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.

Brown and Pink and Blue, Oh My!

A warning about having colorful hair: You will be stared at.
It's something you expect when you dye your hair fun colors, but the constant staring and sometimes finger-pointing and whispering can get annoying.
Which is why I decided to tone it down a bit for my next hair dye job, and dye my hair brown, with pink and blue underneath.

 I used a L'oreal brand for the brown...but I forget what color it was exactly. Oops. I bought it from Walmart for around $8. The pink and blue dyes were Special Effects Atomic Pink and Blue Mayhem.

Double the Color!

After having pink hair for a couple of months, I decided to add more blue to it!

 

The pink dye I used is diluted Special Effects Atomic Pink and the blue was Special Effects Blue Mayhem.

Heal Your Hair

Let's talk about this little guy here:

Product: Aussie 3 Minute Miracle
Purchased At: Target
Price: Around $3

 After bleaching your hair, it's only natural that your hair is going to feel a bit unhealthy. Gross and straw-like. 

This Aussie 3 Minute Miracle deep conditioner seriously is a life saver (hair saver?).  You just let it sit on your hair for 3 minutes in the shower and ba-da-boom--your hair will feel silky soft.

There are a lot of deep conditioners out there, and some work better than others. Aussie 3 Minute Miracle is one of the better working conditioners, plus one of the cheaper ones.

Would definitely recommend. 

Pink Addict

Though my body proportions are waaaay different than Barbie's, there is one thing I share in common with the plastic doll--our love for the color pink.

So it was only natural that I dye my hair pink!

I wanted a pretty pastel pink, and was torn between Special Effects Atomic Pink and Special Effects Cotton Candy Pink. I settled on Atomic Pink since too many reviews said that Cotton Candy pink was too salmony-pink and faded to an orangish color.

Atomic Pink is a very bright pink (think pink highlighter) so I decided to dilute it with conditioner before dying.

I used about 1/10 Atomic Pink and 9/10 conditioner. Any conditioner will do. I use white conditioner so you can see what the color will turn out to look like (the end result is always a shade lighter).

My hair was bleached to platinum blonde, and after applying the diluted Atomic Pink, I was very happy with the end result!

Hair Dye: Special Effects Atomic Pink

Purchased At: Amazon.com

Price: Around $13

Ugh Bleaching Ugh

One of the most annoying parts of having colorful hair is the bleaching. I have to bleach my roots about  once a month, and I bleach my hair when I want to change to a new color. Sometimes I have to bleach it multiple times before i can switch colors.

After bleaching, my hair is a light blonde:

Some colors are harder to get out of hair than others. Here's is what I've found from my experience:

Splat Blue Envy

After my first hair dye attempt, I decided to redo the blue, but this time bleach first.
I also changed brands and bought Splat Blue Envy! the main reason I chose Splat was because the box comes with bleach as well as dye!
After bleaching, my hair looked a bit like mermaid hair--mainly light blonde with a few green/blue undertones.

sorry for my ugly face but i thought you should see the color of my hair before I dyed it ok bye

 I have heard some people complaining about Splat bleach, saying that it is really harsh on their hair or that it doesn't work properly. But I had no problems with it. My hair length was down to my shoulders and very thick, and the bleach Splat provided was more than enough to cover all my hair. My hair felt a little dried out afterwards, but that's to be expected and nothing a few conditionings can't fix!

And then the fun part! Dying the hair!
I waited till my hair was completely dry after washing out the bleach, and then did another bathroom dye job! Splat is a more liquid-y due than Special Effects, so there were a bit more stains on the bathroom floor caused by the drippy dye. Oops.

But the color came out fantastic!

Feeling Blue

This is a picture of me before this whole hair dye journey started:

As you can see my hair was a golden blonde color.

Wow, I haven't seen that color for awhile...

Anyways, one day I was like "Hey! You know what's pretty? Colorful hair!"

So I bought Special Effects Blue Mayhem and my sister and helped me dye my hair in our bathroom.

End result:

Hair Dye: Special Effects Blue Mayhem

Purchased At: Amazon.com

Price: Around $12

hello hello

In the past two years, my hair has been a multitude of colors--blue, pink, green purple--in a variety of shades.
But now that I have to start looking for a job after college, I thought it might be best for me to say goodbye to my candy hair (for a while at least, saying goodbye permanently would be too painful, I think).
I would like to share everything I have learned about colorful hair coloring. When I started dying my hair, I knew very little about the process, and learned mostly through trial and error. Websites where people shared their own hair coloring stories were very helpful, I remember.
So! I want to do the same and maybe help and inspire people along their own hair coloring journey!
Candy colored hair is fun, so why not give it a try?