My Summer Journey to Blonde

Sorry for being gone for so long! Thanks to summer school, I had no time to really write what I wanted. Anyways, after years of debating with myself I finally decided to go BLONDE. I was so excited, but it would turn out to be an immensely long and trying journey. From red/orange frizz to flaming yellow roots, my journey to blonde would be a painstakingly tedious one. I’m still not where I want to be, but I am quite happy with where I currently am on the blonde spectrum, for now.

I dyed my hair for the FIRST TIME in my life on June 27, 2015. Yes, I admit it unashamedly, my hair was virgin. I had tried natural things in the past before, like lemon and honey. It gave me nice natural highlights, but still not the blonde locks I had longed for since I was sixteen. I decided this summer was my time for change. I told my grandma and she was all too quick to run to Walmart. Transitioning from dark brown, I didn’t want anything too drastic. I also wanted to make sure that while I was transitioning to blonde I did it in a manner to maintain health and moisture to my curls. I ended up going with a honey blonde color by Dark & Lovely. I followed the directions on the box and thirty-minutes later, the result was a reddish/orange, frizzy mess. As you can assume, I was NOT happy. But because I wanted a healthy transition, it would be another week before I could go back and try again.

phase 1: dyed with Dark & Lovely in “honey blonde”

For the next week I intensely hydrated my hair with deep conditioner and coconut oil. On July 4^th I attempted to fix the mess I created. Convinced that using a super platinum-blonde would lighten my hair, I dyed my hair using Dark & Lovely in platinum blonde. Like before, I followed the directions to the T. This time I came out with bright yellow hair. I was glad the brown finally lightened, but bright yellow was not working for me. Two days later, I went to my local beauty supply store to buy toner. Hair toner is meant to tone down or cancel certain colors. I bought a blue based toner by Wella in T15, which would tone down the bright yellow. I ended up using four boxes of toner and two bottles of the 4oz Wella developer. I couldn’t wait to apply it to my Pikachu-yellow mop of curls. Fifteen minutes I washed it out and my hair came out pretty good. I wound up with a toned down honey color, that I actually loved. I rocked this for a few weeks until my next phase in this journey.

phase 2:dyed with Dark & Lovely in “platinum blonde” [before toner]

after toner, curly [braid out]

               Although I liked my honey blonde hair I still was not where I intended to be. I decided I wanted to have beige-blonde hair and made a hair appointment for the end of July. I was so thrilled, this was a huge moment for me. I even filmed a video, which will be posted here on my blog. To get the color I desired I would have to undergo the dreaded bleaching process. As terrified as I was, I was ready. There was no turning back. The stylist applied the bleach to my hair and it wasn’t that bad, at first. I was told that it would kinda tingle, but to my regret I had scratched my scalp prior to bleaching it!!! BIG mistake. My head was on fire! I tried to stand it as long as I could. My grandma told me to “tough it out” and the stylist said to rinse it out if I couldn’t take it. I tried to stay strong, but on the verge of full-fledged tears, I finally relented. There was a huge sigh of relief once I was under the water. Water never felt so good, that day. Unfortunately, rinsing out early means I didn’t finish processing. The result was yellow hair resembling a golden-lion tamarin monkey. Yikes!

I hated it so much. But once it was blow dried and flat iron, it didn’t look too bad, not shabby at all. Although it wasn’t what I came here for, personal health and safety is most important, and it came out okay. In the end this whole journey proved to be a wonderful learning experience. I learned that it’s okay to experiment with my look, always go to a professional or expert first, NEVER EVER scratch my head before bleaching, and a whole lot of patience. This journey was so fun even though I messed up A LOT but what’s life without its hiccups.

Video of my latest hair color: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCKLIe9o58M

shopping for clothes to go with my hair

white is a blonde’s best friend!