i colour.
I dye my hair all the time. I go through stages. I had an auburn stage, a burgundy stage, an ash color stage…you name it.
I had been wearing my hair a dark ash for a few months and wanted a lighter color. Since color doesn’t lift color, I had to bleach it. I didn’t want to bleach all of it so I had it highlighted with bleach. Well, I had so much color on it that I had the bleach on a full hour, then took it off. It only lightened it a little so I reapplied the bleach and left it on 30 minutes (my hair was healthy enough to go through it, normally I don’t recommend doing this). It lightened but not as light as I wanted it.
I put red on it (fire engine red), with the intention being I’d have red highlights. Well, I forgot about the laws of hair color and had fuschia hair! And it was so heavily highlighted that it looked like a solid color. I liked it and wanted to keep it, but when 3 of my coworkers asked me if I was going to to tone it down I took the hint and put an auburn on it. I loved how it ended up.
I let my color grow out so I wouldn’t have to bleach it (using semi-permanent dye when I needed it refreshed) and was strawberry blonde for about 2 months. Now I’m wearing dark auburn and am using semi-permanent again so I can lighten it again without bleaching it. My hair never comes out how it’s supposed to. Thank god I have an “it’s only hair” attitude and don’t freak out like my coworkers do. If something doesn’t work it can be fixed.
MaryAnn: I have the same attitude. I think, if it turns out bad, it will grow out or whatever. My hair is so short that any dye job will have grown out within a month, so it doesnt worry me if I screw up. I wont keep bleaching my hair until it has grown out because it’s so thick and dark that any more bleaching would screw up the parts already bleached, probably (when i washed my hair, it didn’t feel as smooth as before when I dried my hair).
You know, I was going to ask a question about this very topic. I have black hair, and I’ve been considering going a very dark purple or very dark blue. What products/brands do you guys recommend? Since I’m going for a very dark color anyway, will I need to bleach my black hair first? I’ve never dyed my hair before, so I’ll probably get some assistance from a couple of my friends, too.
-Neil
Neil: yes, if you want the color to show up real well you will want to bleach/lighten your hair first. I have found that Special Effects lasts the longest for “special” colors. For a nice dark purple use Deep Purle or for a dark blue w/ hints of purple use Blue Velvet. Those are both beautiful colors. To keep the Special Effects or any temp dye from fading leave the color in for as long as you can (1 or 2 hours). The first week a lot of color will rinse out, but you will end up with a beautiful color the second week. Good luck and make sure to condition really well after bleaching.
Heh, I can’t do any advice or anything, I’m terrible at that, but I sure can share my hair colors.
I’m naturally blond, but I went red for awhile in varying shades and brightness, and then bleached it. Blue. Dyed black, as my parents were returning, but it turned an intriguing navy color that my mother hated. So I bleached it again (a stupid thing to do). Then I went to a workshop for 2 weeks, during which time it went from highlighter yellow to yellow with orange tips to green. And then I had to dye it dark dark brown for when I went home.
Now it’s still dark brown, but I decided to dye my roots orange. It’s kind of odd when the sun hits it so you can actually tell the roots are orange.
Good, good!!
For those who dye often:
What brands are best for red reds? I like the product I used, but i’m open to suggestions. Do all of them fade to pink? In that case, I might have to keep dyeing the next time, if I lighten my hair up more (since i’m sure it would show more than with my current lightened hair which turned out a light brown color).
A question for those who dye their hair often. How much damage does it do? Specifically when you have to bleach it out first…I’d love to do something kind of wild, since right now I don’t have to worry about a job, but I also don’t want to have to whack off all of my hair and start over.
Also, for you Asians, do you find that your hair has a hard time taking to any chemical processes? I’ve given up trying to perm my hair (not that I’d want to know but back in the late 80’s I would have killed to have curly hair). Do you know of any dyes marketed to our kind of hair? I’ve got that really thick (as in each strand is about 2x thicker than white hair) hair, and it takes forever to take color. Eeek, that can’t be good for it!
Another question (may as well get them all out), has anyone ever tried chemically straightening their hair? I’ve heard that there are some special processes for Asian hair to make them perfectly straight. I’ve got slight wave to my hair that is bugging the crap out of me, and it takes at least 30 minutes to blow my hair straight. Again, that can’t be good for it.
And Doob, please hurry up and post a picture!
Neil-black hair is VERY difficult to lighten. If you want it to be very light you’ll have to use bleach. If you use a regular hair color (like, say, a blonde color) it won’t turn out that color. Color will only lighten up to 4 levels and on black hair 4 levels lighter is orange (or even a red).
Even when we use it at work it’s with caution. Sometimes it won’t go as light as we want it to so it gets brassy, then we have to put a toner on it to calm down the brassiness. It’s not unusual for people we’ve made blonde from a dark color to be in the shop for over 2 1/2 hours.
I can’t tell you how many times people have come in to get their haircolor fixed because they didn’t know how haircolor works.
Oh, yes…bleaching your hair, if you’re not careful, can make your hair very porous, which means the color you end up using on it will either take too well (meaning it will become way too dark) or it won’t grab very well, or will take but come out very, very, quickly (like in 2 shampoos) and you’ll end up with a weird color when it fades. And it could fade unevenly. Be careful even if you use a semi-permanent color. If the hair is too porous it may become a permanent color. I’ve seen it happen.
Not trying to scare you…just be careful! And stay away from kool-aid!
Some people asked if bleaching your hair does damage. It does dry it out and the more you use it the worse it gets. If it’s bleached too much it will get to the point where it will lose it’s elasticity and not accept any chemical services. To avoid this, when you are due for a retouch, just do the roots. Don’t do the rest of it. Seems obvious, I know, but I’m always surprised at the number of people who don’t know this.
If you are the type that darkens your hair or keep the same level then you’re ok. You’re just depositing color and nowadays colors have a load of conditioners in them. I find that my hair feels better when I color my hair that way. It gives it body. One way I know that I need to get colored again, besides the obvious, is that my hair won’t behave. It’s too flat and coloring it helps a lot.