Adventures with oVertone!

February 27, 2015February 26, 2015Sophia Ravenna

Can I really put pink and orange dye over my henna?

Take a journey with me, back in time to the 90s. You may or may not remember, but it was a magical time when suddenly you could easily buy green nail polish and weird colored hair dye. My parents wouldn’t let me actually dye my hair, but they were fine with temporary experiments, so I had all kinds of hair mascara and colored pomade. I decided that when I turned 18, I would dye my hair blue. Why blue? Well, I wore a lot of blue, and green, and purple, but I didn’t like green and purple together, so blue seemed like the safest bet for coordinating with my wardrobe. I had it all figured out!

Then I learned that my hair was dark enough that I would have to bleach it, and that blue hair dye had a bad habit of quickly fading to a nasty pool water greenish shade. I gave up on my wild dreams of colored hair and stuck with my boring brown hair.

Until I discovered henna.

Glorious, glorious henna.

I’ve been dying my hair with henna since Autumn 2011, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. My hair looks amazing and is super healthy. No bleach required!

But there were some problems… Henna is messy and time-consuming. Any time I needed to touch up my roots, I’d have to set aside the entire afternoon to do it, and count on spending a good 45 minutes cleaning the bathroom afterwards. I’d often end up with a headache from the sheer weight of the henna mud, which I had to leave on my hair for hours. Not to mention how long I had to spend rinsing it out in the shower, and how much water that took, and me living in a desert.

This leads to me leaving my roots un-tended to for months and months and months.

I mean, look at those roots. Geez.

Meanwhile, my awesome pal Liora and her friend Meagan were over here starting a company called oVertone, which makes color-depositing conditioners to help your dye job stay fresh and vibrant. I thought that was pretty cool, but I’d been told that once you hennaed your hair, fantasy color hair-dye was out of the question. You couldn’t bleach the henna out and the dye molecules had nowhere to go, something something something. When I started hennaing my hair I didn’t care, but then I kept seeing all of these fabulous dye jobs on oVertone’s social media accounts and I felt seriously left out. Why couldn’t I have mermaid hair, too?

Then the other day they posted some strand tests of orange dyes and it looked an awful lot like if I put orange dye on my brown roots, it would be pretty close to the color of my henna, without all the hassle of henna. I broached the subject with Liora, and she agreed my hair was probably just light enough for the orange dye. We talked a bit about the interaction between henna and hair dye, and how they’d had customers who were curious whether they could put oVertone over henna.

These thoughts milled around in my head until one day I had a realization… I have basically all the hair in the world and I’m really overdue to trim my ends. Why not put oVertone on the last 6 inches of my hair, that way if it looked bad, I could just cut it off, and Liora and Meagan would have a clear answer for their customers. WE COULD DO SCIENCE TO MY HAIR!

While mermaid colors were still out of the question (teal + henna = blargh), I went over to Liora’s place and we applied Extreme Pink and Vibrant Orange to my ends. Did you know that pink and orange used to be my two least-favorite colors? I’m trying to grow as a person. Anyway, if you want to see what my dyed and curled ends looked like, hop over to the oVertone blog to read Liora’s post.

I was so excited that I couldn’t resist when Liora generously offered to let me take the rest of the Go Deep conditioner home and put it on the rest of my hair. I wanted magical raspberry sunset hair and I was going to make it happen.

So let’s talk about what oVertone is like. Although it’s designed to be used to maintain an existing dye job, there’s enough dye in the Go Deep product that you can use it to color your natural hair, assuming your base color is light enough. Since it doesn’t have alcohol in it like most dyes do, it’s easier on your hair, which is nice for dye-wusses like me. Hair health takes priority over hair color when you have bootie-length locks.

Go Deep comes in a tub and looks kind of like frosting, and smells minty fresh because it’s got mint and rosemary oils in it.

Great, now I want cupcakes.

The cool thing for me is that the process for applying oVertone Go Deep is the same as applying henna — spread that stuff all over your head! The difference is that because it’s not as thick and heavy, it didn’t slide off all over the bathroom floor, and it didn’t weigh my head down. Plus I only had to leave it on for 15 minutes, not 2 hours. I thought I’d spend that time reading, but actually, by the time I finished wiping up the mess I had made, it was time to hop in the shower and rinse off.

And yes, it did make a mess. I have a ton of hair, so there’s basically no way to cover all of it with dye without getting it everywhere. I managed to restrict the carnage to my sink, a couple of random splats on the counter, and my own body. But fear not! I just scrubbed myself really well and the color came right off. I do recommend having an exfoliating cleaner on hand just in case, though.

I really wanted a variegated raspberry and orange look, so I sectioned my hair into six pieces and alternated which color I applied, and then wrapped them all together on top of my head so they’d blend. On my scalp, I did some places orange and some places pink, which resulted in a more patchy look, so I’m going to go back in and apply more color and blend it together to smooth it out.

How fabulous is this?

The end result is that my previously natural-looking red hair now has this rich berry hue with flashes of coppery orange. I like it a lot! But best of all, because Go Deep is a deep conditioner, my hair also feels amazing! It’s very soft and still looks and feels really healthy. It took longer to rinse out than a normal shampoo and conditioner, obviously, but not nearly as long as henna does, and it didn’t leave mud all over my shower.

I do have a couple of concerns about continuing to use oVertone. One is that it doesn’t seem to cover my greys as well as henna does. I’m going to make doubly sure to hit my tiny grey patch with some extra color when I redo my roots, because you can definitely see my grey roots. If I can get them to be a pastel pink or orange, that’s fine, but I don’t want actual white showing at my roots, so if that becomes an issue I may have to keep using henna.

The other issue is cost. Henna isn’t cheap, but I didn’t have to apply it often. Because oVertone is semi-permanent, I’ll need to invest in the Daily Conditioner to keep my color bright, and then re-apply Go Deep every week or so. For the average person this is not going to add up to a huge expense, but did I mention that I have ALL THE HAIR? I used close to half of each tub to dye my hair, and while I can probably use less in the future (since I’ll just be looking to re-up my baseline dye job), I’m worried it could get expensive fast. It’s an expense I can currently handle, but if things change in my budget, I may have to let my hair color go, or experiment with seeing how stingy I can be with product while still maintaining my color.

Over all though, I am really happy and really excited about my new hair color! It really looks good with my complexion, since it’s still in the same red-orange family as my henna, it’s just gone a couple of steps beyond colors normally found in nature. It definitely fits well with the otherworldly, faerie persona that I like to bring to the stage, while not being out of line with any vintage-inspired costuming I might want to wear.

I made a video tutorial!

November 14, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Surprise! I made a video tutorial! I had to film something else today, and I figured, well, while I’m figuring out my webcam and I’ve got all this makeup on my face, why not film something special for Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers? So I’m showing you all how I wear my hair all the time. Apparently this is called a nautilus bun — I just learned that now from seeing another tutorial on how to do it. How cool is that? I love nautiluses, they’re awesome. Anyway, I also show you how I dress my bun up for dance performances.

As mentioned in the video, I want to eventually start posting video tutorials of makeup looks. I’m thinking of doing Fem Bot and my Poison Berry Faerie look, but I’m open to requests!

I hope you all enjoy my first, somewhat awkward foray into tutorial-land!

Vendors mentioned in the video:

Eaduard Hairsticks

The Verdant Muse

Bold Oracle

Long Hair Don’t Care!

October 14, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Long hair all down my back ‘n’ stuff. Photo by Lee Corkett.

Ok, that title is a lie. I totally care about my long hair. It’s longer than ever and last night I realized that the very end of my hair is now all the way down to the bottom of my butt. My terminal length has increased by several inches and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it keeps going! If I could, I’d be one of those ladies with hair down to the ground. The other day I saw a woman with beautiful black hair that hung to the middle of her calves. She tossed it around her neck like a scarf and it was still longer than mine. I was so jealous you guys!

Anyway, I thought I would share a bit of how I care for my hair, for two reasons… Maybe some of you are trying to grow yours out and want to see if any of what I do helps you. The other reason is that a lot of people have this idea that long hair is so much work, and I want to tell you that it is so low-maintenance.

Note: My hair is slightly wavy, about average to slightly better than average thickness and fullness. If you have curly hair, fine hair, thin hair, or really thick and full hair, you may find that you need to do things differently than I do. Because my only experience is with my own head, I sadly can’t really advise you on how to handle your hair, I can just suggest that you make good use of Google and Pinterest, and ask your stylist for advice!

Color: This is the one difficult/annoying part of my hair care routine. I dye my hair using Caca Rouge from Lush. I’m actually sitting here right now with a big pile of henna on my head. Lush used to apply it in-store for you, but they don’t anymore. I am definitely going to need to get help next time, it’s just way too difficult and messy to touch my color up all by myself. Although it can be a pain to maintain, I really love my permanent red color and the henna is good for my hair.

Shampoo: I wash my hair every other day with Cynthia Sylvia Stout shampoo from Lush. I was surprised to find that I liked a shampoo with beer in it, since I don’t really like the smell of beer, but the other scents balance it out and its a good shampoo for red hair. On alternate days, I wear my hair up in the shower.

Conditioner: Once or twice a week I use Veganese by Lush (can you tell I like Lush products? I swear I’m not getting a kickback). I’m about to switch to a different one though, because I liked the scent better. We’ll see how it works out.

Brushing: I just switched to one of those plastic detangling brushes with the two different lengths of bristles. I’ve been using it for a couple months and it seems to work really well. I literally only brush my hair after I shower, or if I’ve been wearing it down and its a little tangled.

Drying: I do not ever use a blow dryer. I blot my hair with a towel after I shower and then I let it air dry. Of course, I live in the desert, I can get away with that. It also means I can’t shower right before bed, because there’s few things grosser than a damp pillow and a long wet braid of hair wrapping itself around your neck.

Bed time: Speaking of bed, I always, always always always braid my hair before bed! ALWAYS. I feel like it’s the best thing you can do for your long hair, since it keeps it from tangling if you toss and turn.

Daily styles: I usually wear my hair up in a simple bun secured by a chopstick or bobby pins. For classes where I think I might have to lie on my back or something, I go for a pony tail. I’ll often braid the ponytail so I don’t end up eating my own hair when I do turns. Of course, then the braid wraps around my neck. I will also sometimes wear it down with a cloth headband to hold it back (I don’t like the solid horseshoe shaped headbands, they give me headaches).

Performance styles: It really depends on the costume, my mood, and if I’m going to be dancing in close proximity to my troupemates (I’d like to apologize again to anyone I’ve hit in the face with my hair). As seen above, I often like to wear it down with a decorative headband and flowers or other adornments. I’m also a fan of doing a bun with lots of hair sticks and flowers. Sometimes I’ll do a high ponytail with either a decorative ponytail cover or more flowers. I own a lot of flowers, OK? I rarely do braids for performing because they tend to get raggedy pretty fast on me.

Cut and Style: I go in for trims when my ends get gross, and my stylist will put some layers in. Sometimes I get shorter layers in front, like super long bangs, and I’ll occasionally leave them out when I pull my hair back.

Product: I’ll use a bit of hairspray if I’m having trouble with fly-aways. I have a “beach hair” spray that I got from ipsy and sometimes I use that if I feel like it. And I’ll use dry shampoo if I’m getting greasy and want to wait to shower until after dance class. Otherwise I don’t really use anything else on my hair.

See? So low maintenance! I really wish I knew what specific thing or combination of things is helping my hair grow so well so I could share it with all of my friends.

Anatomy of a Costume

May 22, 2014May 21, 2014Sophia Ravenna

The work of many artists!

I’ve been asked whether I made my Tribal Fest costume and the answer is a great big NOPE! In fact I did not wear a single thing that I made, which is unusual as I tend to wear jewelry that I created to go with a costume, but not this time. So anyway, I’d like to take a few minutes to acknowledge the talented costumers whose work I combined to put together the look for this performance. We’ll work from the top down!

1. Dreads and hair flowers by Diva Dreads. Not only that, but as I mentioned yesterday, Brandie also styled my hair for me. I cannot speak highly enough of Brandie and her family, they run such a wonderful business. I never thought I would go for dreads because I already have so much hair anyway, but they really added the perfect touch to this piece. I needed ALL OF THE HAIR to create an otherworldly style.

2. You can’t see it in this picture but there’s also a beautiful, realistic-looking leather moth clip in my hair garden, created by Angelic Artisan. I had decided at nearly the last-minute that it would be cool to have moths in my hair and it was surprisingly difficult to find something that looked like an actual moth and would ship from the US. Well, this moth is awesome and it’s made of a really heavy leather so it should hold up very well to years of wear.

3. Super duper amazing faerie crown by The Bold Oracle. I’ve had this for at least a year and had only worn it for a photo shoot. I was going to make an antler crown for this piece but then I was like, duh, I have this beautiful crown by Amy already and it matches this costume perfectly and I love the effect of the tulle around my face.

4. Bindi by Kuhl Jewels. I wasn’t going to wear a bindi but then Niffer bought us “bestie bindis” (matching design, but in green for me and aqua/teal for her) and I decided I had to wear mine. The vine shape and shades of green were perfect with the costume.

5. Silk wings by Firebird Fae Couture. I purchased these wings last year at Tribal Fest to wear when I performed this piece at the Plaza Variety Show. I LOVE them! They were the perfect addition to this costume. I’m sad the artist didn’t return to TF this year so I couldn’t tell her in person how much I enjoyed them and invite her to see me dance in them.

6. Prehnite necklace by Mermaiden Creations. Between the tulle drape and the tie for the wings there’s not a lot of room for an elaborate necklace with this costume. An organic prehnite bead on a simple chain seems like just the sort of bauble a faerie would wear.

7. Bra and belt set by Anaya Tribal. I love this set because it’s awesome for a belly dancing faerie but if I accessorize it differently it can be straight-up tribal fusion or steampunk. The fact that the bra fits as if it was made for me certainly helps!

8. Super Bootie skirt by Snake Church. True story: I was going to wear my olive green Super Bootie that I bought last year, but then I bought this old gold one and I decided that it was even better with the bra-belt set. Also I had learned that I had been buying my skirts one size too big and so my bootie looked even better in this new, smaller skirt. I definitely made the right choice because that gold under the stage lights against the soft colors of the silk backdrop? Magical.

9. Honorable mention: Katherine from Silk Road Tribal didn’t make the bracelet I’m wearing, but she did let me owe her $3 when I decided I NEEDED a bracelet to cover my entry stamp on my wrist and I didn’t have enough cash on hand. She’s a sweet person and sells lots of awesome tribal jewelry, costumes, textiles and DIY supplies.

10. I kept the jewelry really simple because I didn’t want to risk anything on my arms catching on the wings or in my dreads, but I did wear my emerald ring by Janish Jewels and my Mom’s peridot ring, because they were perfect with my costume but low-profile.

So a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped me be beautiful on Saturday!

Tribal Fest Wrap-Up

May 21, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Can’t even get over how pretty my wings were in the light.

I was doing such a good job of posting from Tribal Fest, but then my bestie Niffer arrived and we were rooming together and I wanted to spend all night chatting instead of blogging from my tiny keyboard. Then I was driving home and wanted to rest instead of typing. But now I am back and well-rested after a night in my own bed with my own kitty curled up against my belly, and I want to gush about what a wonderful time I had! So let’s look at it day-by-day.

Friday: Got to the festival nice and early for “The whole shebang” with Dusty Paik. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Dusty? She’s just made of awesome. Her workshop was about taking a piece of music and developing a whole concept around it, from character to costume to movement. Most of the workshop was spent sitting on the floor listening, writing, and drawing, and then we were given the chance to present our concept to the rest of the class. I decided to be brave and go first, and I got some nice feedback on my piece. Then I got to sit back and watch other students dance and some of them blew my mind! Lots of beautiful concepts and skillful dancing and raw emotion.

After that I had a couple hours to hang out, shop, and watch the show. I was able to see my friend and former troupemateish (she was in Skirt Full of Fire while I was in Fire & Gold, so we danced together in big group numbers) Kamrah dance for the first time since she moved away. She rocked it! Here’s the video if you want to see for yourself. I saw a lot of other really good dancing too and was feeling really inspired, but also intimidated because I was going to be taking the stage on Saturday!

Then it was time to run back to the rental and let Niffer in, because we only had one key! I got her settled in and we made our way back to the festival and I had to immediately pop into my second workshop of the day (and last one of the festival) which was a hair workshop with Brandie Franks of Diva Dreads. There were only a few students so it was really casual and chatty, with Brandie demonstrating hair and answering our questions and doing different styles on everyone. There was a nice range of hair lengths and types present in class, so she was able to address different needs which was not only helpful for the person with that hair, but for any of us who might be going home to help our troupemates whose hair is totally different from our own. I was really impressed that not only did Brandie discuss how to use the dreads she makes, but she also talked a bit about how to make your own, or braid fake hair directly into your own hair, or use yarn falls. She acknowledged that not everyone could afford nice dreads or braids and gave budget-friendly alternatives and was totally cool about it.

Once I was out of my workshop, I did a little more shopping and then we dropped our things off at the room (there may have been a lot of 25 yard skirt purchasing going on) and had a delicious dinner and hurried back for the last couple hours of the show. More amazing dance, topped off by an awesome closing set by Rachel Brice and her troupe Datura. Such skill! Such beautiful costumes!

Saturday: Got up early and started putting on my face for my performance. Possibly the most makeup I have ever worn! To create the faerie image I was going for I had to apply foundation with a damp sponge, which blotted out the freckles I’ve had for my entire life, making me look very much not like myself. Then there was the epic amount of dark blush. The outrageous eyebrows. The PaperSelf lashes in the shape of stags with butterflies on their antlers. The shimmery earthtone eyeshadow. Niffer provided a helpful second opinion, telling me when to add more and when to stop. Then we hopped into her rental Mustang convertible (hell yeah!) to drive over to TF so I wouldn’t sweat my face off on the walk over.

After watching more inspiring and intimidating dance, I went over to Brandie’s booth to have her do my hair. My original plan was to do it myself and then ask her to give it a looksee and throw in my bobby pins if needed, but I’m glad I just had her do the whole thing because she built this amazing style that really put forth the woodland creature image I wanted, like some sort of Greco-Roman nymph with my flowing curly dreads. Oh yeah, and she pinned the heck out of everything so not a single flower flew off and not a single piece of fake hair got in my face after a spin.

Backstage was crowded but also a great atmosphere, with people taking time to compliment each other on their costumes, give encouragement and hugs and ask when you were going on stage so they could try to catch you before or after their own performance. There was a stage manager to keep everything running smoothly. Before I knew it I was dressed and ready to go on stage and then my music was starting and it was time to give it my all! I was a little nervous but the troupe directly after me was super sweet and blowing me kisses and wishing me luck before I stepped on stage. So lovely!

I feel pretty happy with what I did. For the rest of the weekend, other dancers would walk up to me and compliment me on my dance, including a huge compliment from a really big deal dancer that I still can’t believe really happened. People enjoyed my theme and how well my costume, music and movement went together, which is what I always strive for. I am feeling so inspired and encouraged to live up to what others think of me after my performance. You can watch it here if you’d like.

With that done I was able to watch more dance, have some yummy tea and dinner with Niffer and come back for still more dance, this time with Fat Chance Belly Dance and other awesome ATS troupes wrapping up the night.

Sunday: No workshops! No performances! Time to just relax and have fun. A tiny bit of “Ok, it’s the last day, I’ll kick myself if I don’t buy this” shopping, including finding the perfect belt for my troupemate Ashley who had specifically requested that I keep an eye out for a tribal belt for her. Then lots more watching of dancers, a little break to explore Sebastopol and eat some food, a fond farewell to Niffer, back to the show to give good-bye hugs to my vendor friends, and then the last of the show where Beatbox Guitar performed live music for ITS dancers including Black Sheep Belly Dance and Tribal Fest host Kajira, and then House of Tarot did an almost hour-long final act. WOW! It really is worth staying for the end of Sunday if you don’t absolutely have to get back to work Monday morning.

Then I had to go back to my room and pack up all of my stuff. Uh oh! It seriously looked like a belly dancer had exploded in there. And in my excitement about being able to drive and buy whatever I wanted, I forgot that it might still be a good idea to bring an extra suitcase to consolidate everything instead of having half a dozen shopping bags of various sizes. Oh well. I made it work, even if it took several trips to get everything into the car.

Monday and Tuesday: The long drive home! First I stopped to pick up some yummy local food and drink to take to my aunt and uncle who were going to host me for the night and for my husband back home. Then I stopped in Cotati to visit my friends at Out on a Whim and buy some beads. Then, other than a quick stop to fill up my gas tank, I drove straight through to Redlands. My route back was different from my route up and this time I passed within 3 miles of my hometown and drove the way we always took to visit my family down in Redlands. Such a weird feeling! Some things were unrecognizable and some were still the same, like the Charlie Brown Farms, and the little cafe by where we would turn off to go camping.

I had a nice overnight visit with my aunt and uncle and their lovely pets. I haven’t really spent any time with them as an adult so it was nice to get to know each other. And hanging out with family was much more pleasant than being in some weird hotel by myself. Especially when my aunt and I were watching TV together and her dog had his big ol’ head in my lap. So relaxing!

Tuesday I hit the road, got to Phoenix right on schedule to give Jen her bag o’ skirts and wine, have a little catch up, and then HOME! I don’t know who was happier to see me, my husband or my pets. The corgis tried to follow us out to the car when we left for dinner, surely convinced that I was going to disappear for a week again and they were going to go with me this time. Topher slept curled up next to my belly all night. And while Lira seemed more interested in the pile of bags I brought with me, she did just sit in my lap while I was writing this blog post.

It’s nice to be back home, and I’m looking forward to dancing with my troupemates tonight… but GEEZ do I miss Tribal Fest! So many wonderful friends, so much dancing, so much encouragement, so much shopping. Oh, and the weather! Sure, it was hot the first few days, but Saturday and Sunday were so beautiful I could cry. I loved being able to walk everywhere. Main Street Sebastopol was so cute, full of local shops and restaurants that made me wish I wasn’t spending all my time and money at the festival. I can’t wait to go back next year!