pravana vivids are my chosen brand for fun hair colors! it's a salon-level professional color and you can find it online. the locked-in colors i love especially. they last forever (when maintained properly:, they don't bleed, and they're extra good for hair with multiple fun colors because they don't transfer!
I dyed my hair last weekend and I'm still kind of excited about it. http://66.media.tumblr.com/7988d6add63976ae7b0643f3f4d7f751/tumblr_obwv8nxqv61ti04u1o1_1280.jpg I think next time I need to dye it further past the bleach line but, hey, it's only my second time dying it and it'll probably fade fairly soon anyway.
I was going for "cotton candy." (I'm thinking of maybe adding bright yellow next time if I can find such a dye!) I was also going for pink on the outside blue on the inside but my hair is way too thin for that...
hey, a hair dye thread! I was looking for one of these a couple days ago. so. hair dye and I have had an interesting relationship. naturally my hair is like dark blonde (used to be straw-blonde, but it got darker as I got older), although it does get lighter towards the ends. but in like March or April of 2015 my roommate talked me into dyeing it. (I never had before, and I didn't ask my parents first, lol.) anyway, I went for a dark red (without bleaching, since my hair was pretty light), and the immediate result was this: Spoiler: warning for me over-performing femininity in a futile attempt to convince myself that I was cis which was a really pretty color, although it was somewhat darker and more anime-esque than I was expecting. it was that color for several days and then spent a week or two going through shades of natural red, which were also very pretty. after that, however, it went a very carroty orange, which I was not a fan of. I dyed it again with the same dye in August, so here's the color it was in late September or so: Spoiler: my hair length is terrible as is the picture generally so that was not ideal, certainly. so I went and got my hair professionally bleached to light blonde, mostly because I was Dave Strider for Halloween and I am nothing if not a detail-conscious cosplayer: Spoiler: actually I kinda just ended up looking like Draco Malfoy that wasn't as light as I wanted it, though (it was more ash blonde than platinum), so I went and got another bleach process about a month later, which got it to actual platinum. and that color held up quite well! it helped that I applied purple shampoo pretty often to keep it from going yellow. and the roots ended up looking pretty cool, actually. here's an example of peak two-tone Yes This Was Totally Intentional Look How Cool I Am: Spoiler: also I finally figured how how short I should buzz the sides thank god that cut grew out pretty well, too, although eventually the roots got goofily long. I waited until they were like an inch before getting the light blonde cut off, which in retrospect was a little short on the top. but anyway. now I'm back to my natural hair color: Spoiler: selfie from a couple days ago which is nice but also boring. what that picture doesn't show, though, is that there's a pretty strong red undertone going on; my mom has been commenting that it's more red than it used to be, and especially in low, warm-colored light it genuinely looks red. (also I've noticed that some of my leg hair is red. weird.) I need a trim ASAP, and so I was thinking of dyeing it again. I'd be open to entertaining other color suggestions, but for now I think I'd be interested in something subtle to bring out the red tone into more of an auburn. so my question is, given my hair color, should I use henna, which I've heard is pretty good for achieving that color? or should I let a professional stylist do it, even though it'd be way more expensive? my primary interests are a) getting a red-brown-to-red tone, not an orange one, and b) getting a color that will fade slowly and not to any weird colors and that will look fine with roots. so what do you guys think?
Your hair is pretty light, so henna is likely to turn out very bright, and potentially a little orangey once it fully develops. (It takes a few days for it to get to its final color.) Adding plant indigo to the mix should make it browner and more rich, but just how that will turn out on your particular color is hard to tell. Doing a test dye (if you have a lock of hair to spare for it) would be a really good idea. There should be sites where you can buy a sample of both henna and indigo from for testing purposes. (Boxed henna can be hit and miss -- some brands use poor quality henna and useless additives.) Henna's kind of a pain in the ass, but it lasts FOREVER. Which is sort of a pain for short hair, but you don't have to worry about redyeing because of color fade, at least.
hmm. orange is definitely not what I want. although I do know that LUSH sells a couple different hair dye blocks (I think @prismaticvoid used one of those a while back?) in various colors; one of them's only henna and one of them is indigo, but they sell another one that they advertise as resulting in a darker, more brownish red. it's pretty expensive, although still not as much as a salon, but I think I'd rather buy a pre-mixed product than fuck around blindly with dyes on my own. also, LUSH is, like, an established brand, so I'm pretty sure their henna will actually be henna. :P and I'm glad it lasts so long with so little fade! sounds like exactly what I want. anyway, do you think the LUSH mixture is worth the investment? (it's like ~$30 with shipping, but I bet I can use it multiple times if I want, since I don't have much hair.)
I totally forgot that LUSH has dye blocks. I haven't used it myself but I've heard good things about it. It looks like you might be able to get 2-3 applications out of one bar, depending on how thick your hair is, so while it's expensive it's not too bad.
Oh yeah - I see the site recommends using plastic wrap around your head, but I can tell you now that's a huge pain in the ass. Get yourself a showercap or just a plastic grocery bag from the store - anything one-piece that's big enough to cover your hair with. So long as you can tighten it around your head if you need to (with grocery bags you can generally just tie them up a bit tighter) it'll keep moisture from escaping much better than wrapping a ton of plastic wrap around your head will, and it's much lower fuss.
@esotericPrognosticator I can vouch for the Lush henna - I've used the Noir and @increasinglyCoherent has used the Rouge, both to great effect. The colours are lovely and it makes your hair so soft as well. :D The Marron henna should, judging by the results photos I could find, take your hair colour in an auburn direction without going into orange (which I'd be wary of with Rouge because it is very red!) And with hair as short as yours I'd think you'd be able to get 2 applications out of it at least! (seconding Mercury on everything they said re: shower caps/bags vs plastic wrap, I'd not thought of that and it sounds a LOT more convenient and less awkward than the recommended method)
@Mercury @Socket thanks for the advice! I ordered the Caca Marron dye block already, and it should arrive fairly soon. I sent it to my school address, though, so I'll get it in nine days at the earliest. oh well. I'm definitely excited about it, although maybe not so excited about getting dye all over the dorm's bathroom. :/ but anyway. thanks for the tip about using a plastic bag, Mercury, I'll definitely do that! (especially since I don't know where the fuck I'd get plastic wrap at school.) I'll be sure to post to the thread when it's all done. :D
When henna is all mixed up and ready to put on, it does kind of look like poop, so... yes. (It smells like fresh hay, though.)
returning as promised with pics of the henna results! although I just washed out the dye this morning, so it may develop a little more, as @Mercury mentioned. Spoiler: i s2g if this fades to orange ill buzz my head also got a trim, as you can see. anyway, I absolutely love the color it turned out; it was just what I was hoping for. interesting and vivid, but not orange, and not particularly unnatural, even. (not that I don't like unnatural colors, 'cause I do, but I don't think they'd help me pass very well.) thanks for recommending the Marron, @Socket! I'm informed I look pretty good as a redhead. :) also, I used a plastic bag and slept on it all night, and as far as I can tell it didn't leak! (I was using a black towel which already had some dried henna goop on it to cover my pillows.) it was not very difficult to prepare or apply, smelled much better than synthetic dyes, and washed out quite readily without staining around my hairline. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to take their hair in a reddish direction.
@esotericPrognosticator That looks great! The color really suits you :D If anything, the color will get a bit darker/richer - henna doesn't shift to lighter or brassier colors like synthetic peroxide dyes do.
@esotericPrognosticator It turned out great! The colour looks awesome on you, I'm glad the Marron was to your satisfaction. :D (...now i want to get my block of Rouge out of the bathroom cupboard, the redness is calling)
last december i streaked my hair blue/purple/green which was kinda cool looking because my hair is jet black, so it was super shimmery and subtle and stuff. i was super nervous to dye it though because in order to get any color in there i have to bleach the shit out of my hair. i did two rounds of bleaching and only ended up with light carrot colored streaks, but it still took the color pretty well which was a nice surprise
