Summer 2015: A Summation in Albums

   Summer is always when I discover my new favorite artist (ex: Lights circa 2013) or album (Danger Days circa 2012). Maybe it's with the excessive free time I get but I'm always hooked on someone new by the end of the season and this year was no exception with a pretty wide array of albums.

♥American Candy (The Maine)
key song: "Diet Soda Society"
I'd heard a couple songs off this one (meaning "English Girls") before the summer started but hadn't really listened to it in full or on complete repeat. I've never been a giant The Maine fan (I'd only seen them at Warped 2014 and maybe knew a couple songs) so the entire album wasn't a huge priority but I'm so so so happy I actually got around to it. Though they lack in lyrical development, the songs are incredibly catchy and easy to be used as background music while writing (something I can just kind of sing along to without paying much attention). The vocals are also extremely well done (I find it interesting the album is called American Candy when there's kind of a British twang to everything). 

♥How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Florence + The Machine)
key song: "Hiding"
I took way too long to get around to listening to this one. Florence is one of my favorite singers but when the album came out, I skimmed through it without really going through everything as it deserves. Her vocal progression is pretty much the same, if not calmer, but the songs are a lot darker. A common theme of HBHBHB is danger I'd noticed and I appreciate how her voice puts that across- she sounds a lot more intense and almost frightening at points. All together, yet another good Florence + The Machine album (can you ever go wrong with her?)

♥Mayday Parade (self titled album)
key song: "No Heroes Allowed"
This is such emo trash oh god. Overall, I don't think any band (other My Chemical Romance) can hold a candle to the amount of emo in these songs- is there any type of enjoyable, feel good, Mayday Parade song? Pretty good track list though- about everything is catchy once you get past the incredibly dark pieces, it's fun to kind of zone out and sing to (there's a common theme here I think).

♥Cavalier Youth (You Me At Six)
key Song: "Room To Breathe"
Though I considered You Me At Six to be my second favorite band in 2012 (I found this out in an ancient artifact called "Ann's 7th Grade Journal"), I'd never actually heard their latest album (which had come out in 2014) and I wasn't sure what to expect. Sinners Never Sleep was already so good it really can't be beat and though Cavalier Youth really can't stand to it, in a way, I could call the album the darker older brother of SNS. The tracks are pretty heavy and though vocals really haven't changed, it's not exactly a bad thing. In truth, Josh isn't the greatest vocalist but he makes up for it in the emotion within his voice. It was the best it could be after Sinners Never Sleep.

♥Throne (Bring Me The Horizon)
key song: "Happy Song"
This can't even count as an EP but the two new songs Bring Me The Horizon released this summer were exceptional. With BMTH, I'm either in love (ex: Sempiternal) or think it's shit (ex: Suicide Season) and as good as "Drown" was, I didn't have much faith in these two new singles but after listening, I can't be more excited for the new album. When hearing this with Sam, we both commented on how damaged Oli's voice is- which oddly enough, is my favorite part. It's rough and scratchy-ness adds texture to the tracks. Though "Throne" sounds incredibly like something you'd hear in an emo hair dye tutorial, I'm surprisingly into it. Also, BabyMetal. You can't go wrong with them. Ever.

♥Rooms of the House (La Dispute)
key song: "Hudsonville, MI 1956"
Never listened to much of La Dispute. I've skimmed through Somewhere At The Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair (typical) but really hadn't given them much of a chance. The thing with La Dispute is that about everything sounds the same (fast paced guitar, scared talking, then a breakdown full of breathing) but I mean, I'm into it. The album is well done and tells a really clear story which is always a bonus for me. As I said early, though the vocals are about always the same, I'm really in love with the strange style.

♥Consider This (Tonight Alive)
key song: "5 Years"
Two words: Jenna McDougall. Extremely strong vocals beyond belief and Tonight Alive before signing to Fearless. Pretty self explanatory. I mean my best friend is practically Jenna so how can I not be absolutely in love with this EP?

♥New Politics (self titled, Vikings, and "West End Kids")
I've been somewhat big on New Politics since around the end of eighth grade- I even saw them live. This summer, I just got listening to their first album along with the newer songs and sneak peek of Vikings. Fun stuff. As absolutely great as Bad Girl in Harlem was, I'm extremely excited for something that sounds marginally different.

One Direction (and other): Why I Need Feminism

   Just this week, One Direction finally released the music video for their latest hit, "Drag Me Down". To say the entire thing was creative is an understatement; it includes robots, the boys running after a camera at rather awkward angles, and the ultimate point in which our favorite boy band is shot into space. Though I could write up an entire post about my love for the extravaganza that was the "Drag Me Down" video, there's actually a pretty big elephant in the room that comes with the attention the band is receiving, mainly from a male standpoint. Though most reactions towards DMD were positive and excited, there of course, had to be a chorus of "girls only listen to their music because they're hot" and though these things usually pop up with anything, there's an actual problem within saying this. Let's completely take everything we know about One Direction/ any biases against them and start from the beginning. "Drag Me Down" currently holds the title of #1 in 80 countries. EIGHTY. And this isn't even the first time something like this has happened- about all of their previous singles have hit first place on the iTunes charts without preorders. Going off of that, the British band have broken the Vevo records multiple times along with playing sold out or close to sold out shows every single night in the most well known venues on their world tour. So why don't they gain more respect? Why does a large portion of people still claim females who enjoy bands like One Direction are only there for the looks of the members? And no, it's actually not the performer's faults comments like this are usually put across, it's the demographic. One Direction's main audience is extremely versatile. Their listeners go from eight year old girls to college students. Mainly all female. This group of people is incredibly impressive- it's tough to land the pre-teen population already but also having young through older teens, and young adults (think recent college graduates) calling themselves directioners is almost considered impossible. A band that appeals to such drastically different age groups is usually something celebrated. But with their almost 97% fanbase of girls, One Direction is thought of as talentless because females can't possibly actually enjoy music, they must have a crush on one of the members to latch onto a band like this. Yes, it is very much true that most of their audience is attracted towards the boys but that's completely understandable; in a video done by Lacy Green, she describes "fangirling" or having a crush on a famous person as something completely normal and actually scientific in the minds of girls growing up (which fits most of 1D's fans). Another great point to bring up is these ladies' source of income. Being young, these directioners are mostly working minimum wage jobs or relying completely on their parents. They aren't giving up their paycheck or birthday present for the album or tickets to see four talentless boys. They enjoy the music and yes, the members but this behavior isn't driven from the pure attraction of Harry Styles. It's a love for the content this band creates and the way it makes them feel.
   Think of it as this: if One Direction's fanbase was mainly all male, their reputation and music would be taken much more seriously. The idea that the bands and artists that have a co-ed or mostly male audience are more respectable and talented is ridiculous. The statement, "girls only like One Direction because of their looks", also puts across the idea that all women are boy obsessed and can't appreciate something unless they find attractive value within the artist. When you turn it on it's head, the situation is actually pretty funny because of how large a double standard it is. For this year's Victoria's Secret fashion show, more men tuned in live than woman to watch supermodels walk across a runway in lingerie. Though Taylor Swift gave a pretty killer performance, it is easily argued that this male audience was there for the looks of the models. So why are guys allowed to literally just watch conventionally gorgeous women walk across a stage whereas girls can't enjoy a band with attractive members?
   It's sad to watch a band that has one of the most powerful fanbases and has put an influence on the demographic of teenagers (one of the hardest to hit ever) can't be taken seriously because directioners are mainly all female. It's even sadder that these fans are constantly having to prove themselves to guys (and even some women) for their taste in music because of being seen as "boy crazy". Though this post only covered One Direction specifically because of my own liking and experiences, this can be applied to any artist within the industry- these double standards hitting females are ridiculous.

 

How To: Half and Half Purple and Pink Hair + Pravana Review

 

   A couple weeks ago, I made a MAJOR splurge at Ricky's and picked up two tubes of Pravana hair dye: "Pink" and "Luscious Lavender". Though it was way more money than I ever spend on dye (or can afford to), I'd heard great things about Pravana so I couldn't help myself. Yesterday, I finally got around to using it and to be quite honest, I'm kind of disappointed in the way the colors showed up. First, they weren't even sticking to my skin which is always a major red flag. When on my extremely faded out hair, neither were showing up either. In the end, this was the results:

Both colors barely came out into my hair and that was even mixed with brighter shades of Adore and only a dash of conditioner. I'm really unsure why my results were so incredibly horrible but I'm going to stick to just Adore after this whole thing because not only is it cheaper, but I trust it more. The one good thing I have to say about this dye is the texture; it felt like conditioner and was really soft and had a good balance between thick and thin.
   Anyways, after these disappointing results, I dyed my hair this morning! To do this, I used:

♥Adore Purple Rage 

♥Adore Violet Gem

♥Adore Hot Pink

♥Adore Pink Rose 

The process was like any- One bowl had a bit of the Pravana Pink left because I still wanted to have a little faith in it- sadly, the color just wasn't sticking to my hair so it was a lost cause, the main mix I used on the pink side was a large amount of Hot Pink with just a small amount of Pink Rose, the purple side was mainly Purple Rage with just two drops of Violet Gem. I parted my hair down the middle and went through all my hair with each color. What I mainly do when dyeing is take a large chunk of dye onto the brush and rub it into my hair like shampoo. 

I was scared about the dye not showing up so I left it in for about an hour and then washed it out in freezing cold water with color protecting shampoo and hydrating conditioner. My hair is now super cute and I'm wildly happy with how it looks. The Purple Rage is gorgeous and oh my I'm so excited!!

check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead

  This week, I'm in Long Beach Island and even though I'm not wild about the beach, I sure do look cute in a swimsuit. 

♥Bikini: Forever21

♥Top: H&M

Oh! I dyed my hair once again- I faded the color out and realized that was a really bad mistake so I put some Adore Emerald  (with a shit ton of conditioner) and REALLY diluted Violet Gem. In the mixing bowl, the emerald looked very sky blue and even once it was in my extremely faded blue hair, it seemed around the color but has turned to a more greenish (well, emerald) color. It looks cute either way so whatever.

Things I ♥: Hair Masques

*completely unsponsored (I'm too unpopular for this kind of sponsorship)*

   Over the past couple months, the health of my hair has changed dramatically. Though my hair definitely was damaged beforehand, after going through multiple bleaching processes (don't even mention that one time I bleached it three times in one day), the state of my locks is definitely not awesome. Ever since I began home dyeing this year, I have created a pretty great Rolodex of DIY hair masques and cheap treatments (mainly from Ricky's) to help split ends and dry hair.

-DIY: putting your entire kitchen on your head
Though most of the treatment packets I buy are under $3, I sometimes become incredibly cheap (and also too lazy to make a Ricky's run), resulting in mixing about everything in the fridge together and putting it on top of my head. OK so yeah you could just grab everything and do that but items I recommend are: milk, eggs (just one yolk), honey, banana, vegetable oil, coconut milk, and mayo (I can't deal with the smell/consistency/existence of mayonnaise so that one is never an option for me). For semi-permanent dyed hair, I would recommend leaving out any oily products since it will fade the color- a few days before re-dyeing I will add the oils back in. Making and applying this masque is also crazy easy- simply mix everything you want into a bowl, section off your hair, and spread evenly.
Cost: Free! (unless you buy your own groceries...)
Time: 20 min.- whenever (I usually do it for 40 min but I have a friend who will leave it for hours)

-Not Your Mothers: Intensive Hair Unit Renewal Treatment
Not Your Mother's is one of my favorite brands ever for hair (their dry hair shampoo and anti- split end conditioner is the greatest) so when Sam and I found packets of their hair repair treatment I had to try it. The first time I used one, I'd just done a bleach bath and though it didn't feel marginally better, it was definitely good for just bleached. The application is simple (wash hair, massage with product, wait 3 min) my split ends were also pretty minimal afterwards and I could actually touch my hair without wanting to cringe!
Cost:
8 oz bottle- $8
1 packet (it took me 2 to cover my head)- $2
Time: 3-6 minutes

-Hask Keratin Protein Smoothing Deep Conditioner 
I'd gone back to Ricky's a couple weeks later to grab a couple more Not Your Mother's packets and since it was a different location, they sadly didn't have them in stock so the next best thing was to try one of these. I've used this product twice now and it's super easy and quick to use (wash hair, leave in for 10-20 min, wash). I haven't risked blow drying afterwards but once my hair is completely dry, it feel so crazy soft and adds shine.
Cost: $3
Time: 10 min (I leave it for 20 just to make sure)

sugarcane in the easy morning

   LIM is going positively great- I mean they give us free pizza on Fridays and my best friend there, Sam, came in the other day wearing glitter costume boots. What's not to love? This week, I ended up in a blog class- how fitting (what I'm so funny oh my god) and on the last day, we took a trip down to Tudor City park and overpass where we partnered up and took outfit photos of us. My lovely friend, Ashley, is responsible for these works of art.

♥Betty Boop skirt: stolen from Vivi

♥Crop top: H&M

Things I ♥: Adore Hair Dye

"baby blue", "pink rose", "violet gem", "ruby red"

*completely un-sponsored (but hey Adore, if you want to give me free dye, that'd be cool too)*
   Currently, the only dye I ever use is Adore. Though the color selection is not nearly as expansive as brands such as Manic Panic, I'm huge on long lasting colors and this dye is perfect (this may not apply to others since my hair creates basically no oils, so I only wash my hair once a week). I've only used around five colors (if you don't count mixing) on myself but have dyed other's hair with other shades ("Orange Blaze", "Purple Rage", "Hot Pink", etc) and not only do the colors come out about as bright as Manic Panic and Crazy Color but will last around 3X longer- it's wonderful. Also, being a broke, unemployed, teenager, price is a pretty big turning point for me. This shit is $5 (half as much as Arctic Fox, Manic Panic, etc). $5. And, about one and a half bottles will cover my entire head- have you seen how much hair I have??

♥Ruby Red/Truly Red

I've never seen either of these reds alone but have mixed around a half a bottle of "Truly Red" with around a quarter of "Ruby Red" to create a more Ash Costello deep shade like what she's got now instead of the orangey color she had earlier. Overall, the color came out well and I was happy with it for about a week until I took a shower and it slightly faded (OK I did wash it with shampoo and warm water by accident)

 and that was the downfall of all my red hair dreams. The problem with this color on hair is that red not only clashes with about EVERYTHING but also turns a gross brass-y color and is quick to fade due to the pigments. :(((((

♥Violet Gem

My next color was this lovely shade! I had to Color Oops and bleach over this one and I was really impressed on how it took to one of my infamous bleach jobs. It was slightly patchy due to a not so well done mixing with a dash of "Pink Rose" but I was super crazy happy with this one- I'm actually thinking of going back to this color once my current one fades out. 

(right) my hair after 3 weeks, (left) 2 weeks

this color I took A+ care of; once a week washing, no shampoo, putting my hair under the bathtub spout (coldest water possible). This one really didn't want to come out- I had to scrub with Ajax, wash religiously with Head and Shoulders, and even resort to a bleach bath for it to be dyed over.

♥Pink Rose/Baby Blue

These two I used for the same hair "phase" 

I've never done blue hair before so this one was pretty exciting- since I wanted this one to be a bit more pastel, I have been washing it with shampoo and regular temperature water. I've had it for two weeks now and the blue has turned teal in some spots and kind of mint colored (I'm so excited over that) whereas the pink has gotten a little less bright but still has barely faded.

(right) just done, (left) 2 weeks

The thing that I absolutely love about Adore is that not only do their colors last forever, but once they do fade, instead of murky tones and greys, I've experienced and seen only nice pastels. Overall, Adore is lovely.

How To: Change Hair Color With Minimal Bleaching

   I haven't made a beauty post in forever- mainly because I kind of have lost interest in the whole "beauty blogger" gig but this is pretty relevant I guess so I'm just going to proceed on.
   There's no doubt about it. My hair is damaged. Mainly from having an obsession with hair straightening that started off in 7th grade and has gone downhill from there but also partly from dyeing and bleaching my hair since the 5th grade. I had black hair for quite awhile which was a great lifesaver because it requires no bleach and also I barely ever had to re-dye it. Overall, a great decision and four month break. I of course got bored and basically destroyed all hair I had with excessive Ajax and baking soda treatments when the most efficient (and least damaging) thing was Color Oops. I then had an unfortunate incident with trying to go blonde and bleaching my hair three times in one day (REALLY bad idea) just to go back to black. Later on, I color oopsed one half of my hair and went Ash Costello using Adore Truly Red and Kaleidocolors bleach (it was an absolutely disgusting color and consistency- it also didn't work awesome and is about the same price as Clairol which is A+)

I basically had a constant soundtrack of "Death Of The Party" playing where ever I went

It overall didn't kill my hair but definitely wasn't great for it. The red faded quickly though (I also couldn't wear any color aside from black with it) so I ended up color oops-ing the rest of my hair and also bleaching to go to a purplish-pink (using Adore Violet Gem mixed with a bit of Adore Pink Rose).

I've always wanted to do a half and half and Harper (the scene queen who dyes my hair) was leaving for camp soon so I took the opportunity and went half blue half pink because it reminded me of cotton candy. That is currently the hair I have on my head!!

Though one of my biggest problems with hair dye is fading incredibly fast (ex: my purple hair earlier in the year) but to get the blue in and the purple on one side out, this was quite the opposite. I tried about everything- Vitamin C (crush up tablets, mix them up with Head and Shoulders, put on hair and let soak), Over-washing with hot water and Head and Shoulders shampoo, and the worst of all, baking soda (NEVER do it- this treatment does just about the same damage as bleaching and by then it's just worth it to resort to bleach). It wasn't coming out. The purple had faded to kind of an orange tinted purple shade but it definitely wasn't enough to dye blue over and at that point, I was way too over excited for this color and didn't want to wait and do more treatments over the next month (if your hair is completely fried, just keep washing with Head and Shoulders and hot water and you'll be good in a few weeks) and I have a little bit of life left in my hair so I resorted to the bleach bath. 

NOTE: a bleach bath is really the last resort- you don't want to do it unless you really can't wait like me or it REALLY isn't coming out (this mainly applies to darker blues) 

A bleach bath isn't nearly as scary as it sounds- yes it will damage your hair because that's what bleach does but won't hurt it as much as a regular bleach process will. Basically, what you do is take any shampoo you've got (I recommend Head and Shoulders) and mix it with about a packet of bleach (I've got short hair but a TON of it and one worked just fine on me) and developer (really doesn't matter what volume- I used 40 because I'm an idiot and that's all I had)- there's no real ratio. Whatever feels right I guess. Then, apply to hair as you would with regular bleach. I mainly focused on the side I wanted to do blue but since I had some mixture left over and wanted to go a lighter pink, I put a bit of it on the other side too. 

Even though I used to bleach my hair and used to have blonde bits all the time when I was younger, my locks are basically done with me at this point, their big "fuck you" to me is to never get to a decent blonde. This was surprisingly the only time in months I've gotten a good blonde!! This picture was taken because Sam thought the horrible bleach job on the pink side of my head was really funny but look how actually blonde it is!!

Since I was really worried about horrible damage on my hair (I'd bleached it fully a couple weeks before), I used two Not Your Mother's Intensive Hair Renewal Treatment packets I'd gotten from Ricky's the day before. Though my hair didn't feel better than before I'd done the bleach, it definitely wasn't as disgusting and unbearable to touch as last time. After letting my hair dry (no heat!!), Harper applied Adore Pink Rose on one side and Adore Baby Blue on the other. The final product was this cute thing:

I'm super duper happy to finally have half and half hair and feel like the emo Melanie Martinez. I'm real excited for it to start to fade and look a little more pastel-y- I've had it for a little over a week now and have taken around three showers using room temperature water and the blue has turned slightly teal which is pretty cool. Overall, I'm #livin #lovin life and my mom is questioning wether or not she wants to be seen in public with me. 

A Talk On Front Porch Step

   If you don't feel like reading the entire statement I've got prepared, this sentence sums it all up: Warped needs to get their shit together. Let's take this back a couple months. In January, the band's single member, Jake McElfresh was accused of sexual harassment of multiple underage girls through text and in person confrontations. Screenshots of messages got out and all hell broke loose- there was a pretty obvious divide: the ignorant Front Porch Step fans that were excited to see their favorite band at Warped and those actually concerned for victims of McElfresh's actions and future young girls he could possibly harm. Even if McElfresh had learned his lesson and wouldn't repeat this, those who manipulate and harm anyone should NOT be given opportunities to thrive within this industry. There was a petition started against Front Porch Step playing the tour and though it did not reach it's ultimate goal, conversation was sparked and founder, Kevin Lyman, said he was dealing with it- around two days later, the band was dropped from Pure Noise and Allison Weiss, who had planned to tour the UK with McElfresh, made a statement saying she had left the tour. Though radical and great procedures were being made, there continued to be no statement from Lyman. In the end, a statement on Lyman's twitter was made that FPS would not be attending. However, on July 1, In Nashville, our favorite band was due to play. Needless to say, I along with thousands of others, were furious. How dare Lyman allow this to happen? Especially after calling him off? Thankfully, there was countless backlash against McElfresh on multiple member's of tour's twitters telling him to not stick around or else "you want to find out what half the people on this tour want to do to you" and to see Man Overboard at the same time instead. Dan "Soupy" Campbell even cancelled his performance in the acoustic basement due to play after FPS. There were even discussions at band tents on the issues of allowing a sexual abuser play a major music festival. Although most of the right publicity for the performance was displayed, there was inevitably going to be comments from fans supporting him. Most supporters claimed there was no evidence against McElfresh's actions along with saying they'd see him at Warped. Luckily, this was a complete one time thing, FPS played twenty minutes and then left. On a music website, it was said that this performance was a part of a rehabilitation process and that supervisors were there, Warped Tour also did not pay him. Lyman reported, "Since no one has filed a charge, for me it’s time to move on. He’s not on the whole tour, this is one piece of a puzzle of trying to bring people back that have made mistakes in their lives. He could be going to jail, and if there had been charges against him I assure you he wouldn’t have been here." Though this statement is riddled with many different controversial things (such as why is performing in front of fans !!the people he's hurt!! part of his therapy) the line that sticks out the most to me is "this is one piece of a puzzle of trying to bring people back that have made mistakes in their lives." zoom in a little more on one single word: MISTAKES. What Jake McElfresh did is NOT a mistake. Forgetting to lock the door behind you before you leave the house is a mistake. Sexual harassing multiple underage girls is a crime. Jake McElfresh did not make a mistake. He committed a crime. To sum up this large hunk of writing, I am livid Warped and Kevin Lyman allowed Front Porch Step to play this year's Nashville date and I believe the incident has sparked some great conversation on how to make music festivals like this more safe and how to avoid things like this. Overall, this entire situation is a wake up call towards Warped Tour. If something like this happens again, I can guarantee I will not be attending the festival next year. 

Research:
♥Kevin Lyman Explains Why Front Porch Step Played Today's Warped Tour: 'This Was a One-Time Supervised Part of a Rehabilitation Process'
♥Musicians React to Front Porch Step Playing Warped Tour
♥Everything We Know About The Sexual Harassment Allegations Front Porch Step
♥Front Porch Step Speaks Out In Lengthy Statement "You deserve to hear my side of the story"