Dramatic (unnatural) hair dyes

[Evvie]

I've been searching for hair dyes in colors like red, pink, purple and blue but I'm having a bit of trouble. The local shops I've looked in do have name-brand colors like Manic Panic but they are all either semi- or demi-permanent. I've dyed my hair a couple of times out of a box (just regular natural colors) so I don't have much experience with semi-permanent dye. Doesn't it just wash out after a while?

I want to bleach out my hair and dye it various colors. Would it be best to just keep re-applying the dye as it fades? Or are there nice reliable permanent dyes?

My hair is of medium thickness, naturally light brown and wavy. It is very healthy as I am too lazy to blow-dry it or press it and up until about three weeks ago I was using great hair products. I cut it down to about an inch and dyed it without bleaching on Thanksgiving. This is a photo of my hair although now it is several inches longer, although I guess that doesn't matter (lulz).

So after this blerbaroo, any suggestions? I will also take hair color suggestions, I am not entirely decided xD

 

[Evvie]

Oh also, does anyone have an opinion on what kind of bleach I should get? I am trying to decide if I should get 20, 30, or 40 volume. (I assure you all that I am doing outside research but a lot of ladies here have lovely dyed hair so I am sure there is some great advice around)

 

[Vanessa Jade]

I have unnatural hair and have for years.

The best advice I've got is to get 40 volume bleach, leave it in ONLY as long as you need to get your hair to very light blonde, and then wash the bleach out. Do not condition. And immediately (as soon as your hair is "almost dry") apply Special Effects dye (I find that it is far superior to Manic Panic, Splat and other "semi-permanent" unnatural haircolours), and leave it in for as long as you possibly can stand. It is vegetable dye, a stain, really, so it will not hurt your hair to leave it in for hours and hours. I consider that for each hour you leave the dye in, you get about a week of "permanency".

Reds last longest, blues/greens fade the fastest.

I just did my hair SFX "Devilish" which is a true blue-toned red (ie, it is more pink than orange as it fades):

I left the red in for about four hours, which is shorter than i usually do but it has stayed very well over the last week or so.

 

[Evvie]

I have unnatural hair and have for years.

The best advice I've got is to get 40 volume bleach, leave it in ONLY as long as you need to get your hair to very light blonde, and then wash the bleach out. Do not condition. And immediately (as soon as your hair is "almost dry") apply Special Effects dye (I find that it is far superior to Manic Panic, Splat and other "semi-permanent" unnatural haircolours), and leave it in for as long as you possibly can stand. It is vegetable dye, a stain, really, so it will not hurt your hair to leave it in for hours and hours. I consider that for each hour you leave the dye in, you get about a week of "permanency".

Reds last longest, blues/greens fade the fastest.

I just did my hair SFX "Devilish" which is a true blue-toned red (ie, it is more pink than orange as it fades):

I left the red in for about four hours, which is shorter than i usually do but it has stayed very well over the last week or so.

Awesome, thanks As your hair fades do you just re-dye it? Is it a hassle to change colors?

 

[Vanessa Jade]

I have unnatural hair and have for years.

The best advice I've got is to get 40 volume bleach, leave it in ONLY as long as you need to get your hair to very light blonde, and then wash the bleach out. Do not condition. And immediately (as soon as your hair is "almost dry") apply Special Effects dye (I find that it is far superior to Manic Panic, Splat and other "semi-permanent" unnatural haircolours), and leave it in for as long as you possibly can stand. It is vegetable dye, a stain, really, so it will not hurt your hair to leave it in for hours and hours. I consider that for each hour you leave the dye in, you get about a week of "permanency".

Reds last longest, blues/greens fade the fastest.

I just did my hair SFX "Devilish" which is a true blue-toned red (ie, it is more pink than orange as it fades):

I left the red in for about four hours, which is shorter than i usually do but it has stayed very well over the last week or so.

Awesome, thanks As your hair fades do you just re-dye it? Is it a hassle to change colors?

It depends on how much regrowth I get — I find I can touch the colour up once or twice to keep it fresh before I have to bleach my roots. Depending on which colours you use, it can be rather easy to change colours. Switching from, say, blue to pink can be difficult but if you're going from, say, red to purple, it's not as much of an issue. The bleach tends to strip out the "semi-permanent" dye rather effectively. Your hair is short so I think you'll not have a problem with too much damage.

 

[Diana Blake]

At this point I've had just about every color under the sun. I'll actually be taking votes on my next color in a few weeks as my blue had faded to a silvery lavendar. I also like to use and totally recommend Special Effects and I use N'Rage 40 volume bleach with toning conditioner. However, I usually wait two days between bleach and dye.

Whenever I dye my hair I also wrap my head in seran wrap and bake it with a hair dryer which helps retain the color. Special effects lasts with strong color for about a month with me and then it fades but it usually fades to a pretty color which is why I like the brand. The time the color will last will depend a lot on your water and I suggest using a nice cream conditioner to reduce the amount of bleed you get from each wash.

Special Effects has a lot of colors, including some that glow under a blacklight which is awesome!

 

[Evvie]

At this point I've had just about every color under the sun. I'll actually be taking votes on my next color in a few weeks as my blue had faded to a silvery lavendar. I also like to use and totally recommend Special Effects and I use N'Rage 40 volume bleach with toning conditioner. However, I usually wait two days between bleach and dye.

Whenever I dye my hair I also wrap my head in seran wrap and bake it with a hair dryer which helps retain the color. Special effects lasts with strong color for about a month with me and then it fades but it usually fades to a pretty color which is why I like the brand. The time the color will last will depend a lot on your water and I suggest using a nice cream conditioner to reduce the amount of bleed you get from each wash.

Special Effects has a lot of colors, including some that glow under a blacklight which is awesome!

I've seen your picture a million times and I just noticed you have green hair Also I think we're the same height!

How long do you blow-dry your hair for? I have seen on bottles before it says heat helps retain color. Is there any particular reason you wait between the bleach and dye? Is it to give your hair a rest? I will definitely be investing in a very nice shampoo and conditioner, do you recommend any brands?

 

[Vanessa Jade]

Oh, also, I recommend washing your hair as little as possible.

It will keep the colour from fading as quickly and to be honest your hair doesn't need daily washing etc.

 

[Diana Blake]

I like to wait between bleach and dye because I wait one day and then use a really thick conditioner and then a stay in conditioner just to get the ph balance in my hair a little more toward normal. It's not something you have to do it's just a matter of preference. I always feel like if I dye without the pamper period my hair feels "crunchy" afterward and the dyes wash out a little faster. Now, I mentioned before that water is a big deal. I have completely filtered water in my shower and Vanessa mentioned that reds last longest and blues fade fastest for her. With my water and my hair blues last longer and reds fade in three or four washes. It's different for every individual.

Like I said, I wrap my head in seran wrap and just like Vanessa said keep the dye in as long as you can while keeping your sanity. I usually keep the dye in for about two hours. I use my hair dryer on high until my scalp feels very hot. Let it cool completely (which takes about fifteen minutes) and then repeat. I end up doing it about five or six time during the whole process which is a bitch because the guest bathroom is right next to my nursery. :?

As for shampoo and conditioner. I suggest finding a gentle shampoo but it's not something you have to spend a lot of money on. It's the conditioner that you really want to focus on. I use Bed Head's Urban Antidotes Resurrection. You can find it on amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Resurre...9PBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330380098&sr=8-1

Also, yay for shorties! :dance: I'm 4'9"

 

[LiLredhairedgrl]

I've been searching for hair dyes in colors like red, pink, purple and blue but I'm having a bit of trouble. The local shops I've looked in do have name-brand colors like Manic Panic but they are all either semi- or demi-permanent. I've dyed my hair a couple of times out of a box (just regular natural colors) so I don't have much experience with semi-permanent dye. Doesn't it just wash out after a while?

I want to bleach out my hair and dye it various colors. Would it be best to just keep re-applying the dye as it fades? Or are there nice reliable permanent dyes?

My hair is of medium thickness, naturally light brown and wavy. It is very healthy as I am too lazy to blow-dry it or press it and up until about three weeks ago I was using great hair products. I cut it down to about an inch and dyed it without bleaching on Thanksgiving. This is a photo of my hair although now it is several inches longer, although I guess that doesn't matter (lulz).

So after this blerbaroo, any suggestions? I will also take hair color suggestions, I am not entirely decided xD

My friend always uses Kool-aid! It lasts a while and turns out pretty vibrant...she always bleached first though. Here's a link bb's!

http://www.perfectlocks.com/blog/kool-aid-hair-dye

 

[LacieLaPlante]

http://www.extendedlengths.com/prchsicrha3o.html

This is the BEST hair color I've ever used. Set it with heat, omg. I bleached a section of my hair, put in the magenta in a foil and then straightened the foil. Washed the color out and the color then stayed for 5 MONTHS. WITHOUT touch up. Holy damn. I was shocked, I was so used to retouching pink every two weeks.

 

[BlueViolet]

http://www.extendedlengths.com/prchsicrha3o.html

This is the BEST hair color I've ever used. Set it with heat, omg. I bleached a section of my hair, put in the magenta in a foil and then straightened the foil. Washed the color out and the color then stayed for 5 MONTHS. WITHOUT touch up. Holy damn. I was shocked, I was so used to retouching pink every two weeks.

We are going to definitely be ordering off of that sight next. 5 months without retouch? That sounds amazing.

Thank you for this. At this moment my girlfriend is trying to dye her hair red-violet (we added a lot of blue mix tone to a 5RV Light Burgundy Brown with 20 developer) and so we are going to see how this turns out. I remember a while back we used to bleach and use Manic Panic and I hated it because it faded so fast but it wouldn't get out of the hair at all. Took forever to get the green out.

 

[LacieLaPlante]

http://www.extendedlengths.com/prchsicrha3o.html

This is the BEST hair color I've ever used. Set it with heat, omg. I bleached a section of my hair, put in the magenta in a foil and then straightened the foil. Washed the color out and the color then stayed for 5 MONTHS. WITHOUT touch up. Holy damn. I was shocked, I was so used to retouching pink every two weeks.

We are going to definitely be ordering off of that sight next. 5 months without retouch? That sounds amazing.

Thank you for this. At this moment my girlfriend is trying to dye her hair red-violet (we added a lot of blue mix tone to a 5RV Light Burgundy Brown with 20 developer) and so we are going to see how this turns out. I remember a while back we used to bleach and use Manic Panic and I hated it because it faded so fast but it wouldn't get out of the hair at all. Took forever to get the green out.

I think it helped that I used red shampoo and red conditioner, to keep the pink rather pink and my hair red but I even if it lasted a month longer than usual it's still worth it in my opinon. My stylist told me about it and when she saw that I still had pink in my hair months later she was really surprised that it lasted as long as it did.

 

[BlueViolet]

I think it helped that I used red shampoo and red conditioner, to keep the pink rather pink and my hair red but I even if it lasted a month longer than usual it's still worth it in my opinon. My stylist told me about it and when she saw that I still had pink in my hair months later she was really surprised that it lasted as long as it did.

I love it when her hair is firetruck red, but I hate that it fades so fast to orange. I think we'll invest in getting hair dye from there and using red shampoo and conditioner, that's really awesome. Thanks for the link.

 

[LacieLaPlante]

I think it helped that I used red shampoo and red conditioner, to keep the pink rather pink and my hair red but I even if it lasted a month longer than usual it's still worth it in my opinon. My stylist told me about it and when she saw that I still had pink in my hair months later she was really surprised that it lasted as long as it did.

I love it when her hair is firetruck red, but I hate that it fades so fast to orange. I think we'll invest in getting hair dye from there and using red shampoo and conditioner, that's really awesome. Thanks for the link.

Try Madder Root shampoo and Conditioner by Aveda It's SOOOO pigmented! Sometimes it stains my hands in the shower a little bit, but its scrubbed off easily.

 

[Evvie]

I really want to try kool-aid dye now. I am sure it is bad form to mix brands of dye so I'll start off with the cheap stuff and move up xD

Totally unrelated but I just bought some new sweat pants and they are SO comfy.

 

[mynameisbob84]

ohmystarz has rainbow-coloured hair. Pretty sure it's dyed. I could be wrong though.

 

[CassieRamone]

Oh also, does anyone have an opinion on what kind of bleach I should get? I am trying to decide if I should get 20, 30, or 40 volume. (I assure you all that I am doing outside research but a lot of ladies here have lovely dyed hair so I am sure there is some great advice around)

heyyyy i do hair too - for your hair id use 20 volume peroxide with an on the scalp bleach (or if youre going to sallys the '30 minute bleach' packets are bombbbb - ive used everything on my hair and those remain my favorite). the volume of the peroxide will only determine how quickly your hair lifts, and anything above 20 on your scalp will burn like hell.

also, the "crazy" colors are not made in permanent dyes. i LOVE provana colorworks brights, they seem to fade the least (but they dooooo stain your hair... i used to be fully pink and purple and then i dyed over it to get my hair dark again, and 2 years later i started bleaching my head and had to cut like 6 inches of hot pink off cause it was soooo stained from the provana.) also - a lot of the brights will tell you what level your hair needs to be to grab the color - you wont have to bleach your hair out platnium for dark purple or dark blue to hold on it, so dontttt overprocess if you dont need to!!

awww i miss doing hair now. hahaha. hope that helped a little.

 

[Vanessa Jade]

As for shampoo and conditioner. I suggest finding a gentle shampoo but it's not something you have to spend a lot of money on. It's the conditioner that you really want to focus on. I use Bed Head's Urban Antidotes Resurrection. You can find it on amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Resurre...9PBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330380098&sr=8-1

Bed Head's "Dumb Blonde" line is also awesome.

Also, yay for shorties! :dance: I'm 4'9"[/color]

I'm 5'1" :dance: *high fives*

 

[missmeowmixx]

I've been recommended Pravana a couple times now and it's what I'm going to use next time. Still COMPLETELY torn on what colour to choose, though.

I must say I enjoy the re-dying process with semipermanents and some of the beautiful fades and variegations you can get. but sometimes its a real pain in the arse.

Also hot water will fade it much faster, wash lukewarm or cool meow!

 

[Rose]

ohmystarz has rainbow-coloured hair. Pretty sure it's dyed. I could be wrong though.

I could have sworn it grew in that way! Darnit!

I use 30 developer and then use N'Rage. I use twisted teal and it seems to last a long enough time. When I was doing the bottom half of my hair it last for over two months and the only touch up needed was my roots and just the ends.

 

[MadisonLeigh]

I've had pretty much every unnatural color out there and usually use Special Effects. Some of the Manic Panic colors are decent, like I think the blue tones are fine, but some of them kinda suck, so if I were you I'd just spend a few more dollars and get Special Effects. Pravana is awesome too but harder to find, and I really like Paul Mitchell Inkworks but I think you might have to have a cosmetology license to buy it (I used to get it when I was in cosmetology school). Kool Aid is not hair dye and it will be hard to get it to look even, I don't think it looks good and don't recommend it. And you can totally feel free to mix colors, I have done it many times. But don't try to toss a packet of kool aid in there or another type of hair dye, just stick with the vegetable based dyes only.

For your hair color I definitely don't think you need 40 vol developer, you should go with 20 or 30. Make sure your hair is bleached as light as you can get it, not an orange tone, because then your color won't be true to what you're going for. Unless you're going for a really dark color, then it's fine to have it a little darker. I second the recommendation for blow drying while the color is in, I just do it for probably 15 minutes or so, and leave the dye in for as long as I can stand it (2+ hours).

The color will fade with time, that's just the nature of unnatural colors. I like to mix a small amount of hair dye into my conditioner bottle, and then leave my conditioner on for a few minutes while I'm in the shower, so there's color being deposited in my hair every time I wash it. (But obviously you should only do this if your hair is 1 color all over.) Also, wash with the coolest water you can stand, hot water will fade it more quickly.

Sorry that I kind of wrote a novel! Hope that helps!