How to Get Color Run Powder Out of Your Hair

Beware blondes!

Color run powder/Holi powder will make you crazy when trying to wash it out of your hair! The pinks/yellows/reds aren't so bad--it's those blues and greens you've got to watch out for!

I did a lot of research before we had our colored powder photo session with Kelly a few weeks ago. Thank goodness for my sister-in-law, Jeana, who had mentioned the Color Run a few months back and how the powder stains blonde hair. I most likely wouldn't have even thought about it staining...but it does! Most of the research I did said to wear a hat to protect your hair if you are going to be around Holi Powder. Well, since I didn't want to wear a hat for our photos, I kept researching.  Here's what I came up with and did to protect my hair from being a lovely shade of faded blue and green.

The first thing I probably SHOULDN'T have done is gotten my hair highlighted that day. Oops. But I had the whole natural ombre/dark roots thing going on and I wasn't a fan. And as I've mentioned here before, I'm stubborn. I wanted my hair to look good in the pics and I would deal with the consequences later.

Also, the powder we used was the actual powder used in Holi Festival in India. It came from India! I think maybe that the Color Run powder is probably more...domestic than the stuff we used. Ha.

Pre-Color Powder:

There are two reasons I wore my hair up for our pictures

1) Hair up = less surface area to be stained

2) The research I had done said to put some sort of castor oil or coconut oil in your hair in order to prevent staining. This was supposed to coat your hair so it would wash out easily. I put coconut oil in my hair. I put my hair up because it looked really greasy with the oil in there if it wasn't up. Don't skip this step! Use coconut oil!

This was right after we got home from taking the pictures. About to start the process of washing out the blue and green. Yikes.

Post-Color Powder:

1) This is the worst part, but you have to rinse your hair with cold water. I just leaned over the tub and went for it. Burrrr.

2) First I rinsed out as much of the color as possible just by using water. Don't use any product on it yet. This got out a lot of the color. I had a huge blob of blue and green on the left side of my head that was refusing to rinse out. And so begins my frustration and panic.

3) I halved a lemon and squeezed all over the blue spots that were not rinsing out. The lemon didn't help AT ALL.

4) After the lemon, I used the shampoo for the first time. That wasn't helping either. 

5) Then I had Will sprinkle baking soda all over the stained spots and then pour vinegar on it. He was having way too much fun with this part. He kept saying he felt like he was making a volcano science project. And it FELT like a fizzing volcano on my head too! This process didn't work. Boo.

6) At this point I got in the shower and just started washing my hair with whatever shampoos I had. I was really getting nervous. Mane 'n Tail shampoo seemed to help the best out of all the shampoos I tried. Still didn't get it all out though.

7) Ok, this is when I broke out the big guns. When I said the cold water was the worst part, I lied. This is the worst. Ketchup. Yes, like Heinz Ketchup. I had read that this or tomato paste would help. I globbed it all over my blue stained hair and it got out a ton of the color. Besides almost gagging several times, I was pretty thankful for that ketchup.

I still had blue in my hair, but I decided to give it a rest for the night.

By Sunday morning and another round of Ketchup treatment, my hair still looked like this. Oh, boy. Luckily I could part my hair on the other side and cover it up for church.

Sunday night, I used Ajax and baking soda. That's what got the rest of the color out. And luckily, it smelled much better than ketchup. My last resort was going to be mayonnaise. GAG. So glad I didn't have to do that. 

All in all, I am still so glad we took those photos. The fun we had canceled out the stress of washing out the color stain. However, after washing my hair so many times, it really dulled down my freshly done color. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. 

Good luck! Hope these tips help you!

Poison Ivy Princess

Poison Ivy Princess just sounds lovely, right? 

Um, no. Wrong.

That's just the catchy name I've given myself for the sake of this post. You would think I had magical powers or something. I mean, I can get poison ivy just by looking at it. I should be able to win a talent show for that, or win a medal....cash prize? If only. For now I'll just have to settle with giving you a little inside information on poison ivy remedies (or lack thereof) from someone who has it almost year-round. Yippee.

Let's just go ahead and get the items that absolutely do not work out of the way. (By the way, when I say these things "don't work" I mean in terms of clearing up the outbreak.)

1. Calamine Lotion

Is this even worth mentioning? All this does is turn you a lovely shade of pink. No itch relief whatsoever. Bad memories of having chicken pox in Kindergarten and being pink polka-dotted for a week.

2. Benadryl

Whenever I use Benadryl, it's mainly as a sleep aid when the poison ivy is extremely itchy. If you're losing sleep because the itching is keeping you up, then take some Benadryl before bed and this will help soothe your skin some. As far as clearing up the rash, it does nothing. Bummer.

3. Cortizone Lotion

Doesn't do anything for me. No itch relief. Nothing as far as clearing it up either. Maybe I've just developed an immunity to it. Who knows.

Ok, now let's get to the good stuff. At least the stuff that I use on my many outbreaks.

1. IvaRest

This cream looks just like Calamine lotion...except it actually helps. They also make an IvaRest wash that you can use in the shower that's supposed to help wash off the poison ivy oils from your skin. They both kind of have a burning sensation when used...but that feels good to some itchy poison ivy! Definitely worth a try!

2. Zanfel

 Ok, this is a product that's fairly new to me and it's probably my favorite at the moment. The only downfall is that it's a little expensive for such a small tube...but when you're desperate, who cares. The good thing is that you can buy the generic at Walgreens and it seems to work just as well. Zanfel is a wash for the shower like the IvaRest. It's also got some kind of "scrub" in the cream which feels reallllly great on the poison ivy. Good excuse to scratch it too---oops, I mean, don't scratch your poison ivy! That's bad!

Zanfel- about $40 at Walgreens

Generic Zanfel- about $30 at Walgreens

3. Prescription

I currently have this prescription, Beta-whatever. As far as itch relief, this doesn't help at all. I guess it helps clear up the rash. I don't know. I'm not patient when it comes to getting rid of poison ivy so my time scale of this stuff "working" is probably way off. I want my poison ivy to be gone in a day or two. Is that even possible? No clue. This cream doesn't clear it up in a day or two, but nonetheless I still use it. Can't hurt. 

Well guess what decided to pop up ON MY FACE yesterday. Ugh. I look like a teenager with acne issues.

Here it comes....Day 2

I got a little brave yesterday and tried two new "home remedies." I mean, this stuff is on my face. I will try anything! 

1. Baking soda and water mixture

Supposed to dry up the rash. Did it? No. Add that one to the list of worthless remedies.

2. Bleach and water

Yes, I said bleach. This one made me a little nervous. I just kept thinking, "Am I about to burn my skin off?" "Am I about to bleach my skin?!" I obviously didn't listen to those thoughts in my head, because I did it anyway. I made a 1:1 bleach/water mixture, dipped in a paper towel and starting gently blotting my face. First I didn't feel a thing and then OH FIRE, MY FACEEEE!!! It was burning SO bad. I proceeded to stick my face in front of the air conditioner and got a little relief. Did I stop after that? Nope. Hard-headed, I tell ya. These were my thoughts: If I can stand a few minutes of intense skin burning (should've stopped right there) and the bleach dries up the poison ivy rash then it's totally worth it. I can't tell if it's worked yet. For now, I feel like I keep smelling a chlorine pool...but it's probably just my face and hands. Weird. I will have to give it a few days and update later. Fingers crossed. 

UPDATE: DAY 4 AND THE POISON IVY IS STILL GOING STRONG. MY FACE IS SWOLLEN AND MISERABLE. HEADING TO THE DOC TODAY FOR A SHOT. NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED TO GET POKED.

Just remember--these are things that work for me. Everyone is different. So maybe the calamine lotion does work for you.

Maybe you have no use for this post right now, but maybe someday you'll have a poison ivy outbreak and think of me. Maybe you won't. If anything, this post helped me feel better about ranting over my most recent outbreak. Now the venting is done and I can just get over it. Deep breath. I feel better.

Do you get poison ivy as easily as I do? What have you found that works best? I'm up for anything!

Veterinary Miracle Worker

 I try not to be one of those people who constantly talks about their dogs and just drives everyone crazy, but that's near impossible for me. I've just got to talk about what went on this past weekend with Ginger B.

On Thursday night we noticed that her head looked like it was twitching every second. She's never done this before so I had no idea what was going on. I finally noticed that her throat/neck seemed to be having spasms which was making her head jerk.

Friday morning I took her to the vet. I'm not naming names, but it starts with Pet and ends with Vax. By the time we left they had diagnosed her with a respiratory infection. The doctor was in with us for only about 5 minutes and didn't run any tests or anything. I'm obviously not a veterinarian, but it just didn't seem right. Nonetheless, I got her antibiotics and went home. 

By Saturday, Ginger could barely walk. It was so sad! It was killing me that she was hurting and I had no idea what was going on! (I guess that's what it's like having a sick baby??) She was just laying down all day. She couldn't stand up on her own and couldn't go up or down the stairs without crying. On Saturday and Sunday I talked to two friends who are vet techs or have been before (thanks Cory and Paul!) and we started thinking maybe Gin had a back injury. And then it hit me, she DID have a back/neck injury!! I don't know why I didn't realize it sooner! After working at a chiropractic office for 4 years in college, you would think I would have realized this right off the bat. Her symptoms were exactly like those of patients I had seen at the chiro. 

Look how sad! She was hurting

For some reason she thought it was comfortable to lie on my side on Saturday

Remi knew she felt bad 

Monday began my frantic calls to try and get her into a veterinary chiropractor. Everyone knew of only one in Memphis and when I called I found out he was booked for the day. And didn't have any openings until Wednesday! I was so upset. I became the crazy lady crying on the phone to the front desk workers. So embarrassing. I cry about everything. I finally called the vet back for the third time to ask them to go ahead and schedule Ginger for Wednesday and to please call me if anyone canceled for Monday. The lady that had answered the phone was the third person I had spoken to and asked me what was going on and to describe Ginger's symptoms. I tried not to be too blubbery and managed to tell her everything. She reassured me that everything was going to be alright and that she would talk to the doctor and call me back. When she called me back, she said that if I could bring Ginger and drop her off then the doctor would see her in between patients. I was so thankful and let out a sigh of relief! 

I picked Ginger up that evening and met with Dr. Parker to discuss what was going on with Gin. He said that he had given her an adjustment and showed me some stretches to do on her neck to prevent and help reduce muscle spasms. Ginger was like a new dog!! She was wagging her tell, prancing around, and just looked like she felt 100x better. So we got sent home with some muscle relaxers and pain meds and an appointment for next week just to re-check her. Dr. Parker at the Shelby Center for Animals in Bartlett, TN was awesome! I was so thankful to find a doctor who cared about what was going on with Ginger and who stayed a little later than closing time to talk to me about Ginger.

Look how happy she looks!

Before and After!

If your dog ever seems to have symptoms like this, remember Dr. Parker and chiropractic care!