#purplehairdontcare

I have wanted purple hair for years. A couple years ago I did purple ends, but it wasn't the same as all purple hair. I hadn't ever done it because purple is so high maintenance. It fades like crazy, and dyes everything purple. But after Miss Emily used photoshop to give me purple hair in a family photo, I made up my mind. I'm not getting any younger, so I was all in: PURPLE HAIR IT IS!!

I told my friend Natalie (who is a hairdresser) my grand plans, and asked her to help me. She graciously agreed (yay!). We bleached my hair, which took a lot of work since I had dyed my hair dark after George was born. Then we used a purple dye that we thought would work really well. And......it didn't :( It turned my hair back to black with a blue sheen. We knew all of this was an experiment, so we just considered it a little setback and did some more research. I stripped my hair, we bleached it again (also a lot of work, to get the black/blue out...eeks...). Thankfully Natalie knows what she's doing and my hair was not fried!! And because we knew Manic Panic worked, that's what we used. VOILA, PURPLE HAIR!!! This was all just before Christmas, so I've had purple hair for about 3.5 months now. Here are some of the pics that were taken back in December of my new purple hair :)

VICTORY!! [don't mind me pretending i'm a model...]

Josh braided my hair.

This pic has a filter so it almost looks blue, but I still like it

For anyone who is considering going purple, I will tell you what I've found out along the way... Manic Panic fades like CRAZYYYY! Without even washing it, it would fade more with each passing day. I had Natalie re-dye it a few times, but felt like I was almost always walking around with faded hair. Finally we did some more research (who knew purple hair could make you research so much?! haha) and saw a lot of vibrant purple hair online that was dyed with Pravana. Of course, that dye isn't sold in my town. But Natalie picked some up for me when she went to Saint George, and we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

When I first washed out the Pravana I got really nervous because it looked like it went pretty dark. Compared to my faded Manic Panic hair, it was dark. But boy was it VIBRANT!! It's so perfect, and I'm in love with it. I've had the Pravana in for about a month, and haven't had to redye it yet!  I do mix in a little bit of dye with my conditioner, which seems to help keep the vibrancy up a bit between washes.

light coming through the blinds

this quote is from a kids book and I find it appropriate ;)

at the zoo a couple weeks ago

Even though everything is purple now (my pillowcase, my neck, my hands after I straighten my hair, the backs of my shirts, etc), it's totally worth it. I love my purple hair and I'm so glad I have awesome friends like Natalie who help all my hair dreams come true!! ;) It's pretty funny because now purple hair seems completely normal to me, and I often forget that it isn't actually super common. Or I just completely forget that my hair is purple. And then I get some really odd looks/stares in public and I'm like "What the heck are they looking at?? Is there chocolate on my face? Ohhh...right..". My favorite reactions are always from kids, who get really excited and intrigued. There have been several instances where kids will yell out to their parents "Mom [and/or Dad]! Look! She has purple hair!!!" It's pretty adorable.

I love the quote that I have in that selfie above, and I think it also applies to the fact that my hair is purple. So I'll write it out, because it's awesome:

I may be called a silly nut,
or crazy cuckoo bird-so what?
I'm having too much fun, you see,
for anything to bother me!
-"I Like Myself" by Karen Beaumont