My hair doesn't take color or bleach well - I have to leave stuff in twice to three times as long, and it's only ever been all that vivid when I did half my head blue - but that was aided by the fact that there was a fire alarm right as I was supposed to wash it out, so I spent another hour with it in. It kind of makes me sad, because I'd love to do my whole head cotton candy pink. Candy pink waves down to my hips. It'd be great. But one thing I've tried recently that's interesting: rinsing with tea. It's supposed to do subtle, natural-looking highlights eventually and mostly just make your hair shinier and blend in gray, but black tea for black or brown hair, rooibos for red hair, chamomile for blond. My hair was definitely shiny and smelled hella nice, and I think I might keep doing it when I get home from Russia because rinsing once a week with it is so much less effort than dying it that I would totally be okay with grays not being completely hidden.
@Chiomi sounds like I may have to get rooibos tea for only my hair... (I don't do well with rooibos it itches on my tongue when I drink it)
Bought rooibos tea for my hair today. Unsure of quantity needed so I just have about four cups' worth steeping in a mixing bowl on my counter. My hair is Indeterminate Mousey Brown so we'll see what happens :D
Rooibos Report: 4 teabags steeped about an hour in 1.5L water Poured over head post shampoo, wrapped in plastic + towel and left for 1.5hr while I had a bath. Clean water rinse + conditioner + rinse Results: * EXTREMELY subtle highlights, not even highlights so much as "vaguely reddish shine". * It got rid of the mousiness, am now rich medium-to-light brown *Hair feels slightly drier Conclusion: No significant difference, I'm not a redhead but it added depth and shine to my natural color. Would recommend, esp. for oily hair. Cuts the grease right out.
I have a sort of teal-undercut-flop going on on top of my head right now, left over from some super vivid blue that I had earlier in the year. I've found the best thing for getting blue to last is cutting back significantly on how much I shampoo - when the dye is fresh I switch to a shampoo that I only need to use once a week or so and can get months of vivid colour that way!
COLOURED HAIR. EXCITEMENT! I have dark brown hair, so my hair takes at least 45 minutes of bleach to be reasonably pale, but at least it does get pale. That is as blonde as it normally gets. That said, I've done a bunch of colors, from pink Spoiler: Pink is my college color (Observe, the queenja, aka, the queen of the ninja game in the middle of a Quidditch World Cup) (Pink haired Bellatrix Lestrange. My team put up a totally unofficial and unlicensed reproduction of A Very Potter Musical, and I got to cackle maniacally on stage after teasing my hair into cloudage) to more reddish tinges... Spoiler: ROSES ARE RED (I mustache you a question Ms. Carrot) (One time my pink dye faded out into kind of reddish brown while I was visiting family in London) to purples Spoiler: Smells like Purple (My favourite shade of purple on my hair so far) (It was pinker than I wanted it but oh well) (Faded out, very fitting for someone sleep deprived during finals) One of the most special combos I've done was the cotton candy hair.
Also, have my fave hairnanigans: TEAL/BLUE Sometimes my hair just went into mad scientist mode Sometimes the rest of me is mad scientist, while my hair goes "gentle sea waves with different melding blues" And now, my hair is "long fading seafoam into seaweed"
so I've decided to conquer my fear of bleaching and go for some colorful hair. Going to see what dyes I might be able to just get and do on my own, otherwise I'll do an appointment somewhere.. likely going to go pink or mint/light green, not sure if I'll do all over or just streaks, but probably all over. Pics once I actually get around to doing it, though.
I had pink hair last summer and I miss it. Spoiler: Pink Steel I normally do not look that fancy. My hair is naturally dark brown.
@Kary, I love that color, but also...THAT HAIRSTYLE/HAIRCUT HOLY SHIT. Mad envious. Anyway, my hair is now dark fuchsia.
Anyone know anything about Punky Color? I've been thinking of tinting my hair (I have mediumish brown hair and I don't want a super eye popping color at allll so I figured just dying over it was the way to go??) and afaik it only lasts about 2-3 weeks which is ideal, I don't really use shampoo so maybe even longer? Anyone used it before?
I dont have specific knowledge of the brand but I just wantedto mention that a lot of colors will not take at all on even light brown hair. Obviously different hair structures and stuff mean different results but my hair used to refuse to take conventional hair dye at ALL until I went back to bleaching it and my hair was medium-lightish blonde at the time.
@Acey its a grown out pixie cut, looked really good when styled but was otherwise in my eyes and annoying. XD I was going for a more pastel pink, but it always turned that peachy sunset color. It was nice but not what I wanted? XD I tried a few different dyes, but all I remember was Ion (barely took at all) and Splat (worked way better). I just bleach and toner first, too. Had a friend do it for me.
I haven't used Punky color for years but from what I remember it was decent. HOWEVER, for most colors you have to use it on bleached hair. (This goes for all semi-permanent dyes, actually.) Blues, greens, purples, and pastels will not show up on brown hair at all; reds and magentas might give you a wash of color.
Although my hair is brown in my profile pic it is actually currently purple. I started to go grey when I turned 21, which was cool for a few years until it stopped being pretty strands or streaks and turned into full-on salt and pepper which a) is very ageing and I have age dysphoria and b) does not suit my complexion. I dyed it black for years but recently black's been too harsh so I first went brown and then went purple. I have discovered, though, that if you have grey hair, you can have fun with colours that are "not recommended" for grey hair. Basically I use Feria which is "not recommended" for grey hair because what it does on grey hair is turn it bright unnatural colours. Their blue-black turns grey hair metallic blue, so I did that in the late 90s-early 00s. Now I use Violet Vixen and as my dark brown grows out I get a cool ombre effect--the top of my head is bright magenta/violet when I first do it and fades to mauve, and the rest of my hair darkens down to the ends which are dark red-violet brown. I will post a recent picture when I get pics back from the OTT Tea.
I've been growing my hair out to donate since the beginning of the year and I miss dying it so bad. I want my technicolour mohawk back
Bumping this thread to report that I just had the happiest hair color accident ever. I wanted to go pastel purple, but the bleach didn't take properly--it wound up turning my hair from dark purple-blue to a weird seafoam green. So I just said "fuck it" and poured the purple dye on (I'd planned to mix it to make it pastel, but that obviously wasn't gonna work) and just sorta combed it through. The results? FUCKING MERMAID HAIR. I FEEL LIKE A BEAUTIFUL SEA GODDESS HOLY SHIT.
