Live Fast & Dye Your Hair

There's a certain type of girl who goes through a period of time, usually around junior high, when she dyes her hair unnatural colors. Pink, green, blue, accidental black. I am this type of girl. I am the prototype of this girl. Except I never grew out of it. Color really speaks to me, I find it one of the most primal and basic ways to express myself and my feelings. Colors are better than words, sometimes, at communicating emotion. I figure, I get to pick the color of my shoes, my nail polish, my dress, and my purse, as my mood dictates. Why not my hair?  

Here is the journey my hair color has taken over the last 2.5 years. This is only part of a much longer tale, 15 years of hair dye adventures, but i won't make you go that far back. 

first, there was natural hippie hair

natural color: exhibit B

then i went back to platinum, 

a color I always return to because it is the color of my soul

witchy lavendar

pastel violet

fishbowl blue

ballerina pink

peachy-pink in action

and now, electric mint

it is actually literally a color from Manic Panic called Electric Mint

(if you're ever bored, entertain yourself by visiting Manic Panic's bizarre website and browsing the user gallery)

✿ ✿ ✿ DIY ✿ ✿ ✿

I do my own hair - bleach and color. What this means is, I perform mad experiments with color in my bathroom and make a mess. I have a lot of tips for at-home bleaching that I will probably make a post about someday. As far as achieving pastel colors, which is what I usually do - My preferred method is  to mix a dollop of whatever *temporary* hair dye i am using with my conditioner while showering, then leaving it on 5-10 minutes (bleached hair is very porous and absorbs color quickly, like paint on a blank canvas. Important to note: pastel colors will ONLY work on bleached or very very light blonde hair). The conditioner dilutes the color and helps it distribute evenly. Leaving it on only a few minutes results in a really pretty pastel wash. Sometimes it is not perfectly even but i kind of like the "natural" variation in tone that happens.  I refresh the color every time i wash my hair - which i only do 2 times a week.

As far as brands of hair color go: i use Manic Panic often, and although i read a lot of slamming on Manic Panic in hair forums etc, i've always had great experiences with it. They definitely have the widest range of awesome colors. Special Effects is also great and sometimes easier to find in beauty shops than Manic Panic, although i find their range of colors to be a bit more limited. I've also dabbled with "professional" or salon formulas like Chroma, and find that while they definitely last longer, they are also a bit more complicated for the novice or DIY girl.

✿ ✿ ✿

So what's next for my hair? I always go back to platinum in between color experiments, because it really is my spirit hair color (something i firmly believe in). I've been wanting to do a nice pistachio green, with less blue in it. But a rosy-lavender is also sounding really good lately. I guess I'll just have to see what mood I'm in...

Flea Circus

One of my absolute favorite things to do in the Bay Area is to attend the monthly Alameda Antique Fair. Second only to the Rose Bowl flea in Pasadena, this market is HUGE and the sellers are required to sell only items 20 years old or older. In other words, no cell phone chargers or made-in-china toys here, it's ALL VINTAGE, ALL THE TIME. Everything from books to furniture to knick-knacks and of course, clothes. LOTS AND LOTS of clothes. it takes me a good 3 hours to get through this flea and that's just because I usually run out of money by then.

I try to go as often as I can. It is held on the first Sunday of every month. Yesterday my dearest friend-twin Lula and I went and came back with 3 bags of records and dresses and vintage lingerie.

This is me and Lula. You will be seeing a lot of her around these parts.

isn't she fabulous?

gahh should've bought the hat!

the things i came home with:

i never (seriously, NEVER) wear rings. 

but i fell in love with this vintage daisy.

L to R: 

red ruffly 60's dress

light blue origami 50's cut-out lace wiggle dress

 cream & orange cherry-print silk 60's wiggle dress

 90's creepers with black & white pony hair

and 3 records (Cream, Michael Jackson, Rolling Stones)

Punk rock is over

I relate a lot to the graphic novel/movie Ghost World. Enid Coleslaw is my spirit animal. In my soul I am actually a 15 year old angst-ridden suburban teenager, dying my hair with manic panic and listening to records on repeat in my bedroom, bemoaning the fact that nobody gets me.

The life parallels and anecdotes I could draw - and will draw on this blog many times, i'm sure - from Ghost World are too numerous to tackle in one post. But today, it comes up because I am suddenly obsessed with the idea of  wearing a cropped leather jacket and creepers with  e v e r y t h i n g. skinny jeans, little dresses, trousers, you name it.

I know a lot of designers are picking up on the creeper trend right now, but I wanted the originals. The basics. The good stuff. I even went on the Hot Topic website to track down the real deal. Yeah, i went there. Because you gotta do what you gotta do. Besides, it's not like i'm some modern punk - it's obviously a 1977 original punk rock look. 

I guarantee you these items will appear in outfit posts shortly. Until then, snatch up some of your own, and maybe some green hair dye while you're at it.

Finally found the perfect cropped faux-leather jacket, link below

Quilted Moto Jacket from Nasty Gal

TUK White Leather Creepers from Hot Topic

& these ^ are en route, get ready

You should probably also cancel your plans tonight and re-watch Ghost World. Your inner teenager will thank you.

High Society

(L to R: Christina, Nicole, Annalise, Rachel & Me)

It's always exciting to find a kindred spirit - let alone a group of them! I am thrilled to have found a handful of ladies in the bay area who love vintage and kitsch and adventures as much as i do, and who would be thrilled to dress up and have a fancy tea party! Some of the Golden Collective gals and i got together on Sunday for High Tea at the glass-domed Rotunda in Neiman Marcus. We pretended to be classy ladies, had floral tea and petit fours, and then proceeded to have a photoshoot party in the Ladies Room. Classy, i say. Not to toot our own horn, but we also all looked pretty fabulous.

i wore my prized 1950's german dress

covered in line-drawn houses that remind me

of San Francisco

my back-seam stockings with dainty hands

Christina's fetish shoes stole the show

(last 3 photos taken by & property of The Hummingbird Girls)

oufit details: dress-vintage, purse-vintage, stockings-wolford, pumps-chelsea crew, sunglasses - karen walker

Digital Love

if you want to know about a person, all you really need is their cell phone. a log of who they talk to, their daily plans, their to-do lists, and visual documentation of every meal they eat - all in one device. so since i'm still getting to know you, i figure that's a good place to start. specifically, with Instagram.

my Instagram feed is gratuitously vain and typical - it boils down to photos of me, my outfits, and my cat. and every once in a while, a couple of my stunning lady friends.

the last month or so of my life my face according to Instagram:

some things pictured above: my cat Boo, my new Karen Walker "Anytime"  sunglasses (i die)

my friend-twin, the biggest coffee i've ever drank (drunk?), lots of my face, and several outfits. along with my messy apartment which you will ignore...