Sunkissed Hair In A Spritz

Has your hair fallen into a dull trap? Do you need sunkissed hair, and fast?

Sun-In is a product formulated to bring out natural light tones in your hair using heat or sunlight. As a personal user of sun-in, I will say it works awesome. All you do is coat your hair depending on how light you’d like the outcome (more saturated for lighter results, less for darker) and sit in the sun or blow dry until it’s dry.

One downfall to sun-in is that it gives the hair a certain sticky texture when it dries. If you use sun-in, make sure you’re able to wash your hair after. And the best part is, when the product washes out, the highlights stay.

Sun-in also tastes like lemons. My hair got caught in my mouth after a day at the beach that I had sprayed some in my hair, so if you need a tastebud refresher, there you have it.

Here’s the catch.

Sun-in’s second ingredient is- wait for it- HYDROGEN PEROXIDE.

Plot twist.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This is so bad. This is really, really bad. Hydrogen Peroxide is a bleaching agent. As seen in “Bleaching vs. Dying vs. Toning” this is a hair RUINER.

So, with my advice in consideration, and your luscious locks on the line, stay very very far away from this solution.

The Beauty of Deep Conditioning

Deep Conditioning. Ahhhhh. It heals as good as it feels. The whole point of using conditioner in the shower is because it temporarily coats your hair to make it smooth and silky. So why not keep it in for hours? Makes sense right?

When you deep condition your hair, its better to use oils rather than conditioner. The best oils to use are avocado, coconut, olive, castor, or hemp seed.

How To:

#1) Make sure to deep condition on a day that you don’t plan on going out, and i wouldn’t bank on going out the next day. Oils are hard to get out in one wash so it may leave your hair greasy.

#2) Prep your dry hair by flipping it over and start rubbing the oil into your scalp. Make sure to massage your scalp because it increases blood flow and kick-starts hair follicles to start growing.

#3) Start rubbing the oil into the free hair and pay close attention to your ends. Since they are fragile and are doomed to split, this will aid in repairing them.

#4) When you’re done, you should look like you just got out of the shower your hair if so wet.

#5) Leave it in for at least an hour. If you give it two hours your hair will be screaming thanks.

#6) When you’re ready to be squeaky clean, you can go in the shower and wash it out.

All hail sleek, shiny hair.

Repairing Your Mane

This blog entry is going to be how to revive your damaged locks. Whether you’ve been texting your hairdresser’s boyfriend, or you think you’re a hairdresser, it’s easy to kill fragile, precious hair.

Bleach accidents

Bleaching accidents are the hardest to fix because not only are you stuck with fried hair but also a color change. The first thing you need to do is get over the thought that your hair can[‘t be cut. If you’re one of these girls, who won’t go for a trim for years at a time, stop reading now. All I’m saying is, know what’s in the best interest for your mane. If the ends are really destroyed, and your hairdresser feels the need to cut them, just do it. If they are crimpy and dry and stiff, you’re better off chopping. After you part ways and have a lovely funeral service, build a bridge and get over it. Rock your bob and call it a day!

To deal with the excess bleached hair that has been whited out, just dye over it with preferably a toner (i.e Bleaching vs Dying vs Toning, toning is the safest.) And take great care of your locks from here on out, until it grows to the desired length. How you ask?

#1) Deep conditioning treatments. And don’t go out buying the expensive hair masks. Stick to the basics- coconut oil, coconut milk, avocado oil, castor oil, etc. You can either leave these in for 30 minutes to however many hours you’d like, or you can pour them into a spray bottle and spritz it into your hair to wear it all day. (The longer you wear it, the better.)

#2) No heat. Don’t even start with the moaning and groaning. The rumors are true, it works wonders. Here are some methods- invest in straightening shampoo (for the straight haired, but frizzy haired), invest in styling products that will tame your natural hair (i.e. Beat The Heat), use socks/shirt clippings/paper bags to curl your hair. Go down your preferred path, but let me remind you natural hair is in.

#3) Don’t stop there. Even after your luscious locks have grown out and you’ve achieved your hair goal, the baby still needs tender love and affection. It’s always good to nurture your hair with moisturizing conditioning treatments. And as for a heat-strike, your hair will be giving back in a short two weeks, resulting in shinier, detangled locks.

Flat, Stringy, Greasy Hair

If you’re unfortunate soul has been cursed with thin hair, I’m sorry. Terribly sorry.

With my deepest condolences, I give you also, vital information on how to make your thin, stringy hair look naturally full and voluminous.

#1) Haircut. I KNOW. Scary. BUT, cutting layers into your hair can add a lot of volume. The mechanics behind this? Of course hair is not too heavy, but has weight. If you cut it shorter, it won’t weigh itself down as much. Boom. Volume.

This tactic also gives body to your hair. Who wants plain old, straight hair when you can have flowy, feathered locks?

#2) Oils and fats. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you ingest them. Every hair guru knows that oils like olive oil, castor oil, avocado oil, etc, are great masks for dry, brittle hair. This moisture can easily fake a full look. Who looks at dull hair and says “Wow that’s a nice head of hair?” NOBODY LADIES. NOBODY.

Like I said, please do not ingest the oils and fats. You can make masks out of castor, avocado, and olive oils. Fat-wise, you can use coconut milk, mayonnaise (I know. Wash this out good,) and yogurt.

There you go, cherubs. Although you can turn to chemical hair growth methods, who wants to put that stuff so close to their brain? Throw those toxins away. Go natural.

There’s A Way To Safely Bleach!?

As promised in my last post, I am elaborating on how to safely bleach your hair in this blog entry. To be honest, i fibbed a little bit. Bleaching is never 100% safe (i.e. “Bleaching vs Dyeing vs Toning). I will be teaching you a safer way to bleach your locks.

Go out and buy your bleach solution, usually a kit consisting of bleach powder and processing solution. No need to fret over kits that swear they are “Ammonia free!” or “Peroxide free!” because they’re lying. We already went over how bleach works, and peroxide and ammonia are two vital substances to make the process work.

Mix your kit components, and pour half of the solution into the conditioner you use normally. Remember that bleaching causes the hair to become dry, so its best to wash every two days. If your hair tends to get greasy easily and you need to wash it every day, become best friends with dry shampoo. It works great.

Keep in mind that this process is gradual, not immediate. It will take a couple weeks to at most a month and a half.

Let’s talk about why this is safe. We all know what conditioner does, right? Here’s a brief overview. Conditioner coats the cuticle of the hair temporarily, so that all frayed parts are smoothed down, hence why if you use good conditioner, you shouldn’t have frizzy hair.

Why does this save bleached hair? Because, as we know, bleaching opens the shell of the hair follicle (rupturing the cuticle and giving it frays), but at the same time the conditioner is smoothing your cuticle back down and moisturizing the inner core that is being penetrated by the bleaching agent.

So if you think about it, all the bleaching you’re doing is balancing itself out with the moisture from the conditioner. There you have it friends. A way to safely bleach your hair.

Now that you’re whited out (get it), you can dye your hair fun colors. Like pastel colors for instance, are very popular. The biggest brand out there right now for colored hair is Manic Panic. It comes in many different colors. The way to apply is easy. Make sure your hair is bleached to a pearly white color, not golden, not orange, just white. Depending on how light you want your hue, runs parallel with how much conditioner you should add to the Manic Panic. So for instance, a desired pastel color would require a lot of conditioner. Mix your solution to the desired hue and apply to the hair as if you’re dying it.

Aly Antorcha is admired by the Tumblr community for her pastel colored hair.

You’re welcome.

Give Dull Hair Some Flare

Dull hair? Is it too dark and don’t want to bleach it? No worries, you can spruce it up with some color.

I know, it sounds a little bold, but hints of rainbow can go a long way for girls with dark, gloomy hair. My personal favorites? Reds and violets.

Red is a harder color to pinpoint. You can tint your chocolatey hair anywhere from a copper color, or a deep burgundy. It’s all about personal preference and- DING DING DING- eye color. For girls who would like to explore fiery tones, you’d better have light eyes.

Tinted Reds

Are we not seeing a trend here? Dark maroon tones to almost cherry red, all have light eyes. Also, girls with copper red to almost carrot orange, have light eyes. Except Emma Watson. But let’s face it, the girl looks good in anything.

As we know, red requires light eyes. Well what do you know, so does violet. If you’re looking to be a little more edgy, keep reading.

Tinted Violets

Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds pretty bad. Purple hair? Good god what’re you thinking? I’m thinking it looks great. For anyone going for a not-so-traditional, bold look, this is for you.

And of course, we always have an exception. Nina Dobrev struck us with her deep brown eyes when we all know that colors look best with light eyes! Nonetheless she looks stunning.

If you’re searching for more pastel tones (which are so in), stay tuned for my next blog entry. We will explore how to bleach your hair safely to achieve a pale-colored look.

Bleaching vs Dyeing vs Toning

Bleaching, dyeing, and toning. I bet you’ve never even heard of number three. So what sets toning apart from bleaching and dyeing? Simple: damage.

Bleaching and highlighting remove color from hair by lifting the outer shell of the cuticle allowing the hair to oxidize and therefor strip the color. Oxidation decolorizes the pigment in your hair shaft, which is why bleach will turn your hair almost white if it’s left on for too long. All bleaching agents include either ammonia or hydrogen peroxide. Think about this: your hair being broken down and stripped by way of hydrogen peroxide or ammonia which are two fatal substances if ingested by humans. That doesn’t even sound right.

Because you’re killing your hair, it becomes porous, frizzy, and brittle. So your hair is straw-like, Kate Middleton-like, and falling out of your head… All because you wanted blonde hair.

Oh heavens no.

Try gradually highlighting. This way, you can work your way up to a full head of blonde highlights. The same result except no bald spots on the journey there.

Dyeing your hair has ammonia in it also. Do you want to know why? Because dyeing also breaks down and then lifts your cuticle for the color to sink in. Am I stating that dyeing is just as bad as bleaching? Yes, ladies, I am. Both bleaching AND dyeing open the cuticle (protective shell) of your hair and penetrate the core. They also have the same results. Split ends, and brittle, frizzy hair.

Here’s an unfortunate picture of Hilary Duff’s serious case of split ends.

The almighty God, toning. This process contains no ammonia and no peroxide, so that means what? NO DAMAGE. Funny how that works…

Ombre versus Balayage

The ombre is just so in right now, but the balayage is leaving it in the dust. What’s a balayage? If I could only describe the beauty. It’s an ombre, but according to the expertise of brush strokes when bleaching, it appears more natural. Also, the tones used in a balayage style are more neutral and blend-provoking.

An ombre has more of a specific line between natural color and lighter tone, because the horizontal brush strokes are arranged to suit a vertical line across the hair. A balayage uses no precise line of best fit and the professional uses vertical brush strokes from the crown while being cautious to make the natural root blend with the colored hair. Examples:

The difference is there. Where the ombre is more of a dark upper half of the hair, a balayage is only a dark crown of the hair. Also, the balayage blends naturally because the hairdresser uses a bleached hue that is only a shade or two lighter than the natural color. On the other hand, an ombre can go from dark brown to ash blonde, or even (like example #1) red to blonde.

P.S.A.

Ladies. Always keep in mind that if and when you bleach your hair, it is to be done by a professional. Bleaching can be beautiful or dangerous.

Be sure to always take gentle care of bleached hair, it is considered damaged once bleached and needs extra nutrients to lock in moisture.

How to Rock Extensions: Don’t.

But why? Why do we want fake hair ruining our natural locks? Maybe genetics. Maybe a really bad haircut. Maybe you just shouldn’t take the risk ladies!

Fact: Extensions, no matter what shape, size, or type ruin your hair. They pull on your roots and added weight means added hair loss. Ironically, most thin-haired women use extensions as a last resort before they spend thousands of dollars in cuticle-fattening chemicals. But extensions make your hair fall out, causing you to have even thinner hair, oh the irony.

My advice:

#1) Skip the products. They’ll either dry your hair out or simply not work. Added chemicals are never beneficial.

#2) Skip the extensions. Please. They cause hair loss and almost 99% of the time don’t look natural. For example-

So what do you say? I think it looks awesome. Totally natural.

Now let’s take a good look at the aftermath.

So let’s analyze here. Extensions look awful when they’re in your hair, and the result of them leaves you bald. One alternative for an attraction to extensions due to thin hair is dying your hair. To elaborate: dying your hair actually fattens the cuticle, not for extended amounts of time, but for a good 3 weeks. You will have significant volume and fullness for that period, and by the end of your 3 weeks, you’ll probably need a new dye job anyway! So there you have it! Perfecto!

Another alternative for a bad haircut and buying extensions to fix it would be… oh I don’t know… fixing the cut! Ask your hairdresser to add in some layers to cover any mistakes, because short hair is better than no hair.

Recap: Don’t EVER get extensions. Especially not permanent ones. Or you will go bald. And nobody wants to look like 2007 Brittany.

Beat The Heat

What about thermal energy has the ladies drooling these days? I don’t know either. I think it’s time to forget heat in all!

Is that the type of treatment your luxurious mane should be getting? Heck no. All that curling, straightening, crimping (I hope you don’t do that anymore), will cause damage-or even worse-breakage of the hair.

When I say breakage, I mean breakage. As in your hair becomes so brittle it breaks off and you’re left with frayed ends and shorter hair. Example:

Watch that video to see a girl’s worst hair nightmare. How do we prevent the temptation to use heat on our mane?

So here I am, your hair hero, blessing you with important information on how to keep your locks fused together.

#1) Curl your hair with socks.

#2) Invest in straightening shampoo. (Bed Head works great. Personal experience.)

#3) Two french braids make for wavy hair. Make sure the braids are more loose so the waves look natural. (This is not my favorite look, but if your hair takes to the braids well,have fun.)

It’s best to use methods #1 and #3 when your hair is damp. Products, you ask?

#1) Biosilk, Morrocan Oil, Not Your Mother’s Smooth Moves: controls frizz.

#2) Foxy Curls, Not Your Mother’s Kinky Moves, Catwalk Curls Rock: contours and controls curls.

#2) Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe, Organix Sea Salt Spray, Healthy Sexy Hair Beach Spray: adds texture.