i secretly want to dye my dark auburn-brown hair platinum blonde, ala christina aguilera. i know it will KILL my hair, and i might possibly look like a complete moron, and i will have to invest in a whole new set of falls, plus the hair maintenance alone will suck the hell out of my finances...so, we have a lot more cons than pros so far but i just wanna see if blondes really do have more fun.

what a cutie you are, taligator. no style tips for you, though -- i've got the complete opposite of your hair type! long, thick, wavy mop o'hair.

Taligator, I wish I could offer some tips, but my hair weighs a metric ton, so I don't have the experience either. I'm just posting to say you have REALLY nice hair. What a lovely color!

I was wondering how to protect my hair from the pool. I swim everyday, and since I live in Las Vegas and am trying to lose weight, I really don't want to stop swimming, but it is wreaking havoc on my hair. it's all dried out, and now the ends, which were doing soooooo well, are starting to look like they're dead. I've worked so hard on my flippin hair and its making me angry. any suggestions?

thanks .. that particular color is Garnier Nutrisse number 80 - Butternut.

My real haircolor is the color of my eyebrows. A dark dull blonde. I have a lot of red though so pretty much any color I put on my hair ends up reddish like that.

solitary_fey - you could start a "new" trend and wear a swimming cap. I personally like the ones with the plastic flowers on them. Very 1920's ...

Anyone know where to find a picture of the below described hairstyle. All the photos I find online look like they are from the 1980's. My sister has tried to get her hair cut twice by different stylists and they never understand her description.

Very short , but messy layers in the back with a longer messy look on the sides and front. Does that make sense, is that a certain style?

I can't think of a celebrity that has this style to compare it to.

It almost sounds like a shag ...

I've got fine hair that's medium length. Colored.

Here's the quandry: IT'S SOOOOO damned OILY!!!

It's ok for about 10 hours after washing, and after that---it's all down hill. 24 hours after washing, you'd think I'd dumped baby oil on my head (or simply hadn't bothered to bathe---ewww.)

Is there anything y'all could suggest that would maybe get me through the 24 hour mark??

Pleeease?!?

designer - like an angled "sasson bob"? they were really popular in the 1960's. maybe try telling them that you want a choppy modern angled/sasson bob? dunno. actually it kind sounds like my hair..

quiet - have you ever tried "big" shampoo from lush? it's got sea salt in it and you can use it as a clarifying shampoo. it tends to dry out my hair if i use it too much, but it might help balance out you hair. it's kinda expensive but you only need the smallest amount.

Bragg's Apple Cider vinegar as a rinse (mixed in with water) is good for balancing the scalp. It's useful for those with oily hair or even dry hair.

girlies! my regular haircut is razor-cut; i love the way it makes my hair look but it totally ruins the ends--on top of blowdrying, my hair is totally fried. i'm kind of trying to grow it out, so i don't want to cut it all off to make it healthy again...anyone have any suggestions other than cutting off the rough bits and starting again? will a hot oil treatment help, or am i just beyond help?

quiet, though it's counterintuitive your hair might be overwashed. one weekend maybe try giving it a few days between washings (just keep it up in a ponytail as to not notice the ickness too much) and then see how it goes after that.

well, mouse, a hot oil treatmens will make your hair softer, but it won't repair the ends. are your ends split? (i never had that happend due to razoring). if you want to grow it out i say finding yourself a deep-conditioning regime and getting the ends trimmed off is the best way to go about it

Oooh, let me spread the gospel of Conditioner Only aka CO! Get a hold of a cheapie conditioner (like VO5 or Suave or even White Rain) and apply *generous* amounts of conditioner to the scalp and length. Every strand should be coated. I use this time to finger comb and detangle. Then I get a little water on my scalp and massage. Some long hair folks bundle up their hair and rinse a long while later but I sure don't. I shave and shower-think while the conditioner sits on my head and then rinse, rinse, rinse.

It seems that some folks hair's like either Suave OR VO5 products with some variation in results depending on the "flavor"/ingredients. (Quiet, Kiwi-Lime Squeeze clarifying conditioner from VO5 is well regarded as a great gentle cleanser.) I've read of some folks diluting the conditioner and it still working fine. I've also read of people adding honey to the conditioner for added conditioning-oomph but so far the plain CO washes have been working well for me. My scalp has never been happier (I have oily skin so I was wary of using so much moisturizing conditioner on my scalp). I definitely don't need to CO every day but I like knowing if I'm going through a must-wash-hair-daily phase that my hair won't get thrashed with this routine.

Quiet, I was always greasy-headed and I would look for the harshest most-cleansing products to get rid of that oil and then my scalp would totally overcompensate. I first cut out sulfates in my shampoos, which helped a lot and would be a good first step if you aren't sure about this conditioner-only thing. Then I diluted the non-sulfate shampoos I was using to make them even more gentle, concentrating on the scalp and making sure the ends were coated with conditioner, before converting to the Church of CO. My hair isn't oily at ALL anymore. There has also been an incredible frizz/flyaway reduction.

Mouse, I've never been impressed with the ingredients in any of those hot oil treatments. I'd be more inclined to grab some virgin coconut oil (smells great and because it's semisolid it's easy to work with) and concentrate on the ends. You could throw on a winter cap and let your body heat warm it up. In my experience, coconut oil penetrates in a really greaseless way. Others love jojoba oil. If your hair is really super fried, I'd go to town with a deep moisture treatment (I have a recipe for a homemade one which is amazing back in the archives) on a regular (like every other day) basis until it feels better.

Sorry this is so long. This is all information culled from long hair sites (mostly Long Hair Community) which are interesting resources for anybody who wants nonfried hair at any length.

Thanks, Y'all!

I tried the apple cider vinegar rinse this morning, with cool water and, even though I was thinking, "I'm gonna smell like salad," I rinsed a little after that with more cool water. Seems to have given my hair a little more body...

OH!! AND--OH!! Are any of Y'all ADDICTED to those LUSH products?!?

I've ordered the "BIG" shampoo--and a couple of those yummy bath bombs, too...

*heads off to the title pawn place to get more beauty-product money*

Racecar, how MUCH do you rock??

racecar, that sounds great. thank you! my hair is quite short already, so i don't want to have to resort to cutting it all off.

Hee! Thanks maimy! I immersed myself in fluffy pursuits during a hard family time and now I embarass myself sometimes with all the hair knowledge I've somehow absorbed.

Mouse, I definitely recommend CO, and the conditioner+aloe+honey deep treatment for hair that you think you'll have to hack off but don't wanna. At the very least it'll buy you some time/length before making a sizeable trim.

Miss Pissed, I can't let you bleach your hair! You look gorgeous as a brunette.

Why not play with a wig for a while, or even one night? I'm totally serious.

I think I have darker coloring than you (hair and skin, I mean) and once upon a time I took it upon myself to strip the color from my hair -- at home, no salon. Guess what happened? I got it down to orange. Yup. No surprise there. Everyone I knew -- friends, family, co-workers, probably even the people on the street -- laughed at me, except my dear mother, who just cried and cried.

I took some Manic Panic to it less than 48 hours later. I won't tell you which color I used.

But seriously, it really will fry your hair. And like you said, look at the financial investment you'd have to make for your shows!

oh raisin, you are the voice of reason. thank you!
it's just a little pipe dream of mine. i get into these "i really wanna be a blonde!" moods every so often.
i AM better off looking at wigs again...eBay has a bunch in fun styles.

Yeah for birthday gifts from my hairdresser sister! I'm in love with Redkin color!

Because of the bleaching I used to do, along with the other atrocities the ends of my hair tend to be way lighter then the rest! Seeing as it hadn't been colored or touched up since Christmas I was due for some color love...I now have a darker version of my reddish brown with baby highlights all over. She insisted on trimming and changing the layers my hairdreser gave me in April while promising not to maim me.

I'm in heaven and there is no blond to be found in my hair! Yeah! I would post pics but have no clue how to on this site.

Hi hairistas, I need some advice. I have long hair that I never wear down, so I finally figured why not cut it all off? I'd like to donate to Locks of Love, but am trying to find a good short cut/style. I have a roundish face and thick, wavy hair; I currently have "bettie" bangs that I'd like to keep in some form. Any advice is much appreciated!!

ladylib- i've been washing (and conditioning) religiously, it's already lightened significantly. i think a big part of the shock was going from a light light blonde to a dark red... i have missed having red hair!

I got my first compliment on my hair yesterday!!
I know this is going to sound totally vain, but I'm used to getting them, even when my hair was blah & boring to me, and this new cut, that I'm still adjusting to, is So short and different that I progressed beyond the ' well I know I love it' stage to "people are looking at me and it's Not in a good way." any farther and I'd be approaching regret.
whew! she said it was a great cut & really suited my face (& it does make my normally deep set eyes look larger as it's babybangs fringe right around them). I even find myself using better posture now, to avoid the cursed double chin ugliness.
how incredibly superficial & shallow am I to need this kind of reassurance?
I also caught a middle eastern man (whose own wife was covered from head to foot minus the face vail) giving me dirty looks in a store yesterday - all that Exposed skin!! liberating I tell you!

crazy- what about a strawberry red? somewhat in the middle of the 2 colors. or blonde w/ red highlights? that'd be cool!
I can't imagine not being red, but then, do also get bored w/ it sometimes, which leads me to all the crazy shades of it I try too.

dirtybunny what are baby highlights?
your stylist sounds great!

freckleface- Baby highlights are super fine highlights that are done with foils.They are meant to look as though you were out in the sun and are natural in comparison to big chunks or regular highlights. You can see them subtly and they aren't obvious and in your face. I've also heard it called "halo highlights". My colorist in Mtl did them for me 3 years ago in honey blond on natural color and dk brown lowlights, so sexy but super natural! When my sister (at the time studying to be a hairdresser) saw them she wanted to do the same thing and practised on my head once I could trust her! The best thing about baby highlights is you can go 6 mths like I did and it still looks natural and blend into the rest of your hair!

Again I'd post a pic but am stunned as to how!

Hi guys, this is my first BUST post
I would like opinions about my hair- thinking of going blonde.

I posted at another forum I go on but people said I was heavy set and said my glasses don't suit me and that people who say they do are liars (ok can you tell I have self esteem issues....), they really upset me. As far as I know I'm quite attractive, at least my boyfriend thinks so.

Here are some pics of me- [URL=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/8923/me1xw.jpg[/img][/URL]
not v good pic- my skin is very pale but it was a hot day there

Photobucket pics are here if you would kindly do me the honour- http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/madomwiplash/

Please be gentle, I hope that people here will be nice to me anyhow, from what I've read as a lurker (ok I forgot my login details!).

Melissa.

hey Melissa! Welcome to BUST! I happen to like the color of your hair - similar to mine. ;)

That said, if you go blonde you'll still end up with a lot of red in it because it is your natural color (yes?) so bear that in mine that unless you bleach it it'll still have a lot of red in it.

But, evening out the color and adding some highlights and shine would be good.

Hi!
It is my natural colour yes, it always turns out darker in photos though. p.s do my glasses suit me? lol

I love glasses so I think they look great. Don't let the petty people get you down. ;)

Aw thankyou, I was nearly in tears at the things they said- basically they said my glasses don't suit me and I need darker hair- tried it, look like a corpse!

Thanks for your support, I love your name!

My haircut is growing out and looking even better than when i chopped it off, esp. since i dyed it last night...... i just LOVE it!!!! I dyed it "Crushed Garnet" aka dark burgandy brown (quite purple-y)..... this dark color has made me look like a totally different person. I wish my camera was working so I could show you all....

melissanorth - hey lovey..... if you are unsure of how to go with the hair color, let me suggest NOT going any lighter but maybe rocking some big chunky red-lights / brown-lights / high-lights.... like a tri-color highlighting festival for the hair.... i think some darker chunks mixed with red and blonde would be awsome on you..... it would totally POP!

Sorry if I sound like a valley cheerleader, I've been in a funky mood lately so everything is coming out weird..... hee hee hee

Thanks voodoo_princess, I actually have an appointment on Friday to have auburn lowlights and blonde highlights but I was wondering about going blonde in general.

Thankyous for not being mean to me!
*hides from mean people on kittyradio.com*

OOOOO! Voodoo princess! i <3 Crushed Garnet -- it is what i use!!
great colour

Your welcome melissanorth
*not mean to cute blondes with cool glasses!*

voodoo- crushed garnet sounds sexy as hell & bet it looks FAB on you !! fix that camera pronto chica!
I once tried a shade like that.. the darkest in the red family I've ever gone,called 'hibiscus' and in the sun, it actually *glowed purple.*

it was so Obviously FAKE (but not in a dramatic 'I meant to do this' way) that I made a joke of it and re-named it Stripper Red. gah, what a mess.

melissa, my color is (thanks to ms clariol!) alittle darker/brighter than your pix (so maybe really close in reality?) and I know what you mean about dark shades & your skin.
I can rock blond really well too so I think that your idea of the low & highlights is going to be Wonderful!! give alittle depth & OOMPH to it yes? are you thinking of a cut or style change too? bc your hair is already pretty, but a slightly shortened (1-3 inches maybe, just enough to lift it from your shoulders & give it a little ~swing) possibly even A-semtrical bob would look incredible on you w/ that coloring.
it looks like the texture of your hair is fine too, which would lend itself that much better to the cut, razored on the ends for definition.
no judgment implied either way though! the busty's that post here are brave, creative & super supportive, so welcome!

have you posted an Into in the Newbies thread in the Lounge yet? if not, you probly want to before someone fusses.

Hey freckleface- I've actually had it cut but it only shows in one photo, and you can't really tell since I tucked my fringe behind my ears. I had it shortened (from the longer pics) with a long side swept fringe and shorter parts around my face.

My hair's much brighter/paler than in the pics, it always looks darker in pics. I'll bribe my mother into taking a (better) pic to post.

Wish me luck tomorrow at the hairdressers, will post pics after! Gonna go and introduce myself now...

I'll have to look closer at the pix you posted ey? doh! lol
good luck tomorrow melissa, and welcome again!!

After going through some old photos of myself, I realize I should never have short hair. I look like the bastard child of Liza Minnelli and Squiggy.

reading the archives, i came across a discussion about tipping, and i am now frantically worried that i should have been tipping my hairdresser and i haven't, but it's a confusing ish.

she doesn't work for a salon, she just has her own little sort of broomcloset studio in the backroom of an unrelated retail shop. i call and tell her i want my hair cut, we set a date and time, and then we both show up there (usually she has other customers there anyway before me). she's great, but she's not a "business" (if she is, it's just her, you know?). so the entirety of what i pay her is going directly to her.

should i still be tipping her? aaah!

mouse, sorry if you're an oprah-hatah, but i found this link for you: guide to tipping.

and then there's this one, an actual tipping site with forums. but be forewarned, i just skimmed one thread, and the discussion got nasty. (which is why the only message board i frequent is bust, thank you very much. it's a scary world out there!)

i think the consensus is that it used to be gauche to tip the owner, but now, not so much.

but i'm not sure what to tell you, hon. it sounds like what you've been doing is just fine with your stylist. you can always just start throwing her an extra fiver or something.

i've only just realized i should've been giving my old colorist a christmas bonus, especially last year, when she did my highlights mid-december. it's a wonder she was ever kind to me. then again, i always overtipped her each time i went.

got my color done and a trim last night. i have model hair. i love my hair. at least i'm lovin' something about myself these days. *weak grin*

Feh. Chalk it up to my being old-fashioned, but I still think it's gauche to tip the owner. I just send her new clients (like Lunasol, ahem) instead of tipping. Ha!

Hi guys I've just had my hair coloured today, here's a pic.
It's different to how I imagined it- a lot chunkier at the front,
but I like the blonde.

There's still ginger in it
so it's a sort of strawberry
blonde colour now.

I don't tip! I don't know anyone
who does at the hairdressers, maybe
it's different here than in America?

Not sure what happened- I just
typed in the box but it made
everything into a long line.
Now post is like haiku!
http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/viewimage?imageID=1658979280307609027

melissa, if you get back here within half an hour, could you pretty please edit your post so it doesn't stretch the thread out? i don't think whatever formatting you tried to use actually works in the lounge.

And i love your hair. it's adorable

melissa
LOVE IT!!!! absolutely gorgeous!!!!
you have truly lovely hair and I am envious.
where are you anyway? you said different than in America?

mouse, I have tipping issues/insecurities too, so generally,I just go w/ an extra 5 if I like the cut/style at the end. maybe that's cheap, or maybe it's over, but generally I can't be bothered to do any math in my head so that's what I revert to every time. this last time I also gave my new stylist a few singles for a women's charity she donates to & I had asked her about (she has a simple jar in her area) too, bc it's a good program.
seems like your stylist's prices might dictate to tip or not, as she's her own small enterprise, like you ought to be able to tell if her prices are already on the highish side, she's padded her expenses & time, hense the included tip?

Hey,
I'm in England- I meant to say that we/I don't tip here, which is different than in America- assuming you're in America, since you tip. Phew!

Or at least I don't tip, seeing as I went to the most expensive place in town (so it seems).

Strange. I never thought about NOT tipping. I always give at least $5 .. I thought that was the norm.

I hate automatic tipping though. I just only spend like $10 to get my hair done so I give an extra $5 since I like the stylist.

she's really cheap. and normally i would tip, but yeah, i guess i've always felt it was gauche. because she's hardly even an "owner"; she doesn't even have a cash register. it's not pro at all (she used to be, but then she figured she could just keep her clients by herself). maybe next time i will give her an extra five and if she tries to give me change ill say not to worry about it? i really like her cuts, they're the best i've ever had, and at $35 for salon-quality they're super cheap. oh, and i do refer clients to her a lot--because people constantly ask me where i got my hair cut!

mouse, i was actually thinking a little more about this last night, and i wanted to suggest another option. since you haven't been tipping and it might be awkward to start out of nowhere, you could give her a $25 or more holiday and/or birthday gift. either cash or a gift card. that might even mean more to her, especially if it means you're remembering her birthday. or even something cute & thoughtful, like for mother's day (if she's a mother) or valentine's day. (not ALL those occasions! just one or two.) but i'm sure she's thankful for your business and i'm definitely sure she's thankful for the referrals.

i'm not saying anything against any non-tippers, but i can't imagine not tipping at least 20%. my sister is a stylist and believe me, she depends on her tip money bigtime and is always appreciative and never takes them for granted. she does work in a chichi salon that charges mucho mucho dinero. but it's not HER salon and her salary is for shit. even way back when, when she was just washing, doing blowouts and sweeping, those $2 tips meant the world.

just my two cents.

Well, Y'all--here's what I've been doing to combat the "greasy head blues."

I've taken Tailgator's advice and have been using apple cider vinegar to rinse the head after shampooing.

I almost always shampoo in the shower, so what I've been doing is waiting until the END of the shower to shampoo. I was thinking that maybe all the hot water and steam was contributing to the oiliness, because I used to shampoo at the beginning of the shower, rinse, and then wash/shave. Now I shampoo at the very end.

I also rinse with cool water and vinegar--then re-rinse a little to get the "salad" smell out.

Seems to be working better than before!

ALSO--RACE: Are you talking about not shampooing at all? Just using conditioner to cleanse your hair/scalp? hmmmm....interesting! Does it actually get the dirt/oil out of your hair? Or are you at some time using the shampoo?

Hey, quiet. Conditioner absolutely *does* clean the dirt and sebum out of your hair. I even use conditioner-only to get out my deep oiling treatments (virgin coconut oil) and it works fine, clean but not overdry. The light cheapie conditioners do a great job on most heads. And there are surfactants in conditioner. When I rinse out my conditioner bottles, it takes forever to get all the suds out. If you go for a heavier conditioner (Pantene or Fructis or most anything over a buck and change per bottle) the silicones they put in will build up and can weigh hair down and potentially do other nastiness.

I do still use shampoo occassionally. I was painting a week or so ago and I felt like I might have gotten paint in my hair (my dh said no but I just had that *feeling* of dirty) and I did a condition-wash-condition (CWC) where I put conditioner on the ends and length (up to ears) then used diluted (my ratio is like 6 parts distilled water to 1 part Giovanni 50/50 shampoo) shampoo on my head. (I also --and I'm just now feeling a tad selfconscious for all this effort-- put the diluted shampoo mix in a pointed nozzle applicator bottle so I can concentrate it right on the roots.) Then I rinsed out and conditioned again.

Some folks just alternate CO with CWC. Or there are certain times of the year where one works better for them than the others. Or some find that CO works great for them but they need to leave it on their head for awhile longer than I do (I'm guessing ten minutes or so) in order to get their scalp and hair clean enough. OTHER people find that CO cleansing rocks for them but they see they need to use a heavier moisture conditioner on their length to avoid tangles. Some people swear by Suave and others can't use anything but VO5.

I started with CWC and then gradually moved to pretty much always COing. Each head is different but yeah it will definitely clease your hair. The thing to remember is that most of the time, the actual length of your hair doesn't need to have the detergents of shampoos on it. That's what the coating of the conditioner is for.

Sometimes my hair feels a little "heavy", though it doesn't seperate and get oily at the roots like it used to, and that's when I'll do an ACV rinse (about a capful of apple cider vinegar to an empty shampoo bottle filled with distilled water) and that lightens things up while also smoothing things out too.

Hey racecar,
Where do you get virgin coconut oil?