color fancy.

Today my brother was bored so we were driving around and decided to go to Safeway. I was roaming around and then thought "I wonder if I can dye hair with food coloring," so I bought a pack of neon colors. I tried Kool aid dye before, but I had dark brown hair at the time so it didn't work out. I figured it'd show at least a little bit with blond hair. There are a lot of cool colors I'd like to try, but pink would be the one I'd want to try the most. I wasn't sure how to go about doing this, but I figured it'd be difficult to apply it with water, so I mixed it in with conditioner for easy application. I started off with dry hair. After mixing the color together applying, the color shows up pretty bold. I let it set in for 30 minutes to an hour. I would have liked to leave it in longer to see if it would set in better if I gave it a few hours, but I didn't have that much time today. Result after washing the mix out and blowdrying. I rather like how it looks, though it's very subtle in most light and doesn't always look pink. In some pictures, it doesn't look any different. It looks pretty pink in the last picture. One of these days I'll actually dye my hair pink, but for now homemade alternatives are quick and fun. Love, Kaia

in three more years.

Yesterday I attended my brother's graduation. I was hanging around his apartment before we headed out to graduation, and I was kind of sitting around and found some Seibei pins on his desk and pinned them to his grad cap subconsciously. So glad I did. The theater was completely filled and there were so many grads that it's not easy to find who you're looking for. Some caps were decorated with targets and words which made it easier to find them in such a big crowd. Smart idea. I was also able to find my brother easilier because the pins reflected light. dress: gift from Ann, from H&M conscious collection. dress shirt from Taiwan. Mudd wedges. It was really sunny yesterday. I brought along my nicest parasol because it blocks sun better than the others. I wasn't the only one who had the idea, as a lot of parents brought umbrellas along with them too. I finished my first year of college, so now I'm officially a sophomore! First year went by really fast. It doesn't seem that long that my brother started college, either. Graduation doesn't seem that far away. Love, Kaia

Last week's outfit for the fashion show. I wore black because my roomie wanted to wear black and for us to match. It was raining in the city last Thursday and I feel really unmotivated to dress up on rainy days. The spike earrings I am wearing was made following Holly's tutorial on them. They're super easy and look really cool! Fashion show photos have still not been edited (there's so many!). Busy weekend. I have a bunch of things to do while I'm still in New York. My last day of class is on Monday, and still an essay, a crit, and a test left. And currently packing. There's no room to walk. No room to put everything. Slowly deteriorating! Love, Kaia

fluffy and puffy

Sewed a skirt for my patternmaking final. I would have liked to add more ruffles and details, but I should have started on it earlier. It'd due Thursday. My patternmaking final is to make one skirt and one dress, both with pockets. The dress has more requirements. I'm currently working on it. I bought this fabric at a discount store. It was only $2 per yard, and they were really, really long yards. Upholstry fabric, I think. Really good deal. I bought five yards, which is like 10 regular yards. A little worried for this crit. Gee, I hope it goes alright. Got to get back and work on that dress. Love, Kaia

color me fancy.

I bought some hair dye over spring break in March, but I need to bleach my hair before I can use the dye, and I hadn't had time to go buy supplies until I made time last week. There isn't a Sally's in Manhattan or Brooklyn, so it's a little bit of a hassle. I had never bleached my hair before and I had been pretty terrified before and watched at least a dozen youtube videos and searched up several tutorials on blogs before hitting the store. I had my roomie help me with the back of my head. It wasn't as scary as I made it out to be. It wasn't uncomfortable and felt as if I was just dying my hair, except it lightens pretty fast with visible results. I had only ever dyed my hair black or brown before so I never saw results until I washed and dried my hair. The first bleach came out uneven. I was applying the bleach too slow and it became spotty in some areas, and my roots didn't bleach. I tried to cover up those spots on the second go. After applying, it didn't take long for my head to look yellow, so I freaked out and washed it out a little early. I didn't know that bleach looks lighter when it is still on as opposed to what it actually is when washed out. When I washed it out, the unbleached spots were mostly gone, but it was kind of gradiented so it goes light to dark. It was still more orange than yellow since I didn't leave it on long enough. It's like. Glowing orange. It hurts my eyes a bit. Bleaching and dying the same day didn't strike me as an option as my hair was already pretty dried out. I had the hardest time finding something to wear. Orange hair clashes with everything. After I took a break for a couple days I did toning, which didn't really do anything except make my hair feel really dry. I dyed that day too with Gatsby Aqua Silver. Honestly I didn't really know what to expect. In the color result chart, my hair color fell in between two base colors. I left it on for 30 minutes as the box suggested. It came out being Mostly ash blond with streaks of silver where the bleach took more effect. For the most part I'm pretty satisfied with how it came out! I'd planned to have it silver, but ash blond isn't bad either. I think I'll try silver some other time. Next year, I want to do pink, too. During the duration I had my hair bleached, I suddenly wanted to try all sorts of colors that I'd never really considered before. I never considered blond because I didn't think it'd look good. Cool tone hair is nice. No more color clashing. Happy first day of May! Love, Kaia