Hair & Beauty Tips/Q's

[BigBird]

I thought it would be good to have a hair and beauty tips/q's thread so I will start off with a hair colour question.

Calling all hairdressers and those with hair experience !
I have shoulder length light brown hair (with some grey !) which has been highlighted for years. I've gone from light blonde to dark blonde at the moment. I would like to stop highlighting, to save money and for a change, and am thinking of a nice rich coppery brown colour. I think my natural colour is quite insipid and boring ! So - what are the alternatives? Are store bought colours strong enough to go over highlights or am I better going to the professionals? Are there different kinds of 'colours' in the hairdressers? Any advice appreciated.

Go to a professional, or it could be a train wreck (LOL!). Covering highlights with a home job can be hit and miss, as you have to be careful to put the red back in first. If the brown colour you apply is too matt and doesn't contain enough red pigment, it can turn green.
HTH

BigBird - my hair sounds just like yours and I've done the same over the last 2 years (too poor to get highlights done these days).

I use Belle-Colour which is good and cheap (£3.79)- started off with a lighter blonde colour but have now graduated to medium blonde which is virtualy my natural colour.

I found that the highlights were still visible, but muted down a bit, so they blended in better with the roots and actually looked a lot more "sun-kissed".

It doesn't seem to damage the hair too much - but do buy a good conditioner for coloured hair, and I do mine about every 6-7 weeks - really to cover the grey coming through. You put it on dry hair, lather it through like a shampoo, wait 20 mins and then jump in the shower to rinse it off !

I definitely recommend it anyway - HTH

Thanks Droile, green wouldn't suit me so I think I am better off going to the professionals. Thanks for that. Maybe once I've been a few times I might try a home colour. Anything to cut the costs down now we're embarking on a more 'thrifty' lifestyle !

Pamina, could you try spraying a little bit of leave-in conditioner on a comb and brush it through. It wouldn't really be that 'wet', and would be totally dry in 20 mins.

One thing I've wondered is how to people dry their toddlers hair ? Do you use a hairdryer ? My dd is 13mths with not much hair so don't have the problem yet !

Scatterbrain, that sounds like a plan. If I get a home colour thats close to the colour I have now and go darker gradually. Less dramatic, although I must say I have enjoyed getting dramatic changes in the past (perms, crop cut from long hair etc), but I think i'm too sensible now and would prefer the gradual and not so noticable change !

Pamina my dd must have exactly the same and unfortunately there hasn't been a lot I could do except comb hair thru in morning and sometimes I use a leave in serum which I use for myself, it can take down the frizz a bit on those days when you want to have a d that doesn't look like she's been dragged thru a bush backwards, otherwise as they get older and hair gets longer it does ease off. My dd now 3 but we still have bad hair days and thats when ponytails work.....hope that helps..

Ooooh - I've blow-dried my dd's hair since she was newborn !

She loves it - we do the whole sitting in front of the mirror malarkey ! Some nights she wants it dried even when it hasn't been washed !

She's such a girlie !

Pamina - it doesn't just happen with curly hair - my dd's hair is dead straight, except for the morning frizz which is a nightmare to comb out. I dread to think what the neighbours think I'm doing to her - NO Mummy, DON'T DO THAT!! I've found that wetting it (just with water) after combing and quickly blow drying it solves the problem.

Re: home colour/salon colour: I've got that same "encroaching grey" problem ? had it cut and lowlighted at the hairdressers, which looked great, but cost me £90 for a half-head. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't really afford that every 6 weeks or so, which I'd have to do to keep on top of the grey. I'd welcome any ideas for cheaper options.

RosieT - I used to highlight my own hair using the "comb through" method - get some dye and mix up about half the pack, then blob onto a wide toothed comb and, well, comb through. If anything goes wrong you can always dye the whole lot!

Alternatively you can get a good low-light effect by using henna or a shampoo-in dye (the grey hairs will obviously be a lighter colour than your other hair, but not grey). Or find a new cheaper hairdresser?

Pamina, sounds like the same as my dd. I call it her 'bed head' frizz. Since it is only fluffy baby hair I think it calms down once it is cut and grows down a bit. My dd (2 in march) has her first haircut this weekend and I am hoping to solve the problem. I remember it with my eldest, but once her hair grew down, the 'bedhead' disappeared.

If you are dyeing hair darker you can easily put it on at home with a semi.I can recommend Casting,their colours come out rich and really shiny.They last as long as permanent in terms of when you need to re touch,yet they're not permanent.If you've got long hair you may need to use 2 boxes.It's suprising how much grey they will cover.

Hair and breastfeeding question.

I'm currently b/f dd, but I would like to dye my hair purple or blue, as dd is to young to say "your not my mummy and to run off crying". A fad that I'm going through (your only young once).

Can chemicals from the dye get into my milk or is it ok?

Don't know about the b/f thing honeybunnie but can any of you offer your best-beauty-buy tips. Products you have bought that really do work for you.

For me its :
Boots clear skin cleanser (purple bottle) for a spot free complexion (although smells like petrol!)

Charles Worthington superconditioner and his hair taming serum

Mac lipglass for amazing gloss shine

and for my dd :
emulsifying ointment, for dry skin patches - non branded and very cheap

Pamina, for your dd's hair I can highly recommend MOP Pear detangler, its a spray that you spritz onto dry hair and then comb through. Dd1 has dead straight hair but she 'twiddles' it in the night so often wakes with hideous tangles.

honeybunny - there is an issue with peroxide (and I think ammonia) getting into the skin (you shouldn't put bleach directly onto the skin when preg). The amounts involved are tiny, but you should probably be careful.

If you have blonde hair, you can just use a semi-permanent dye (some last for ages, some not for very long at all), but if you have dark hair this won't really show up. You can however get your hair lightened either through a highlight cap, or just highlighted with foil as then the dye won't touch your skin - then you can use the semi-permanent purple over the top. It is possible to pull all your hair through a highlight cap - I had to have it done once when a home-dye job went very wrong. Don't try to bleach your own hair if you have previously dyed it dark red!

I've been trying to find a mobile hairdresser lately, you know the sort someone who'll come and cut everybodys hair in one sitting but haven't had much luck...any suggestions.
Maybe I shouldn't do myself out of the luxury of a twice yearly trip to the hairdressers though

Have you tried looking in the classifieds of your loal paper? There are quite a few who advertise in ours.

Have been watching my local Surrey paper lately but no, checked local Thompson dir etc but no luck either.....

Hi, Angelmother - obviously I don't know which bit of Surrey you are in but I just googled "mobile hairdressers, Surrey" and got these links:

HAIRDRESSERS - MOBILE
123 Inspiration 01483 202600
Inspiration is a registered member of the Federation of Hairdressers. Business covers Merrow, the Clandons, Shere, Cranleigh and surrounding villages. Phone Moira.

www.cheamandworcesterpark.co.uk/hairdressers.htm - (one in Worcester Park - it wouldn't let me paste it).

This next one is for brides but maybe does others too:
Moving MakeUp
9 Willcocks Close
Chessington
Surrey, KT9 1HG
Phone: 020 8391 4201
Victoria Edwards offers a friendly mobile make-up and hairstyling service for brides in the Surrey area. Please see the website for pictures and info. Discounts are available for bridal parties of 3 or more.

And finally there was one ad for a retirement home (bear with me!) which included the fact that they have a mobile hairdresser who visits - so you could try ringing local retirement homes for a recommendation?

God luck. I HATE going to the hairdressers - it's the mirror, mostly (and the holiday chat) and love having one come to me!

When I put a light brown colour on my hair (naturally mousy but with some grey now) it ended up, after several washes, what I consider a gingery colour. Any ideas why this might have happened? I want to do it again as grey is growing through again but don't know what colour to put on for the best results. Any suggestions?

Soly - it happened because red dye generally "takes" much better than any other colour. Since brown is a mixture of red and other colours, the other colours fade first.

I assume you used a semi-permanent dye? You find this doesn't happen so much with permananent dye (maybe a bit just before its time to do your roots). The answer is to go for a deeper reddy brown (so it remains deep red rather than ginger) - preferably in a good quality dye; use permanent dye or call it auburn??

Soly, another thing you could consider - what shampoo so you use? My hair is naturally a chestnut brown and when I lighten it, it goes a brassy orangey colour but I can correct it with Sheer Blonde highlight activating shampoo and conditioner by John Freida. It really tones the colour down to something I like.

Put on a really deep red colour - as red as you can get and then leave it a day - chose a day when you are not going out or just leave overnight. Then just do a brown over the top of it - all you need to do is think of the colour chart when dying your hair - if you have yellow (blonde) and add brown you just get a yucky colour. If you have yellow and add red and then brown the red takes away the green that the yellow and brown would make.

I have done this many times and once you have put the red back in everything is fine. Never under any circumsatnces just put a flat brown over blonde - you will get a nice khaki colour - you can temporarily disguise by putting ketchup on your hair apparently. (I used to work in hairdressers - am not a complete loon - please believe me!!)

Sorry read another bit - L'Oreal do a good kids detangling spray (green squirty bottle), I attack my daughetr with that in the morning (as I wash her hair at night in the week) and then blow dry it, she then gets the girly thing infront of the mirror and I don't have to get her up too early to wash her hair in the morning.

It gets rid of the bed hair and sort of stays in a reasonable state all day.