Pastel Hair and the Corporate World

At the age of 23 I finally felt the first strong blow given right in my face by Corporate America. Having been spoiled by my previous work environment I never really had to think about what was "appropriate" or "inappropriate" when it came to my style and appearance. The small, closely knit, family style corporation which I had belonged to for the past year really gave me a lot of freedom for expression. I was free to rock rainbow colored hair and wear crop tops as I pleased without one person giving me the stink eye. (Though I'm sure some individuals had complaints or disagreements in terms of my "fashion sense", no one gave me trouble nor an ultimatum to make me feel superior or guilty for being me.) Fast forward to today, 15 some ish months later, I'm faced with "we don't want anything to come in the way of your success". Not only that and "you shouldn't have to prove yourself to them and work backwards because of your hair color." "Some people are old fashioned here and it's a big corporate, a lot of unspoken judgements are passed but the choice is yours." Just like that. Boom. What choice did I have left?
My hair feels like shit. It is so damaged from all the bleaching and other things I did to it for the oh so pretty fantasy colors that defined my signature trait. But it was all worth it. The damage, the trouble, everything was worth it when I saw my pretty little pony hair in the mirror. Now? Looking back at me is a head of dark, stringy, disgusting matter that no longer took shape or form to be called hair.
This is growing up right? The pressure of survival outweighs all personal interests when your career path does not involve key passions of your life. And this, my friends, marks the beginning of true adulthood for me.
If I were one day to be blessed with children of my own, I'd give then the courage to chase after their passion. Even if it's something hard to pursue, as long as you don't stop trying, there's always a way for happiness. I hate to have this feeling that my interests and happiness will forever be limited to personal times, but reality truly speaks for itself and for life, for survival, I have to find strength for it.

So long my beloved pastel locks. The past three years have been filled with magic and smiles with you by my side. We shall meet again...

Blue Mermaid Hair

Got some new extensions from IrresistibleMe the other day, thought I'd go for a fun color this time and try blue. I've always had purple hair, various shades of it, now that I've ventured out of that realm it actually feels really weird haha. I'm not 100% used to my teal/blue hair just yet, on top of that I'm starting a new job this coming Monday so I'm kind of scared that it's going to leave an inaccurate impression of me. :( Ok, I'm just rambling again. Let me just show you guys how I styled this look using the IrresistibleMe 8 in 1 curling wand (pearl attachment). For more pictures you can visit my Instagram, oh and follow me on Snapchat (@lazybumtot) to see it in action!

How To: Pastel Hair Extensions

Sometimes I like to look like a mermaid alien princess, and this is how I do it :D with hair extensions!
In this video I'll be showing you what extensions I use and how I dye them.

Vpfashion Hair Extension: 
Coupon Code: yueh01 ($10.00)
http://www.vpfashion.com/white-blonde-indian-remy-clip-in-hair-extensions-s613a-p-8757.html?vp=18247
Hair color: white blonde (613A)
Hair length: 18 inches (160g)
Hair texture: silky straight


The process to obtaining beautiful mermaid hair is really quite simple. All you need to do is some extensions that are bleached blonde and some semi permanent hair dye of your choice. 
Here I used Vpfashion extensions in 613A since it is very light. The dye that I used is Beyond the Zone Color Jamz in: "not so shy violet" and "purple passion". Mixed both of those colors in with some white conditioner and added a few drops of the Fanciful hair rinse in "true steel" (Although this is a temporary color I still added it for a hint of gray in the mixture). Applied this mixture all over the extensions and let them sit for about 3-5 mins. By this time your extensions should take in the dye and change to the color of your liking. Rinse the extensions and let them air dry. 

That's all! :D

Original Extensions

Extensions with dye mixture applied

After coloring (wet)

To style I used the NuMe Lustrum with its pearl attachment included in the set. Results can be seen below:

Gradient Purple Pastel Hair

Gradient Purple Pastel Hair

Gradient Purple Pastel Hair

Gradient Purple Pastel Hair

Until next time! <3

Pastel Hair FAQ

I get a bunch of questions regarding my hair on a daily basis, so I thought I'd collect some of the most frequently asked questions and answer them here! (20 questions=long video). Here I will answer things from how to to upkeeping to other things, if you are interested in any of them then please enjoy! Feel free to ask me any other questions if I haven't covered it in this video. This is a long video, please understand due to the nature of the topic I couldn't cut it short. Thank you.

Overtone Products(LOVE THEM!): 

http://overtone.co/ 

How to style a short bob: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhOQeU5CmV4&list=UUG5h0XF8sQEO8LiCw-mEYMA

My New Hair

So... It happened. I went dark. :(((((
Every time I realize my hair is no longer a pretty pastel purple my heart shattered a bit. Many of you probably already knew that I dyed my hair dark recently. Solely for the purpose of leaving more "professional" impressions at interviews. But guess what?! Since I've dyed my hair I've only been to one interview and I don't even know if they'll offer me a position still. (Falls to the ground in a dramatic manner)
It was such a hard decision to make considering the seven months of loving relationship I had with my pastel hair. I miss my pastel hair, I miss feeling like a fairy princess and I miss living in fairy land. I know I sound so crazy but I seriously miss it so much. :( I felt like it was one of those things that really connected with my personality and made me feel more true to myself. However, I took a risk and now I can only hope for the better and if you or anyone you know knows of open health/ biology related position...HOLLA AT YOUR GIRL. PLEASE.
Any way I used a box dye from the drug store (Revlon Color Silk in Natural Blue Black) and just painted that from the roots down to half way length of my hair and left that in for 30 minutes. (oh by the way I didn't go full black because I clearly have attachment issues...So I went for an Ombre look.)

Here are the before and afters:

Before:

after:

Purple Valentine's Day Look

Snap! It's going to be Valentine's day in less than two weeks! Time flies when you don't pay attention! I'm sure around this time of the year we are all preparing for the special day with that special someone. Whether it be just looking for a cute makeup look, an outfit idea, or even a gift inspiration, we are all out on the hunt to make that special day... special. In the past years I've always gravitated towards pink eye looks for Valentine's day to match the overall theme of the world when this time of the year comes around. But this year, I wanted to do something a bit different. Using a color I normally would not think of, at least not frequently at all. This purple look is a soft smokey eye with tons of flirty lashes for a dolly and big-eyed effect. Purple is a vibrant color but it is still rather neutral enough to be used for eyes of all color.
Lenses worn in this look are the T. Top 2 tone violets. They are very comfortable and although purple in color, they are very, very subtle with great ability to enlarge. These lenses can be purchased from Kpop2.

For detailed steps of how I achieved this look please visit my youtube channel here: 

Pictures:

How to get pastel hair (from dark Asian hair)

         I think the pastel hair color trend has been going around for quite some time now and it's definitely a super fun way to bring a little novelty into your life. It's nothing complicated if you were lucky enough to be born with platinum blonde hair; putting those pretty, magical looking colors would be as simple as one, two, three. Just dilute the color with conditioner, put it in your hair for less than an hour and voila! Beautiful, pastel hair is achieved. However, for those of us who weren't as fortunate, especially those of us with dark, stubborn, Asian hair, getting a pastel shade in your hair is almost impossible(more like asking for death -_-). I was hesitant and unsure at first, but with a little experimentation, I think got the basic steps to how to achieve a pastel shade for dark, Asian hair.
        In the past summer I had gone to the hair salon hoping to get a light ash blonde color to celebrate the warm weather. However, to my disappointment, the shade came out more golden/ yellow than ashy. So I went ahead and took this serious business into my own hands and decided it's time for an amateur to rise above and shine. With my basic knowledge of the color wheel, I figured purple and blue would counteract orange and yellow, so using the little bit of Color Jamz semi permanent hair color in "not so shy violet", I painted the concentrated dye onto the more brassy bits of my hair. To my surprise, the end result was an ashy, blue based, blonde color that I had always dreamed of! This was a nice color to keep until my little curious mind decided to try and step a little farther.
        It had been quite some time that I've been utterly intrigued by the dreamy, magical colors of the rainbow that all the fashion divas have been rocking in their hairs and I just couldn't put it off any more. I decided it was time for me to journey down that magical path as well and attempt to have pastel hair on my stubborn, Asian locks. At this point my hair was a medium ash blonde starting to fade into that nasty, brassy, orange mess again and I was not going to let the non-sense continue any longer. With much researching from Google and Youtube I decided that I was ready. I purchased Punky Color semi-permanent hair color in Violet and mixed it along with the Color Jams plus some white conditioner to achieve a purple that I was satisfied with. Then, I applied this mixture all over my head, of course first concentrating on the more brassy bits of my hair. Left it in my hair for about 45 minutes, and behold! Beautiful, soft, MAGICAL, pastel hair that resembled the hairs of characters from my little pony. I was instantly floating in the heaven of satisfactory. I love rocking my new lavender hair and being a new member of the magical haired species of fashion divas (I wish). Nevertheless, I was proud enough of myself for many days after my success and I love the color so much that I now believe I was born to have light purple hair in my head...forever.


Below are detailed steps/ recipe that I've concluded after experimentation (all materials can be bought that Sally beauty supply) You can also watch my tutorial on youtube (insert video here):

part 1: BLEACHING
materials:
- quick blue bleaching powder
- 30% developer
- gloves
- mixing bowl
- brush

mix bleach powder and developer in a 1:2 ratio (twice the amount of developer than bleach powder), apply mixture to entire head, tips first, then roots (roots develop faster since it's closer to your scalp and it's warmer there). Develop for no more than one hour, checking periodically to see the level of color that's been lifted. Wash out when a light yellow color is achieved.


part 2: COLORING
materials:
- temporary hair color (in the color that you want to achieve but concentrated)
- white conditioner
- optional: (white lady or silver lady toner (T14/T18) with 10% developer) *** only do this if you feel like your hair is super patchy and needs to be toned to even out the color first
- gloves
- mixing bowl
- brush

dilute the hair dye with white conditioner (take the brush, dip it in the dye, and then swirl it in a bowl of conditioner, I find this the easiest). Apply to hair concentrating on the more brassy bits. (if your hair is not light enough make this mixture a bit darker than you would on lighter hair) Saturate all of your hair and let it "process" (not really processing since it's just basically colored conditioner) for a good 30 - 60 minutes. Wash out, and voila! Enjoy your new, magical, pastel hair. :)

***If you bleach your hair and it does not look even or the color is still very orange, tone first with white lady or silver lady with cooling violet additive. Then put in the color that you want using the conditioner method.

A trick: If you want more of a gray tone, use the cooling violet additive with a 10% developer and leave that in your hair to process, the end result will be gray! :D

Any way hope you guys enjoyed this long, tragically poor written essay about my experience with pastel hair. And hope it was helpful!

Before -> After

before: black hair 

before: black hair

after salon: golden blonde?

After self toning: ash blonde

                                                                                  ...

Final product after putting color: lavender/ pastel purple

Pastel purple/ lavender hair