I don't mind paying others to do the things I don't know how to. I think it's good, and saves everyone time, not to mention rewards someone for something they're good at.
That being said, I'm constantly abhorred by these modern-day incompetents who'll rely on a professional for every simple thing in their life. The mentality of it bugs me too much. There's a lot of it about, in regards to gender. There's things men will do and things women ought to. I was once having breakfast at a friend's house, and she said I'd like to offer you jam, but my dad hasn't been around to open the jar. It was everything I could do not to scream. Naturally, I took the jar and opened it myself. I'm not a fan of waiting around for the designated person, not when the task is something I could reasonably accomplish myself.
Again, it's not the money aspect of things that bothers me. It's the thought behind it. This willful acceptance that you can't do something. That doesn't seem to me like a healthy mentality. So I try to do as much as I can myself, without relying on professionals. Painting the house, home repairs, small plumbing feats, and of course, anything and everything beauty-related.
The sums some women leave monthly at the salon could fund a monthly getaway. So no thank you.
Besides, I love to learn. It's what makes my freelancing work so fun. I can get excited about almost anything, as long as it exposes me to something I didn't know before. In the past, I've quite happily learned the intricacies to various sports, construction industries, and the production of canvas art. I love learning how.
And being as I was quite determined not to end up bald, I did a bit of research before bleaching my hair. That's the other thing I don't get. We live in a deluge of information. Anything you want, there's 50 experts talking about it at length online. You could learn anything you wanted.
Isn't that hot?
I like Brad Mondo's channel. He's a hairdresser, and I learned how to cut my own hair from him, and now how to bleach it, too. I also watched a couple other videos on how to do it and not ruin your hair, and figured fuck it, let's go.
Safe to say I didn't ruin my hair (nor the bathroom), and I rinsed out the bleach after 45 minutes to find my hair silky and feeling pretty strong. One thing the videos didn't warn about was buying enough bleach to suit your existing hair. I ran out before I'd finished my roots, which left it slightly uneven, but overall good.
Less bleach on the roots of my hair means less damage, and promised an interesting effect once the purple was in, so all good by me.
It could definitely go for another round of bleach, but I was quite happy with the result, and didn't wanna push it. There, I thought, is a thing you learn by paying attention. A lot of people DIY-ing just sort of eyeball it, and then get upset when they don't get the expected results. Like, with bleach, it's absurd to expect a platinum blonde head of hair in one go. You probably need two bleach sessions, not to get upset and start ranting online against the bleach company.
Seriously, it's so fascinating how things work, and all the more baffling how little time we'll take to study them.
Content with my own bleach job, I toned the hair, which saved me looking like CarrotTop, and let it sit for a day. I didn't wanna stress my hair too much. Again, patience is key. And in those 24 hrs, I could read more and watch more online, to hopefully do an even better job of dyeing it.
Morning #2, I rewrapped my bathroom because while the Manic Panic dye is heavenly, it stains like a motherfucker. It's interesting 'cause a lot of people look at these "crazy" hair colors and think "oh, how damaging that must be to the hair". Interestingly enough, many manufacturers of "crazy" dyes actually use some of the most eco-friendly, vegan, and nurturing dye formulas out there. Seriously. Having rinsed my hair afterward, it felt like my head had just finished a spa session. It felt (and smelled) way better, during application, than any of the commercial, more traditional hair dyes I've used along the years. So yeah, you're actually paying a lot more to go blonde or brown than you are for blue highlights, or purple hair. Just saying.
Being 100% vegetable-based and safe, you can leave the dye on for as long as you want. Which, if you did that with L'Oreal or Schwarzkopf, your hair would probably fall out. I left mine for about an hour all in all.
It came out super uneven, with some strands bordering on this cool, white-lavender, while some others are hot purple. No idea why that is, though to be fair, my bleached hair was pretty streaked and uneven, so I guess it's a fair result. Personally, I love the highlight effect that came out, and the roots that are darker and less purple-y, as anticipated. Creates a lovely look, and I'm so glad I went for it.
I'm happy with how it turned out, but I'm also quite pleased with myself for paying attention, and acquiring some new skills along the way. And for carrying out a semi-professional job all by my lonesome. I like that sort of thing. Learning new things. It's 100% more satisfying than going to a pro and saying "Here, I wanna look like this".
To me, at least.
