New Hair Color! (Palty Sakura Creamy)

So for ACEN, I've been working on a cosplay of Hachi from NANA to match my friend who is cosplaying Nana!  Rather than scrambling to find the perfect wig last minute, I decided Hachi had normal enough hair for me to actually use my own hair.  However, in the manga and specifically the artbook (which is the outfit I'm doing), she has brown-red hair, so... HAIR DYE!!

Basically, I used cosplay as an excuse to do something I've been kind of wanting to do but also too scared to just dive into.  I got 2 boxes of Palty Sakura Creamy from Mitsuwa, and finally dyed my hair on Sunday ^_^

I'll just say... there's actually a not-insignificant amount of bleach in their formulation... it stung, and my hair lightened significantly (granted, I left it in for an entire hour, not the 20~30 minutes they recommend).  Anyways, I rather like the result ^_^  Less of the dark pinky-red pictured on the box than I might've preferred, but still nice overall.  And apparently under certain lighting, it looks very red XD

Pictures!!

Before and After:

And here's what all the dye and stuff looked like before I put it on my head:

Yaay!!  I think the fact that I left it in so long is what made it lighter and more orange (since my hair tends to bleach orange).  ^_^

It did change the texture of my hair pretty significantly, although it's only noticeable when wet.  So, I notice it when I'm washing my hair, but otherwise it actually feels about the same.  I did however take care to not wash my hair for 3 days before dyeing, and since then I have not washed my hair using shampoo (not even immediately after dyeing).  I've been using just water and the deep conditioner treatment from Burt's Bees.

I've incidentally discovered that you really can "wash" your hair using only conditioner!!! I think I'm going to try this for awhile, although I'll probably switch to something less expensive than Burt's Bees after I finish this tube.

In any case... hair adventure success!!