Obsessively Straight hair

I love straight hair. 

I love straightening my hair. 

Idk it just makes me feel good to have that much control over myself. 

And I ran out of hask suddenly straight, which I've had the same bottle for like 3 years because I go through straightening phases and sometimes I have much shorter hair. 

And I've been using spray in stuff because I have trouble finding other products and I have like 3 bottles of unsatisfactory spray in straightening products (my hair feels like straw and my ends look awful). 

But I found a lotion-like product by garnier (sleek and shine blow dry perfect straightening balm) and I finally have straight silky hair again. 

I can finally straighten my hair more than once a week. 

I just need to get the ends i ruined trimmed off. 

Glowy accidents.

So a week or two ago I dyed a friends hair. I mixed special effects devilish and special effects nuclear red just because I didn't have a lot of either ( but ended up having enough for half my head left over).

I'm not sure if either of these are uv reactive, but now that I've plugged in my black light I've discovered something amazing. My hair glows bright orange. 

It's red in normal light. 

Fairly normal red actually. 

Now, it's a bit faded at the moment but still pretty red but bam. Glowing. 

I'm overjoyed and amazed and if you're ever around black lights its fun to blow people away when your hair that isn't a neon color does this. 

Split decisions

So I did a thing to my hair. 

And I thought I'd explain the pains of keeping this baby nice looking. 

First off, don't do both sides at once by yourself. I effed up the blonde part so bad the first time. It was orange in some places. And I missed some altogether. I missed a little black dye in the bangs too but I naturally have darker hair so it's not as bad. 

When parting the hair, make sure to get it right the first time. Once black is in the hair you won't get it the same blonde as the rest. I liked it straight down the middle. I took my time (a good hour and a half) to make sure I was happy with how I parted it. I had the parts furthest from the middle in bands, and the rest clipped with various types of hair clips to make it easier to alter the part. 

Now, if I could go back, I'd do what I did when I touched it up. After meticulously parting it again (it's better to miss a few blonde strands than to accidentally bleach a chunk of black. It'll be orange until you touch the black up, okay?) I put some conditioner down the black side of the line. Don't get any on the blonde side. Have a friend help if you can. 

After this it's simple. Just carefully dye it. When dying the black it's also very very important to not get black on the blonde. It's fucking hard to get out. Conditioner. I'd put it on more of the blonde than I did the black just because my experience with black dyes have always been messy. 

Now like I said, I have darker hair. You can't even see the roots of my black side. This is partially because my hair's color and partially because the dark black dyes fade to a nice natural looking black after maybe a week of being washed with my shiny silver shampoo (which helps keep the yellows from my hair). It looks good and there's no need to dye over it for me.

For the exact same reason though, I've had to touch up the blonde only a month and a half in.  And just as I'm lifting the last if the yellows I can see a thin line if dark roots poking out. I give it 2 weeks before its irritatingly noticeable. 

Don't get me starred in upkeep of these bangs though. Just styling them is a pain in the butt and I remember why I let them grow out now. 

Getting Rid of Unnatural Colors

I've had Voodoo Blue hair since October now. I touched it up a little about a month ago since it had faded a little, but I didn't feel like bleaching my roots sooo I didn't. I'm trying to be good to my hair. Trying.

Since I've applied to a new college and it's a technical school I figured I may be needing to have a more professional appearance. They may not care, actually, but before deciding on the big university I went to I had taken a tour or a different tech school and they wanted you to dress in business casual at all times (which is actually why I didn't go. Fuuuuck that).

So, I'm working on getting orange hair. I settled for some L'oreal Paris RR07 Intense Red Copper. If I do it over lighter hair it should turn out less of an auburn. I don't fucking want auburn hair again. I've done that a million times.

I actually couldn't find a good orange though. I'll live. I'll probably end up getting Manic Panic's Electric Tiger Lily once my chosen color fades, like all reds do. However, there is a reason to this rhyme.

I can't get this color out of my hair. It's actually REALLY hard to remove an unnatural color that isn't at least halfway faded. You can TRY to dye over it, but unless your choice color is black, it ain't gonna work. Going from a cool color like blue to a color like orange? Yeah, this is going to be an adventure. So, I can't just bleach my hair kinda light and put Tiger Lily over it. It won't work. My hair would have to be blonde first. The boxed dye will lift SOME of that blue out when I put it on, but I DO need to get most of it out first. After that my hair will eventually fade to a gold blonde (since it's bleached) that I can put the tiger lily on.

I just got done with my first attempt to bleach it out, since I want to lighten my roots anyway to make the color less auburn and more orange (as stated before). My hair is a pastel aqua.

I left the bleach in for about 50 minutes, which is longer than I normally let it sit. I'm really not wanting to bleach my roots again so I'm going to look into a color correction type deal to see if I can lift a bit more so that to ensure my color reaching the proper outcome. I still can't be putting red-orange on this much of a blue-green (at least not without getting some weird unwanted color as a result).

This was jumbled and lacked pictures. I just want to point out that while I love doing these types of colors it's really hard to do a lighter natural color if you can't let it fade on its own.

-s

The past few months... growth, style, color

I believe this occurred in July. My hair hit shoulder length when it was straightened and I was still trying to keep it healthy by not dying it a lot (and this was a rarity, me having it straight that is). Right below is my hair in its most natural state.

 HERE is after I dyed the top and bottom a L'oreal brown (no idea which one, but it was pretty) and the middle section is bleached out. Worn nice and natural.

 You can see the blonde in this picture :3 And how stinkin cute my low side pony was. It curled like that on its own. gah, I loved it!

 everything faded, like it always does. It got well past my shoulders. I'd say I was only about 6 to 8 inches away from my goal length but I was getting irritated with hair boredom so THIS was taken right before I shaved the left side of my head.

 

About a week later I bleached the shit out of my hair and trimmed it up since I had so many dead ends from letting it grow. Even if you treat your hair right it'll get split ends. But it was still long. However, I believe this was when I started to straighten again.

 

About a week or two after the bleaching I get my fist unnatural hair colors of 2012. My boyfriend looks like a 13 year old boy in this picture.

After lots of fading and boredom with that hair cut, I got a pro to give me a lot of layers. This is the closest to seeing the shaved side of my hair that I have in pictured, even now with it being a mohawk. Even though it was still long, I had basically been teetering on letting it grow still and saying "fuck it, I was born to have short hair!" Obviously short won out.

I find their licence plate very appropriate :)

Just thought I would share what happened to me growing my hair out. My personality. That's what.

Happy Dyings,
S

A bit of a photo dump :)

 

THESE are from September. The pink is Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink, the teal/green is N'Rage Twisted Teal and the purple was (in the first 2 pictures) Manic Panic Ultra Violet, but that faded I put a mixture of the Twisted Teal and Hot Hot Pink to make a similar purple. The final picture is after a lovely hair cut and a lot of fading.

REVIEW:The Purple was the first to go both times (although the mixture stuck much better). I've always had the problem with Ultra Violet. The Hot Hot Pink was second (as you can tell by my blonde bang in the last photo). And Twisted Teal almost refused to leave. It was SUPER long lasting and I highly recommend it! It was the one color that didn't need touched up in the month and a half I had it like that (although as you can tell by the last photo, taken October 6th, it did fade a bit towards the end).
GAH, I love how pastel and pretty it looked when I faded though.

 pinky pie, why we so crazy.....

While this color is very similar to twisted teal, it's a bit closer to the color I think of when we say Teal. It's green in some lights, and blue in others. It's Voodoo Blue by Manic Panic. I did this mid October and it's now early November and the fading has been minimal everywhere but the roots (which were still a little orange from bleaching). 

REVIEW: UNGH. This has been one of my favorite colors, and a favorite of people who run into me. I've gotten more compliments on this than on any other hair color, including Atomic Pink by Special Effects (which is gorgeous and long lasting if you like bright pink, btw). I've had hair stylist stop me to figure out where they can get it for themselves!

Now, I haven't washed this one very regularly which may be part of its longevity. Last month was pretty hectic but if it gets extra fadey I'll be sure to update you all on it. 

 Just for fun, he'res a picture of my ears being stretched to a 0 gauge. The tapers actually glow in the dark :P I can't for the life of me find them now that I have my silicone tunnels in, but I thought I'd share. You can catch a glimpse of the pretty pastels in my hair :3

Sorry I've been gone. I'm getting back into hair again. I cut it all off. It's a mohawk now. I still long for long hair, but it's just not my style.

XoXo,
s

Stop Trusting the Box cont.

Purposefully dyed blue hair to the left (Splat Blue Envy). Accidentally dyed blue hair to the right (L'oriel Feria Shimmering color 21 Starry night)

I trusted the box. I knew better. And you may never obtain black results over blonde hair, especially if the black color has the words "shimmer" "bright" or "midnight" in the title. References to the night sky tend to mean there's quite a bit of blue in it. The editing on the photo to the right was a minute filter to make my skin not look like ass and effected the hairs resulting color very little.

XoXo,
S

Stop Trusting the Box

I haven't been keeping up. I haven't even been dying my hair. Just letting it grow.

I'm to my shoulders now. I know it's not the best picture. Hey look, no makeup.

I've been watching the idyemyhair gallery a lot to decide what to do next. I need some color.
Some of the comments I'm reading from people complaining about different products are almost hilarious. Like people complaining about how their Splat hair color still bleeds after quite a few washes.

Let me explain something to you kiddies. When you're picking a color, you can either pick whatever is on the shelf and therefor easier to get to, or you can look into common complaints about the dye. Splat is known for bleeding. I used Lusty Lavender and Blue Envy. Both times I ended up with a colorful pillow case and whatever else my hair touched when it was wet.

I've never used Punky Colors but I've heard quite a few complaints about awkward colorful dust coming off of the persons head. The spray in color will coat the inside of your nose and make every nose-blowing experience a little more colorful as well and sometimes just not rinsing out of your hair like promised. Just about ANY fresh color will dye your fingernails (and sometimes your hands) when you shampoo it. I once had a streak of purple faintly going down the middle of my forehead because I wasn't thorough enough when rinsing.

Don't blame a company for your lack of education. You aren't a professional if you're reading this blog for information or tips, so perhaps it's time you acknowledge your limitations. In the case of most products the box lies and it's time we  accept that and find ways to combat it instead of feeling like victims.

1. Never go to bed with wet hair.
2. If your hair is long enough, put it in a pony tail when you sleep as well.
3. Wear plastic gloves in the shower if you want your hands to stay the right color 
4. Also wear gloves when applying products to your hair. 
5. Don't use temporary colors if you can't afford to dye over them You NEVER know how your hair will react.
6. Don't straighten your hair AFTER putting in temp colors. Always heat style before. You may end up baking it into your hair. This is especially true if you're a blonde, have bleached recently, or in general over process your hair. 
7. RESEARCH. ALWAYS RESEARCH. Google it. Check hair galleries and Amazon customer product ratings (I've rated quite hair dyes there myself).


Good luck. Feel free to ask me anything, because if I don't know the answer I'm sure I'll give you a long winded explanation ended with "but I don't actually know"

Natural hair and dilemmas

Just thought I'd update my current hair situation...

I had blond hair. I dyed it turquoise. Then it faded and I dyed it black. It ended up bright almost purple blue. It faded. I dyed it black again and it finally turned out right. Then it faded again, like dye always does. I dyed it in September, I think, right? Maybe October.

I don't know how, considering my hairs natural color has been stripped out for ages now with constant bleaching, but it appears my hair has magically faded to it's natural color. It's been a good 2 or 3 months since dying it black, and I can't see my roots at all. I know it's growing because my hair is nearly shoulder length now (happy sqeeing here, My hair is getting long!) I've spent hours trying to see where my hair's new growth and my faded black begin. I can't see it. My hair looks like a darker medium brown with a sheen of coppery brown. It's maybe a little darker than what I remember my hair being, if not exactly right. It matches my eyebrows, at least.

I want to compile all of my hair jobs into one huge collage. They're all so awesome. :3

ANYWAIZ GUIS, despite the amazing accidental perfectness of my hair color, I'm wanting to dye it really badly. Light brown, blonde, red? I really want an unnatural color now that I've seen people at my current job sporting them (I was told it wasn't allowed. Oh well.) but not my whole head. Just a little. Maybe some green. I love green hair. I'll probably just end up dying it all black again, but I want to experiment more. I'm not going to grow up quite yet. If ever.

Second dilemma besides choosing colors and all that jazz, my hair is getting pretty and long. I have to leave it alone for it to continue being healthy. I need the ends trimmed and I'll be losing about an inch in doing so. Maybe if I stick with the bangs I can do it. They will stay short (actually, I really need to get them cut down. I told my last stylist to "do something new and I don't care what" and got the same bangs but a little shorter, wtf?) so why not kill em dead?

Growing :D

First wash of the Turquoise looked like it bled a lot in comparison to rinsing the dye out. When I first rinsed my hair, almost nothing came out and the water was pretty clear from the start, so you can understand why I freaked out a little when I washed it and saw super turquoise foam. I was terrified that it had all came out at once for some reason, even though I know that just wouldn't happen.

It's a bit paler now, that's for sure, but still very bright, and very pretty.

I've also noticed that the length and cut of my hair right now is very similar to the first time I did a crazy color, in 2007 I think. I've been letting it grow for a while now, trimming it to keep it looking presentable, and it's finally getting somewhere. The shortest part of the back is probably 3 inches now. :)

So close. IN a month or two I'll have the same length again. (I used that bad-lighting picture specifically because it showed the back in the mirror.) Don't worry, my hair already looks a lot healthier than in the picture, which was only a day or so after dying. I took it easy on the straightening, didn't wash for about 3-4 days and haven't blow-dried it since bleaching.

XoXo,

S

Atomic Turquoise

Atomic Turquoise by Manic Panic. It looks really pretty, but pro-tip: when dying your hair blue, especially lighter blues, bleach it until the yellows are completely gone. otherwise, it'll end up kinda green everywhere that it's yellow toned, even light yellow. Thankfully mine is only greenish at the roots, because the rest was made blonde by a professional.

XoXo,

S

Surf Hair, and product usage

Something I've discovered, that I should have already known...

While there is such a thing as using far to much hair product and having your hair be crunchy, still and unattractive because of it, you can also use to little. I have Garnier Fructis's surf hair, and I was really unimpressed when I tried to give the back of my bob some texture and when I used a lot it was slimy and stiff (yes, it can somehow be both) but when I didn't use very much it would be undone within an hour.

I've found a happy medium. It involved having wet towel dried hair and and two little scoops worked into my hair, but I managed to get the styling product to be useful. The back of my hair has texture, and I've been wearing the front curly. It's natural for me, so I won't say that Surf Hair is going to help anyone else without the benefit of genetic help in curls, but it's got nice hold and looks less stiff and wet than when I used to use gel. I also don't have to worry AS MUCH about my hair being touched, because it's hold is looser. Essentially, it helps you work with your natural hair. Wavy hair? give it some texture and control so you don't feel like you need to straighten it. Natural can be sexy too.

Of course, anyone who says that there's a product that allows you to play with your naturally curly hair, and lay on it or comb or brush it without messing it up... LIARS. But this is definitely a step in the direction of good curls for me. Good opportunity to let my hair get a break from the heat treatment.

Belated...

It's been a while.

I plan on getting a few wigs soon. I will definitely talk about how to wear, and maintenance and all.

My hair is currently a cute bob, fresh cut yesterday, and light blond with lots of dark roots. Ulta was closed, and I'm not playing with bleach anymore for things like this. I just want my roots hit. I did buy a new product that I'll give a lovely review of once I get using it. It's a toner to keep my blond from being so yellow.

I've actually been using the same few products for a long while now. I'm liking the combo, but I do need to rotate some of them out to try something new for different results. A big humid summer is on its way, so instead of freaking about dry hair, and wind damage, it's time to keep the frizz down.

XoXo,
S

Temporary Review

Yeah, I haven't updated in a while. I've been kinda busy, off living a life and dealing with drama and blah blah blah. what's important is that I have a PRODUCT REVIEW.

Jerome Russell B-Wild temporary spray in colors
I bought one of every bright color they had at my local Walgreene's, The purple, the blue, and the green. I'll review them in order that I sprayed them into my hair.


Purple:
The purple wasn't NEARLY as vibrant as I thought it would be, given the color it showed on the bottle. It was fairly light with slight pink tones on my blond bangs and my natural hair color on the sides, but it was much darker over the the black in my mohawk. It also probably left the least amount of "dust" floating around in the air after use. Washed right out with one shampoo



Green:
The green was shown as much darker on the bottle than what it showed up. The color I got was a bright day-glow neon green. I loved it. It showed up about the same color on both the black and blond sections of my hair, which is good. This color seemed to get EVERYWHERE though. It wasn't much of a problem, it came right off if you wiped it with a wet towel regardless of if it were on your skin or all over the bathroom sink. Washed right out of my hair with one shampoo.
Blue:
The blue color was really dark compared to the color shown on the bottle (which is odd, because the rest of the colors seemed consistently lighter) and in certain lighting it looked like it was more of a blue tint over black hair, but it showed up like that over the blond as well, so the consistency was at least good. This one probably produced the most "dust" of all of them. Either be in a well ventilated room when doing this or prepare to have blue show up when you blow your nose (yes, I'm seriously.) It didn't really do any damage to my breathing or anything, it was just there. I actually have pretty sensitive nose/breathing and it didn't do me any harm. This also washed right out with one little shampoo.
The red color I used in the very bottom of the mohawk, and on the small chunk of hair to the left was left over from Halloween a few years back. I'm not even sure what brand it is. It really was more of an auburn than a bright red. When I figure out what brand it is, I'll post a review.

Happy Dying :)

S

Two must have hair products.

I'm starting to wish I didn't work at a fast food restaurant just so that I didn't HAVE to shampoo my hair every day (among other reasons...)

I'll post pictures of my new hair when I get some good ones, but It's very painful for me to have only had my hair colored a certain way for a WEEK and already need to touch it up. I got some custom mixed color in it though, so I'm dying to share it. I just need GOOD pictures.

On a bright note, I've got some product to recommend.

Hair looking dull? Dry? limp? Don't want to spend all your money on products that promise to heal your dry and heat damaged hair just for it to have no more effect that conditioner?

I got two products for this.


1. Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrient Spray:
I use this obsessively. Literally, I've been using it for a month and I've gone through almost a whole bottle. But it's only about $5, so it's alright. If you're hair is looking a little dull or limp (or, if you have really short hair and it set funny while you were sleeping) you just spray it down with this and you have an instant healthy natural looking shine. I'm not sure about it's actual "hair healing' qualities, but your hair instantly be given more life. I probably use it 2 or three times a day (when I wake up, after work, sometimes after my shower.) As far as I'm aware, this also does no damage to unnatural hair colors.

2. Frizz-Ease Thermal Protection
I've only been using this for about a week or so. I'm already in love with it. Two drops after my shower on damp hair, and even when I blow dry AND straighten my hair it still keeps a lot of its softness. Remember how I was saying my stylist's razor was a bit dull and it left the ends of my hair feeling rough? When I have this you can't even tell. It's like having silk for hair. Yes, I still use my normal thermal protection, but I tend to find that it's a little lacking when I need to blowdry my hair. THIS makes up for it. I'm not sure about any effects it may have on unnatural colored hair dyes (due to pretty much baking it into your hair) but if I notice anything I'll be sure to update.

I'm still looking for the PERFECT non-dye removing shampoo.


That is all for now. I'll get back to you all with my beautiful new hair creation soon.

Happy Dyings XoXo,
S

Go Bold

Something that is very important for any hair experimenter is a hair stylist that gets you. I don't usually have "people." I rarely go to the same place for the same thing, or even buy the same product twice. But right now, I think I've found a stylist.

I sat myself down in the chair. I told her "do anything you. I want something different. Do whatever you feel will look good." and instead of giving me a normal cut, I got something fun, asymmetrical, and easy as hell to take care of. The back is a little poofy in the pictures, because I didn't style it myself (she blew it dry before I left, and it floofed) but wow, I never in my life thought I'd do something so short. I never felt like I'd pull off such a short look.

4 years ago, I wouldn't' have even been daring enough to to show so much of my face shape. I love it. I feel renewed. I feel bolder.

I think I've found myself a stylist :)

Happy Dyings :)
S

(I may be adding some purple to this when I touch it up)

Raw Hair Dyes: Review

I hate making such a harsh decision based on my personal experience with Raw brand Hairdyes... but This is twice now.

The swatches LIE. I used Raw Neon Orange, because it told me my hair would turn out similar to the color of Leeloo's from the 5th Element.
THIS is what I got. This picture doesn't even BEGIN to show the toxic looking yellow tone of my hair. Like someone drank toxic waste and pissed all over my head. I left it in my hair for 60 minutes, as I always do. Took care of it the way I ALWAYS take care of my hair when I'm trying to achieve bright unnatural colors. And it came out like THAT RIGHT THERE. Nasty. I had to dye over it with Manic Panic Flaming (a red dye) to get it to the orange color I'd wanted.

Today, I dyed a girls hair using some purple color by Raw today. It came out a faded nasty blue. I told them to get it at Nirvana or Spencer's, but I can understand how the swatches at Hot Topic can be tempting. I've bought dye there more than once. I was rarely pleased though.

So, in short. Unless your into experimenting, mixing, and maybe getting lighter than expected colors, don't buy RAW. It's a big no-no.

Having hair not turn out well for me is upsetting enough. I hate myself when I do someone else's hair and it doesn't come out as vibrant as they were hoping. I hate crushing people's hope :( I may post of pic of how her hair came out if she posts one and lets me.

Happy Dying.
XoXo
S

Improvision; The Joys of

I lack a few pictures of this dye process, sadly, as I was on an artistic high halfway through it. But I will show you some of the joys of improving when you dye your hair. Whenever I do mine, I usually have no clue what I'm actually doing. I'm a work-as-you-go kind of girl. Sometimes it doesn't end very well, but other times I end up with something so beautiful. Friday night was one of those times.
I divided up my hair, planning on simply doing a little pink in the back, and then doing the rest in green. Sexy, I know. I need to go out an buy plastic clips so I can kick my little rubber band habit. I use the back of my tinting brush to divide.

Yep, the station I has set up in the last entry. And the completion of applying the pink dye to the back section of hair. I put it in a little rubber hair band (hahaha) to keep it out of the way while I did the rest. You can see that I didn't get it fully to the roots. When doing a full head of hair in multiple colors, you only need to touch the roots where they'll be showing. If your steadier with a tint brush than I am you can attempt it, but I prefer to stay away from that as usually end up getting the other section colored as well. Bad at-home dyer, bad.

As I continued, I washed off my gloves with shampoo (to not spread the color by accident. You can also just change gloves if you have multiple pairs) I took down one side of my hair, and removed any pins that were holding it in place. I divided it in half and began to dye the frontal area/fringe green while holding the back up in a rubber hair band. When I was finished with the front from tips to roots I tied it up with a rubber hair band and let down the middle section. Since this section is thicker than the front, you'll divide it in halve horizontally and pin up the top half. to keep it out of the way.

This is where my artistic high started. I notice at this point that my hair looked REALLY nice with the chunk of blond hair in the middle, and decided to divide the other side of my head with the same method, leaving the blond as is. At the time I had wished I hadn't dyed the lower middle section yet, but it turned out to give it a nice layered effect later on.

Manic Panic Green Envy and Manic Panic New Rose

Tada.

Rinse and wash separately as needed to prevent color blending.

Happy Dying
XoXo,
S

Recycling

The Phunk-N-Ink convention is going on this weekend. I went yesterday and it was fabulous. My hair was faded and I probably had an inch of new growth, so I was planning all week to dye my hair green for the convention. I'm a procrastinator, so I didn't end up getting around to til fairly late on Friday. Luckily, I seem to work well under stress and got

Manic Panic Green Envy; Manic Panic New Rose

This entry is a guide to NOT turning your bathroom the same color as your hair while RECYCLING, and well as the pros and cons of improvising.

As an at-home hair dyer I know what it's like to accidentally turn your bathroom sink blue, and even though there are ways to get it out (mostly over a long period of time) it's best if you just avoid a situation like that all together, right? I'm renting my apartment right now, so a big green splatter on the wall is something to cause a panic seeing how I can't just paint over it.

All you need is:
-Plastic shopping bags
-scissors
-tape
-your trusty hair dying towel (don't have one, get one. Use it and only it when you dye or bleach your hair so you avoid any mishaps with nicer or more expensive towels.)

It's really simple to start. I cut up 3 wal-mart bags (split the handles and cut until I reached the seam at the bottom, and did the same to the other side) and draped them over my work area. My bathroom mirror is flat, and I prefer working with the three way, so I chose to only use the front area of the sink and use the mirror to hold the bags in place. If you intend to use the whole sink, make sure to cover it and tape everything in place. It IS important to cover the frontal area as well, just in case you drip some dye.

I prefer to keep my hair dying towel on the floor until I'm rinsing, especially because I don't want to accidentally bleach the carpet. If your whole bathroom floor is tile or linoleum you COULD just tape down more bags. I think the towel is also easier to walk and move around on, but it's personal preference.

Since I'm not using the full sink, I keep my supplies on the toilet cover. Since you'll be working with dye stained gloves, it's important to put the bag over this as well. I also have anything I'll need laying out, such as little rubber bands and bobby pins. I also put a cut up bag between the toilet and the towel in case of any drops or drips while moving between there and my work area.
Half of a bag over the door knob. Silly? NOT AT ALL. This is VERY IMPORTANT. While you dye your hair, if you drip on your skin it's important to get it off asap (especially if your using black dye; that shit stains nearly on contact) and this bag allows you something in easy reach that you can use to turn the knobs on the bathtub or sink without getting dye all over them. It's and area that sucks to clean, so it's much easier to not get any dye on them to begin with. It's also useful if you need to leave the bathroom (say, someone has to pee) and you don't want to take your gloves off and try to put them back on. Just do it. You'll find a use.

Want to let your unnatural dyes sit for longer periods of time without getting everywhere or drying (which will essentially make leaving it in your hair pointless) the pin it down with some bobby pins so that it will stay in it's respected places, pull a bag over your hair and take a little rubber hairband over the back to hold it tight. (Note: if you're using a normal hair dye, bought in a box straight off the shelf, do NOT under any circumstances use metal clips or pins while using the dye. It will cause a chemical reaction and will damage your hair. In general, I don't recommend the bag-over-the-head method with any store bought dying kits, as I'm not familiar with them or how they'll react to a lack of air.)

Yes, I know I must have a shit-load of plastic bags floating around my apartment, I really do. My brother and I never throw them out, so we shove them all in our cabinet to use in our small trashcans. We buy a lot, so we have a lot. If your living with your parents just ask them if you can keep their bags every time they go shopping. They don't take up much space.

Keep dying
XoXo,
S

(This whole entry looks like an ad to Wal-Mart)