DIY Grey Hair // feat. Colour Freedom, Crazy Color & Schwarzkopf Live.

Here we have it guys, a brand new year featuring a brand new hairstyle, is anyone really surprised? I knew I wanted 2018 to start with bold new hair. The cut was something I'd been wanting to do for a long time but hadn't quite felt brave enough to commit to. I have a whole post coming soon talking about the reasoning for the hair cut so keep an eye out for that, today, however it's about the colour. Grey is one of the colours that has been massively on trend recently, which is one of the things that both captivated me and deterred me. It's been awesome to see so many people's interpretations and different variations of grey and silver hair, but at the same time I didn't necessarily just want to follow the crowd. And due to unplanned events I feel like I have ended up with quite a unique colour which I'm unbelievably happy with.

I started the hair dyeing process by using Crazy Color's Slate & Graphite and mixing it with Schwarzkopf Live's Steel Silver. I wanted to mix dyes together to make the overall colour a bit more of a unique and darker toned grey rather than a silver grey. I've used Schwarzkopf's colour range before and have always been so happy with how the colour turns out, the colours are always so vibrant and the dyes don't leave your hair feeling too dry. It was my first time using Crazy Color but after hearing so many positive things I opted to give them a try as they were pretty cost friendly and had a huge range of colours. I picked 'Slate' and 'Graphite' because they were not only quite dark toned greys but they also had a slight tone of purple in them which I thought would give the colour good depth.

Once I mixed the dyes together to create a colour I was happy with I put the dye on my hair and left it on for half an hour to allow the colour to fully saturate my hair. Upon washing and drying my hair I discovered that all hadn't gone 100% to plan; the overall colour of my hair had gone quite a nice silvery grey apart from the front of my hair which I'm guessing is the most damaged which had in fact gone a pretty bright blue. It didn't look terrible but it wasn't the most ideal situation.

In order to rectify the situation I picked up a packet of the Colour Freedom Metallics range in Silver Grey. Colour Freedom is one of my favourite artificial colour brands as the dye's go such a long way and the colours always turn out so beautiful. This one definitely saved the day.

I'm now left with this really cool kind of blue toned dark grey which I'm so happy with, it's such a different colour to anything I've had before and I'm also really excited to see how it will change as the colour fades. My biggest tip when dyeing your hair grey is to try to ensure you start the process with as much of a blank canvas as possible, really light blonde - almost white hair to ensure the brassiness or other colour doesn't counteract the grey tones - as you can see the top of my hair still has a bit of warmth left in it which is showing through. I would also ensure you leave it on for exactly the amount of time that it suggests as I left my first batch on a tad longer than recommended and I have a feeling that's why it turned out so blue. 

I would thoroughly recommend trying all three of these brands out if you haven't already and are looking to try a new colour. I've used the Schwarzkopf live and Colour Freedom dyes before so I'd be interested to see how different colours of the Crazy Colour dyes would turn out.

What's your favourite hair dye brand?

Would you be brave enough to try grey hair?

What colour should I go next?

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Brunette to Blonde // Bleach London

And she's at it again...

First of all can I just get a massive appreciation for keeping my hair dark for 7 months, considering how notorious I am for dying my hair I think I did pretty well to leave it alone for that long.

So summer is quickly approaching, and as much as I did like my dark hair I found myself getting bored and I always prefer my hair lighter in the summer. So it was time to bite the bullet and attempt to go back blonde. As I am very much a DIY hair dyer, I knew this was probably going to be one of my most difficult dye jobs to date. *has horrific flashback to the last time I tried to dye my hair from black to blonde.*  I went into it this time a little older, wiser and with a few more tricks up my sleeve. What could go wrong, right?

Before

Well...

It's a pretty difficult task to going from dark brown to blonde without using bleach, so I wanted to try and find one which would be easy to use and wouldn't completely destroy my hair. I opted to try one from the brand Bleach London, it's in their name so I thought it wouldn't do me too wrong. It was actually pretty kind to my hair and did a really good job at stripping the colour. I tend to forget when dying my hair that my hair is actually quite long so annoyingly I did run out of bleach, hence why it's a tiny bit patchy. As a lot of bleaches can do, it made parts of my hair go quite yellowy/brassy so I used the Bleach London White Toner to try and diminish those tones as much as possible. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped unfortunately, but did enough of a good job that it wasn't ridiculously obvious.

I left the hair a couple of days after bleaching to let it rest and restore a little bit before opting to put some Colour Freedom silver blonde all over my hair. (I forgot to take a picture of the packaging before I threw it away, oops. But you can buy it in Superdrug and they have loads of colours.) Silver or Purple shampoos/toners are the best for getting out the yellow/brassy pigments in your hair. Whilst this did help to tone down the brightness it did leave the ends of my hair with a slightly pinky tinge. Which I don't mind too much, it looks quite cool.

After

Since then I've been using purple shampoo/conditioners alternating when I wash my hair just to keep those brassy tones at bay, so hopefully that will gradually help get it to my ideal colour.

I'm actually really happy with how it turned out, considering how dark it was before I'm really pleased with the colour. It's not exactly how I wanted but it's a good base to start from, cost a lot less than getting it done professionally  and my hair didn't all fall out so that's a massive bonus.

I would definitely recommend Bleach London if you are looking to go blonde from dark hair, it works well, is fairly cost effective and has actually left my hair in surprisingly good condition.

I wonder how long I'll keep it like this for before I start playing about with the colour again? Here's a spoiler, it won't be that long ;)

What's your go to hairdye brand?
Are you a DIY-er or a Salon junkie?

Speak Soon
Char xx 

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Nice 'N Easy | Natural Dark Brown

I transitioned from blonde to brunette back in October and have only just realised that I never did a post showing you guys what colour I went or how I did it. Considering that Hair dye posts seem to be my most popular I thought I would belatedly tell you all about it.

Before I dyed my hair brown I had the faded out remnants of my Harley Quinn hair, so I knew I'd have to do something pretty drastic to get rid of the blue from the ends. As autumn was approaching I thought it would be the perfect time to give dark hair a go, since I hadn't been brunette since I was 17. With a drastic colour change came a drastic style change I cut off half the length (which at that point was pure dead hair - don't wait 2 years for a hair cut!) and got a fringe. 

BEFORE 

As you can see my hair was quite a bright bleached blonde, thanks a lot South American sunshine, and as a result was quite frazzled. 

Obviously I did not cut my hair myself, I definitely do not have that level of skill or steady enough hands to not botch up a fringe. I did however dye my hair myself, the colour I used was Nice'n Easy in 4 (former 120) Natural Dark Brown. 

I've always been a fan of Nice'n Easy hair dyes, they're cost effective, easy to use and aren't that damaging to your hair. I also find them to be a pretty perfect match colour wise. 

I left my hair dye on for an extra 5 minutes than what it said on the instructions, just because I wanted the colour to be especially dark. 

AFTER 

I am still so happy with how the colour came out, it's the perfect deep brown, but not too dark that it washes me out, which is a problem I've had with dark shades in the past. 

I would thoroughly recommend this colour for anyone looking to try something a bit different, or even as just a top up for already brunette hair. 

Have you tried this colour?

What's your hair dye recommendations?

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Nice'n Easy | Natural Pale Blonde

Today I'm going back to my roots (tee hee) and doing a hair dye post. These kind of posts were one of my main inspirations behind starting my blog, its in the name for goodness sake; and as they seem to be my more popular posts I thought lets have a little blog throwback. Plus I REALLY needed to dye my hair. 

BEFORE - HEY MINGING ROOTS

I'm quite up in the air at the minute about what colour I want to dye my hair, I'm very tempted by 3 drastic hair makeovers but have yet to make a decision. Whilst my indecision takes over my brain I decided to just dye my hair a standard blonde just to sort out my roots, because 6 months worth of roots are just not okay.

I used Nice'n Easy Natural Pale blonde to achieve my current look, I decided to use this one because Nice'n Easy is a brand I'm accustomed to using so I know that they're dyes always turn out well. I chose natural pale blonde because it matched the current colour of my hair and so wouldn't cause me too much trouble when trying to cover my roots.

AFTER - HEY POSEY GIRL

I'm really happy with how the colour turned out, it looks very natural and healthy, which after 3 months of travelling and sun damage is something it very much needed. I'm a huge fan of the conditioner that comes with Nice'n Easy hair dyes, it smells amazing and always leaves my hair in amazing condition, considering that its just been dyed.

I hope you enjoyed this blast from the past kind of post, and I will definitely be doing more of these when I make the decision about what hair adventure I want to undergo next.

Have you tried this colour hair dye?

What is your go to hair dye brand?

Speak Soon

Charlotte xx

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Garnier Nutrisse | Caramel.

Guys I've got a confession to make...I've dyed my hair again. I genuinely think I have a hair dye addiction or I just got bored very easily -- bit of both I reckon. There is method in the madness this time I swear though! During the winter months I find myself wanting to spend less time on my hair, with hats to cover it up & wind blowing it left, right & centre I just can't be bothered with it to be honest. This laziness extends all the way to dyeing it, I just don't care about touching up my roots which leaves it looking rather scraggily! So to avoid gross looking hair & as winter is the perfect time for it I've gone to the dark side! 

I'm still a bit apprehensive about going full chocolate brown after my last dark endeavour many a year ago, so I've stuck in the shallow end & just gone for a caramel/ light brown colour (maybe I'll go all out brown one day, we'll see!) and I actually really like it! Obviously I am a blonde girl at heart and this will by no means be a permanent fixture! But I just fancied something different and a bit more natural so voilá! What do you think? The thing I like most about it is a) it makes my eyes look even more blue. b) my hair for the first time in a long time matches my eyebrows. A very big deal!

The dye I used to achieve this colour is Garnier Nutrisse Créme in 6.3 Caramel. As you probably know I love Garnier hair dye and don't think I will ever venture away from it. It always gives me a gorgeous colour & leaves my hair in amazing condition whereas some hair dyes I've used it in the past just leaves it feeling like straw, not nice at all. Of course the soft feel is mostly down to the conditioner, which I just adore, I've said this before but if they sold full size bottles of it I would be first in line to buy it. Amazing! The other thing I really like about this particular hair dye is the scent the dye itself leaves on the hair, obviously there is the standard hair dye whiff left on the hair for a small while but it isn't over powering in the slightest like I've found with some brands, theres nothing worse than stinky hair dye head! 

The colour itself is lovely, as I mentioned before its a light brown, caramel colour, its a very natural colour which I like and has both blondey and brown highlights running through it which makes it so much nicer than just a one dimensional block colour! I'm very pleased with it and would thoroughly recommend if your looking to go darker without going too dark, it is a very autumnal colour which is lovely for this time of year. The only thing to note is that when I washed it out I did have a moment of horror as it did look very dark when I was drying it, but once it was dried it looked lovely -- so just bear that in mind if your going to give it a go. 

Have you ever tried this colour before? What did you think of it?

Whats your favourite autumn/winter hair colour?

Would you give this colour a go?

p.s. expect another hair dye post in the spring for when I eventually get bored of it -- if I even last that long.

Speak Soon

Charlotte xx

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