Colorful hair with La Riche Directions dye

Hi buddies!

I've been getting so many questions about my hair recently that I decided to make a quick post about it :)

Salut!

On me pose souvent des questions sur mes cheveux, donc j'ai décidé de faire une article sur ce sujet :)

After many years of having boring ol' blond (bleached) hair I decided to brighten things up a bit. Add some color!

I did a lot of research on internet about different bright color dyes, and finally decided to choose La Riche Directions.

J'en avais vraiment marre de mes cheveux blonds, donc j'ai décidé d'ajouter une peu de couleur!

J'ai fais pas de mal de recherches sur internet pour me renseigner sur les différents produits et marques qui existent. En fin de compte, et après beaucoup de comparaisons, j'ai opté pour la marque La Riche Directions.

Then I had great difficulty trying to find a store that ships these dies to France! 

I finally came across www.color-mania.fr. 

A great online shop for hair dyes, loads of colors and different choices! I placed my order and a couple of days later received it. Really fast delivery! Plus you get a couple of sweets with your order; really cute intention :)

Ensuite est survenu le problème de trouver un site qui expédie ces colorations en France.

Je suis tombé sur le site www.color-mania.fr .

Un vrai bonheur! Il y a plein de choix de marques et couleurs! En plus la livraison est super rapide.

I had decided that I wanted pink&blue hair, so I choose Direction's 'Pink Flamingo' and 'Turquoise'.

Je voulais avoir les cheveux bleu & rose. J'ai donc commandé le 'Pink Flamingo' and 'Turquoise' de la marque Directions.

As soon as I received the products I ran to see my good friend Clemance. She's a professional hair dresser and was more than pleased to help me color my hair (much more fun than the boring brown and blond colors she has to do at work).

For the colors to come out brighter you must have light blond hair or bleach it.

Des que j'ai reçu mes couleurs j'ai couru voir Clémence, une amie coiffeuse. C'est elle qui me fais mes couleurs et me coiffe a chaque fois. 

Pour qe les couleurs ressortent bien on conseil de les appliquer sur cheveux blonds ou décolorés.

  I would always recommend to get a professional to do the bleaching...I tried once on my own and didn't use enough toner...my hair came out really damaged and was weird orange-yellow color!

Mine was already bleached so all we had to do was apply the colors!

Pas besoin de faire une décoloration, mes cheveux étant déjà blonds, il suffisait d'appliquer les couleurs!

Et voila!! 

The flamingo pink and turquoise came out really bright!

I was really pleased with Direction's dyes. Really flashy plus they leave your hair so silky and soft afterwards!

Et voila!

Le Rose Flamand et Turquoise sont en fait des couleurs vraiment flashy!

J'étais super satisfaite de la marque Directions. Non seulement leurs couleurs sont vraiment intense mais en plus après application ils laissent les cheveux doux et brillants.

Here is a photo after a few hair washes. 

The pink seemed to wash out really fast, and the turquoise would 'bleed' into it. I actually prefer the pastel color these dyes left after being washed out.

When I wanted the colors to become brighter, I'd just applie some more dye.

Voici ci dessus une photo de la coloration après plusieurs lavages. Le rose semble se délaver assez rapidement, et le bleu a tendance a déteindre sur le rose! Ca a donné un joli effet pastel que j'aimais beaucoup.

Si je voulais avoir de nouveau des couleurs plus prononcés il me suffisait d'appliquer un peu de coloration.

In the end I decided to do my whole head turquoise.

Apres quelques mois j'ai décidé de teindre toute ma tête en turquoise.

Here's a picture after 4 months. 

My roots were really starting to show and I was starting to get fed up with my blue hair ^^

Voici le résultat après 4 mois.

Mes cheveux avaient bien poussé, et mes racines plus que visibles! En plus je commençais a en avoir marre du bleu...

So I ordered some different colors: Carnation pink (which is more of a pastel pink compared to the Flamingo pink I used before) and Spring Green.

Donc j'ai repassé commande. Cette fois ci j'ai choisi la couleur Rose Carnation (plus clair que le Rose Flamand) et Vert Printemps.

I needed to bleach my hair as my roots were very dark and the rest was still a blueish-green color.

Avec mes racines foncés et couleur bleu-vert, la décoloration était une étape obligatoire.

Bleaching was difficult! 

My roots turned white easily, but it was impossible to get rid of all the blue! That turquoise is one tough color!

Une décoloration qui s'est avéré plus compliqué que prévu! Impossible de faire partir ce bleu turquoise! La preuve que c'est une couleur qui tient!

I gave up on the idea of having just pink & green hair. Some would come out purple...I'd just have to wait and see!

J'ai abandonné l'ides d'avoir les cheveux rose pastel avec des pointes vertes. Impossible avec ce bleu! Une partie allait surement finir dans les tons violets.

Clemance and I had no idea what the final result would be like... 

When we rinsed the dyes out we actually had a laughing fit! The colors were really vivid and kind of blended into each other! 

Rainbow hair! 

She said I reminded her of 'My Little Pony' and their multicolor mains and tails!

On n'avait aucune idée de ce que cette mélange de teintes et couleurs allait donner...

Lorsque Clémence a fini de me rincer la tête, et que je me suis vu dans le miroir on a eu un fou rire! La couleur de dingue! Enfin plutôt 'les' couleurs de dingue! Le mélange de couleurs a formé une sorte de dégradé, passant du rose au violet puis bleu et vert! 

Des cheveux arc-en-ciel!!!

On aurait dit la crinière de 'Mon Petit Poney'!!

So it didn't turn out the 'light pink with green tips' that I wanted, but I actually find this way cooler!

Alors du coup je n'ai pas pu avoir la tête toute rose comme j'aurai souhaite, mais en fin de compte je ne suis pas mécontente du tout! Je dirai plutôt que je trouve ce mélange de couleurs carrément sympa!

Here is the result!

Voici le résultat!

Rainbow hair!!

I actually must admit that I realy like it! 

So colorful and the colors are more of a pastel tone then before.

Vraiment j'adore! Les couleurs sont plus pastels que la dernière fois.

The colors blend from pink-purple-blue-green :)

I must say that I agree with Clemence, it does kind of look like My Little Pony!

This is what it looks like in a ponytail. 

A pink head, purple fringe and blue-green tail! Wicked!!!

Les cheveux attachés donnent un effet pas mal du tout aussi. Une tête rose, fringue violet et pointes vertes! Enorme!!!

Well there you go! 

I love colorful hair! 

What do you think? 

Would you dye your hair bright colors if you could (work wise)? What's your favourite hair color?

Have a great week!
x

A weekend in Ottawa

During my trip to Canada, my sister her boyfriend and I decided to visit Ottawa.

Saturday morning we hopped into one of the famous Greyhound buses and off we were to go and discover Canada's capital city.

It was in 1857 that the queen of England decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada because of it's strategical place in the country. It is between Montreal and Toronto, and is also the city the furthest away from the USA border (back then Canada still feared to be invaded by the USA).

The town is therefor full of history and old buildings.

The bus rde from Montreal to Ottawa was only 2h30 long. 

Once off the bus we headed of to the place we had booked to spend the night. It was a double room in a university campus. In Canada, during the holidays, they let the university dorms out to tourists at very reasonnable prices. The room - more like a small flat - was really spacey, plus it had a great view over the city.

After a quick lunch we set off to discover Ottawa.

The first thing we came across were the famous locks on the Rideau Canal. 

It is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. The 200km long canal connects Ottawa to Kingston. It was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States. It remains in use today primarily for pleasure boating, with most of its original structures intact.

The locks are still opened and closed by hand!

After a little walk around the lake we headed off to Parliament Hill to visit all the old buildings.

The Supreme court of Canada

''Judge Amanda does not seem impressed...Judge Bel does not very credible with pink and blue hair...''

The Parliament

The magnificent library in the Parliament.

Legend has it that not one of the carved flowers in the library is identical to another.

All this walking around and sight-seeing made us rather hungry by the end of the day! I decided to try a  bison burger ; not bad at all!

''Loan, it's the spider you're supposed to squash!! Not me!!''

Parliament Hill

When night fell we returned to the Parliament to watch the 'light and sound' show.

This must be my fave part of my Ottawa weekend.

The show was really interesting. 

It explained all about Canada's history and culture using beautiful light pictures accompanied by great music.

We got photobombed...the old guy behind me ^^

The next day we hopped onto one of those 'hop in - hop off' double decker tour buses that you see in all touristy destinations.

I don't really like visiting a town in such a 'lazy tourist' way, but I must admit that when you only have a day it is the only was to see as much as possible! Also the explanations about the different places visited was interesting.

Changing guard at the Parliament.

First stop for us was the War Museum.

The was musuem was really interesting and well organized. It tells you about all the wars that Canada has been through, from the time of colonisaton up until today.

A Jeep!!

Then we visited the Civilizations Museum.

It is actually in the region of Quebec, not Ontario (the other side of the river from Ottawa)

Again, it was a very interesting museum.

It is enormous, and filled with lots of indian art and culture.

My sister and I had fun playing in the children's area :)

The museum also had an exposition about Haitian Vodou on...

It was really interesting to learn more about this strange religion, but I still find the 'dolls' as scary as hell!

For the end of the day we continued our little tour around the city in our tour bus, without hopping off. 

Before we knew it, it was time to catch the Greyhound coach back to Montreal.