"Chop and Change" A new Beachy A Line Bob

One of my favorite Black Keys songs and super appropriate here!

I chopped all of my hair off and I am so glad I did. I don't understand why I grow so attached to my long hair, I always end up loving the feeling when I go shorter. I think I just identify as a "long hair" girl and I'm sure I'll grow it back out but for now, this feels so nice!

I've been coveting this oh-so-pinned image off Pinterest for months.

pinterest.com

I finally just decided to go for it but I asked her to go a little shorter to give me a little more time between trims. Love it. I can still get a teeny nubbin of a pony tail if I just need the hair off my face, I can wear it straight or I can do beach waves with a flat iron. Most versatile short hair I've ever had.

It's A-Line and thinned at the back but not stacked. My hair just won't do that style, curses of the cowlicks. The length pretty much goes collar to collarbone.

The balayage had basically all been cut off and/or faded out so it needed to be touched up. I went a shade darker this time, mixed a 7NN with a 7A Smoky Ash, both from Wella and with a 20vol developer. I let my roots process about 30 minutes and then combed through the length of my hair for the last 10 minutes. I did a protein filler before to avoid it pulling in the more porous spots. After it was washed out and rinsed I did balayage on a few face framing pieces and the bottom is still a tinge lighter than the roots so it has a nice ombre/balayage result. I wasn't really going for subtle. Excuse my hair bleaching shirt (don't we all have those??)

 

 

And this is the end result. The first one is just blow dried with a paddle brush and some argan oil on the ends. It's nice and polished and definitely easy if I don't have time to curl it. It also air dries pretty nicely but I get more frizz that way.

 

 Here I beach waved it with a flat iron. I really only focused on the top layer and front peices, the back is so short it just needs a slight bend of the iron to blend in. I finger combed the waves out, added a little texturizing spray to the roots and some beachy sea salt spray to the ends for more of a lived in look. This lasts all day and takes about 10 minutes.

DIY Super Blonde Using Drugstore Products

If you follow my twitter you know I've been on a mission for super blonde hair for about 2 weeks. I've been going slow so as not to fry my hair and I would not recommend that you do this in a 2 week span because it was not awesome for my hair. Buuuutttt...I got the color I wanted at home for about $30. So, that's a win in my book. As always, I'm not a professional. OBVIOUSLY. This is just what worked for my hair to get it the color I wanted.

I have never been this blonde. I've never done an all over blonde before, just highlights which can only get you so far. I just decided to be brave and try something new, which is hard for me. Mostly because I am impatient and I hated the idea of walking around with hair I didn't love while going through the process. But I did it and I think it was worth it for me!

ROOTS!!!! The horror.

 

I started with DIY highlighted hair with about 2 inch roots. I decided that I wanted to lift the base and then highlight to get it all over blonder without going platinum. I still wanted some highlights. So, basically I bleached my roots out with powder bleach and 30 vol on the scalp developer, washed, dried and then covered my whole hair with an all over high lift blonde (ION High Lift Ash Blonde) to get a uniform base. I then toned it all and left it alone for about a week to calm down. It was definitely blonder, but not a pretty blonde in my opinion. Kind of a dingy blonde. Which was fine, it was just the base color.



After All Over Color and Toning

Way blonder, but blah...

 

I used 2 boxes of the High Lift Ash Blonde with 40 vol developer all over my hair, processed about 45 minutes

1 box of T18 (formerly White Lady) Wella Toner with 20 vol developer, left on about 8 minutes

 



I then went back in and had to highlight twice. First, I used Revlon Frost n Glow and it looked like this. Good, but not quite there yet. It was still a little too brassy for my liking.

 



 

I was going to use the same kit the second time but the store I went to was out of it so I tried a different kit, which I kind of fell head over heels in love with. I have never used this kit before and am kind of kicking myself over not trying it. It's the L'Oreal Frost and Design kit in Champagne. It's about $4 more than the Revlon kit but it has a lot more products in the kit. It contains a lot more bleach (I have to buy 2 Revlon kits for the length of my hair and 1 L'Oreal kit did my whole head with leftover product). It also has a protectant cream that goes in the bleach which makes it this almost creamy whipped texture that is super easy to work with. It has a toning rinse included which I think is just genius. It left my hair feeling soft and not fried and also a perfect shade of blonde. I will definitely be switching to this kit from now on.



Holy Grail Drugstore Highlighting Kit. For real.

Anywhoo, after several different processes I basically went from dishwater blonde with highlights to all over blonde with platinum and honey strands mixed in. I couldn't be happier with the results! I am trying to minimize heat tools for a while to let it recover from this crazy blonde ambition, so please excuse the boring, straight hair. But you can see the color results pretty clearly. Love, love, love!