…can I borrow this thread for a moment? You’ll get it back shortly…
Awww, thanks pezpunk, that made my day! I actually hacked most of my hair off last night in of a fit of insanity. Good thing it looks better than my last style. Remember folks, short hair kicks ass.
Okay, you can have the thread back now, sorry.
DO NOT RINSE OFF MANIC PANIC IN THE SHOWER!!!
I can not stress this enough. I know, you say, “duh!” but really, it seemed like an ok idea at the time. It took me a week and an entire tube of apricot scrub to get un-purpled. The worst part was calling my boss at one in the morning.
Me: “Uh, Don, I won’t be in the morning.”
Don: “Why?”
Me: “Ummm, I’m purple. NO!NO! My grandpa died! Painfully!”
Don: “Hey everybody, Kellie dyed herself purple!”
(followed by the deafening sound of an entire bar full of people collapsing is hysterical laughter)
I’ve stuck with more understated stripes of color since then.
My girlfriend recently dyed her hair bright purple. I think the name of the shade is “pimpin’ purple”. It started to fade to pink, so she re-dyed it just a few days ago. I like it.
[hijack]
Hey man, how’d the scalp fare? Were you too blue for long or did you come up with a better way
[/hijack]
Hijacking thread but not withought purpose. I believe compliments to cute women are acceptable reason for temporarily theft of thread.
If I may reiterate;
The question is, when do we see the pics of your new 'do?
Ps: I nominate Broken Doll as MISS SDMB. Anyone second my motion?
sorry. I now return you to your regularly scheduled post…
Well, it’s been about three months, which is long enough for me to forget the pain and suffering I went through with the bleaching incident. And since I MUST do something to my hair every few months, it’s time.
I’m thinking of covering the bleached sections in the front with a darkish purpley red. My rationale being that from what I’ve read and heard from my punker friends, the purples and blues are the ones that tend to change colors. A few questions:
A.) How long does Manic Panic tend to stay in your hair? I’ve heard about 3 or 4 weeks.
B.) How the hell do you rinse away from your face? That totally makes sense, but how? In the sink? I don’t want to pull a Mamapotomus and become red from head to toe. I know about vaseline, but I can’t exactly cover my entire body in it. Actually, on second thought…
C.) Alternative brands? Someone mentioned Paintbox, how much more expensive is that then Manic Panic or Punky Colors? I’m also considering Fx.
D.) Gels vs. creams vs. liquids. Discuss.
E.) Extranious advise from our punkier members.
Any imput from those in the know would be greatly apprechiated.
wow, i totally forgot about this thread. My scalp fared fine. I didnt get it all the way down to the roots, I think, because no one said “why’s your scalp blue?”. I made sure I was careful not to get it on my scalp up front since it’smore visitble. I think because the scalp is as oily as it is, and sheds skin cells readily, the color wouldnt have lasted long anyway.
Well, without renewing it, it faded to a very light blue, but it stayed in my hair until haircuts took care of it. So, at 3 -4 haircuts, every 2 weeks on average, it lasted…6 weeks in my hair, but not at full color. I redyed it a few times over those 6 weeks in order to keep a darker color, but it would wash out mostly within 2 weeks for me.
What I did was I used a shower hose to wash it off. I took my shirt off, kneeled at the tub, bent over the edge so the top of my head was upside down, and washed it off with the removeable shower thingy (making sure the spray was angled down, so it wouldnt spray dyed water in my face). Vaseline is to keep dye away from your hairline. Of course some X-14 helps bleach out the dye if your tub is old and porous like mine. This method is awkward, but it gets the job done.
Our very own oldscratch reccomends “Fudge”. I cant seem to find them here, so I used Clairol FX (the red red), and the last time Manic Panic, After Midnight Blue.
I did find the manic panic cream dye to work well. You brush it in with a tint brush and then comb the hair til it gets frothy. The frothyness keeps it in. I think the Clairol FX was a gel. That i used gloved hands to apply it with, and that too stayed in well. I didnt get drips.
Oh, and Manic Panic suggests refreshing your color by adding a couple of table spoons of dye to your conditioner, and putting that in your hair like you did with the dye. Leave in, and the color is refreshed (it seemed a little darker with mine this way). Wash out the same way you did with the dye.
Oh, big-time support. I’ve thought of coloring my hair so many times but have never actually gone through with it. I’m a fairly conservative-looking guy, so I’ve always thought coloring my hair would make me look like a poseur. But damnit, I should do it. Good for you.
I used to have the world’s biggest crush on this woman who worked at the Borders’ in Glendale. She had bright purple hair. I would hang out in the bookstore and pine over her. Never did approach her, because she was all punk and I was just a normal joe. Stupid, huh? She doesn’t work there anymore, and how long will I regret never approaching her?
Oops. Sorry. Rambled off-topic there, didn’t I? Anyway, I say good for you.
Hi, SwimmingRiddles.
I’ll see if I can help out.
Depends. Lots of things affect how long semipermanent colors of any brand stay in your hair, such as:
[ul][li]how light you bleach your hair before you color[/li][li]the intensity of the color you use[/li][li]how frequently you shampoo: the more you shampoo, the more the color fades[/li][li]what kind of shampoo you use: the harsher the detergent, the faster the color fades[/li][li]how often you’re in the sun: sunlight bleaches color from hair, dyed or undyed[/li][/ul]
I achieve the best results by hard-core bleaching, only shampooing every other day, using shampoos specially designed for colored hair, and staying out of the sun.
An inexpensive, dye-friendly shampoo is Aussie Colormate.
Also, you can mix the dye with conditioner and apply it as a rinse to touch up your color without actually redyeing.
I find rinsing to be simple enough in the shower. I just tilt my head very far back, or I stand with the water in my face.
If you wet your body before you begin rinsing your hair, the color usually doesn’t stick. Right around your hairline, however, you may want to dab on a finger-width or two of petroleum jelly: The dye will be sitting (or running) right along there, and the longer it’s there, the more it stains.
The best way to keep the dye off of your neck, shoulders, and back is to wrap yourself in an old beater towel, or wear a T-shirt you don’t care about anymore. That way, the dye gets on the cloth rather than you. I’ve got a whole collection of T-shirts and towels reserved specifically for hair-coloring projects.
Oh, and get several pairs of rubber gloves, or you’ll end up with colored hands and nails. It’s super-handy to just peel off the gloves when you’re done with the coloring, or when you’re switching to applying a new color.
Warning: Don’t wash the dye towels or shirts with your whites! (I speak from experience here.)
I’ve used pretty much all of the available brands over the last 15 years, and so far I like Special Effects the best, and Fudge Paintbox second best. These colors work the best on my hair. Note that different people get different results with different brands.
Using the practices I described above, Special Effects doesn’t even fade to dull for 2 solid months. Very convenient.
The prices for any of these products range from $7 a container to $20 a container. It depends on where you buy them from. I’ve found good deals buying on the Web (http://www.goodgoth.com/specialeffects.htm, for example), but then I already know what colors and brands I want. If you’re not sure, I advise paying the higher price at a local salon where you can see the color in the bottle.
If you can afford it, buy more than you think you’ll need. That allows you room to be sloppy or for spillage, and if you like the color, you’ll have extra for touch-ups.
Dude, they’re all messy. Get some rubber gloves, don some clothes you don’t care about, and go for it. Special Effects is not really a gel and not really a liquid, but it doesn’t run unless I really smear it on thick. Fudge is thicker, but it sometimes runs too.
Think of it as finger-painting for adults. If you color outside the lines a little, well, the color will fade in a few days.
Do not use peroxide dyes for at least a month before you bleach. This is because bleaching the dye back out of your hair will seriously fry your hair. Bleach has enough work to do just getting your hair’s own pigment out of there.
Don’t be afraid to experiment: I’ve gotten some of my best results by just trying different color combinations.
Nobody but you will know if your hair is supposed to look that way. So if you get an odd result, just act like you meant to do that. (Learn from cats.)
Special Effects “Blood Red” is not really blood-red: It’s too pink. “Hot Lava” or “Candy Apple Red” comes much closer.
I see there’s been mention in this thread about getting the dye on your scalp. If you get a professional dye job, part of their effort goes into keeping the dye off of your scalp. This adds at least 30 minutes to the procedure, and usually more like an hour. I’m always in a hurry, so I’ve just come to terms with the fact that I’ll get dye on my scalp. (I’d rather do my own dye for $20 in 30 minutes than pay somebody else $80 to do in 2 hours.) It washes off after just a few shampoos. And, as I mentioned, nobody else knows that I didn’t do it by design.
I read your note about the bleach. I’d advise that you consider spending the bucks to have your hair professionally bleached. That way, you can see what the stylist does, what bleach is used, how long it’s left on, all that sort of thing. If that’s too spendy, ask the beauty supply staffers to recommend a bleach for you. My personal fave is Wellite, but as with all of the rest of this, not all bleaches work equally for everybody. I’ve also used Clairol’s Born Blonde.
Important: I use the real-live hair bleach from the beauty-supply store, not anything you can pick up at the local pharmacy. The “blondes” at the local pharmacy are dyes, not bleaches. You want to bleach, meaning remove the color from your hair. That leaves the pores open to suck in the pigment from the dye you’re adding.
E-mail me if you’d like to see a pic of me. In the pic, I’ve got my bicep-length hair fully colored with Special Effects “Hot Lava”, “Blood Red”, and “Nuclear Red”. (I don’t have any photos posted on the Web, or I’d direct you there.) Since the photo was taken, I’ve moved into using “Hot Lava” and “Candy Apple Red” with “Deep Purple” streaks.
See also:
[ul][li]http://www.gothics.org/eklectique/dye.html[/li][li]http://www.valkyrieshaunt.com/valkyrie/fringe.html[/li][li]http://www.dyemyhair.com/columns/a001.html[/li][/ul]
Lemme know if I can provide more info.
Have fun!
Jeyen
Amen, jeyen. When i did the blue, I didnt bleach my hair all the way, so I had some yellow in it. Mixed with the Manic Panic, i got sea green, and various shades of blue, and green, as well as some yellow. I never said it was accidental. In fact, one girl in one of my classes who saw it said it was insane and asked me how i was able to do that (I told her the truth).
Now how the heck did this thead pop back up again? Jeez, Dragons hair has been this reddish brown color for a couple weeks now! haha whew, I guess anythings possible in here 'aint it?
Well, I finally got pics of my blue and subsequent aqua on my webpage:
http://www.geocities.com/reddragon60
Swiddles, don’t do temp manic panic. It fades in about a week. Try to get a hold of a permanent hair dye. I had so-so results with the Midnight Blue. It looked really cool, but it faded too quickly.
My favorite combination (for my hair anyway) is deep purple with silver strips. I really want to do it again (my hair is its natural color now) but the casino that I’ll be working at doesn’t allow its employees to dye their hair unnatural colors. Purple isn’t exactly natural. 
So after discovering that I was unable to purchase Special Effects in my area, and that I’d have to mail order Fudge, I decided to just head over to the local Sally’s and see what they had. So I settled on Punky’s professional line. Pillbox Red.
I like it a lot. Rinsing was no fun, because I didn’t buy one of those hose things. So my bathroom got a bit wet. But very little staining. I rinsed with vinegar to set it. I’ll see how long it lasts. So when do I get my club membership? 
Swiddles, does it look something like this?
