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Since my last update I have visited a bunny cafe, cat cafe (that's right sippin' on that tea and cuddling fluffy cuties is what life is all about), kitsune cafe, went to a twilight movie festival at zushi beach, roller disco at Tokyo Dome (on blades because I'm unco therefore I suck), partied hard/perved at all the gorgeous well dressed hotties at Trump Room and of course shopped my heart out!

lover skilk shirt, sretsis playsuit, white tokyo boppers, deadly ponies leather backpack, my giant fat face from the JR exhibition at Watari museum

One of the highlights was M.Y.O.B's pop up store opening at Kitakore building (designer's studios and  revamped warehouse housing independent, forward boutiques, DOG and Garter, click the link to watch Pharell Williams take us through the joint) where I finally met the incredibly lovely Maya Kibbel as well as the super sweet BABIN' designer's themselves, Comi and Tanimi. These girls are onto something with their cool, hand-made, statement accessories, I just had to own something before they blow up! Photos of the night by Maya Kibbel; more here!












Two weeks left, I am so upset to be counting down the days I have left here! I sure could get used to living here...

Kernel

A few weekends ago I decided to stay in with Daria the complete season, bleach kit, whole bunch of dyes and plenty of hair treatment! I've always stayed away from bleaching my hair myself but fueled by the confidence that a ton of youtube videos gave me, I dove right in. Originally, I wanted silver ends but settled for multicoloured then gradually lilac ends instead. Things went wrong but worked out in the end and I didn't loose half my hair or nothing! Also, I lied, I'm not over coloured hair.













topshop butterfly lace body, dr denim jeans, clear rain booties (from the goods blog), xray bag from etsy

It's been a week now and my hair has finally started to recover a little bit after doing treatments every time I washed my hair. Because the ends of my hair had undergone bleaching, colouring and plenty of processing I knew it would be a bit of a risk for a home job. I had been obsessing over silver hair so I decided to give it a go. The next bit is pretty boring, me blabbing on about how I did it and how it went, based on a bit of research and personal opinion so if you're interested please do read on!

I started by bleaching my hair twice using Manic Panic Flash Lightning 30 vol, for 45 mins the first time then 20 mins the second time, smearing it in with gloved hands and using a brush where I can. This was the scary part I always feared, my hair went stretchy (as in when you get one strand and pulled on it it doubled in length, but didn't snap), I stopped at this point and calmly saturated the shit out of my ends with Kerastase damaged and brittle hair rinse and did a moisture treatment straight after that! At that point it did get to a very pale shade of blond with golden and green hints in it and after I dried it, the hair seemed okay. I wasn't wimping out now!

I heard that colouring right after bleaching is good to restore some strength in your hair by imitating or rebuilding some of that protein so I went ahead and toned it with Manic Panic's Virgin Snow (apparently it's a semi permanent colour like any other manic panic pot rather than toners that say, wella make). Some parts went really white:


Still rather green, I made my own toner using a tiny bit of Fudge Paintbox Blueberry Hill, some paintbox paler shade of white (I like virgin snow better, it works better for me and doesn't dry out my hair like this does) and tons of argan oil conditioner. To tone green down you use a purple toner, so I left it in for ten minutes. The goldy green green faded alot and turned a few parts greyish. I ended up leaving this mixture on for longer because I liked the lilac and pink tinges (as blueberry hill is a red based purple rather than blue) it was leaving. It was all multicoloured the first few days before I washed my hair (because the tops of my head is a darker shade of purple, the colour rinses down and blends it in gradually):

Good idea to save a bit of this concoction for when you need to redo the ends if the brassy colours/green creeps back in!

I didn't really have a clear idea of what I would end up and I have super fine hair so I wouldn't say that my hair is that resilient but I'm glad I had this little experience and my hair is also getting back to decent health after all that! Plenty of keratin, ceramide and moisture treatments afterwards as well as good old olive oil in wet hair works a dream. Salons will definitely take better care of you and good ones definitely know what they're doing but I mean I have had my hair snap each time I brushed it after going to a good salon the first couple of times I bleached and coloured my hair. Fallout after doing it myself hasn't been more than the usual, I guess I'm glad it all worked out despite the patchy less than perfect job and I just want more purple in my wardrobe to match! Hope I have explained the process okay, not recommending this for the faint hearted but if you're strapped for cash and need a medium-level project on your hands, it's hair in the end, so have fun do it if you really want to!

Got any tips for me? Favourite treatments, serums, hair savers, drop me a line!

Raven

Images by Jessica Shipard of Colony

While I was in Melbourne a few friends and I were hooked up with new hair courtesy of Prophecy in Fitzroy! You may not know this, but I dread visiting the hair dressers, I HATE getting my hair cut and more so, sitting in the chair for hours while I get my roots done. Being at Prophecy though was just like hanging out with friends (+good music and wine), add to that you're guaranteed walking out of there loving your new look, or in my case, I grew to adore my dark raven locks. It has even changed my style a bit, I have observed my tendency to 'witch' it up again. Funny how your hair can do that to you...

For years, I never imagined having, let alone liking my natural dark hair, but they made me realize a new way to work with it, the black semi permanent 'veil' was genius for the roots situation (that was getting out of control), whilst keeping the bright green and layering electric blue over it. The more I wash it, the more colours come through and continues looking salon fresh and more importantly, healthy. See, they don't try hard, they're quietly cool and they totally know what they are doing. 

All you lucky ducks residing in Melbourne should pop down on a Tuesday for 20% off all services (until the 14th of August), you may still even see my cheeky (literally :S) toosh in the window!

Let me know what you think? Perhaps major hair plans for the future, ones you have always wanted but unsure?

Fresh Rinse

I dreamt you were ODing in my lap last night, but it looked more like rabies.
I smashed into your shin on a skateboard and you bled and bruised.
Your friend was pretty angry and you were pretty much a little pansy about it.
We were in the food court of Observe and Report.
I had to get ice but no one wanted to give me any.
The nasty bitch Veronica Mars, was sitting at a plastic table,
permanent markering crappy designs of foam plates with a bunch of her 'droogs.'
Yeah, everybody was there.

It's actually really really bright, way brighter than the photo!

But I'm loving blue and navy with it at the moment.

New Hair

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Hehe, so lame pulling out the dog card.

Here's my new hair! The lighting doesn't really do it justice, but let's just say in the sun, it's on fire!