Fun While It Lasted...

I love my purple hair. LOVE it. Yes, there are some downsides, but not many. Anyway, school starts next week so it's finally time to make it a normal color again. Sads. Maybe someday I'll have my bakery and/or Etsy shop and I'll be allowed to have purple hair all the time...

Anyway, I thought I'd review the ups and downs of the two dyes I used. Yeah, two. Not that I think any of you will dye your hair purple, but you never know...

So this Splat kit is what I used the first time. Got it cheap at Walgreens. I've also seen it at Wal-Mart. Let's just run down the pros and cons of this one.

PROS: If you're a dark-haired girl like myself, you aren't going to get a true bright color without bleach. This kit came with bleach. The kit was super easy to use. And the color when I first finished it was beautiful.

CONS: There was enough bleach for me since all I did was streaks of blonde before the dye. But if you wanted to bleach more hair, there's not enough bleach. The same is kind of true of the dye itself. One bottle didn't leave my hair purple enough. So I headed out the next day for a second bottle. Another gripe: it didn't last nearly long enough. I did my hair June 9. By Father's Day (June 19) it was more pink than purple.

So if you want something really temporary, go for it. They have a few colors to choose from, but not a huge number.

Special Effects Deep Purple is what I used the second time around. I read a lot of reviews of different dyes this time. Something that anyone who wants unnatural color should note: THERE ARE NO PERMANENT UNNATURAL COLORS. But this one came highly recommended. I searched four stores in town and no one had this brand (not even Hot Topic) so I ordered it on Amazon.

PROS: Best. Color. Ever. Seriously. I loved how this turned out SO MUCH MORE than the Splat. This color is intense. Since I had already bleached the sections I wanted I just went ahead and dyed. Even with my long hair, I didn't use the whole bottle. I had enough to touch it up before pictures last week (yes, I did a photoshoot with my purple hair).

CONS: This stuff WILL stain. More on that at the end. Other than that, I really haven't had issues with this color. Yes, it fades. But I went six weeks from my first application to touch-up application and it was still purple. Not pink, purple. It was definitely a lighter purple, but not to the point that I was unhappy like with Splat.

So... some final notes about crazy-colored hair dye.

• It washes out. I covered that. Expect the water to be pinky-purple when you wash it. REALLY colorful the first few times after you dye. Less so each time. Tip: don't use Head and Shoulders with any temporary dye. It's not kind. And use an old towel to be on the safe side.
• There's a good chance your hair will bleed onto things if you aren't careful. Don't use a white pillowcase. Period. Dry your hair completely if you are going to be wearing a light color. I didn't ruin anything (besides the shirts I wore during the dying process), but there was a slight lavender tinge on a couple collars. It washed out with Oxi-Clean.
• I mentioned this stuff stains. I'm not kidding. Wear junk clothes when you dye. Use junk towels when you dye. And for the love of all that is holy, wear good gloves. NOT the gloves that come with the kit, get good ones. Medical-grade ones if possible. Use vaseline at your hairline and such. Because both dyes love your skin. And buy a cleaner with bleach. Because when you rinse in the tub (and please use your tub, not your shower) there will be purple left. But Clorox with bleach took it right out of my bathroom. Spray, let it sit, rinse.
• Still on the staining/bleeding subject: if you play with your hair and you have light-colored polish on... your nails could end up with some nice tint to them. Just saying. 

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn't. Obviously the bleeding factor goes down as it begins to fade and wash out.

I'll be fixing my hair later this week. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm a little curious if any purple with remain and be a tint under my normal hair color... hmmmm.

Oh Giants

So we had a GOOD baseball fight the other night.



If you follow baseball, you know that there's just no love to be found between the Giants and the Phillies. So this turned into one of the best bench-clearing brawls in recent memory. Well... at least in the past year. Because this kinda happened last year too.

What's sad (and a little funny) is this was the best part of the game that night. My cousin and I were recapping our favorite parts on Facebook (if you're good at recognizing players, just look for Sergio Romo in the video... GANGSTA!). Twitter blew up. I commented that Eli Whiteside (the catcher for the Giants) was protecting his pitcher AS HE IS SUPPOSED TO DO and got attacked. Of course the genius who attacked me was courteous enough to give my blog a few hits. Thanks for raising my stats jerk! :)

Thankfully there were no suspensions. And the Giants won yesterday. So all is right with the universe again. Feel free to watch the video more than once. Between the actual game, post game, and the coverage in days following, I've probably seen it more than ten times. :)

Weekly Manicure

Did muh nails agaaaain. I enjoy them this week.

Yeaaah a little blurry. And please excuse the Panda hat. We're doing everything we can over here to help the Giants win today. And last time I wore this hat they won.

So the picture definitely isn't the best, but the idea is to do the ends of your nails while the rest is still wet. Then you can kind of bleed the colors together. I think some red tips will be necessary for Halloween. Muah ha ha haaaaaa.

Alright, gotta get back to my game. I'm sick of this losing crap. And maybe I'll slightly be hoping for another brawl. Last night's was epic. If I find video that I can embed I'll put it up here for y'all.

Friday Photo

Ummm... so I have nothing interesting to tell you. Except my best friend's family is awesome. We had dinner with the bestie and her hubby last night. Two of her siblings were there. They've adopted me because I look like I could be part of the family but I'm FAR more sarcastic. They pretty much love me. haha

Anyway, since nothing new has happened, how would you like to see my furbaby?

Greenlee got her hairs cut. And her nails did... purple, mommy's fave. I just love her with short hair. She's adorable.

I'm doing a fat lot of nothing today. Somehow I jacked the muscles all the way down the back of my left leg. Like, all the way up to my butt. It hurts. So I'm relaxing today. Feel free to hit me up if you want to join me. :)

Two Weeks

With roughly two weeks of my summer vacation left, I have realized I've done nothing productive.

And I'm okay with that.

Sure, we went to some movies. Watched a LOT of baseball, both at the parks and on television. I discovered a killer go-to desser. I dyed my hair purple. I went through a lot of nail polish with my weekly manicures. I got a winky face from Cody Ross. I discovered owling. I have begun a plot to take over Amy G.'s job. I have also begun plotting a little business venture with my cousin.

In the next couple weeks I really might be productive. At least, more so than I was the rest of the summer. Guess that's just the procrastinator in me.

Anyone else have fun stuff to share from their summer? Bet no one else got a winky face from Cody. ;)

Adults Only

Okay, that could be potentially dirty. Let's clarify: don't even bother reading this if you aren't 21 years of age and allowed to purchase alcohol. Got it? I'm going to recommend some outstanding beers here...

Alrighty... hubby and I went to the grocery store yesterday (yes, THIS is my exciting life). I had been wanting some tasty adult beverages. We're doing no soda for the month of August, which include mixers for me. So Captain and Coke, as well as other tasty concoctions, are out. I wanted the Pyramid Apricot beer last night... but Save Mart had a fail. There was one six-pack left... and someone had taken one out. Hence: five-pack failure. Well we went to a different store today and they had it.

Wait, have you TASTED Pyramid's Apricot Ale? Um, DELICIOUS. It smells like apricot, but the taste isn't overwhelming. It's a fantastic summer beer. So I casually placed a six-pack in the cart.

But they also had my newfound love. Kona Brewing Co. Aloha Series Wailua. Oh goodness. We got it in one of those variety twelve-packs a few months ago. The Wailua is the first thing I finished in the pack. And then I discovered they sell it in six-packs. It's another wheat ale (we're big on those in this house) but brewed with passion fruit. OH. MY. It's almost refreshing! So I kind of put one of those in the cart too. I'm set for awhile.

Anything you particularly enjoy during the hot days in August?

Weekly Manicure

Sooo... really this week should have been shark-themed nails. Because it's Shark Week on Discovery. But see, I kind of owe a manicure dedicated to a certain Giants player. Yes, OWE him.

See I "like" Cody Ross (yes, outfielder for the Giants and star of a certain post last week AND the adorable man in this video I featured more than once) on Facebook. And he responds to people all the time on his page. So in the course of commenting on his page last night, he asked to see my Giants-themed manicure from a couple weeks ago. And just so you know, YES I squealed like an idiot and treated it like a much bigger deal than it actually is. But c'mon... Cody Ross wanted to see my manicure! So I put a pic up on his wall.

Um, if you remember my manicure was pretty much solely revolving around our favorite bearded closer, B.Weezy. Cody called me out on that. And now I'm attempting to redeem myself with this...

Yup, spelled his name. 13 is his number (obviously). The black with orange stripes is because he's pretty much known for wearing the short baseball pants with striped socks like that. :) I love his socks. I'm actually planning on getting some before our next game.

So there ya are. This won't last a week. We have pics coming on Saturday so I think I'll go for something less bright. Or maybe I'll do purple to match my hair...

**EDIT** Cody responded with a "like" and a "Now keep it like that. ;-)"

I GOT A WINKY FACE FROM CODY ROSS! haha I promise I'm not that crazy, it just makes me giggle. And okay, I did squeal. Hubby rolled his eyes at me.