Basta Igat, Sikat! by MyMaria: developer

DIY Ombre Hair with HBC/Hortaleza

Living out here in the province has its ups and downs, and one particular disappointment is the unavailability of certain "wants". Okay, I said wants because frankly speaking, I have everything I need here and wishes not to move into some urban jungle anytime soon. But thanks to the Internet, somehow the world has become smaller, people are much closer, and well, everything you can possible want can be bought online.

For this post, I'm going to show you how I "ombre'd" my dull lifeless hair. I'm not sure we have salons (parlors) that specialize in this and honestly, I didn't want to spend a fortune on something I feel I can do on my own. Ahem, with the help of the girls at home though. We're talking about bleaching here, so I can really use all the help I can get.

Thanks to blogs and tutorials I found online, I accomplished this little experiment for only like 1/8 of what I'd pay for had I chosen to have it done professionally. Ah well. I've my guts to thank too and HBC/Hortaleza for having everything I need to do this. Here are the things you'll need if you want to do-it-yourself:

1. Powdered bleach (DO NOT *under any circumstances* SNIFF THIS! LOL!)
2. Oxidizing lotion or developer 6% and/or 9% (or 12% if you will)
3. 7.0 Medium Blonde hair coloring cream
4. 7.5 Light Chestnut Brown hair coloring cream
5. Hair spa treatment (a must if you want to breathe in life to your dead hair)
6. Gloves (because the bleach will burn the hell out of your hands!)
7. Plastic bowl and comb/dye applicator

Alright, so first things first. Sectioning your hair to get that gradient effect. Bleach the tips of your hair first then cut the rubber bands and proceed to bleaching the next section up. Make sure to check on your hair (obsessively-compulsively) to reach the desired color. It took just a couple of minutes for my hair to go super light. Maybe because my hair was light to begin with. If you have dark hair, I suggest you leave it on for a while.

The last two top sections of my hair I did not have to bleach because I want them darker so I used the MEDIUM BLONDE and LIGHT CHESTNUT BROWN colors. This is so I can have that fade effect. I know it's not perfect, but hey I'm no professional. I can live with the uneven colors. ;)

ombre hair using HBC hortaleza hair dye bleach by MyMaria

Ombre hair by MyMaria

So this is how my hair looks like and how I managed to get it to look like that. It's not really that bad in real life. I actually did the hair spa treatment for 3 days in a row just to make sure I didn't actually [double] kill whatever fine hair I have left. Also my hair was layered to begin with so getting the colors right was really challenging enough. But I'm very happy really. I mean, for less than P500 give or take (since I used leftover hair dye so I can't really say how much I spent) I think we did a terrific job attempting ombre hair.