blonde. The thing is, this color is not blonde, it's more white. Oh yes, white. If something were to take care of the last pieces of yellow in my hair, this would probably be it! So I guess I'll have to get my hands on a couple of these Virgin Snow containers very soon! Now, enough of my random haircolor rambling! Let's enjoy easter and this entertaing song and dance with Fred Astaire and the lovely Rita Hayworth.