DIY: Dip Dye and Studded Denim Shorts

 Aloha! Summer is finally here and it is ACTUALLY sunny, in England (whoa... I know right!) So let's celebrate with some ombre shorts!

A while ago I bought these plain denim shorts in Primark and I think they were about £5 or £8... It was difficult to find a pair in Primark that weren't already bedazzled....but I wanted to get some cheap shorts so if I completely messed it up and ruined them then it wouldn't matter too much.

I started by dip dyeing the bottom of the shorts by soaking them in bleach. It took ages to work, but to do it I put them in a bucket with some bleach (just the normal stuff you buy in supermarkets) and a little bit of water mixed in. I left them to soak for a long time as it didn't seem to be lightening them at all (probably because the denim of my shorts is so dark) I took them out and left them to hang overnight and washed them in the washing machine in the morning (wash all the bleach out or it will damage the denim)
I would say to make sure it works, don't be afraid about the amount of bleach you need to use because I tried it once and put waaayyy too much water in the solution and it just made my shorts verrrryy soapy....
In the end, I am really happy with the ombre effect because it fades really well from white into light blue and then dark blue which looks really cool (I wanted them like that, rather than like white then straight to dark blue so I let them soak in bleach for a bit before pulling them out slightly to let the ends soak for longer to get them like this) Also, bleach does run in fabric so put the shorts into the bleach like an inch below where you actually want to lighten.

I then decided to add studs to them. I ordered these from eBay and I got 100 pyramid ones for £1.25 and 50 star shaped studs for about £3.00. They're really easy to use, you just push them in and bend the rivets back so they are secure. It was hard to push them through the thicker parts of denim like where the pockets have been edged but overall it was okay. I decided to line the front pockets and make a curved line along the back pockets with the pyramid studs and put 5 little stars on that weird pocket inside the right front pocket (what the hell are you supposed to put in that pocket!?) and I put 4 stars along one of the curves on the back pocket.


Et voila! They are done! And once I had worked out that you need more bleach to whiten shorts than you do to clean them...then I had some pretty snazzy dip dyed and studded denim shorts!

L'Oreal Paris Wild Ombre Preference Kit REVIEW

I'd been thinking about an ombre dip dye for a little while as I had always liked them and I heard about this product by L'Oreal called the Wild Ombre kit and decided to try it out.
The kit comes in three different shades and the intensity depends on the natural colour of your hair (No1 for light to dark brown, No2 for dark blonde to light brown, and No3 for blonde to dark blonde) it is important to choose the right one for your shade of hair so your dip dye looks fairly natural and well faded. I went for No1 as this is my current hair colour.....a natural dark brown that I dyed red a bit over a year ago and is now a medium-ish browny red.

At first I thought I would have to dye my hair a medium shade of brown before using the dip dye because I was worried it wouldn't work on red hair, or it would look weird or....i might go ginger (dun dun dun!)
But in the end I thought YOLO I would just got for it and recently the tips of my hair have kind of faded into a more brown colour and the red tends to be more prominent further towards my roots so the ombre colour should turn out okay.
So other than that my main worry was that my hair would be irreversibly damaged by this colour because it does contain some lightening agents like Hydrogen Peroxide as well as Ammonia and I was mainly worried that it would damage it so much that it would no longer be naturally curly, but I researched this and as this is only the second time I have permanently dyed my hair the damage shouldn't be too bad.

The dye kit comes with a rectangular brush to apply the colour and it is easy to use. The kit advises starting the colour between the ear and chin but as my hair is quite long, I opted for further down and mine starts just under my shoulder -I really think where you begin brushing it in should be determined on an individual basis by how long your hair actually is.
After brushing in the dye, I added more the tips using my hands to enhance the ombre effect and faded look.

This is the final result and it turned out quite well! It is a noticeable change yet still a natural look that is easy to achieve!

its still good for making moustaches!

As you can see the tips are noticeably lighter than my roots so overall I am pleased with the result from this snazzy dye kit and would definitely recommend it if you are looking into a home dip dye!