Pastel Hair: Pretty in Pink

The pink hair colors kind of all turned out pretty. Some were more vibrant the others and I definitely had my favorites. I am trying to avoid a punk rock coated pink look. I really want it to look more natural and vintage, more of a tone than a coating. Remember the names of the colors from the vintage advertisement in the post that started all of this?... white pink, blonde pink, tickled pink, and tickled pinker. That's what I want!

I have also recently joined the website behindthechair.com which has some really great formulas for getting pastel hair color. You can join if you are a stylist. I will be keeping you posted on the experiments I try using their tips, which look like will be a lot of Pravana Vivids mixtures.

If you are just starting here because of a google search, I would suggest going back and reading all the entries labeled Pastel Hair by clicking here http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pastel%20Hair. This is only one in a series of blog entries about experimenting with a vintage pastel hair color looks and there may be something useful in another one of the entries or comments that you need to know before you begin.

Here are my pink tests, starting from lightest to most vibrant. 

This one is close to being my favorite result. It is very rose looking and because the hair was a little warm to begin with it looks like it could almost be a natural color. Working with the Pravana colors, I mixed 2 parts of Pravana Vivids Magenta and 1 part Pravana Silver Blonde with 10 volume. I used the shampoo cap method with a processing time of 15 minutes.

This one came out really pretty too. It is very pink blonde and was super simple. It is just straight Pravana Vivids Pink with 10 volume applied for 30 minutes. It is a true toned look.

For girls that do not have access to the pro store, I tried using Manic Panic Cotton Candy with a shampoo cap application leaving it on for 15 minutes and I got this nice pale pink.

I put this more in a pink category even though it came about when I was trying for lavender. This is Chi Chroma Shine purple applied as a shampoo cap with 15 minutes of processing. It came out pastel pink.

A little more vibrant, this was Pravana Vivids Wild Orchid with 10 volume applied as a shampoo cap for 15 minutes. The color is very even and coated and feels like Bubble Gum.

This is what Wild Orchid looks like from the previous test when you just apply it with 10 volume straight and process for 20 minutes. It is darker than I wanted, but pretty. Definitely looks like an orchid. It made me think of this idea for a shoot...a mixture of white blonde hair and hints of Wild Orchid and then decorating the hair with a bunch of orchids. That would be pretty.

Pastel Hair: Lavender

If you are just starting here because of a google search, I would suggest going back and reading all the entries labeled Pastel Hair by clicking here http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pastel%20Hair. This is only one in a series of blog entries about experimenting with a vintage pastel hair color looks and there may be something useful in another one of the entries or comments that you need to know before you begin. 

I am a fan of Fashion Police on E! and have been watching Kelly Osbourne's hair go through an interesting metamorphosis of lavender color. I've loved it!

This color and pale pink have so many options that look really nice. Unlike the blue, it is hard to make an ugly pale lavender. I tried 4 different colors and liked all of them and just stopped. Here are my tests.

This was my darkest swatch, It is Pravana Vivids in Violet with 10 volume applied as a shampoo cap with a 15 minute processing time. The only thing I would do different is cut the processing time in half to get a lighter color. It wouldn't be a lot lighter, but just a hint would be nice.

This swatch is the same Pravana Vivids in Violet with 10 volume applied as a shampoo cap. The difference is that I added another full part of shampoo to the previous mixture to see how much lighter is would be. This is why experimenting is so important. With bright colors you can get very different results with only minor changes in formula. The extra shampoo in this instance created a greater barrier for the color and it barely stained leaving almost a grey purple. This one would be a little nicer if you were starting with a white blonde or light grey haircolor.

I had a little trouble deciding if this was pink or lavender. To the naked eye it looks light rosie lavender, but I am having trouble portraying that on the computer screen. Using the Chi Chromashine demi-permanent colors in an equal mixture of Blue and Violet and applying it as a shampoo cap, this is the color that I got. The hair grabbed pink/purple.

This one shocked me a little. This color happened with a little experimenting. The combination is the violet Chi Chromashine and Crazy Color Sky Blue applied straight for 5 minutes. Now here is the question. Why would mixing blue in with purple make something more pink? Anyone?

Pastel Hair: Share your story, successful or not

If you are reading these pastel hair posts and are considering making the jump, please keep track of your story. Take pictures and write down your formula. Take notes on your experience, what you did and didn't like. If you work with a stylist, ask her/him to be a part of the experience sharing.

Then share with the rest of us! And keep in mind that it doesn't have to be a successful story. If you try something and it doesn't turn out right, wouldn't you like others know?

You have plenty of time. I am going to run the contest through the 4th of July, so anyone who wants to be involved will have a little time to think about it and participate. You can tell everyone about your experience a few ways. The easiest way is on facebook. Message me here, or search Vintage Hairstyling and message me with your pictures and experience. Please be aware that anything you send me is fair game to be included in a blog post here or on facebook, so keep that in mind when you are sharing. :) If you don't have facebook, email me at lauren at hrstbooks.com. No comment entries please.

I am going to put together an extra special package with $100 worth of prizes for 1 lucky participant and 3 other girls will receive an extra special hairstyling tool worth $35.

I am trying to open up this blog and my other random social networking places as a means for everyone to share ideas and experiences with vintage beauty above the neck. Please help!

Pastel Hair: Pale Blue...driving me to drink.

If you are just starting here because of a google search, I would suggest going back and reading all the entries labeled Pastel Hair by clicking here http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pastel%20Hair. This is only one in a series of blog entries about experimenting with a vintage pastel hair color looks and there may be something useful in another one of the entries or comments that you need to know before you begin. 

I am writing first about the most frustrating color I dealt with...pale blue. This color is great if you are starting with pale grey hair or cool white blonde. Blue (ash) is temperamental. It is very common for light hair to turn green when you put blue on it or if the hair is yellow blonde, when the yellow and blue mix together you get a green-blue. Part of the problem is I have a very specific color idea in my head and so it is hard when you don't reach that color. I am not going for deep punk rock blue. I want something you would see at Easter.

No this isn't really Katie's hair color. I photoshopped it to what I would love to see her wear, even in a wig. It looks great with her eyes.

I know we are not all so lucky to be able to get our hair to a cool blonde. If you have black coarse hair, have died your hair jet black, or over processed with color changes, you can turn your hair to cotton candy trying to get it light and cool enough to put a pastel blue over it. If you can't get your hair a cool white blonde and still have some yellow or peach in it, pale lavender or pink will be much easier to achieve. If you can get your hair to a cool white, go for it. I think pale blue is beautiful and fresh. Then you can truly be a blue-haired old lady. :)

I actually got a pretty cool mint green, but that isn't what I wanted. I want a true pale blue hair color, not pale teal or mint. 

These tests were all done on pale yellow/peach hair swatches so you can see how the blue mixes. I got a couple swatches to turn out pretty nice, but they would be even nicer on a cool blonde or grey. Interestingly, I had the most luck with inexpensive demi-permanent hair color in these tests. I used a lot of the shampoo cap method on these, so please see my post previously on how to do this.

Here are some decent successes. I will include brand (with links), color, and processing time in all of these. Some of these brands are only available to professionals, so you may have to hit up your beautician friends to help you.

See Shampoo Cap details here.

http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/pastel-hair-color-shampoo-cap.html

This swatch used Crazy Color in Sky Blue. Crazy Color is a demi-permanent UK brand and I didn't find a US supplier, but you can order it online. It was applied directly and only left on for 3 minutes. This could get a little tricky. The hair sucked up the color really fast. Make sure your hair is in good shape or seal it with a toner to even out the porosity. I like the color a lot, but you would have to do your hair in sections as a direct application so you could get it on fast and remove it fast. By the time you would apply the whole head, your time would be up. That is the beauty of the shampoo cap for these fast applications. I am literally trying to just stain the color.

I retried this using Sarah's suggestion in the comments of a shampoo cap only replace the shampoo with conditioner and left it on for 15 minutes. I got a really nice blue like this with more application time. It was a little dark, but blue will fade. If you are using equal parts conditioner and color, you should be able to smear it in your hair quickly and evenly with gloves.

Test using Crazy Color Capri Blue as a shampoo cap processing for 20 minutes. This one came out pretty good. It is silvery-blue with only a hint of mint in it. The mint is where the yellow blonde is showing through a little, so that could have been avoided. I have no doubt that on a cool blonde or grey, this color would have been just right. But I like how nice it looks at such a light shade. A lot of the colors I tried looked really dingy at as a light shade.

This was so far away from what I wanted, but I still kind of like the way it turned out. This was a Pravana hair color mixture. I combined equal parts of Vivid Blue and Green with 10 volume and applied it for 15 minutes as a shampoo cap. It turned this mint green...kinda cool. Not green in a Halloween kind of way. It was a very '50s looking mint.

This one was a little darker than I was going for, but I really love the cool blue of it. It is Beyond Zone Color Jam in Huckleberry Blue applied as a shampoo cap with a 15 minute processing time. I think this color would fade really nice too. It counteracted the warm blond really well without turning green. If you are working with super light white hair you could cut the processing time 5 minutes and get a beautiful shade.

This one almost turned out grey. I like it. Not what I was going for, but I like it. This is 1 part Joico K-Pak Silver Blonde, 1 part K-Pak Royal Blue Intensifier, 40 volume and 30 minute processing. I wonder how it would look if I had added a little purple intensifier to it?













Most of the blues I used were too dark, turned teal/blue or the deposit looked dingy and irregular. The Crazy Color blues went on the most smooth and looked the nicest when light. The Manic Panic blue I tried is great for vivid colors, but did not work well with a shampoo cap. It couldn't penetrate the hair shaft very well with the barrier. I saw an image on Manic Panic's website from a photoshoot that a Orlando Pita worked on using Manic Panic colors and they achieved a pretty pale blue with Manic Panic. I used a few other color companies, but had the same issue with either too dark or didn't look good in a light form.

Too dark. This was a test using Chi Chroma Shine demi-permanent color in blue applied directly over the hair and washed out after 10 minutes. Their blue was pretty, but looked best dark. As a shampoo cap the color wasn't saturated enough and looked dull.

Too dark. This is the same Beyond Zone color Hucklberry Blue I liked up at the top, but applied directly instead of the shampoo cap and washed off after 5 minutes. You can see what a difference the shampoo cap can make. The color is uneven. I could have gotten it more even if I had taken more time to apply, but if I left it on too long it would be too dark, a double edged sword.

Too dark. This was Pravana Vivid in Blue with a shampoo cap application. These Vivids are great if you want vibrant color. I use their red hair color on myself. They are really strong, but it was too strong for what I wanted. I was surprised that even with the shampoo that this came out so deep.

Pastel Hair: The Color Shampoo Cap

Color Shampoo Cap:

If you are just starting here because of a google search, I would suggest going back and reading all the entries labeled Pastel Hair by clicking here http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pastel%20Hair. This is only one in a series of blog entries about experimenting with a vintage pastel hair color looks and there may be something useful in another one of the entries or comments that you need to know before you begin.

This is a very helpful tip for all color. I use is to refresh my red hair while am doing my roots and I used in many times in this experiment. It helps deposit very small amounts of color thoroughly and quickly. My teacher Miss Lil' taught me this in beauty school. You are essentially shampooing the color into your hair.

The reason this works so well in this experiment is that
1. Most toners available today are not going to deposit enough of the color I want. They are designed to counteract tone, not deposit vivid color.
2. The bright colors available today are too vivid for what I am trying to do and the shampoo cap allows me more time and control over the pastel deposit. The water and shampoo creates a barrier.

You will need:
Spray bottle with water
A dime to a quarter size amount of the color you are using depending on your hair length
An equal amount of a decent shampoo
Vinyl color gloves
plastic cap

As always, before you commit, test the color and technique and time you are going to use on a small strand of hair to make sure you are going to get the color you want. Wrap the strand in aluminum foil to protect the rest of your hair. And please wait to do this until you see the rest of my experiments laid out over the next day or so.

First: Dampen your hair with water, not dripping wet, but a towel dry wet and make sure there are no dry spots in your hair. If you have a lot of hair, just wash it and towel dry it.

Second: Put the color you are working with whether it is a semi-permanent or permanent with a developer in a color bowl.

Third: Add an equal amount of shampoo and mix together

You now have a color "shampoo".

Fourth: "Shampoo" it into your hair with your vinyl glove covered hands and work it into the hair to thoroughly coat every strand and get the roots and hairline. It will lather up while you work it in. Cover it with a plastic cap. Leave it in for the desired time. The longer it stays in the darker the color will be. For the purposes of the pastel color it will be anywhere from 5-20 minutes, but usually 10 minutes. If you leave it longer it will keep depositing so pay attention so you don't get a darker color than what you want.

Fifth: Rinse, Shampoo with clean shampoo, condition.

Pastel Hair Step 1: Get it Blonde

Disclaimer: Please think before you bleach. If you are not familiar with bleaching and don't know what your hair is or is not capable of achieving, please consult a professional. You can damage your hair, or worse your scalp if you get too overzealous with bleach. Just be realistic about how light your hair can get. If you are confident in your capabilities, move forward.

If you are just starting here because of a google search, I would suggest going back and reading all the entries labeled Pastel Hair by clicking here http://bobbypinblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pastel%20Hair. This is only one in a series of blog entries about experimenting with a vintage pastel hair color looks and there may be something useful in another one of the entries or comments that you need to know before you begin.

My first step in these tests was to prepare some swatches. I had a couple options. I could either buy human hair that is already blonde or buy human hair that was brown and then bleach it. I opted to bleach. Partly because by bleaching it myself I would achieve a much more realistic hair color. It would be closer to what readers would probably achieve. Extension hair that is already blonde is such a perfect, even blonde color that it is very unrealistic of the hair that most girls at home would be working with. It was also much cheaper and I wanted to save my money since the color for experimenting would, with out a doubt, start adding up.

So I used the cheapo Sassy human hair extensions in this medium brown color and bleached them, twice. I had to bleach them twice because these hair extensions are over processed and overcolored to begin with. In order to remove the hair color and get the hair to pale, double bleaching was necessary. If you are working with virgin hair, hair that has never been colored, you are one step ahead of everyone. It doesn't take nearly as much bleaching to get virgin hair light. If you have colored hair and virgin roots, it is time to consult a professional for the lightening process. It could get complicated.

I have been using a lot of Joico K-Pak stuff lately. For this I used their powder bleach, 40 Volume, and a lavender toner. I am trying to avoid yellow blonde to make the future processing easier. I always recommend a hair lightener that has a toner built in instead of a lightener first and then a toner after. It saves a step.

I just took a long strand of the extensions and piled the bleach on.

To help the process along I covered the hair with more foil and shot it with some heat from the hair dryer. Don't do this on your own head if you have never done it before. Too much heat with the bleach can melt your hair to no return. 

I am sorry I keep pointing things out you shouldn't do, but I would be very sad if someone did something from this post unknowingly and it ended badly. Just be smart about it.

With the first application, the test hair is lighter, but not as light as I would like it, so I bleached it again.

 

After the second application, the hair is plenty light and a little dried out. I took it a half shade too far, but it is still workable. This goes to show you how careful you need to be with lightening.

TIP: If this were a client, I would lather their hair in a mask like Pravana Deep Hydrating Mask or Mizani Moisturfuse Conditioner. Then wrap a warm damp towel around the head, cover with a plastic cap and sit under the hair dryer for 10 minutes. Rinse. I use to do this often when I was a blonde and still do it now from time to time. You won't believe the difference it makes in your hair.

Seems so new, but is so vintage...

I really like this trend. Now that unnatural colored hair is more acceptable, less on the fringe, the pale pastel hair color look can be done with little to no ostrisization by the public. Stars like Kelly Osbourne and Katie Perry have been rocking this look lately.

When hair turns grey with age and you are surrounded by cigarette smoke, as was often the case in the mid-century, your hair could quickly turn yellow. Blue and lavender toner is used to counteract this yellow. These toners also fade after a few washes, so it is common, for the initial application, to make the toner a little darker to make it last longer. Sometimes people went a little too dark. And sometimes they went a little too dark on purpose.

The truth is this pastel hair color look was worn by women as far back as the 1930s. In New York, an older society woman who was also an interior decorator and all around creative person made the pastel color hair trend popular by overly toning her grey hair and it caught on quickly with her older society friends. The pastel color was not always an accident as some people may think.

In this vintage advertisement for Lapinal Creme Hair Color, colors include white pink, blonde pink, tickled pink, and tickled pinker.

Pastel hair color options could include pink, lavender, blue and sometimes even yellow. The color wasn't a rebellion either. Although the women wearing it were a bit eccentric, it was actually considered very high fashion and European to wear your hair this way.

In my never ending quest to make myself insane, I decided to do a little experimentation with this new/old hair trend and see what options were available today to get this beautiful look. Stay tuned over the next few days as I upload my experiments in hopes of passing on to you how you can get my new favorite old hairstyle trend.

Do you remember contest winners...

Congratulations to post #3 Goodkitty1969 and post #21 Joyness Sparkles. You are the now the proud parents of a bobby pin box from In Grip We Trust. Send me an email to lauren at hrstbooks.com with your address and I will send you your little box!

And to lusciousbrat, if you are still out there, you were the winner of the Sourpuss bag from my last contest. I am going to give it another week and if I don't hear from you I will choose a new winner. I hope you get this message.

Thank you Vidal. Hair hasn't been the same since.

Vidal Sassoon passed away yesterday. I just wanted to take a minute to remember the man who helped define the 60s. His signature haircuts are as relevant today and he changed the cut and style of hair like no one since the flappers of the 20s. It is very rare for someone to develop something so trend changing. He came along and hair fashion shifted seismically, like an earthquake that permanently changes the landscape around us.
 

 Image via Fur Coat, No Knickers @ http://rachaelgibson.co.uk, hairstylist and fashion writer.

In his own words, "If I was going to be in hairdressing, I wanted to change things. I wanted to eliminate the superfluous and get down to the basic angles of cut and shape."

 Image via Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal, a great book about the trendsetters of the 60s.

Vidal Sassoon is responsible for Peggy Moffitt's fabulous hairstyle that she still wears today. Their collaboration, much like Moffitt's collaboration with designer Rudi Gernreich, was a lifelong friendship.

Image via 1960s Forever @ http://themodculture.tumblr.com/

Vidal Sassoon gets credit for Mia Farrow's adorable pixie cut. Right before the release of Rosemary's Baby, the studio held a press conference stunt in which Vidal Sassoon cuts off all of Mia Farrows long blonde hair to the famous pixie.

The truth is, the cut had actually happened by her own hand 2 years before. Rumor is that she cut her hair while she was still playing the character of Allison on Peyton Place. The producers were so mad at her that they supposedly fired her and wrote her off of the show. The character was written to have mysteriously disappeared and the public didn't see her pixie.

She hadn't done a whole lot after that until Rosemary's Baby and since news did not travel nearly as fast back then, the studio chose to cash in on what a lot of people did not know quite yet. It was a tremendous publicity stunt for the movie and people flocked to theaters.

There is a great documentary about Vidal Sassoon if you would like to learn more about how he changed hair. It is available on Netflix streaming or rental. It is a very well done piece and I highly recommend it. Here is the trailer for it.

I love her, but I can't keep her. :(

I went out my front door this evening to get the mail and this beautiful little calico kitten was on my front porch and she came right up to me begging for my help. She is so precious. I wish I could keep her. I haven't had a kitten since I was a little girl. I got both of my cats when they were full grown. I miss baby ones. She has a pink bedazzled collar with no tag so hopefully I will be able to find her owner. She is cuddling on my lap right now as I make up flyers to put around the neighborhood.