How to lighten black hair at home

I have very black hair, which makes it a challenge to lighten at home. Thank goodness there's the internet! Here's the collective wisdom that I've gathered and my own at home experiment.

THE SUPPLIES

Developer

The developer is typically hydrogen peroxide. It is the oxidizing agent used to open up your cuticles so that the color dye may be deposited. Developers can come in a creme or "clear" formula. The creme formula has conditioner and the clear doesn't. They serve the same function.

Developers come in different strengths known as "volume." The volume starts at 10 and ends at 50. In a typical drug store box of hair dye, they include a 10 or 20 volume developer. 10 is used to add a tint of color and 20 is used to lift the hair color by one or two shades. Sometimes bleach is added to developers in order to dramatically lift the color of the hair.

Color

This is the pigment that will be deposited in your hair.

Choosing a color

Just look at the picture on the box, right? This has never worked out for me. First, you will want anything with ashe in the title, because the blue tones in the dye will prevent your hair from turning orange. Avoid words like "warm" or "golden." Secondly, get the lightest shade of blonde you can find. Black hair is very difficult to lift, so don't worry about it turning out too light. The lady in the picture of my box was practically albino, and my hair is barely medium brown.

Toner

This is the corrective color and people usually use it to correct brassiness (orange tones) in their hair. You can mix the toner (which is a special kind of hair dye) with a developer and apply it as you would hair dye. Toners come in different colors, so you have to see how the dye turned out in order to pick the correct color.

THE PROCESS

I was all over the place with this process, so I'm just going to show you what I used and how I did it.

You can see that I have a my developer, a box of hair dye and a tube of hair color. I first mixed the developer with the tube of color and found that it wasn't light enough.

I then bought a box of drug store hair dye. I ditched their developer (which was in the white narrow top bottle) and mixed my developer with their dye. I used a 1 to 1 ratio. I'm not sure if this is correct, but it worked for me.

I kept the first dye in my hair for an hour with not much lightening. I kept the 2nd dye in for about 35 minutes. I did a strand test first, so I'd recommend doing this to see how long you should keep the dye in your hair.

The first one is a typical developer that you can find at Sally's Beauty Supply. I got it for about $2. The second one came in a bleaching kit. (I tried to give myself highlights, chickened out.) The bleaching kit came with 40 volume developer. Both were clear.

After the initial dye, redye and all of 10 minutes of bleaching highlights, my hair came out to be a medium brown. It's a bit more red than I like and I haven't had a chance to fix it with toner. I'm giving my hair a rest for now and will update if I do change it again.

post preview/ wavy hair how-to

New color. (Will detail how I did this at home in the next post.)

Wavy hair how-to

1. Start with damp hair, about 80% dry.

2. Grab your hair close to the nape of your neck as if you were about to tie it into a ponytail.

3. Loop your hair around your thumbs over and over until you get to the end. You should have a bun by the end.

4. Using a hair tie, secure your hair into a ponytail and then wrap the rest of the hair tie around the bun.

5. Take out the bun after your hair has dried and apply hairspray.

catching up with pictures

The downside to studying for the bar is that I get extra cautious. More than once, I thought to myself, dang, better not defame anyone on the blog. I am going to regret staying up to make this post tomorrow. Oh well, on with it.

What have I been up to?

Graduation!

I don't have very many pictures from graduation, since I forgot my camera in my car. I've been getting bits and pieces from friends and my parents. Here are two of my faves:

We're missing one.

Waiting for our names to be called. Nghiem, Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen. Overrepresented this year.

Engagements!

This is my lovely cousin who has been in a relationship with the same guy since high school. Two degrees later (for her anyway), they finally had the big traditional Vietnamese engagement party. Here she is in an ao dai. Perfection.

First one out of my group of college friends to get engaged. The cup says Bride, in case you couldn't tell. I know, with that little tidbit, it's like you're right there witnessing the joy.

She's amazing as well. Law review, teaching fellow, heading off to a big white shoe firm for the summer. The good ones do get taken first.

In unrelated news, I finally redeemed some rewards points from the school's research system to get a tripod. Hopefully this will spare you from any more of my self-taken shots, but then that just means you'll be subjected to awkward posing.

Until next time!

I have no life

me (to Kevin, via webcam): You can't leave to watch Hulu!

Kevin: Okay, you entertain me then. Tell me a story.

me: Hrmm. (pulls out Barbri practice exam) Art and Bill agree to kidnap Vickie. . . .

Kevin: Thumbs down. Change channel.

Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation

I feel like starting a series called, "Hey, should I get that?" I guess they're called product reviews. Ha! Well, I don't have a smartphone and this was $2 at CVS, so I got it. And my answer to the question is, yes, you should get it.

Why?

It's lightweight. I generally don't like drug store foundations, because they feel terrible. This is one of the better ones. The texture isn't too oily. It has a matte finish and it covers my blemishes pretty well. If you look at the bare face picture, you can see blemishes on my skin and kind of uneven skin tone. With the product on, my chin looks pretty clear and even. The only thing I don't like about this foundation is that looks a little bit powdery once it dried. I hate seeing tiny little grains on my face, but it's no worse than mineral foundation.

The product:

Bare face:

With the foundation:

Not bad. I think without the sale, it's around $8.

Post-finals trip. I finished my last final on Saturday and on Sunday morning, Kevin and I were on a plane to NY. We rented a car and went upstate. I went to see the gorges at Cornell and visit my friends in Ithaca. We stayed with my brother for a night and made our way back to the city.

Our first night out, we went to Times Square. I think this red bleacher thing is new.

We went everywhere our one day in the city. I hate asking strangers to take pictures, so most of our pictures were taken by setting up the timer and placing the camera on random objects.

Last bar review ever! Didn't bring my camera, so I am waiting to be tagged. I like how my hair turned out that night. (No extensions!)

Friday's OOTD

the history major in me

Ever since law school, I feel like I'm always hustling. My life feels smaller. My mind doesn't take time to wander from one huge idea to the next, but focuses narrowly on how I'm going to complete day to day tasks. Blogging has turned into beauty blogging and not as much of an introspection as my old journal used to be.

Part of it is because law school has made me so self-conscious. It's really not conducive to idealism, and everyone judges (me included). I worry that my classmates will see my thoughts, and granted, I do choose to put them out there, so I should be prepared for all the haterade. It's hard to be that strong.

I miss studying history. I miss thinking about the vast realm of all that has gone on before me, rather than the small space that comprises my everyday life. I miss going to Black April commemorations. I haven't been any lately, since they always coincide with finals. I want to come out and show a young face, to show that young people still care. We haven't forgotten the sacrifices of the past. Although our tongues become stiff, our history remains a part of our identity, stronger than all the stereotypes thrust upon us.

Thanks Bao Phi for reminding me of the Vietnamese in me.