Bleaching Hair + Red Contacts = Profit?

Zephonate

Hey, all.

My girlfriend and I are doing some Resident Evil cosplay for Comic-Con. She's dressing as Jill Valentine, circa Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and I'm going as Albert Wesker, circa Resident Evil 4/half of Umbrella Chronicles. Only problem is, I have dark brown hair, and I need to make it blonde. I'm figuring bleaching it is probably going to be my best and only option here, but I have no concept of how or where to go about doing so. Any info or how-tos on that would be greatly appreciated.

As a side-note, I have extremely unruly, wavy hair. Are there any secrets to slicking it back and getting it to stay aside from a shitload of gel?

I'm also in the market for red contacts. I have no vision problems, so they would need to be non-prescription. Plain old red is fine, though if I could find some good red with ribbons of yellow in it, or ones that look like a cat or raptor's eye, that would be splendid as well. If anyone has any good websites, stores, or advice to point me in the direction of, it would be an assload of help.

For reference's sake, here's the look I'm going for:


Thanks in advance.

dispatch.o

Contacts are expensive, tinted glasses are cheap, skip the contacts. The kind of contacts you just randomly buy to change your eye color for cosmetic reasons can also be of dubious quality and manufacture, if they dont allow the eye to breathe the blood vessels will come to the surface and you will look like a crackhead and/or some dude with pink eye.

You can get hair straightener at most places, but it stinks and can make your hair brittle, so be careful with it. Bleaching is easy, but bleaching it to look natural is almost impossible at home. Can't hurt to try, but you'd be better served with a wig if your hair is the right length for that photo anyway.

Zephonate

dispatch.o wrote: »

Contacts are expensive, tinted glasses are cheap, skip the contacts. The kind of contacts you just randomly buy to change your eye color for cosmetic reasons can also be of dubious quality and manufacture, if they dont allow the eye to breathe the blood vessels will come to the surface and you will look like a crackhead and/or some dude with pink eye.

You can get hair straightener at most places, but it stinks and can make your hair brittle, so be careful with it. Bleaching is easy, but bleaching it to look natural is almost impossible at home. Can't hurt to try, but you'd be better served with a wig if your hair is the right length for that photo anyway.

Yeah, you're probably right about the contacts. Whatev', thought it might be a nice touch. Might just stick some red circles on the front of the glasses. :P

Any idea where I might be able to find a wig short enough for aforementioned costume?

dispatch.o

Zephonate wrote: »

dispatch.o wrote: »

Contacts are expensive, tinted glasses are cheap, skip the contacts. The kind of contacts you just randomly buy to change your eye color for cosmetic reasons can also be of dubious quality and manufacture, if they dont allow the eye to breathe the blood vessels will come to the surface and you will look like a crackhead and/or some dude with pink eye.

You can get hair straightener at most places, but it stinks and can make your hair brittle, so be careful with it. Bleaching is easy, but bleaching it to look natural is almost impossible at home. Can't hurt to try, but you'd be better served with a wig if your hair is the right length for that photo anyway.

Yeah, you're probably right about the contacts. Whatev', thought it might be a nice touch. Might just stick some red circles on the front of the glasses. :P

Any idea where I might be able to find a wig short enough for aforementioned costume?

I'd just go putter around in a costume shop, most of the good ones have a huge selection of wigs, and you can trim a wig a bit if you have to.

Thylacine

I'd suggest a wig as well, but if you must bleach it, don't get a chemical straightener. Just use a flat iron.

Sarcastro

You can use hair putty to partially slick back your hair, and then shellac it down with spiking hairspray. Adjust and shellac again. You can pretty much turn your hair into a helmet, so there's no worries there. A wig is a good idea if you know where to get one, otherwise its going to look terrible. You may have to dye (bleach) your hair twice to get the right color. Sometimes brown hair has a lot of red in it, and things go a bit orangey.

blah

The best way to dye your hair is to use peroxide, assuming you wanted permanent colour. Don't listen to *anyone* that tells you to buy the supermarket box packet hair colouring kits, they will look shit and your hair will look nothing like the crazy hot girls on the box. Depending on how dark a colour your hair is you'll want around 6%, though since you say you're a dark brown go a 9%, though 6% will work for a dark blonde. Higher the percentage, the whiter the hair. If you want white use 12%. You'll also need toner. If you want a golden blonde, go with the blonde toner. White blonde, white toner (Use no more than 9%). And for an ash blonde, light grey (Use 9%). You can't bleach your hair alone, and while I suggest getting someone experience, anyone will suffice.

Items Required:
Hydrogen Peroxide of percentage read above (Comes in bottles)
Toner (Comes in tubes)
Comb
Stick brush thingie (One end is a sharp point, other end is a brush)
Disposable Bowl
Poor sucker

Method:
1. Make sure you follow the start of step 2
2. Don't throw the peroxide box away. Read the times and amounts required. Fill up your bowl with approx the right amount of toner and perox. It doesn't need to be exact. Mix.
3. Make sure your hair isn't wet, comb the hair fine and don't wash your hair before you bleach it (24 hours before).
4. Tilt head to one side. Get sucker to part your hair and apply the mixture to the scalp of the far side of the head. Make sure the sucker gets right in there and doesn't pay attention to any minor itching or burning sensations. Seriously, if you're one of the .01% of people who are sensitive to bleach you will know it very fast and should stop right away.
5. Get sucker to work their away across to the other side of the scalp with huge importance on getting right into the roots.
6. To finish put amounts of mixture on top of hair and lather in with a massage motion, getting the rest of the hair.
7. Slick back hair with a comb and wait the amount of time said on the box. The time starts from when you finish applying the mixture.
8. After waiting, wash hair in shower trying not to get anything in your eyes. You're done.

Don't be alarmed if immediately after getting out of the shower your hair is red or orange. Once dry it will change colour. May take a day or so to completely lose the orange.