Cosmetology School: Hair Experiment Success

Hi there!
Today I went through a process of removing hair dye/excess hair dye from my hair and toning it to reach a pale blonde color and felt like I should blog about it.
The first thing I want to mention before diving into this process is that removing hair color is something should be done by a professional or under professional supervision. The chemicals that go into this mixture can do serious damage. This is why I do not recommend any drugstore products that remove hair color. I am talking about Color Oops and L'oreal Color Zap(also any other brand of color remover that is sold to the public).
Those products have peroxide and at times, specifically when you are working with blonde shades(7-9) or semi permanent hair dyes, you do not need peroxide to remove the dye.
Also the instructions for color removers are very exact and must be followed accordingly. Any break away from the instructions could lead to serious problems with your hair(such as it turning green or your hair actually being fried).
Anyway, I am a cosmetology student and I am lucky enough to have a teacher that is very observant of her students. None of us are allowed to go through a chemical process without her supervision, especially the first, second and third time we attempt the chemical process.
So this process was done by a fellow student of mine along with the help and supervision of my teacher.
We used a professional hair color remover called L'oreal Effasol Color Remover. This product was purchased through my school supply but it is also available at Sally's to anyone who has a PRO card.

Please excuse the mess. This was taken after the process.

If anyone has looked through this blog they would know my hair was two colors. My bangs about 3-4 inches of my hair was blonde and the rest was a bright purple, light purple, light blue, and turquoise(from previous bleach touching blue spots).
I had colored my entire hair purple 4 months ago and there was a 4 inch section where the purple would not budge. About a month ago I decided to change up the all over purple with alternating strips of blue and purple. This lasted for about 2 weeks before the new dyes started washing off and mixing themselves in with the constant purple.
Finally I had had enough and decided I wanted to remove it. I mean, my mother is coming down to visit, I have Christmas and New Years parties to go to, and there will be many, many pictures taken. I was not about to take pictures with a mostly blonde head and purple tips with randoms spots of blue or turquoise.
I talked to my teacher and she recommended a color remover instead of bleaching the color out. She told me it would not cause any damage to my hair and would take out the majority or all over the dyes that would not come out otherwise.
So I bought all the products I needed and started the process early in the morning. There are instructions for 4 different hair situations on the packet. I decided mine was the first situation.
The instructions were simple: mix the packet with 2 oz of warm water and apply to dry hair. Leave in for 5-20 minutes. Rinse, Shampoo, etc. Because the purple had been so resistant and that blue dye would barely budge I went through this process twice. So I used 2 packets of the color remover.
Remember, my process did not contain peroxide so there was no damage done to my hair. The instructions on the packet go as far as hair color that is at levels 1 to 4 and using 20 vol developer. This is why this is only a professional product.
Even with the double process, I was left with greenish bits in the back of my head where the blue dye had once existed. My teacher recommended bleach but I had dealt with hair color stains likes this before and felt it would be better to just tone my hair and leave it wash out on it's own.
To tone my hair we used Wella Color Charm T18. This is my go to toner if I want a pale blonde. I would not recommend this if you want white hair. I will hopefully have a post up soon about how to get white hair. That is my next project. I have already done it but this time I will be trying a different product and my hair is in much better condition than it was the first time I attempted it.
Sorry I do not have a picture of this toner. I use it all the time but I have linked it just because.
After leaving it in for 30 minutes I washed it out with purple shampoo. All I ever use is purple shampoo since I made my bangs blonde. While in the process of hair remover I also used purple shampoo. I would recommend a clarifying shampoo instead but I currently do not own one. Many people recommend Paul Mitchell Clarifying Shampoo #3.
After shampooing, I always use a protein treatment. If you ever decide to bleach or lighten your hair you need to buy hair masks and treatments for your hair. The best thing you can buy is pure protein and covering your hair with it, like you would with a mask, about once a week.
I wash my hair once a week so every time I wash my hair I use it. The protein product I use is called Jheri Redding Professional Natural Protein Conditioner.

It is 100% natural protein. The ingredients are water, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, sodium chloride, and apple cider vinegar. Those are count as vegan ingredients right?  Anyway, this stuff smells like soy sauce but it leaves your hair so much stronger. It strengthens and hardens your hair and it is necessary if you like to go through any chemical process. Here is where you can buy it. And here are some reviews from Folica.
Also I would recommend using your usual conditioner after rinsing it out. Your hair will be pretty hard after leaving it in for 20 minutes. Also if you have a sensitive scalp you might want to spot check to see if it causes you any irritation, as you would with any product I hope.
ApHogee also makes a pretty good product that helps inject protein into your hair. It is not pure protein and because of the instructions and how specific of a product it is I would not recommend this to be used by yourself. You should consult a professional about using this product. I have used it before myself and it left me with so-so results because I could not comply with the directions exactly.
Anyway it's called ApHogee Two Step Protein Treatment and can be bought at Sally's.
Now, every two weeks I use a hair mask. It has become a great conditioner after the protein treatment and it always leaves my hair silky smooth and perfect. It's called Carol's Daughter Monoi Repairing Hair Mask. This stuff is the real deal. A super natural solution and it only takes 5-7 minutes.

After shampooing and doing the protein treatment, I take 2 fingers full of product, rub it between my hands and cover my hair from top to bottom. It smells like a day at the beach and is perfect to relax in. You could leave it in your hair for longer than 7 minutes and just pamper yourself.
And honestly you can get this product for much cheaper than $32. I bought it for $24 at an Army base PX. Check Amazon and eBay.
Well, this has become a long post about hair care and hair processes. I will leave you with the outcome of double hair removal process and toner.

You can see the section that is green. It's like a patch. That is where most of the blue hair strips were.

Thank you for reading!

Introduction

Hi there!
I feel like starting blog by doing some sort of introduction of not only myself but also how I got into makeup and hair coloring. I don't joke when I say makeup is my lifestyle. I can spend an entire day just doing makeup and feel super exhausted afterwards but the feeling of joy during and after the work is explainable.
I can't even really pin point when it was when I got interested and fully immersed in the world of makeup. My mom was never some kind of connoisseur but she always had this beautiful range of lipsticks and her makeup always looked very IN. However she was not a fan of letting me wear makeup during my teen years. I got away with wearing eyeliner and little mascara from the ages of 13 to 15.
It was when I was 15 that I started using YouTube to find makeup tutorials. I was really into using bright colors and making my eyes bigger. It was around that time that I found the scene styles and gyaru styles. I somehow managed to try to mix them together by having big dolly eye makeup and black, overly teased hair.
By the time I was 16 I was going through some tomboy/short hair/loose clothes situation where I still wore makeup but enjoyed disguising myself to look less feminine clothing-wise. It was a weird time but for whatever reason I felt comfortable explaining to people that I just wanted to dress that way. Gender roles have never been my thing.

I was 16 and in some loose variation of my school's uniform. Makeup was eyeliner and neutral eyeshadows.

It wasn't until I turned 17 that I decided to go blonde and get more into trying out gyaru fashion. It was also around this time that I started wearing foundation and learning about contouring.
I just realized this is becoming like a timeline and I don't really like that idea. Anyway, fast forward to me being 19 and many things have changed in my life. I went through most of my 18th year being a brunette (again) and it felt like such a detriment on my creativity. So one day I decided I was going to be blonde, but not blonde like I was when I was 17, which was a golden blonde. I want to be PLATINUM BLONDE.
This was going to be a bit difficult since I was full blown brunette. As in, it was a chocolate brown all over. I went to the hair salon and my stylist told me that I had to do it slowly so she gave me highlights and I was mildly satisfied. For about 2 weeks.
I decided to start doing some research since I had never bleached my own hair and I was planning on doing this all by myself since I knew my mom would not be willing to attempt it. After about 3 weeks of research I found a great step by step guide and a list of all the products I needed. The whole experience (2 bleaches and a toning) took me about 5 hours. My hair came out completely white, which was perfect, but my mother had a bit of a meltdown when she saw me and told me I needed some color in my hair. So we went to Walgreens and I bought the lightest shade of ash blonde I could find.
I kept my hair that way for a while. I really did like the super light blonde. However, I knew nothing about purple shampoo and it eventually started getting brassy and more yellow.
I had already been watching videos on how to lighten your hair and everything and I had found some videos on how to get your hair pastel shades and even a perfect white. I had decided to let my hair rest for about a month or two and then I would go in with pastel colors and whatever else.
I had never used any semi-permanent hair dyes so I did more research. Manic Panic was an obvious choice but I didn't feel like paying $12 for a tiny tub of dye. Instead, I found out about La Riche Directions and fell in love with the colors and pigmentation. Plus they don't run or wash out as quickly as Pravana or Manic Panic, respectively.
I found a great online store on eBay that sold them for the same price as they do in the UK and quickly ordered 3 shades, Violet, Carnation Pink, and Atlantic Blue. I had a bunch of different colors and mixtures and truly loved playing with my hair so much.

This was my first attempt at pastel hair. I mixed a smidge of Violet with lots of conditioner. My hair was still more blonde than lilac. This was the best light I could get to show off the color.

Probably one of my favorite hair experiments. I still call this my MLP hair because of great the gradient is and how much my hair looks like cotton candy. This is using all three dyes I had with varied amounts of conditioner.

For the most part I had my hair like in the two pictures above, white/gray with slight color variation. Whenever I used Carnation Pink I would end up with peachy blotches in my hair that I hated and would just cover with blue or purple and eventually go back to this light silver. My hair is also naturally curly and you can see in the picture on the left that my hair was left quite dry and damaged.
I had a lot to learn about hair care during this journey and in the end I think it was worth it. I would only wash my hair once a week with purple shampoo and a leave-in conditioner instead of a regular one. I used the Aussie one that comes in a purple tube. I also started using hair masks and protein treatments.
There's only so much you can do on damaged hair. It will never gets it's full life back.
I didn't mean for this to turn into a hair show but I don't have many pictures documenting just my makeup and in most of these pictures I have some kind of makeup on. I'll try to document my makeup better just for this blog.
Currently, my hair is 3/4 purple and 1/4 blonde. It's a transition I'm going through. I even cut off my dead ends so my length has been slightly affected. It will grow back and quickly too since all the processes I put my hair through don't really seem to slow down it's growth.
I did go back to being brunette in March. It was a mistake and a big setback for me hair-wise and style-wise, but I guess it did let my hair breathe and gain strength before I went full purple.
I hope this posts sets a good foundation for this blog. I will be using it to document my hair and makeup experiments along with whatever fashion catches my eye. I will be trying to keep this blog as free of my personal life as possible, in which I mean I will not be talking about what happens in my life that has nothing to do with these things.
Anyway, thank you for reading!