###### Photo courtesy: @UltraViolentMakeup
Although Pride Month has come to an end, I’m full of pride every month and wanted to take the time to talk about why I decided to go rainbow and how we achieved the color.
I’ve been bleaching and coloring my curls since seventh grade, so I’m no stranger to changing up my hair color. I’ve had black, auburn, white, ombre blue, lavender, half peach/half teal but never rainbow, until this June. I wanted to change that by jumping into the entire color spectrum.
I felt very fortunate to have the ability to color my hair rainbow, living pridefully as a queer person in Texas and being accepted by friends and family. The color also communicated my pride with everyone who laid eyes on my rainbow curls and I hope that they could feel happy, accepted, or comfortable knowing that if I could find a way to love and express myself, they could too.
To go rainbow, I worked with Minnie, a queer stylist/colorist here in Austin at Mint Salon on Guadalupe. We first bleached my hair with the Redken pH Bonder. The week before a bleach, I always do an at-home egg white mask, and I treat my hair with Olaplex No. 3 every three days over the course of a week and a half. Minnie toned my hair with Pravana Express Tones: Smokey Silver and then sectioned it off to start coloring.
Working her way from bottom to top, she applied Pravana Vivids in a rainbow pattern and added an ombre effect with a few of their pastels to give my curls dimension and help with blending.
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Walking around with my head full of rainbow curls garnered a lot of attention, both negative and positive. You can’t hide your pride with a mess of color on top of your head (okay, unless you wear a hat”> and that’s something I’ve really loved about them.
It was so fun to be a walking pride flag for Pride Month and although I’m already on to my next color, I think it will become a tradition to go rainbow annually.
