Purple Hair Yet Again

A few weeks ago, during a week I wasn't yet training for all the spring half marathons, Kyle was out of town, the BRF was out of town, and I didn't have to work. What do people do when they don't have any obligations and no one to spend time with?!

Well, this person finds some old purple hair dye from the back of the cupboard and decides to put it in her hair. The last time I got my hair done, I wanted to get my hair much blonder. My hairstylist went a more icy blonde which is cute but super hard to maintain as a warmer gold kind of head of hair, naturally. I started using some purple shampoo which was helping, but I was just over the color and ready for something new.

I left it on twice as long as I previously had since it was an older bottle, I wasn't sure if it had lost some of its potency. I barely rinsed it with cold water, and loved how it turned out!!

I knew the next week it was going to fade fast because I was starting training again the next week, but I did manage to go a good 3-4 days without washing it and just using a lot of dry shampoo. Some days it looked purple, some days it looked blue, most of the time it looked blurple (blue+purple), other times it was a grey/lavendar (aka the days where there was too much dry shampoo).

I took a million selfies daily to document it, and actually spent time doing my hair for work. This is not usual for me. I knew that the color was going to go fast, so I wanted to have as many snaps as possible before it did!

One of the days I took my dad to the doctor and he didn't even notice I had done it. Geez dad. granted he was going in for cataract surgery so it's entirely possible he just didn't see me 100%. :P

I'm somewhat convinced that my four mile race went well because my hair matched my shirt.

I think my favorite hue was about 3-4 washes in. The dark had faded from the dark of my hair, and the light in my hair was a light violet. So fun.

Bye bye purple hair. Until we meet again! (or I attempt a different color).

Purple Hair for World Pancreatic Cancer Day

November is National Pancreatic Cancer month, and November 17th is World Pancreatic Cancer day. I have always wanted to dye my hair purple, last year I donned a gorg purple wig for my Facebook profile picture to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer. This spring when I got my hair done, I asked my hairstylist to make it lighter juuuuuust in case I decided to dye it purple.

One Friday at work this summer, I finally got the bug, and ran to the mall to pick up some purple hair dye.

I asked Kyle to help me, but somehow that meant he would sit on the couch, downstairs while I tried to paint my hair strands. Poorly.

As I was dyeing, it occured to me that my hair stylist was getting married the following morning. Meaning if it was a DISASTER, I was stuck with it. No pressure.

Clearly I didn't have the proper tools for this project. 

Purple top knot while the color sets.

And a terribly lit "after" photo. I adore our new house, but the lighting after dark blows.

So you throw on a flower crown snapchat filter to mitigate the crappy light problem.

And wait for the next day and some better lighting!

I dyed it a second time a month or so later, this time with proper tools, and loved it just as much! It washed out super fast, but I kept a few lavendar strands that hung on for longer than a week and a half. The first time I dyed it I took extra care to wash it with really cold water, sparingly, but the second time I dyed it was right before my mom passed, so I DGAF about my hair. Not surprisingly. Still glad I got a few pictures before it completely faded!

I considered doing it green for my fall marathon, but then that didn't pan out. That might be for the best. :)

Pancreatic Cancer Facts (taken from ECPC.org):

• Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all cancers – just 3-6% of those diagnosed survive for five years.
• Pancreatic cancer is nearly always diagnosed too late with 80% of pancreatic cancer patients having terminal disease with an average life expectancy of a mere 4-6 months.
• Symptoms of pancreatic cancer can be very vague and depend on whether the tumour is in the head, body or tail of the pancreas. Abdominal pain is a symptom in about 70% of pancreatic cancer cases and jaundice (also known as icterus) occurs in about 50% of cases.
• Early diagnosis is key: If patients are diagnosed in time for surgery, their chance of surviving 5 years or more increases ten-fold.
• Pancreatic cancer has been underfunded for decades and receives less than 2% of overall cancer research funding.