Purplicious

End of the school year for us meant that Beans got some temporary color in her hair. The color she chose was purple. Now of course she is addicted and says that she wants to have purple hair forever, but she knows its just for the summer. (I hope.)

We used the purple from the Privana line. There colors are very true to what they say they are and they are really brilliant. When we posted a photo of her new color on Facebook lots of you started talking about using Koolaid to color the hair. I remember using Koolaid as a kid to color my own hair and I always felt like it dried it out like crazy and it tangled up like mad and drove me crazy. I had my mom take me to the salon to chop off what I had colored. Maybe I did something I wrong. It was too long ago to remember how I colored my hair with it. I just remember it being a bad experience.

With Privana (however) there are other flaws. With any temporary color there are a few things you need to know. First every bath or shower the color can/will bleed a little. Its temporary and it has to come out somewhere. The shower is where it happens. It will also happen at night when she sweats on her pillow or on her shirt if she gets wet in a water fight. These are things you might not realize. I tell you not to talk you out of coloring your little ones hair if you are thinking of it, but telling you because I think you should know. Its not that big of a deal and not a deal breaker in my opinion. But it might be for you. So color hair with that in mind.

If you have a blond or a daughter with light hair like Beans you might want to think about using chalk to color the tips of there hair. Its very easy and lots of places like Hot Topics in the mall will sell chalk intended for the hair. Just put hairspray on it afterwards and it doesn't bleed nearly as much as temporary color will. But it  will not last as long either. A better choice that Koolaid though.

If we had wanted the purple to be even more brilliant and deep I could have bleached her hair before application, but I have told her no bleach until she's in her mid teens. I don't know that she'd have the patience to sit that long right now and its really not healthy for her hair, so no bleach for now. That is just my rule.

The process I used to color her hair was just doing the underneath part of her hair on the tips. I didn't feel like she needed it to the scalp, just in the ends. I used foil just to keep it clean. It wasn't required, but I knew it would be much less messy. (See photo below.) How I did it looks great curled or straight. That was very important to me.

So now we have purple hair. My question for you is what are your thoughts about coloring your daughters hair funky colors? I know some people are very against it. My opinion is the same as my moms was growing up, there are far bigger more important battles to fight that the hair battle. My brother had very long hippy hair and she embraced it because there were bigger battles than just hair. So opinions about coloring your daughters hair?

Flash Back Friday

I know a lot of little girls that have been wanting color in there hair... and this is an easy FUN way to add color to there hair without coloring the hair. And its totally easier than you think it is. This one has been trending big time on Pinterest lately too, so I know lots of you are using this one. I'd love to see what colors you're using and how your hair wraps turn out, so please share with us on Facebook or link us on Instagram using @girlydohairstyles so we can come look at what you are doing.

Beans looks so cute back when we did this tutorial originally. This was originally posted back in 2010. That may only be three years ago, but she has changed so much in just three short years! But her cute little dimples are still the same! Love those little dimples.

Make sure you check this one out and have fun coloring with crafting floss. We have Beans summer fun color picked out and in the next few days we will have summer fun colors on my little ladies hair. Do you do anything fun to kick off summer?

Also the winner from a few weeks back for that $25 gift card to JoAnns has been announced on Abbeys Blog. It was Ruthu G. Congratulations!!! And thanks to everyone who entered.

Q&A with Jenn and Beans

We get a lot of questions and thought it would be really fun to have a Q&A day for Beans and me. So we put it out there the other day on Facebook any questions that you might have that you'd like Beans or myself to answer.
The most asked question was about Beans real name and her nickname "Beans". First we are going to keep her real name a secret. Its nothing personal, but this is the world-wide-web and she needs to have some things that are private, including her real name. That way strangers can't approach her and confuse her to think she might really know them. Its just a safety issue. When she's older she can decide if she wants you to know her real name or not.

The name Beans has always for as long as I have had this lady around been her nick-name. If you ask her or myself why she is named Beans it is because as a baby she would salivate anytime we brought out the green beans! Nummy-nummy! But if you ask her dad, who I'd say started the nick-name its because of that Disney show Even Stevens who had a funny character who went by the name of Bean's and made him laugh. Do you remember that character?

Now for some of the other questions:

 Q: When did Beans start enjoying you doing her hair? My three year old asks what is Beans' favorite type of bean?

Jenn: Beans has never put up much of a fight about hair and she has always loved the attention she gets from having cute styles. That has toned down a bit as she's matured, but doing hair has never been hard on Beans. I guess I got lucky.

Beans: I don't know when I started liking having my hair done because I was pretty little. I like Green beans and baked beans.

All the Way Braided Headband

I have to start out by saying that my little girl usually doesn't smile showing off her teeth, but she loves having braces and every smile for this hairstyle photo shoot she had a big smile on her cute little face. She's still getting used to braces, but she is having a good time while she gets used to them.

This style is one of my most favorite for growing out bangs, or just a day you don't want to have bangs anymore. This one is great! Except it is a little hard to hide bang fly aways. You have to be willing to use some hairspray for smoothing to get them to look there best.
How I like to finish mine with the braid on top... I think that is the photographer in me. I excel in film photography. It was my favorite. I actually love digital, but will always have a special place in my heart for film. One thing I loved is darkroom work. And when you got a prefect photograph that was metered correct and everything you would do a print with the film sides showing to say, "Hey I did this 100% perfect from the shot, not the darkroom." I think I do that with hair sometimes too. I don't want someone to mistake that I took the cheating route. I know that probably doesn't make sense, but I think its just an artist thing.

Thank you for always watching and for your super support! My husband was laid off again last week. Summer, work is slow, you know how it is. So please bare with us while we get used to yet another schedule change. I love the challenge!!! Love hearing form you so leave your comments and thoughts. Thank you!

Head Lice (Nasty Nits)

Getting lice used to be a shameful dirty thing. Now there are people that have adapted to normalizing head lice as just part of growing up. Making it sound like its a rite-of-passage that all kids must face in adolescence. I can relate to this in regard to teaching children to not "put down" lice victims, but I find no reason to adapt the attitude that it is a common occurrence.

I try teach my kids the simple common sense rules like not sharing hats, hairbrushes,combs, helmets, headbands, using there own pillows at sleepovers and personal space for hanging coats in public places. We are very fortunate where we live because even in the elementary school the children have lockers that separate that awkward coat and backpack contact that I remember from my childhood. Louse travels nicely from coat to coat in the winter. But even these measures being taken are not a guarantee on not getting lice.