Favourite Friday – October 15 and I need to get my hair did

AllyG: I’m currently having an argument with my husband on whether or not I am capable of dying my own hair. You see, now that I am on maternity leave, I am trying to cut back on what he deems as “unnecessary expenses”. One of these expenses is my need to “touch up” my hair colour. It’s shocking, but I am not a natural blonde. I know, I know. Sit with that for a second. Now in fairness to El Jeffe, he has told me that he would much rather me go get my hair highlighted then to witness the aftermath of me attempting to colour my own hair. Apparently, he has not gotten over the incident of Spring 2008 when I accidently coloured my hair orange. I think we need to move on though. We can’t live in the past. Embrace your mistakes and learn from them is what I say!

So, dear readers, have you attempted to colour your own hair? Which brands would you recommend? I need assistance!

One thing that irritates me is the celebs who pitch hair colour. Like, please don’t effing tell me that Beyonce calls up Jessica Biel and invites her over on a Sunday night to colour eachother’s hair while getting shitfaced on merlot. Right? It doesn’t happen. Their commercials LIE. They are LYING TO US.

Maybe if Jess had her hair professionally done she wouldn’t have been so unceremoniously dumped by Justin Timberlake. Oooooh! See what I did there? Holla’!

L-A, do you have any advice? You know hair.

Annnnd…it’s Friday! My fave of the week?

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Serena aka Blake in Marchesa. Finally. A dress that fits and doesn’t make her look like a 40 year-old cougar.

L-A: While the skirt fits Blake and is totally Where the Wild Things Are appropriate, I’m not actually convinced the top fits her. I think the hair is hiding the fact that her boobs are busting out. Seriously. The girls are trying to escape the bodice of that dress.

Now, on to hair and then on to my favourite thing.  Probably to the dismay of my hairdresser, I box dye it all the time. Judge all you want, but I’m on a budget. And I’m not a natural blonde either. Except, I look way better blonde. Nature is stupid sometimes. Just because nature gave you that hair colour, doesn’t mean it suits you. Find your colour and own it. I was blonde as a child and I’ll die blonde. They’ll have to pry the bottle of dye out of my cold dead hands.  Having said this, not all hair dyes are created equal. I’ve been box dying since the mid-90s. I won’t bother to try and remember the boxed culprit behind the bad and the lacklustre dye jobs. (and I won’t blame Natural Essence for turning my hair pink in high school. I should haven known better than to use hair dye on top of Sun-In‘ed hair). I was feeling completely underwhelmed by most hair dyes – until I tried out that Perfect 10 that Jay Manual was selling me on Canada’s Next Top Model.  And do you know what? Not only did it look okay, but I actually got complements on it! On box dye!  I didn’t do a fantastic job on my recent root touch up, but it’s not bad (it was my second time using Perfect 10 and there is a possibility that I bought the wrong colour).

Anyway, I recommend it. I do. And buy it at the Superstore…it was cheaper than at Shoppers. There! I have solved your hair problem and made El Jeffe feel better about budgets!  [ed. note: I actually use the stuff and paid for it out my own pocket. No free hair dye behind this positive review.]

On the topic of hair: I don’t believe for one hot minute that Beyonce uses any dye out of a box. Bitch wears Balmain:

She wears an $11k bedazzled jacket out for a casual dinner and I’m supposed to believe she uses hair dye that costs $15? Nuh-uh. No way. I don’t care how multi-faceted it is. I’m even less likely to believe it now that I know her hair stylist to the stars recommends clients sleep on silk pillow cases.  If you’re using a $15 box of dye, then you’re probably okay with a moderate to high thread count cotton pillow case you bought at Winners.

Now for favourite things:

Nocturne is tomorrow! If you’re not familiar with Nocturne, it’s a city wide, free art event in Halifax, not unlike Toronto’s Nuit Blanche. Dozens of galleries are open and there is going to be art happening in the streets and on the buses (musicians, video art, performance art, and …oh… all kinds of awesome stuff). Unlike our previous suggestions for what to wear to a gallery opening, I’m going to suggest bundling up warm and maybe carry a little something in a thermos (or a flask…whatever floats your boat) to stay warm. I’m not kidding. I’d like to think I’ll be dressed all lovely, but I know it will involve my curling socks and possibly my puffy parka. We’ll talk winter wear another day, so for now I’ll point you in the direction of Refinery29’s round-up of cute winter coats – in case you feel like rushing out and buying a new one in time for Saturday night. Or, better yet, my latest favourite since my issue of Fashion came in the mailbox on Wednesday:

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HBC Blanket coats! Not that you can actually buy them anywhere and if it wasn’t for Fashion’s site, I wouldn’t even be able to find a half decent picture of these coats. What up HBC? For a company that is all about selling me clothing, you do a very poor job of it. Your websites suck. Friday Fail goes to the websites at HBC. Despite their sucky web presence, I dig the one-of-a-kind coats they’ve been making – like the first one with the crazy hood by Smythe. I also enjoy some other blanket motif items, but we’ll chat about those on another day. For now, you can just enjoy looking at HBC coats. And enjoy your weekend. Even if you’re not in Halifax, you should go check out a gallery – just for funsies.

Oh! Final Favourite for Friday: If you’re not already reading the snark on Gossip Girl fashion at You Know You Love Fashion, you might want to start. This week is my turn to recap Serena’s itsy bitsy outfits and Vanessa’s predilection towards wearing every piece of jewelry she owns at the same time. I will try to promise awesome times.