Haircut and things I learned

I got my hair cut a couple days ago and I'm so happy with it!

I decided not to do anything crazy because my first priority is to get rid of all the damaged hair from previous dying and that goddamn digital perm that I got a year ago. Pretty much all of it is chopped off and gone now! But that means my hair is right above my boobs now -_-

Anyway, I haven't had a hair cut in a salon in a really long time... Maybe it's almost been a year? I've been cutting my own hair since I just needed to trim it every month. And I never wanted to go back to the lady that cut my hair because she wasn't THAT good - besides she was the same one that did the horrible perm job.

So my mom made the appointment at this one hair salon that I USED to go to all the time. I used to go there because the guy that I really liked moved to New York and he was the only good stylist there. And the next time I went there to get my hair cut after he left, I didn't like it all because the girls were bitchy and they weren't good at all.

But I decided to give them another chance since those girls probably left and I was there at least 6 years ago.

This is the inside of the hair salon that I went to. It's pretty, clean, and pink! And if you haven't guessed  already, it is run by fairly young, stylish Koreans! I love it since young, stylish Koreans almost always know how to make hair look good.

Anyway, the unnie that cut my hair was pretty and she taught me a few things about hair since she was honestly pretty shocked at how bad my hair was. And just to clarify, this is all according to her experience working with hair at that salon. So maybe this stuff isn't as correct according to another hair stylist in a different salon since they can do things differently *cough*worse?*cough*.

1. Perms don't actually cause that much damage to your hair, UNLESS it's on dyed hair.

So yeah, if you get a curling perm of any kind, it actually won't damage your hair that much. But if it's on dyed hair, it'll typically damage it a lot because your hair is already dried, and the perm can literally melt your hair and dry it up even more. 

But don't a lot of people with dyed hair still get perms and it's still in really good condition? Probably yes. But even a lot of Korean celebrities don't get perms. They always have a hair stylist and their beautiful curls or straightened hair is done by blow drying, ironing, and hairspray lol. Some do get perms on dyed hair, but even their hair don't look silky soft. Besides, how many of us have professional hair stylists that celebrities do?

There's G Dragon in the Lollipop days and Jokwon with his baby perm. 

Anyway, I guess if you have super strength hair, perming even on dyed hair might turn out fine. But not all dyed hair is the same, which leads me to number 2.

2. NEVER use those do-it-yourself hair dyes sold in drug stores.

This is something I've done all the time, even though I know it's not as good as whatever the hell they have in the salons. It's probably not that different, but I'm pretty sure what they have has better ingredients that aren't as harsh. 

Which sucks kind of, because I've been wanting to dye my hair with the Prettia brand in the Jewel Peach color. But I want to listen to that unnie.... But I can't promise anything lol. It's okay to use the box stuff, just know how to dye your hair. My hair was fine using those boxes until the perm melted my hair.

3. Only dye the roots, almost never just touch up with the rest of the hair, especially the roots.

This makes sense since constantly dying the same dyed hair is only going to kill it more. Your hair color can go dull after, but like I said, those boxes don't beat those salon quality dyes. And they're professionals, so they know exactly what to do when it comes to touching up and when to do it. 

I never knew there was this thing called 'coating' and it's something you can do to make hair look shinier and it protects dyed/permed hair! It's expensive, but that's the price of looking good.

All in all, I loved talking with her so much, that I've decided to go back to that hair salon from now on! She taught me more about how to cut hair and stuff too, so I want to get my hair done by her all the time. 

I finally have someone that I trust to cut and style my hair! She cut off all the dead hair that I had and barely layered it, like I asked. What I'm thankful for too is that my hair can finally grow to a really long length. Having damaged hair prevents you from growing it out so long since you're constantly going to have to trim it to maintain it. And damaged hair breaks too.

So this what how long my hair was before (you can see the damaged hair too lol) 

Ta-daaaa~ And this is what it is now!!

Haha, not that much different like I said, right? But oh god, no more tangled hair when I'm brushing through it, and no more dry feeling hair!!!!

I'm going to miss my long hair though. Although it looked damaged, I got so many compliments from random people about the style and the color. And now I can't do full buns anymore. OH WELL!!

Now that the yucky hair is all gone, I can grow it out really long without having to trim it every month! 

I'm planning to do some big changes with my hair too in the fall/winter and I'm sure to go back to that unnie!

Digital Perm... DON'T GET IT (unless you're in Asia)

AHHHHH I'M DONE WITH MY FRESHMEN YEAR!!!!!!

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE ABOUT THE LAST NIGHT of my first year in college!
Plus the bad times.... and even more good time. But that will come later as I organize my thoughts and my blog since I still want to change some things about it. Besides, I also broke my camera, so yeah... I need to fix that problem.


Anyway to the main point..


So on May 5th, I was home to take a break from studying for finals that was coming up and I really wanted to do something different with my hair. The red hair that I had before like in the previous post, I Dyed My Hair... AGAIN, went away... This was actually the first time that color had faded dramatically for me. Now my hair looks like a dark brown now.


After experiencing a reddish hair color, my overall opinion on it: Don't dye your hair a reddish color unless you're in Korea and with a professional hair stylist. They're just that good and their products are just 100000 times better than the box stuff.


Like I said, I wanted to do something new with my hair. It's really long now - I can officially say that it's right below my boobs. But because it's long now, the natural waves and curls that I had in my hair were kinda too loose because of the overall weight of my hair. So I lost volume and it looked a lot straighter, not because it was getting unhealthy or anything, my hair was still really soft! My bangs are also getting really long, but I want to grow it out. I need to look my age now and not just some young girl with the bangs. I want to look more mature and sexier you know? lol 


And I eventually found out what I wanted. I still want my bangs to grow out and I want to keep my long hair so I can do many different styles with it. BUT I ALSO WANTED to have nice,natural looking, big curls without having to blow dry or curl my hair all the time. And digital perms were the answer! 

Very natural looking and bouncy

These curls are smaller, but it still looks pretty!

So this is before and after, Even though these curls look a little more "rough", it still looks sexy to me!!

I honestly wanted any of those above looks and more, you can look at them online really and get a good sense. Digital perms also cost from anywhere from $100 to $200 (possibly even more, but I'm not too sure) depending where you go and how long your hair is.

I was getting really excited and called the lady that I go to all the time, and she even gave me a discount. She only charged me the price for short hair, which was $130. Oh and an important note, she gave me the "biggest curls".

So the process was kinda annoying. basically you need to have wet hair and then it's wrapped around to make the curls and then hooked up to this heat machine. The total process about about one hour for me.

Then she takes everything out and washes the chemicals out and dries my hair. 


As I look into the mirror, I could only put on a fake smile. 


WHAT DA FACK?!?!?!?! MY HAIR!!!!!!!!!!! I DID NOT get the "biggest curls". They were FRICKIN SMALL ASS CURLS and SO NOT NATURAL LOOKING. I mean the lady is Korean too... shouldn't she have known what kind of hair I wanted?!?!




WHY DID MY HAIR HAVE TO GO FROM THIS:

My hair was so soft and long, little curls/waves still existed...

Looks more straighter as I said before

TO SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

Seriously, my hair looked like a frizzy gypsy lady...


I don't and will not have any pictures of my hair after the perm. I wanted to cry when I got home. My hair had so many fake looking and ugly curls! I didn't want anyone to see me. And what was worse is that my hair GOT MURDERED. It wasn't soft anymore and it just felt gross, even after taking a shower and using hair packs to treat it... And the split ends got SO MUCH WORSE. And because my hair was dyed, it looked more dead than ever before.


The only good thing was that my bangs weren't touched (I didn't let the lady touch it) and digital perms don't curl the first third - the first half of your hair since it's SUPPOSED to look natural like in the pictures above. 


It's been about a week and a half since my disastrous perm, and it'd gotten a little better thanks to MY hair care skills. 


What did/do I do now? I use the same shampoo and conditioner as I always use before since it's good stuff. But I leave the conditioner in my hair longer than what I would usually do because my hair needs to soak up the goodies. And every other day or so, I use a hair pack, like keratin formulated conditioner for my hair so that it feels softer. After I take a shower, you can still see the gross gypsy lady curls. But I brush it straight and then tie it into a bun and then wait for it to dry a little and then go to sleep. When I wake up, my hair feels much better and the curls look more natural.


As of NOW, it doesn't look as dead and the color doesn't look as burned as before. It's also gotten softer. But the curls are still there.... And unfortunately, I have to cut it soon! I can't completely get rid of the traces of the gypsy lady curls and I can always tell that it's not as soft as it can be... I REALLY WANT even LONGER hair, but I just can't... And NO WAY can I dye it anytime soon. Although I was about to dye it a bright orange color soon. 

Like the middle girl

Hyuna's color!... Sigh... the curls...

Bit too orange, but I only have one life :)

I just wanted a new hair change. And the digital perm fucked me over...


After experiencing the perm, my overall opinion... DON'T EVER GET IT!!! Unless you want to look like a  gypsy lady OR if you're in Asia (especially Korea) where the pros REALLY know how it's done.