Keeping Your Blonde Bright Not Brassy

As a on-again-off-again blonde, I know all about the difficulties of keeping your hair looking salon (or at home color) fresh.

Blonde hair tends to get brassy the longer you go between dye jobs/refreshing your color, which is really annoying when you’re fair-skinned like me and look horrible in brassy tones or just happen to want icy, platinum blonde hair. So here’s my tip on staying brassless on the cheap and easy:

Born Blonde Semi-Permanent Toner by Clairol. It’s available at Sally’s Beauty Supply, costs $10.99 and will last you quite a long time. It’s available in eight different shades, so you can choose what subtle shade of blonde you would like. I personally use Innocent Ivory, for very light cool toned blonde hair and if you are close to a white blonde color I would recommend you use that shade as well.

The first thing I like about this toner is that it actually works! I see definite results in my hair whenever I use it and I like those results. I looks less brassy every time I use it. My hair has been put through torture by all my dyeing and bleaching at this point, and for it to look as nice as it does is largely due to the toner.

Draco most definitely is using a toner on the regular. I mean, look at that hair, it is icy perfection!

Secondly, I just combine some of the toner, which has a nice slightly creamy consistency, with my conditioner whenever I wash my hair, leave it and the conditioner on for a few minutes, and rinse it out. This makes for an incredibly easy process as well as I can combine it with which ever conditioner I happen to be using that day. And, if you feel you need a more intense tone up, than you can put it in your hair all by itself and leave it on up to about 30 minutes. Be careful how long you leave the toner on though, do spot checks to see how it’s turning out after it’s been on longer than ten minutes because depending on your hair condition and color if you leave the toner on too long your hair can take a little too much of the toner’s color and you might get a slightly violet cast to your hair until you’ve washed it out a few times.

Ad for John Frieda's Color Renew shampoo and conditioner. Picture courtesy of John Frieda.

Now, you could of course buy a shampoo and conditioner that will keep the brass away, John Frieda offers a drug store version of this called Color Renew and there are a few brands at Sally’s Beauty Supply that do this as well, but from my experience I’ve found just using the toner itself works better. Not to mention I don’t have to ditch my favorite shampoos and conditioners just because it wasn’t made specifically for blondes every time I go back to the hair color Motherland.

Do you have any tips on keeping your blonde hair looking fresh?

Life Planning

… since we’re talking about it (yeah we have, for like the past hour, weren’t you paying any attention?!), let me tell you a little bit on what I’ve decided to do with my life.

HAIR!

I just liked how vibrant these wigs look, thus I'm including this mildly related photo. But I might get to style wigs someday, I mean someone has to do that!

That’s right, I’m going to be a hair stylist. I love changing my hair color and style, as well as just discussing hair with people. I always have.

“But Lana,” you might say, “you have a journalism degree!” I’m glad you brought that up dear friend. When I got my journalism degree (just for reference I graduated in May of 2009) I had an emphasis on magazine writing. Sadly in the last couple of years my favorite magazines, the magazines I named when asked who I would like to write for (Jane and Domino), have closed down. But, all the hair magazines I love are still around, and I think they would be so much fun to write for!

So, what I’m saying is if I get training in hair I will have even better credentials for someday writing for a hair magazine or hair-centric Websites such as ModernSalon.com or BehindTheChair.com. Thus I will still be using my degree, I still get to write and my parents won’t be angry they paid for all those years of college.

I prefer the UK hair magazines like this one, the aptly named HAIR. Image courtesy of ukmagz.co.uk

Not to mention I would love to become talented enough to do hair for magazine shoots as well, which would  be just another way for me staying in touch with my magazine side.

Also, working in hair can get me working on film sets and TV shows and theater productions as well! How much fun would that be?! Not only would you get to do some extra awesome hair, you’d get to be on-set and visit the costume department and collaborate on looks with them as well as just get to watch the general production stuff. It’d be super sweet.

Basically, all of the things I enjoy can be connected through doing hair! I just have to learn how to do hair, which is why I want to go to the Vidal Sassoon Academy. Vidal Sassoon Academies are considered the Harvard of hair schools, tip-top of the line. I was always a little disappointed with myself that I chickened out and never applied to any Ivy League colleges for my degree, I was too scared of not getting accepted. I was a wuss and should have had more faith in myself and tried. I’m not saying I would’ve gotten in anywhere, but I should have at least tried. So here’s my chance to go Ivy League, but for hair instead of my Bachelors!

Vidal Sassoon working on Mia Farrow's famous Sassoon cut. I always thought this was such a cute look!

Thus, my next step in life is to visit the Sassoon Academy in Santa Monica and take a tour, maybe tour a few other hair schools like Paul Mitchell and Toni & Guy while I’m there, and just continue to save up money for going to school. Much like Harvard, Sassoon is very expensive. Like $20,000+ expensive. And I’m not that rich (yet). Not to mention I need to stockpile money for rent and to live off of since I won’t have time to work. I’m probably going to have to get a loan. *Sad face* Got to spend money to make money/go to school where you want, I guess?

Katy Perry MTV Movie Awards Makeup Tutorial!

So, our newest Rimmel 10 challenge was to make a makeup tutorial video! If you look a couple posts back you’ll see I posted a picture of Katy Perry looking great on the red carpet in to the 2010 MTV Movie Awards wearing a blue wig and fierce eyeliner. Well, I loved the look so much I decided to use it as my inspiration, wig and all!

The inspiration!

Since I don’t have a blue wig, or long hair, I went for second best, a long blonde hairpiece and a blonde bangs piece. I stuck them together on top of my head, tried to cover the seam with a big headband, and bing bang bongo you’ve got yourself a makeshift wig!

The makeup part was a little more straight forward…

I really enjoyed my sorority girl-esque blonde flowing hair while doing this video, you can see me constantly touching it throughout the tutorial!  Also, side note, wigs are so hot. My head was like a tiny hair covered oven!

It’s funny how much my hair changed the way the makeup looked on me, personally I thought the blonde look complimented it more than my current red. But I’m totally bias since I was so enamored with myself in the long blonde hair I can’t even think straight! I could’ve been a contender I tell you! A contender for something involving having long blonde hair!

Don’t get me wrong, I actually do love my hair and short hair, but I definitely have outbursts where all I want is long flowing blonde locks sometimes.

Blonde Me

My real hair

Here’s a little preview…

…of something I’ve been working on. Explanation and the rest of the project should be up later today at 2pm!

Photo taken June 17th 2010 of me doing a traditional sorority girl style duck face

Out of the Blue

Ahhh! Just yesterday I was thinking about how I dyed my hair blue when I was 13 and thinking about how if maybe I found a flattering blue I could do it again someday. And then Katy Perry had to go and show me with her fabulous wig. The pic is from the MTV Movie Awards which were last night or something. I think she looks ADORABLE, but of course I actually really like Katy Perry. I know not everyone’s into her, but I’ve liked her since her “Ur So Gay” big Myspace days, so, you know. True love lasts forever.

Got any crazy colors you’re hankering to try?

Oh Nosssssss

(Photo Courtesy of Just Jared)

Rihanna, Rihanna. You know I love you, and I love how you happened to change your hair color to the same color I changed mine to last week, but really? That outfit? Why?! You’re so beautiful, why would you do that to yourself? It’s just so mean! Don’t hide your light under a bushel or whatever that phrase is, ya know?

Here’s a look at my new (happens to match Rihanna’s) hair color, just for funsies. My color, cut, styling and the photos are courtesy of my wonderful hairdresser Corinn Orosz from Etch Salon in Scottsdale, AZ.

I would ask if you like it, but if you don’t like it I really don’t want to know about it. Just like Rhianna probably doesn’t want to hear my thoughts on that hideous outfit of hers (sorry RiRi).

BUT, if you’ve seen any awesome new haircuts lately or just want to weigh in on Rhianna’s new color or outfit, fire away! I love looking at and talking about new, cool hair, Rihanna’s or otherwise, so dish ‘em up!

Beautiful Crinkly Hair

Cynthia Rowley’s Fall 2010 collection at New York Fashion Week went down the runway featuring some serious texture in the clothing and in the hair. While the collection itself is pretty cool (though I’ll admit I think I’m more keen on the clothing in the Spring 2010 collection ), I’m more interested in the hair.

All the models had very texturized long, low ponytail with bits of crimped and colored extensions weaved in with their natural hair color.

Picture from Hair on the Brain. Click to go to source.

Hair on the Brain, a really great hair-centric blog I follow, has the scoop on the look, go check it out for a step-by-step as well as a step-by-step of DKNY’s collection’s hair as well.

I love how the hair looked on the runway, Cynthia Rowley described this collection as  a “chic monster-girl collection.” This hair seems appropriate to that description as well as actually very wearable since those colored bits are extensions which you could switch in and out if you got the clip-in kind.

Picture from Hair on the Brain. Click to go to source.

I love the idea of crimping the extensions, it’s unusual and really amps up the interest. Just make sure if you try this out you get some REAL hair wefts (you can buy those at Sally’s Beauty Supplies along with clips that you can sew to the ends of the wefts to turn them into clip-in extensions) so that when you crimp the hair it doesn’t melt. Synthetic hair CANNOT be heat-treated, it’s plastic and proves that once the heat is on by shriveling up and burning.

Picture from Hair on the Brain. Click to go to source.

Also, I suggest you do what Wella (the brand responsible for hair at this show) did and dye the extensions yourself for a customized look. They went with really saturated jewel tones for this show, but I think I’d like to do some pretty pastel streaks if I were to give it a go!

Any looks you particularly liked from New York Fashion week on or off the runway? Share ‘em!

Looky-lou

Today I did my makeup almost entirely using only Rimmel products I got in my Rimmel 10 Girl package. Here’s how it went:

Not too shabby right? I was actually blown away by the Max Volume Flash mascara, and I’m a girl who’s used quite a few mascaras. I must own around ten mascaras not including the two Rimmel just sent me.

The kohl eyeliner in black impressed me as well, it had really nice saturated color and lasted for most of the day (though near the end of the day it was smearing a little on my water line, but that’s to be expected of a pencil liner).

I used the foundation primer, EastEnd snob color of lipliner and the bronzer as well. I’ve never used a primer before but I could tell it did make a difference and the same goes for the lip liner (which is a really cute color btw). The bronzer, though being darker than I would normally buy, did a good job and was actually quite sheer, which for pale old me is a good thing. I think you could build it for more color but I certainly wasn’t trying as I don’t want big brown streaks on my face.

I also used my MAC lipstick in Myth for a nearly skin tone colored mouth (which is a trend I really like) and used my typical Natural Match by L’Oreal foundation in C2 and Bobbi Brown corrector under my eyes.

My outfit today is inspired by pin-up girls, but I wanted something that didn’t look overly costume-y and I wanted to have a little bit of bitter to balance out the sweetness of my dress as well as my girly hair and makeup. I decided to wear my little blue dress with red trim and ruffles, belted, with tights and matching red flats as a slight homage to the pin-up scene and my sweatshirt material zip-up jacket in gray that’s cut and detailed like a motorcycle jacket. I also wore my gray purse with studded sides.

What do you think?

My mother took these pictures for me in the backyard right before I left for my haircut. I hope you appreciate their nice, full lighting since none of my pictures from the other day were lucky enough to get a fully lit shoot.

I went to the Etch Salon at Kierland Commons and got my hair cut by Corinn Orosz. She did a great job and I’m very happy with it. I mostly just needed the lines cleaned up and the sides cut short again. Every other stylist I’ve had hasn’t cut the sides short enough, but Corinn certainly did without me even having to bug her about it!

I’m honestly really pleased with my cut. I’m known by my friends and family as very emotional when getting hair cuts and color changes and prone to crying and excessive distress because I’m so attached to/obsessed with my hair. So my family was pleased I didn’t come home crying this time.

So there you have it, first London Look, new haircut that didn’t bring me to tears and me, falling asleep on the keyboard right now. Better go take a really long nap now.

What do you think of my hair and makeup? Any suggestions?