Long-lasting Color

I love summer. Fresh lemonade, barefoot walks through the grass, long days at the beach...summer is definitely my favorite season.
There are only two problems I have with summer.
One is bugs.
The other is how fast hair dye fades.

This was my hair at the start of the summer:

A periwinkle color I got using diluted Special Effects Wildflower

 Aaaand here's my hair after two days spent at the beach:

Couple days in the sun and my hair's already bleached near-white

The bright summer sun can be brutal.

So what can you do to prevent your hair from fading so quickly? Here are several tips for long-lasting color!

Adore Hot Pink

I've heard good things about Adore hair dye, and for only $5 a bottle, I decided to give it a try!

Adore is a semi-permanent hair dye that comes in a variety of colors! You can find Adore on Amazon.com for about $5 a bottle.

The color I used was Adore's Hot Pink.

Bleaching Out Red

Red dye is infamous for bleaching out.

Full disclosure: I wasn't able to get from red to bleach blonde like I wanted.

I started out with a faded red color:

For bleach, I used Clairol Basic White Lightener , with Salon Care Volume 40 Clear Developer, both purchased from Sally's Beauty. A pound of bleach is usually around $20, but I got it on sale for $10. 40oz of developer is around $4. I use 40 volume developer because I have thick hair that's resistant to bleaching, but if your hair is finer, you should a 20 or 30 volume developer to avoid more damage.

Red!

I've been wanting to try red hair for a while, and finally got the courage to do it!

After silencing my fears of turning into Ronald McDonald, I bought Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Intense Red at Walmart for about $7. And I'm glad I did!

freshly dyed red!

I dyed it over previously dyed light brown hair, and it turned out this beautiful, deep shade of red! The lighter your hair, the brighter the red will be, so if you want a really bright red, bleach your hair first! If you want a less-intense shade, dye it over your natural color!

Splash of Color!

I'm a junior in college, and it's starting to become harder to have colorful hair, what with jobs and such. I really hope that someday your professionalism will be judged by your performance rather than your appearance, but as of now I have to tone my hair down.

I'm trying to keep my hair natural colors, but I decided to add in a splash of color that I could easily color over for a job without having to bleach my whole head (ugh).

I decided on a section of hair I wanted to dye, then pulled back the rest of my hair from that area, securing it with bobby pins. I bleached the section, then preceded to apply dye to the area.

wow look how attractive i am in this pic

I used Special Effects Sonic Green, which I've blogged about earlier! It's one of my favorite colors, definitely. This time, I mixed the dye with conditioner; about 2/3 conditioner and 1/3 dye.

badadum! the end result!

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Unicorn Hair!

If you ever wanted magical girl colored hair--look no further!

The color is Special Effects Wildflower! (I diluted it with conditioner--about 1/5 dye and 4/5 conditioner).

The most common compliment I received was that I looked like a unicorn.
Which I am more than okay with.

Special Effects Wildflower is my spirit color

I ♥ Sonic Green

Ok ok I'm really excited about this one! In this post I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite hair colors--Special Effects Sonic Green! Yay!

This color is beautiful diluted as well!

To get this color, I used about 1/5 Sonic Green and 4/5 conditioner (Mix the conditioner and dye in a bowl, gradually adding more conditioner until you reach the desired color) over bleach blonde hair.