nicoleunicorn

So you’ve been thinking about dying your hair baby pink? Maybe green, blue or purple? Well, here are some tips on keeping that colour from fading in a week and basically what to expect.

• No matter what colour you choose or what colour your hair is naturally, the most important thing you can do for long lasting unnatural colour is to bleach your hair. It makes your hair more porous and accepts the colour easier. Not only will the colour be more intense, but it’ll help retain the colour longer if you bleach it to the lightest you can go. If you’re afraid of damaging your hair, then do the bleaching process in steps, but the ultimate goal should be as white as you can possibly make it.


• Your hair should be unwashed and unconditioned. Wash your hair the day before and skip conditioning.


• If you really want long lasting colour, do not use Manic Panic. That’s pretty much the go to product for unnatural hair colours, but they’re really not long lasting colour. Special FX is a favourite among many, but I personally like Jerome Russell’s Punky Color. The only problem I had with SPX is that it stains your skin like no other. It’s really hard to get it out. PC lasts just as long, but without staining as bad and the price is more reasonable.


• Demi and Semi permanent colours do stain your skin, and your bath tub, and your sink, and everything. If you get some in places other than your hair, wipe it off as soon as you can. To remove it from your skin, rubbing alcohol is often recommended, but I’ve found nail polish remover to work the best. To remove from the walls and most of the bathroom, use bleach. If you get it on clothes or bath mats, you’ll probably never get it out, so remember to remove bath mats and toilet seat covers and use dark or old towels dying. Unless you’re really careful, you should never dye your hair on carpet.


• To keep the dye from getting on your forehead and ears, put a layer of petroleum jelly on your hair line and ears.


• Let the dye sit in your hair as long as you possibly can. I’ve heard people actually sleeping in it, but you don’t have to do that. You should wait till it dries at least, though.


• Once you wash it out, it’s best to keep your gloves on because it can still stain your hands unless you’ve rinsed it out really well before touching it.


• You don’t have to shampoo or wait till the water runs completely clear, despite what the directions say. I usually just rinse out the excess and dry it as soon as I can.


• Once you’ve finished rinsing with water, rinse it once with vinegar. It helps seal in the colour. Then rinse once more with water. (The vinegar will burn if you have it on open wounds. Heads up if you take a shower and shave)


• After dying it, try not to shampoo your hair that much. You can still rinse out grease with water and condition your hair everyday. This will actually help repair the damage from the bleaching too, but the colour will fade every single time you shampoo.


• You can use a dry shampoo for excess grease. Suave makes a really good and cheap one that’s only $3.


• When you do shampoo your hair, wash your scalp, not your hair. You’re only aiming to remove excess oil, which occurs at the roots.


• After dying your hair, the colour will bleed onto clothes and pillows. It’ll wash out of clothes after a couple washes, but pillow cases tend to stay that colour, so you might want to change your pillow case to a darker colour. I’ve actually had it on my ears and hands if I touched it too much. You can usually wash it off your skin with soap and water, but it’s something to know.

If you follow these steps, you will actually be able to go at least a month between dye jobs. I’ve actually been able to go several months between dying.

Stretch marks occur when your body changes quickly and the skin is not properly hydrated. People most commonly get stretch marks from body building, pregnancy, weight gain, and puberty. The issue with stretch marks is not just that the body changed rapidly, again, its that the skin was not hydrated in the process. That might be the possible reason as to why some people are more prone to stretch marks than others, because some people have dryer skin than others.

Stretch marks start out red and fade to a silvery white colour leaving the skin a different texture. Stretch marks are literally deep scars that occurred from torn skin. Hydrated skin is more elastic and conforms to the new body shape easier.

Skin has many layers. As the top layers shed, the bottom layers go up. Stretch marks start deep in the skin layers and rise as the skin sheds. That’s why it seems like they appear over night. With this in mind, what I’ve found most effective in removing stretch marks is promoting skin regeneration.

1. Get a somewhat rough loofa


2. At the end of your shower or bath, gently scrub the skin till it turns red


3. Once you dry off, rub an essential oil into the skin (You could also use Bio Oil or other stretch mark oils) for a couple minutes.


4. Use cocoa butter (You could also use a stretch mark lotion or cream) one or two times the rest of the day.

This system promotes skin regeneration in a manner similar to microdermabrasion. While products like Bio Oil and cocoa butter do work for stretch marks, it takes a really long time because you’re waiting for the skin to regenerate on its own. Microdermabrasion removes the top layers of skin to accelerate the growth and thereby the effectiveness of the product.

• Remember that the most important thing in this regiment is to stay hydrated so try to use the oil once a day and the lotion or cream twice a day if you can.


• Only scrub your skin 3 times a week at the most.


• Do not scrub too vigorously because you might hurt yourself or even cause bleeding (Which is counter productive)


• When you rub the oils and lotions into you skin, massage it into the skin for a couple minutes. It’s helps the skin absorb the product.


• Be patient and persistent, they won’t go away over night.


• New stretch marks will be easier to remove than old ones.