Wednesday, March 25th, 2015
“Mermaid hair” is a thing right now. It is having a major moment. Ask any fashionable lady under age 30 who’s used Pinterest or Tumblr and she’ll know exactly what “mermaid hair” is. Made popular by rumored lip injection enthusiast Kylie Jenner, if you have “mermaid hair,” you have long, thick hair in a pastel or neon hue, invoking visions of shiny scaled mythical sea creatures. But as a short-haired lady who loves her some Manic Panic, I feel the need to make an official statement on mermaid hair. And that is, fairy hair is better.
Fairy hair is a term I am coining right now. When this blows up on Tumblr, credit me, please. If luscious-locked women get Princess Ariel as their mascot, then I’m calling Tinkerbell for those of us with pixies and short bobs. Tinkerbell is way sassier than Ariel anyway so, win-win for us.
To prove that colored and cropped is beautiful, check out the hair inspiration photos below. I know I’m going to have a hard time choosing which color I want to go for next.
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You can achieve this aqua color using Manic Panic’s Atomic Turquoise, but you might need a little bit of help getting it out of your hair later.
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This purple tone has a cool, grayish hue to it. Silver hair is not just for grannies anymore and is way trendy right now. For a cool pastel purple, dilute Manic Panic’s Violet Night with white hair conditioner. If you’re looking for a warmer purple, go with Mystic Heather.
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Don’t want to dye your whole head? Try out a few streaks or highlights and see how you like it first! You can achieve this color with Blue Moon. Make sure to wrap your strands in plastic wrap after you paint on the dye, so it doesn’t leak into other strands of hair.
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I’ve been thinking about doing this shade of green next on my own hair. I have green eyes and I think it would look really trippy. I’m going to use Electric Lizard to get this shade, but won’t dilute the dye with hair conditioner like I usually do. I want the full effect, no pastel shades this time!
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You could achieve this color with Mystic Heather and a lot of white conditioner. This looks like it has faded from a darker hue, but OMG I WISH MY HAIR HAD THAT TEXTURE. I love how this looks with a little bit of curl.
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I’ve achieved this peachy pink color before by mixing Pretty Flamingo and Cotton Candy pink dyes together, then diluting the mix with hair conditioner. I love this color because it’s girly and fun, and pink fades quite quickly so you can do another color ASAP!
Tuesday, January 27th, 2015
I went blonde in July of 2014, and I’ve never looked back. Well…expect to go pink, and purple, and blue. But white, Marilyn Monroe blonde is the go-to. However, not only does having platinum locks take a hefty amount of salon maintenance, but it also takes some at-home effort too. Bleach blonde hair is easily tainted by external conditions. For me, that’s New York City taxi fumes, the general smog around that lingers downtown, the dry winter weather and whatever water-born minerals don’t rinse out with each shampoo. No matter what elements of the environment might be making your blonde hair dull, I have the solution. Get your blondest blonde with purple shampoo.
There are an endless amount of blonde-friendly hair products on the market, but don’t spend your hard earned cash on complicated formulas and brand names. Instead, head straight to the beauty supply store and invest in a big bottle of Shimmer Lights shampoo, plus a bottle of conditioner. I love this shampoo, except for the nightmares it gives me based on this terrifying PBS Ghostwriter episode circa 1995. But I digress.
The science is simple. If your hair has yellow, brassy tones in it from whatever the f**k has attached itself to your hair, the cool purple tones will rinse that nasty gunk right out, giving you a white-blonde, Elsa from Frozen like hue. Even if your hair isn’t bleached, the Shimmer Lights shampoo and conditioner will clean out any dull yellow tones from your hair, giving you more of a Cinderella look than a banana colored Lady Gaga tone.
Here’s a few tips for application:
After an at-home or salon dye job, your hair might be looking a bit more sunshine-like than preferred. Coat your hair in Shimmer Lights conditioner (NOT shampoo) for 3 minutes, and rinse clean.
If your highlights have a golden blonde tint to them, use Shimmer Lights to make a subtle change. If you don’t want ash-toned streaks forever, switch back to your regular shampoo and conditioner after a few washes.
A little extra shine never hurt anybody. Even naturally blonde locks can get dull, especially in the winter. Switch to this shampoo and conditioner for an extra dose of clean color.
Friday, December 5th, 2014
Ladiez are afraid of pixie cuts. It took me awhile to chop it all off, but now I could never go back. If you have a pixie cut, it might seem like there are only a few styles you can wear in your hair. INCORRECT! Presenting 5 pixie cut hairstyles you can achieve with only 5 minutes of work. Grab a hairbrush, some hairspray and a few bobby pins to get started.
Girls with pixie cuts can get away with the poof just a little bit more than girls with long hair. Instead of looking like Snooki circa the Jersey Shore pilot, pixie cut poofs look like Christina Hendricks in Mad Men.
Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
This summer, after much deliberation, I bleached my hair for the purpose of dying it fun pastel colors.
The most common question I get from strangers about my hair is, “how long does it last?” Not considering that most people want their hair color to last for as long as possible, I always answer happily, “not long at all!” to their dismay. That’s because I like to change my hair color as often as possible.
But my love for a new color of the rainbow every 2 weeks was squelched by Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise. When I dyed my hair Cotton Candy Pink, the color faded back to blonde in about a week. Atomic Turquoise was much more stubborn.
The day I dyed my hair Atomic Turquoise. Oooooo, aaaaaahhh.
18 days after I dyed my hair it was a dull, grayish, bluish greenish yellow shade. Not a good look.
I searched the interwebz for tips on how to remove Manic Panic. It seemed every frustrated dye-hard had the most trouble getting rid of this specific color. Many recommended a soap cap, a.k.a. mixing a little bleach with your shampoo to get the color out quickly. But I was afraid of damaging my hair, since it’s already bleached. Other suggestions included washing your hair with Head & Shoulders, as something in it’s chemical makeup gets the color out faster than regular shampoo. Another suggestion was washing your hair with baking soda.
So I decided to mix up a simple concoction of Head & Shoulders shampoo plus baking soda. My very scientific calculations went like this:
It’s a very official formula. Don’t screw it up.
Every time I showered, I rinse-washed-repeated with this mix. I guess you could pre-mix it and put it in a bottle, but I legit just mixed it up in my hand in the shower. I washed my hair two or three times each shower, and then covered my it with Clairol Shimmering Lights shampoo. It’s made to clear dull yellow hues out of your hair. I followed the directions on the back of the bottle, which suggest washing it like you normally would once, then rinsing, reapplying and leaving it on your hair for 3 to 5 minutes, then rinsing again.
This is the big bottle, but I bought a much smaller bottle for around $7 back when I bleached it.
After washing my hair about four or five times, I used Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser conditioner to restore all the good stuff I rinsed down the drain. This conditioner is the sh**. I was very concerned after bleaching my hair that I was going to have fried locks, but I’ve been using this conditioner with every wash, and I’ve never had a problem with dryness or breakage.
And it smells delicious. Don’t eat it though. That’s my professional advice.
Six days later, my hair was back to it’s platinum blonde beauty, and soft as a baby’s butt too.
Say hello to my stylish good friend from high school, Anna!
