Hairapy

As the season's change, people begin to look for ways in which to spruce up their look. Some buy new make-up and try out a new look. Others kick up their wardrobe a notch with new duds. I dye my hair.

Since I was a wee ickle thing, I've always had a weird preference for non-traditionally colored hair. When I drew, I drew girls with purple and blue hair. As I got older, I longed for all of the fun colors in my hair that my parents would never let me have. Especially pink. I wanted pink hair so bad, I could taste it.

My mom, a hairstylist, allowed me my first adult haircut and highlights when I was 13. It was a clunky, unsophistocated bob with brassy highlights and I hated it. This didn't stop me from begging, though. Slowly I worked my way towards red highlights, then red tips. In between colors, I kept my hair dyed a glossy blue-black, because it just couldn't be 100% normal. Finally, my junior year of high school, I was allowed an all-over strawberry blonde, which then became a raspberry red for 6 months.

Then college happened. Rules about my hair color suddenly didn't apply to me and I made a point of dying my hair in whatever way and with whatever colors I wanted. I found out lots about my particular kind of hair, what it could or couldn't handle, and where it's snapping points were.

Then, a year ago today, after years of dying, damage, dying, frying. breakage, and more dying, I made a scary decision. Convinced by my cousin, I cut off almost all of my hair, leaving only about an inch and a half all over my head.

In the African American community, women who transition from chemically treated hair to 100% natural hair will often do what is considered the "big chop"; they will cut off all of the damaged and treated parts of the hair, leaving only the natural strands behind. This is what I did, with the intention of growing my hair out naturally.

The problem was, I just really was not pleased with my natural hair. I didn't have a problem with the texture or anything, it's just that the color was soooooo boring!

So earlier this year, I bleached out my hair and went full-on blonde again!

(no pictures of the fresh blonde, because I'm dumb and forgot to take them as I often do)

The thing is, I went blonde with the intention of dying my hair another color, only to find that I couldn't decided on what color I wanted. This led me to being blonde for months before finally finding my color inspiration:

Having considered Kelly Osborne a style icon since before I even really had a sense of style (and when her's was just as gritty as mine), I loved seeing this look on her, and seeing it pop up more and more as it started trending, I needed it on my head. I needed that specific color on my head. I wanted lavender and I wanted it NOW! However, I knew that there was no way I'd get the color to come out on my own, even having already bleached it. I inlisted the help of my beautician friend Sarah to do my roots, lift the rest of my hair another level or two, and create the lavender.

(I'm a Pikmin! Or a unicorn! Unicorn Gundam!)

Lavender proved tougher than we both thought. Since there are so few medium/light purple dyes, we had to dilute a violet, and the original result was grey that faded out within a week. Two weeks later, we tried again using a different violet dye and increasing the amount of dye in the mixture. The results were perfect!

It was a perfect lovely lavender, with some darker streaking in the front and it is magnificant! I am so in love!

The next day I went to the mall with Katie and I got a fair number of complements on the color. The best parts about the trip were finding purple bobby pins (I had to buy them, I had literally just been complaining about not being able to use black bobby pins in my hair about an hour before), and having like three of the sales girls in the MAC pro store try to convince me that this beautiful lavender lipstick from the Nick Minaj Viva Glam collection would DEFINITELY not clash with my hair. Their convincing worked.

And that leads me to today. My hair has been trimmed up and the damage from the extreme bleaching has been cut out, but I believe I've grown about eight or so inches of hair since my big chop. My hair is by no means perfect and more often than not I will simply resort to wearing a wig because my hair isn't tidy enough to wear out, or it doesn't fit the occasion, but I'm trying to learn to be more accepting of it. I'm trying very hard not to cut it anymore so that it can grow out to the length it used to be (and longer) so that I can enjoy my natural, beautifully colored curls in more ways than just "afro-fluff".

But most importantly, I'm learning to love it for what it is. Soft, fine, curly, and awesome.

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

So what's up with me?

So if you're reading (and you probably aren't because who wants to hear me literarily flail on the internet [but I'm gonna do it anyway]), you're probably wondering where the heck that last post came from (you're not) and where I've been (but I know you don't care).

You see I've been busy. Like, really, it's not laziness, or anything, I've just been stupid busy. I know I've been AWOL for a while now, but I'm working on cutting out the parts of my life that are forcing me to do that, I promise. It's not because I've been lacking things to talk about either, it's just because I've been lacking the time to sit down and write about them.

So here's an update on how I'm doing and what's going on in my life before I dig into all of those drafts and half-finished pieces of finery for you fine folks (that I'm imagining exist).

First, Artscubed. I finally made the decision to step back from this organization that's been a very important part of my life for many, many years now. While I've had my complaints, the reason why I'm quiting is actually because my plans for next spring will likely not even allow me to be in the state to physically attend the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention. This has been one of the biggest changes in my life recently, because I've been attending MTAC for nine years now, and it was my very first anime convention back in 2005. Though we fight and quibble and argue, the staff of Artscubed are my geek family. It was the decision to resign that has pretty much lead to me being able to accept and be happy for the opportunities I have available to me in the future.

Speaking of the future, my boyfriend has moved across the country to Portland, OR and though I've been avoiding talking about just how excited I am for it, I am OBNOXIOUSLY excited to be joining him next year when I finally get my degree. I'll finally get to live on the West Coast! Hippies and public transportation and liberals and nudity, yay! I'm especially excited for the opportunity to meet new lolitas and expand my friend base.

Also WEST COAST! Sakuracon! Anime Expo! PAX! PMX! Comic Con! I could go on and on.

So yeah. Those are a couple of the most important changes in my life, currently. I've been in classes all summer and I've been working a lot of overtime, so things have been a tad boring, but I know I've got some fun stuff coming up in the next couple weeks and I've got a really exciting line-up of fall events to share! So whether or not you are there and reading, I'm still going to post.

Lots of love and hugs and kisses to you all,

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

Photoshoot with the Moderators of Tennessee Lolitas

Hello Lovelies!

This past Sunday, Sarah, Bri, and I went to Opryland hotel for a small photoshoot as the mods of the TN Lolitas Facebook group. I was really excited when we decided to do this shoot because I really love this dress and love making coords with it, and since I wore (nearly) this coord at MTAC and got no photos, I wanted to do it over. Looking at it now, I realize that there's a lot more white in the dress than it lets on (I just think of it as a black dress), so the lack of white accessories definitely leans the coordinate away from perfect, but I love it nonetheless.

I took most of the photos (and in turn, Sarah took my spiffy camera and took photos of me since I'm bad at timed selfies and what not) and we spent an hour and a half just primping and being pretty. And we all looked AWESOME! Seriously, I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to be creative with these ladies, and their shots show just how well we work together. They'll be posting photos to their own blogs, but for now, here are the best of my photos:

More photos behind the cut, if you'll click below:

The Other Weekend, Outfit Post

Just a quickie update (I just finished finals, so I'll have time to post more often) this is what I wore to our meetup a few weekends ago:

It was a lolita meet-up and that is clearly not what I wore, but I got this beautiful skirt from the Snow Field at AWA last year and I never got around to wearing it because I'm derpy and kept forgetting that I owned it. So for a day out shopping with the girls (several other ladies chose to go with other J-fashion styles as well, such as vis-kei and mori girl), I wanted to really go overboard with the space theme and be comfortable (sans crinoline) at the same time. The look was a lot of fun, and I hope that I'll get to recreate it when I finally drag my boyfriend down to the US Space and Rocket Center sometime before I move out of the South.

Additionally, I wore my Laser Cats t-shirt to my astronomy final and made a 109% on the test. Since I missed over half of the classes, did I do so well because I am insanely clever, or because my shirt is insanely awesome? I suppose we'll never know...

Until next time, my dears,

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

How to Keep Yourself Entertained When You are Feeling Under the Weather

So two weeks ago yesterday I had the biggest medical emergency I've ever had to face in my meager 23 years.

I cut my hand open.

It's both an overstatement in the most literal sense and something of an understatement when compared with the general usage of the term. I've both joked and actually seriously described my hand as having been cut open before, but I've hardly damaged myself as bad as this before. It's so strange, because it both seems so small and un-requiring of medical attention and yet, when I think about it, I know that this could have been very serious had my boyfriend and roommates not worked as quickly as they did to get me taken care of.

In short, I was washing dishes and an old glass shattered while my hand was in the glass. Clean break, clean cut. The problem was how deep and long it was. I keep joking that I had a skin flap and that it might have grown into an extra finger, but I actually was just shy of hitting some nerves and it's fortunate that I wasn't washing the dishes more aggressively. It's also fortunate that I'm not anemic (like the other women in my family) because I very easily could have passed out and lost a lot of blood while I waited on one of my roommates to find me hours later. I had to be driven to the ER and get a tetanus booster and six stitches to keep the wound closed while it healed and my job put me on medical leave for 10 days.

While it was an unexpected and needed vacation from my physically demanding job (especially right after MTAC), I can't say it was exactly welcome. In all, on top of my medical bills, I lost a week and a half of pay, and I'll only be able to recoup about a third of that after I've filled out all of the paperwork for my medical leave. Plus, I then had 10 days off to do...nothing. Yeah, without the use of my right hand, I really wasn't able to do any of the things I would love to have done with all of that free time. However, I didn't relegate myself to sitting on my butt the whole time! While I spent large chunks of time catching up on shows and watching movies with my boyfriend and being more demanding than necessary (but only slightly *wink* ), I did my best to make the best of the situation.

So what can you do when you aren't feeling so good and are forced to take time off to take care of yourself? Here's what worked for me:

1. Don't dwell on the things you can't do and look forward to the things you can do.
I spent a lot of time on that first day trying to think of things to do, only to realize that it required the use of my right hand and I wouldn't be able to manage. It was depressing to realize that I couldn't even blog because typing with one hand was too tedious. To cheer me up, I started looking for new ways to do the things I knew I could sort of do and started doing things I don't do often enough, like sitting out in the sun or going for walks. It really helped that the weather was amazing for most of my leave, so the sun and vitamin D was exactly what I needed. I also learned and practiced doing more things with my left hand, like writing. Since I'm so dependent on my dominant hand, it was difficult for me to even get comfortable using my eating utensils or to operate a computer mouse. so proving that I could do it if I had to was nice.

2. Relish the opportunity to be lazy without guilt.
Thinking of all of the things I wanted to do (sewing, drawing, crafting, blogging, etc.) really bummed me out, so instead I bought myself a pint of ice cream, settled into my couch, and started a mini-marathon of Battlestar Galactica. Because I'm a nerd. I know it's not good to spend all of your time being sedentary, but this is one of those time you can do it and not feel guilty. Enjoy it and immerse yourself into someone else's world so that you won't get all bogged down in your own (especially if you are like me and spend too much time worrying about how the world is managing without you). I watched a lot of BSG, Mad Men, and random anime, and played the hell out of the Sims 3 during my down time and it was nice. Just enough of a good thing to make it wonderful, even.

3. Try and get out.
For somewhat more extended absences like mine, make a point of getting out, at least once every couple days or so so that you have a reason to peel yourself out of your comfy spot and fight off those bed sores you've potentially been developing. Get up, shower to the best of your ability, get dressed (don't rush yourself and take your time fussing with your hair and make-up, it'll help you feel better when you know you look just right) and go somewhere! I made a point of spending lots of time with my boyfriend, but I also spent time with my friends during their free time and I visited my sister to spend some quality time with my toddler nephew. It was nice not having to squeeze these visits in before or after work, or rationing out my precious free time.

4. Pamper yourself.
Really, this is just the answer to everything. Take a long bubble bath (again, to the best of your ability, so for me that was with two plastic bags taped over my hand) with a glass of wine. Give yourself a facial or be like me and use the excuse of having a bum hand to go and get yourself a professional facial. Deep condition your hair, get your nails done (if you can), get all of your waxin's did, you know the drill! I had a hard time washing my face, hair, and shaving with just one hand, but I figured out a way to make it work and even on days where I didn't want to go through all of this trouble, bothering to just tale a shower and get clean did wonders to help me feel better when I felt like I had been sitting in my own filth for days.

Hopefully this was helpful and it feels great to be able to fully use my right hand again. Let me know if you have any additions to my suggestions and I will see you all again, pretties!

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

MTAC Came and Went, and Here I Am.

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts, I really just had to enjoy some of the free time I suddenly had right after the con.

So yeah, MTAC was the weekend before last and I can truly say that I'm glad it's over, at least for now. I won't go into details, but that weekend was pretty awful for me and I really just needed to be done with it and backed well away before I could really post anything about it. Anything I could have said before now would have been really boring for you all, so I got my feelings straightened out before deciding to update here again.

Now don't get me wrong, MTAC really is an amazing convention and had I just been a congoer, I would have had a blast, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, I worked the weekend away and barely got to spend any time doing anything outside of that.

But I DO have some highlights from the weekend that I'd like to share.

On Thursday and Friday of the con, I really did just spend a ton of time running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I even had an outfit planned for Friday and didn't end up getting to wear it because I had to hit the ground running at 7:30am until things finally calmed down at 9pm, leaving me enough time to change into my "evening outfit". You see, last year I won MTAC's Risque Cosplay contest with my silly Princess Peach burlesque routine and as a result, I ended up being one of the judges for this year. I very well couldn't show up in jeans and a Hello Kitty t-shirt, now could I?

(Photo by Terry Sherer)

Here I am, cheesin' with Hipster Hulk. Oh yeah, we're dorks. The winner was this super adorable Harley Quinn who danced right out of her corset, and into the hearts of the audience and all of the judges. I was happy to see her take the grand prize!

The next day I was prepared and woke up at 6am to get ready, knowing that people would be expecting me to report at 7. I was able to put together my creepy cute outfit from my Polyvore and I think it turned out very nicely!

(Photo by Sarah LeFebvre)

I wish I had gotten better pictures of this or any picture of my Sunday outfit at all, but both of them turned out really well, I think. I made the bat necklace and eyeball broach on my headbow, BTW. Better pictures of those to come, I had such a blast making them and would love to show them off more.

On Sunday, I finally carved out about an hour to visit the dealer room and I'm sooooo glad I did! I picked up several things, but being a HUGE Macross fan, these, by far, were the most exciting purchases:

First I got this lovely Sheryl Nome figure from the Macross Frontier/7 crossover that they are doing for the 30th anniversary. I fell to my knees when I saw her, wearing Basara's outfit and everything. The seller give her to me for 25% off because one of her pegs was broken, only to get home and realize that her base and pegs are fine! Yay deals!

Do yourself a favor and click on the images to view them larger, because she is so gorgeous. She's from one pretty swanky looking Banpresto Macross Frontier prize set from which I also snagged this little gem:

I already had the plate and spoon from a previous Banpresto prize set, but I picked up the teapot at MTAC and now I just have to find the cup to complete the set. My new lovelies have already found a spot on my over-flowing figure shelf.

I also got a totally awesome dinosaur kigurumi (a throwback to the days when I was still doing "Geekzilla vs. the World") and a stuffed Gloomy Bear. How I ever lived without a kigurumi in my life before now, I don't even know. Best pajamas ever!

Overall, glad that MTAC's over, glad I had the opportunity to help make it happen, and glad to finally have some time to rest. In fact, as of Monday I've been on medical leave from work for slicing my hand open while washing dishes :( . It's a bit more of a break than I wanted, but I will certainly try and be productive with the time :)

Lots of love!

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

On the Third Weekend...Ahh, Screw it

Yeah. March isn't over, but I ran out of time to do things.

MTAC's around the corner and I just...don't have time. I don't have time.

This past weekend I drank and made merriment with my friends and continued on the trend of eating my bodyweight in cupcakes and sweets.

I only want to fill myself with sweet things.

Oh yeah, ya'll get it. When this month is over, I have got to do a detox or something, I think my whole system's mucked up with sugar and alcohol and stress.

This weekend is the Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri if you're more of a weeaboo than me) and I'll be hosting a lolita meet-up at the festival and doing a lecture on J-fashion on behalf of TN Lolitas. Hopefully, I will remember to make time to post about it before MTAC next weekend, because it would be a shame to not do so. I will be so cute. I really should remember to post.

So please bear with me for a bit longer, in two weeks I'll have free time again!

Toodles!

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

On the First Weekend of March, My Birthday Gave to Me...

...a lovely tea party!

This past weekend was the lolita tea party that I hosted at my apartment. Since it was so close to my birthday, I essentially decided that it would be a birthday party in addition to being a Tennessee Lolitas meet up and sponsored the whole thing myself. Yes, it was a tad costly, but TOTALLY worth it!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but....

...my birthday is coming up! Aside from being obnoxiously busy for the last week or so (had to work overtime last week and the anime convention for which I work, the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention, is now in less than a month), I have been working hard to plan for and prepare to throw the best birthday MONTH ever!

Say what's that? Birthday month?

Yes, I am a terrible dork and I am spoiling myself rotten for the entire month of March! Each weekend I plan to do something fun to celebrate and I'm even throwing myself two birthday parties! Because of this, I don't feel bad about the lack of posts so far, because there will definitely be a great increase in posts following this weekend.

Look out for my next post(s) about my first party, which will be on Sunday. I am super excited to reveal all of the things I've been working so hard on for the past three weeks!

Until then, my princes and princesses!

♥ Princess Kisha ♥

Happy Valentine's Day 2013!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen! ♡

I just wanted to say happy Valentine's Day to you all! Whether you're single, in a relationship, dealing with something complicated, or forever faithful to your cats, everyone should take today to love someone, even (or especially) if that someone is yourself!

My global studies instructor showed this to me today in class and I'm sure that I'm a bit behind in finding it, but I love the message and it made me smile. Hopefully it'll make you smile, too:

 Also, NOT COOL, ROBERT FROST. 

If you're into all of that lovey-dovey crap I might be shoveling down your throats then check out three of my favorite love songs after the jump:

Valentine's Day for Lonely Hearts

So I must admit, Valentine's Day used to be one of my least favorite holidays. For a teenager who was convinced that she was fat, greasy, and unattractive and subsequently never had a date, Valentine's Day was the macro lens that focused on how incredibly unwanted I felt. I had a few major crushes through high school and when not a single one of them proved to be productive, I always ended up feeling that much worse about myself.

Then I got a boyfriend. Things were supposed to change then, right?

Right?

Well, I can definitely say that it did get a tad better. Valentine's Day went from being miserable to being relatively tolerable. I had someone who liked me (enough) and wanted to go out with me and buy me flowers and chocolates and things. No longer did I have to deal with the anxiety of going through another Valentine's Day where I'd wait for even just one of the guys to notice me. I wasn't alone. So why didn't I learn to love Valentine's Day?

The answer to that, at least for me, is that I hadn't quite learned how to love myself first. It took a nasty break up, and several changes in my life before I could see myself for the awesome person that I am. There are days when I still struggle, but I put on my make-up and get through them. I had to learn to really love myself and be my own valentine before I could be a good valentine for anyone else. Now I'm with a pretty fantastic guy who makes me happy and it's easy to look forward to spending Valentine's Day with him when I can be happy knowing that I can be a pretty fantastic gal for him.

However, it all starts with learning to love yourself. After my last relationship, I spent the following Valentine's Day shopping, eating delicious food, hanging out with my friends, and being very single. I know it's not easy, but you'll ultimately be happier if you do something for "you" this Valentine's Day instead of moping and being unhappy. Here are some fun ideas for your very you-centric Valentine's...

1) Do arts and crafts.
Make yourself something pretty! One of the big things that come with Valentine's Day are V-Day cards! Usually people make, give, and receive them, so why not make some cards for your friends and family? Maybe make an extra special one for yourself? Or you can make a whole slew of other things, it's all up to you and what you want to do! Play with glitter, get glue on your fingers, leave bits of scrap paper or fabric on the floor and make wonderful things!

2) Indulge yourself.
On a diet? Not on Valentine's Day! Bake yourself some cupcakes and spend lots of time decorating them with icing and sprinkles. Buy yourself some of your favorite chocolate and a pint of your favorite ice cream and enjoy it thoroughly over a sappy, feel-good movie and a glass of wine (caution: know yourself and your limits. If you are a sad drunk or anything like that, substitute alcohol with a truly decadent cup of hot chocolate with all of the trimmings, or your drink of choice).

3) Pamper your body.
Check out your local day spa and get a facial or massage or both! Get a pedicure or stay home and give yourself a pedicure! Soak in a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine (wine goes well with many things) and your favorite novel. Get your hair done or even consider trying a new haircut or color. Taking care of your body will help you to feel better about yourself.

4) Go out.
Do it. Go somewhere that makes you happy. Get some friends together, if you can, and make an evening of it. Or go alone and make some new friends! If you're anything like me, you'll go to the theater and see a musical or see if there are any burlesque shows happening in your town and try to attend one of those.

Whatever you do, though, don't be down on yourself. If all else fails, stay home, play video games or marathon a cool show, but don't let anything get you down. You are awesome, beautiful, handsome, clever, caring, special, and most importantly, and loved. Remember this and have a wonderful Valentine's Day! XOXO

-Princess Kisha 

Where She Introduces Herself...

So now that I've broken the ice a bit, I bet you are wondering who I am?

My name is Kisha, A.K.A. the Otaku Princess.