Bleach Baths

I'm just going to throw this out there: I am not a hairdresser, nor is my best friend. We have picked up our techniques and tricks from what we have learned from others on the world wide web and out and about. I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about hair and whatever the hell you're planning to do with it. I do what I want with my hair but I do my best to look after it as much as I colour and ruin it.

In July I bleached my brown hair and dyed it blue/green/turquoise/teal (whatever colour you want to call it). We dyed it once more at the beginning of September and since then I have let it do its own thing and fade as it wanted to. I then decided in November that I wanted to do something different with my hair when it got to the Christmas holidays and I saw my make shift hairdresser - my best friend, Kelly. I decided to try and speed up the fading process so used anti-dandruff shampoo, bicarb of soda and vitamin c tablets to help this. (I may do a more detailed post about these at another time).

I managed to get to a reasonably faded colour when it came to home time but I had decided that I wanted to get put as much of the green colour left as I could. I wanted a new colour and I had chosen purple. Putting purple on top of green was not going to go well in my eyes so I wanted rid of as much as possible with as little damage as I could manage. I decided on the bleach bath, a gentler way of stripping my colour out effectively by using bleach.

For my bleach bath I was using cheap shampoo from Tescos, 30 volume developer and blue powder bleach - both from Sally. We roughly measured 1:1 on bleach and developer. Then just a little less of shampoo after mixing the other two together.

Before

I had towel dried my wet hair and Kelly then applied it using the brushes we have. Afterwards we mixed up straight bleach and used it on my roots. I wrapped my head in tin foil and got on my day. I probably left it on to long but we had lunch and I have a habit of leaving these things on forever. I'm worried about damage but I want good results too. The diluted bleach was probably on for an hour.

I rinsed the bleach out before shampooing it. I then left on a hair mask/conditioner on the lengths and ends for a few hours, washing it out later that evening. My hair doesn't feel any more damaged than it already was. In fact, it feels rather lovely! I finished it off with Bleach London's Split Fix Serum on the ends and lengths when it was still wet. I'm not sure how good it is but I bought it so I'm going to use it, gosh darn it!

After

All in all I'm pretty pleased, it is funny when I put my hair in a bun as I have a blonde head/roots and a blue top knot. We haven't decided whether we'll bleach bath it again before we dye it but I'm pretty easy. It's slightly patchy but my hair always is, everyone always says how the like the different tones!

I try to let my hair breathe for a few days before I do anything else to it. Leaving this for 5 days before we dye it, just to give it some extra time to chill. And I'm also getting it cut to take the worst off the ends.

I'm sure I'll end up posting about my new hair colour as well. I'm getting into this blogging thing! I guess it's just because I'm doing things that are mildly interesting as it's the holidays! Oh well!


Merry Christmas and all that!
xo

Fee on Ice

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never even been to an ice rink, let alone been out on one.

I finally had my first ice skating experience the other week with a few girls from my uni flat. It was a terrifying ordeal to say the least. Of course, as it came to leaving time, I was starting to gain confidence and had finally started to creep away from the edge. 

I was eager to get back to the ice to practise but the holidays were upon us before we could organise anything. However I have recently managed to get back on the ice but for something a bit different...

Quite a few years ago my sister used to go to a local ice rink and go curling with her sixth form. In the years since she has returned with varying people, and for her birthday this year she was heading back with a few friends and I managed to pick up an invite.

Off we went. After lots of tiny and windy country roads we found ourself at a farm, with a barn, with an ice rink in. It's quite wonderful really. Imagine having that conversation: 'you know what, darling? I think we need an ice rink in the barn.'

After a brief video we put on any extra layers, changed our shoes and stepped into the room with the rink in. Later I was told that the shoes had been changed last year: they used to have a bit called a kipper that you could take off so you had one slippy foot and one grippy foot. Now they were just grippy. My sister and a couple of others had previously used the other shoes but I was very grateful for the change, ice is not my best friend.

Our instructor lady talked us through the pushing off and sweeping technique. Being very uncoordinated, it took me a lot longer than everyone else. That said, all but two others had been at least one before and they were all at least 6 years older than I was!

 You're in a team of four for curling, and everyone gets two stones each. You're supposed to rotate as well, so everyone has a part to play and can get involved. Most of my stones just soared past everything and went out of play, I prefered the sweeping but it didn't half wear you out!

After a few tries just using the hack (the starting block looking things) to push off with our grippy shoes we were then introduced to the sliding technique..

There was a sort of paper/plastic sheet in an oval that acted as the kipper and was really rather slippy. You placed that under your foot that you lunged off with and the idea is that you slide your way across the ice with the stone until the thick red line, where you need to let go.

It's really blooming hard and I definitely fell flat on my bum on my first attempt. Thankfully however, I was not the only one. After people had practised for a little bit we started a new game and everyone but me adopted the new technique (sod that). By the end of it, most of them were able to slide relatively gracefully to the line and deliver a nice stone. I, however, still sucked. But also still enjoyed sweeping.

We had two hours on the ice in the end, and it was great fun. Although we won our first two games easily, we lost the next three. Not the best way to end but it was still a good trip out! I really hope I can go again some time and maybe practise with the kipper a bit more (but maybe not, I'm really not looking forward to seeing the bruise on my bum!).

I definitely recommend trying it out if you have the chance, it's such an underrated sport and is a great laugh - much better when you're all rubbish in my opinion (and that's only because I'm rubbish)!

For those in Kent or East Sussex the link to the website for this particular ice rink is here

First blog post, ever.

So this is it, I've made a blog (and I'm pretty sure I'll give up with this within a week).

I am writing my first ever blog post, possibly the last. That said, I have a Tumblr, and used to use it a lot but I don't really count it as a blog and I have long stopped trawling through the unrealistic and depressing posts for hours on end.

Anyway, I thought I would use this post just to introduce myself (and to play with the layout):

My name is Fee

I am currently 19 years old

Study Psychology and aspire to be a Psychologist or a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist

I have been with my boyfriend, Brad, for almost 4 years now

I dressed up as a mermaid for Halloween

I make and sell jewellery for my Etsy shop, Unicorn Born

Am a big fan of Studio Ghibli films, Pokemon and Yugioh

Love love love unicorns

And that's all I can really think of right now, I class myself as quite a boring person but I'm hoping I might be able to come up with some interesting posts (if I'm lucky).

Currently in the process of stripping my hair colour slowly so might have some posts about hair related things. Of course I'll post about my little shop at some point and I'd love to review some other products and things on here too. As well as just general ramblings and thoughts.