Halloween

You may think it's too early to think of your costume choices but, oh how wrong you are. Halloween is a time where you can dress to the nines as a character of your choice - these characters show off your creativity and taste. Any number of Mighty Boosh characters are appropriate here, mostly because of the cheapness the Boosh created them with and the appreciation from Boosh fans. Let me say "Boosh" one more time. Tee-hee. It's also a good time to brace cigarette holders between your teeth, in a bright Hawaiian shirt, shouting about bat country. Go wild kids.

Even though Halloween seems a very American celebration (and most people dress up as cheeky cats, nurse uniforms that don't pass regulations and the like) and no longer about scaring spirits, it doesn't mean you have to make a fool of yourself with an awkward showing of too much skin or have to egg or TP a house - Cool your boots. Lets have fun. I'll bring glow sticks, you're in charge of cups. I'm getting a little carried away...

[Clears throat and carries on]

I myself have been thinking of my costume for sometime, since the beginning of summer in fact, as Halloween my 2nd favourite day of the year (after my birthday and before the first day of summer).

There are many places you can get costume pieces from, including the often overlooked charity shops - good cause, good items. Though the good items can be a bit frustrating sometimes, as I wanted to find black lace gloves, and could only find white ones. That was a tense ten minutes. Though my attention to detail for my costume is becoming ever so slightly like that of a Parisian woman, just think of the amount of photographs - precision is everything.
Incase you think I'm being cheeky-rude, Parisians are known for their attention to detail - they wouldn't have chipped nail varnish, and are subtle with their detailing, not garish.
And hey, you can even get random items of clothing from shops down t' street, like the skeleton ribcage from Primark - if you can find the trousers, you're dandy.
 

List of potential characters
/ = awkward

Skeleton - Donnie Darko style
Mexican Day of the Dead
Rico the zombie
/ sexy Mexican Day of the Dead
Vyvyan Basterd
Twister Costume - For this costume to work, you need to love your fellow party-goers - no one wants "right foot, red" and to see your mate kicked in the balls.


The Mighty Boosh
Old Greg
The Hitcher
Spirit of Jazz

When gifted with a beard
The dude, with a White Russian and a roomy cardigan. "I like your style, dude". - Always a winner.

/obviously fake beard
Zeus
Bearded lady - for love of carnivals and AHS Freak Show

My Bleach Story

I started dying my hair noticeably unnatural colours, starting off with a light turquoise, and carried on for about five months.


 

To get my hair light enough I used L'Oreal Féria Super Platinum Power- though this got my hair light enough, it was really quite yellow-y. Even with the brass correcting chemical solution, it remained yellow. As I already had Bleach London's Blullini, I applied it onto my yellowy hair. It stayed pretty blue, but got progressively a more green after washes.
 

(All lovely colours used, including Blullini, are semi-permanent.)
To jazz it up, I also tried using Crazy Colours' Candy Floss (which was a very nice pink, though was very weak and didn't last for very long) and Bubblegum Blue (which lasted a lot longer than the pink and was a really rich blue. Though this also faded after a while into a greenie colour, which I rocked for a week or so).
 

After this, I experimented with Directions, mixing Cerise and Violet together in varying ratios as well as mixing it with white hair conditioner. Melonlady and ScarletSaint where saviours in this department, as mixing your own colour took more brains than applying the bottled colour.
 

To redo my roots, I used Bleach London Bleach Kit, which was the best - even though I only saw the work it did to my roots, I feel like it would have done a better job than the L'Oreal not-bleach-stuff I used at the beginning of the whole process. My roots weren't at all yellowy or brassy, but a quite brilliant white - which, of course I covered in even more dye.
 

Being called Ramona Flowers was funny at first, as I did change my hair colour every week or so, but when the same person says "hey, you're like Ramona Flowers" every week, it does feel overdone.
 

Even after all the dying of purple and pink and blue and purple and pink yet again, the overall remaining colour was a kind of green with cheeky Swedish blonde areas poking through.
 

Even though a lot of colour was put onto it every week or so for about six months, my hair stayed fairly sturdy and didn't snap off as was feared, and even before I attempted to bleach it it had been dyed several times. Part of this I owe to the fact that to get my desired colour with Directions I mixed it with a lot of conditioner. Another part is the fact that I try to hardly ever, and I mean never use a hair dryer (unless late for lectures) and never straighten my hair. And lastly, to the powers of the Bleach London moisturising, life restoring elixir that came along with the bleach kit.

 

At the end of my bleaching days, I cut my hair an awful lot and grew my roots to try and regain control of my now fairly dry, battle wary yet still vaguely healthy hair.
That is my bleach story.