I have wanted to dye my hair blue for over two years now. I have looked in super markets, drug stores, and a few salons for blue hair dye. However, either there was no blue hair dye or the colored hair gel available wouldn’t do a thing to my dark hair.
My hair is black and straight. I want to make it a dark blue, probably a navy blue would be best. Neon blue would be for those days when I just feel like being wacky.
Is there any blue hair gel or blue hair dye that you can recommend? I live in Canada, and it would be helpful if you could tell me what store I can buy it at or what online site sells it.
Sometimes I see people with those bright blue, purple, pink, yellow, etc hair colors that they seem to change daily. Does anyone know what kind of products those are?
Do you like having hair? If your hair is black, you will have to lighten it. That tends to make hair brittle. Brittle hair breaks easily, so you wind up having to have it cut more often.
Is there a real reason for this? Or would a navy blue wig serve the same purpose, while saving you money/time/scalp irritation?
Please don’t think I have an opinion about your choice of hair color - I damn near got my hair cut in a mohawk in support of my hockey team last year.
Prepare to bleach like mad. Twice if you can do it. Blue is the hardest color to get right, even dark blues. Are you planning a home job or contemplating professional help? ETA: I really really suggest professional help, either at a salon or under the supervision of a friend or relative stylist.
Manic Panic is the most common brand in the US for temporary color, there are many others though - try stores like Hot Topic, skater/snowboarder stores, head shops, or open to the public beauty supply stores like Sally’s here in the States. There are probably similar brands/stores in Canada, check around.
If you can get your hands on it (and if they still make it), Nexxus used to make jewel tone color. I used to dye my hair black and add blue over it (sort of a gunmetal effect under sunlight, I sure miss it!). This color is superior to things like Manic Panic, in that it will actually lift the hair cuticle and deposit color (permanent). You may try calling some salons in your area to see if they would do this sort of work. I lucked out when I was a teen since my sister was a regional distributor for Nexxus and a stylist.
Colors like Manic Panic only coat the shaft (temporary). The easy way to tell between deposit and coating colors: deposit colors will have a developer that you must add to the color, while the coating colors are one-step: you just apply them from the bottle.
A third option you might consider is indigo, but I’ve never used it and can’t vouch for how blue it would show up (after bleaching). I do know it is used commonly along with henna, though.
I’m not sure what other options there are, but I’m sure other companies make permanent and highly unnatural colors. Using these sorts of colors seem much more mainstream than ten years ago, so I wouldn’t be surprised something like it is readily available now.
I emphatically second everything Queen Bruin posted, but I would like to throw in a bit of warning about the inevitable bleaching process. Make sure you dont wimp out before it’s really really white. It will burn and hurt a little bit, but try your best to get it white instead of yellow. Yellow DBZ style hair will screw up the dye, or at least it did in my case when I dyed my hair green five years ago.
Do I like having hair? In the summer, it would probably be best if I were bald because I like to do a lot of bicycle riding. However, I would look silly. So its half and half.
I’ve had the same looking hair for so long that I just want something different. Blue hair seems like a good idea. I have spiky hair right now and don’t want to get man perms or curl it every morning. I need something unique but low maintenance because I do lots of sports and get sweaty.
I’m a rebel by heart, stuck in a conformist life. Sigh!
Is bleaching the only way to go? I looked at the Manic Panic site and they have colored hair gel . Would those colors actually show up over black hair without bleaching?
The color will only show up under sunlight without bleaching, although you probably should try it and see how you like it (it really is a neat effect, but subtle). Also, if you use a temporary, expect it to look nice for about 3 washings, then go downhill quickly. There is no easy path to blue. It is also never low maintenance.
Also I should add re: bleaching. The more you use permanent colors or bleaching (*especially *bleach), the more porous your hair will become. When this happens, you will find that your hair will soak up the color very very quickly, but fade twice as quickly. Also, it will take on the consistency of straw. Not such a rough way to go if you keep your hair short or don’t mind cutting it all off at once, but you know, if you have waist-length hair, it’s something to consider.
Several years ago I had pink streaks. I tried it without bleaching but you could only faintly see it in the sunlight and that was if you were looking for it; a waste of money IMO. My hair is black and to do it properly I think I had to have it bleached 2 or 3 times.
My fiance has had (electric) blue hair before and beware that it fades to a gross looking patchy yellowish-blue.
It will last about 2 weeks before the color fades to a yellowish green.
Also manic panic and jerome russell both with bleed a little when you first color your hair, that means if you are playing sports expect a blue forehead and neck.
Since you already have black hair, how about trying a blue black color like Loreal - Feria - Starry Night or Clairol - nice and easy - blue black? Both are black with a blue shimmer in the sunlight, and don’t require bleaching even on black hair.
Manic Panic is my brand of choice and After Midnight Blue is the color I am currently using, although that is getting ready to change. If used on non-bleached hair, the blue will show up as faint highlights and be gone in about a week. IMHO, bleaching first is the only way to go. My color was not affected by the yellow left after bleaching, but if you are concerned about that, Manic Panic also carries a great product called Virgin Snow that will take out the brassiness and leave your hair totally white.
The instructions for their colors say to leave the dye in for fifteen minutes. Forget that…just wrap your head in plastic and let it go for at least four hours. Wash your hair in cool water to get the most mileage out of the color. Another trick is to add a drop or two of dye to your conditioner each time you wash to freshen the color.
I prefer the gel dyes, however if you don’t have really healthy hair the cream dyes are in a conditioner base. For me, the gels seem to last longer.
If you want to see what it looks like, I started the Doper Pic Thread in MPSIMS and the first picture is me with blue hair. Good luck.
I seem to remember seeing something somewhere that said that they used Koolaide. If I remember, they use several packets, with very very HOT water and make a paste, then slap it on and leave it for awhile. I’ll bet if you googled Koolaid hair color you’d find the right ratio and “recipe”.
Sweet! I never knew this. I’m going to color my hair all the colors of the rainbow. Not all at once of course!
I think I’ll try dyeing my hair with the koolaid first. If I can’t get the color I want, I will try to find that Loreal product. I like how koolaid is cheap and easy to find!
I’ve used Nice n’ Easy Natural Blue Black before. Make sure that you are going to want to have it for a long time. It does not bleach out well. Also, it’s really more black, with a hint of blue in sun for a while, eventually turning black, and even later turning dark brown.
When I want blue, I bleach and I use Punky Colour as mentioned above, in Midnight Blue. It’s a nice dark blue, but definitely a BLUE and not a black. On my hair it takes a nice dark blue even over a slightly yellowish/orangish bleach job, where other blues have failed me before. If you go the Punky Colour route since it’s a semipermanent, try not to wash it too much if you can avoid it. I washed mine once a week or so with shampoo, but every second day I’d put powder in it to soak up the grease, then rinse and condition to keep it from getting greasy. This way I stay blue about a month and a half before I wind up with greenish/blondish parts.
Kool-Aid requires bleached hair or blonde too if you want vibrant colors.
It lasts about as long as Manic Panic, Jerome Russell, or any other product, and you have a great selection of color - but there is a bit more bleeding of color when you sweat from kool-aid.
The trick was to mix 5 or six packs with a touch of conditioner until you had a paste.
Another trick to the crazy colors is when coloring, leave the dye on for hours! I am talking about 6 to 8 hours to absorb in. Put plastic over your hair & just let it stay if you want the color to stay in longer.
If you don’t want all your hair bleached - you can also get amazing looking hair by getting streaks or tips of your hair professionally bleached. Tell the hairdresser you want the streaks & tips as pale as possible so you can use crazy colors like manic panic. I recommend a hairdresser for streaking & tips, because I have never seen a good DIY job of them.
This stuff will fix your hair after bleaching. I used to bleach my hair to white, and letting some of this conditioner soak in for about half an hour fixed it right up. No straw-hair and none of that gummy gooey feeling from the bleach.
They have it at Sally Beauty Supply, and online, of course.
I echo the posters who’ve said you’ll have to bleach your hair for it to show up in any appreciable way.
If you want something slightly more long lasting, and you’re not overly concerned with the condition of your hair (and it sounds like you’re not) you can dye your hair with coolaid. Get blueberry, mix it into a paste and apply it to the dry, bleached hair. Leave it for a while-ish (how scientific). Rinse it out. It will “stain” your hair blue. It will lift, but then, so will everything else.
Not all at once of course!