Rainbow/Colored hair!

[emma11]

I'm finally getting out of my cubicle in May, and finally am working for artists in my area. About darn time!

To celebrate I'm going to be dying my hair some wild colors, either pastels or rainbow. I've been wanting to do it for a long time, and finally don't have restrictions on it.

My question is if anyone on here has done it before? It doesn't have to be rainbow colors or anything along those lines, but colors in general. I was looking at manic panic because they have awesome colors, but also because they're vegan and I've heard they are easier on hair.

Opinions?

[Aziara]

I really like manic panic myself, but it doesn't last very long. Maybe two-three washes and it's gone. I've got 'green envy' tips right now. I do it right on top of my brown hair without bleaching it, and the color comes out a very nice hunter green. You can do that with the darker colors, but I don't think the pastel colors will show unless you bleach first. It doesn't seem to damage my hair at all, in fact, it seems to calm my split ends a little.

[Seatan]

Manic Panic does no major damage as it is not a permanent dye. What does the damage is the bleaching. To get any sort of vibrant color, your hair must be blonde. The brighter or more pastel the color, the lighter the blonde. White blonde is best, but if you have brown hair, it must be done in stages. Trust me--I went from black to bleached blonde in two months once and FRIED my hair. Three years later it has finally grown back out and I am sticking with a natural looking red.

Unnatural colors are CRAZY hard with the upkeep. They cannot make permanent dyes in these colors at this time, for reasons my hairdresser once spent about two hours explaining that had to do with a bunch of chemical scientific crap. My natural looking red hair is permanent and I still have to wash my hair only once and week and wash with red shampoo to keep the color bright and pretty. Semi-permanents will only last a few washes before fading to what I call the "muck" colors. Mucky turquoise, nasty green, icky brown pink. All the bright colors you see are before multiple washes. Fire engine red is the easiest "unnatural" color to keep, because you can use red shampoo to keep it bright. Blues and pinks will fade fast, though, and pastels will look weird. If your hair is not bleached blonde, you will NOT have any super bright color. It MUST be lightened significantly to get the jewel tone shades.

If you want to do this, and do it yourself, I suggest you hit Sally's Beauty Supply. Get Wella brand White Lady. If your hair is light dirty blonde, get 20 developer. If it is dark dirty blonde, get 30. If it is dark brown or black, you may get 40, but note that this may fry your hair. Follow the directions on the box to mix and apply. Every single time you bleach your hair, you damage it significantly, so be prepared to deal with damaged hair. That's why so many emo kids and people who do their hair in different rainbow colors have such straw-like, dry hair. It's the bleaching. If you are dark brown--heck, if you are anything but light dirty blonde--you will probably have to bleach at least twice. If you can do it over a couple months instead of one go, it is better for your hair.

Once you are bleached, you are good to go. Pick a color and do it. Semi-permanent will not damage your hair, except maybe dry it out, because there is no ammonia in it. The lightening is what is bad for it. So you can dye it with colorful semis all you want--in fact, when it fades after two or three washes, you can dye it again. It's just a hassle. And if you go for, say, pink, you are going to need to wait for it to fade a TON before you add blue or you will get a mucky color. And if you do, say, blue, you are going to have to bleach it again to add pink, because no matter how much it fades the pink will likely not cover it.

Overall, it's a LOT of lightening then applying, lightening and apply. I used to be pretty hard core goth, and my hair went through hell. I have given it up, now, though, and stick to extensions. There are TONS of awesome colors on Etsy, both in human hair and high quality synthetics, for good prices. It is SO much easier than dyeing and doesn't destroy your hair. You can also get colorful dreads that you braid into your hair. I like getting high quality synthetic wigs, too. You can instantly have the PERFECT color with no maintenance and no damage to your hair! I guess you can probably tell from this post that I am no longer a fan of dying hair crazy colors, but only because I lost three years worth of growth (it didn't fall out, but it was so frizzed and straw like that it was disgusting.) That's how you do it, though. There are TONS of how tos on YouTube (including how to literally dye your hair into a rainbow), so I suggest you look there for step by step instructions!

[emma11]

Haha thank you!! Great read! I've been slowly going to a hair dresser and lightening my hair for about 4 months and have 6 more months to keep going with that. So my hair should be on great shape by the time I start using the manic panic. I also take 5000 mg of biotin every day, wash my hair with keratin infused shampoo and conditioner, do a 30 minute moisturizer on my hair once a week and use coconut oil on my hair every week too haha.

I'm pretty meticulous about the health of my hair after a bleaching accident gone wrong, especially since I have hair past my bra strap.

Are the faded manic panic colors so bad? I'm going particularly for pastels, so I'm going with the fluorescents and then waiting for it to fade. My hairdresser said is have to refresh the color like any other hair dye, about once every three weeks?


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[Seatan]

If you watch this video, you can see how much this girl's hair (which was already rainbow colored) had washed out before she did it again. And how light it has to be to dye it those colors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oocj894M-IM

I like these wigs, too:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ExandOh

[Seatan]

Once every three weeks will be okay if you only wash your hair once a week, like I do. Permanent dyes only need to be refreshed every few of months. I usually go about three months between hair dyes, until the roots are grown out. But that's because it's bad for my hair, with the ammonia. So if you don't wash your hair much (which is good for your hair) you will be okay. If you wash a lot, you will be screwed. Also be aware that you cannot swim in pools soon after you dyed it. The color will come out, and it's rather embarrassing to have pink in the pool, LOL. Make sure you've washed it several times if you swim. And you will want to wash your hair in the shower, not the tub, as the color will come out every time you wash and may stain your skin a tiny bit if you sit in a tub of it.

[emma11]

Good to know!

One last question, haha. My hair is super oily, so I have to wash it pretty much every day, every other day if I'm lucky. Do you use dry shampoo on the days you don't wash your hair?



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[Seatan]

Yes, I use dry shampoo near the end of the week, though my hair is not very oily. I would try and wash every three-four days and use dry shampoo in between, otherwise the colors really won't last. They fade to weird shades. What you CAN do is this:

Buy a bottle of conditioner.

Mix your dye into it.

Apply after shampooing and let sit for ten-twenty minutes.

Wash.

This will both condition your hair and give a little rev to the color. It's basically the same thing as using red shampoo. It will rev up your color a bit. Manic Panic washes out SO fast, and it is really messy when it happens. I used to rinse in the yard with a garden hose. And it will stick to your skin, so apply Vaseline to your ears and neckline before dyeing. It looks SO cool, but it is a pain in the ass to maintain. Beauty is pain though, right? LOL

[Blondie]

Manic Panic is awesome. I did blue streaks in my hair the summer I graduated. It says it would last a month but mine lasted about two almost three months. I have blonde hair so I don't have to worry about bleaching my hair. But bleach is harsh on the hair. I would recommend going to a beauty supply store (Sally Beauty Supply is my go to) and ask the person who works there if they have experience in bleaching hair. Or do some research on bleach kits before you buy them. Youtube has a bunch of videos do this stuff. Good luck!

[PrettyScorpio]

I feel your pain!. I have a lot of premature gray hair (about 20% of my head) and I am only 31. I have wavy chocolate brown hair so it looks like a crazy frost job. I started going gray at 12. I found out the hard way nothing sticks to it. My stylist cried when I went back 4 days later all of the dye washed out after the first wash. I use colored hair extensions and wigs. I have even found ways to dye patterns on them.

[Vixy]

I had bright blue and red beginning of this year, after a while the red went orange then pink before fading to blonde. The blue held up better, went light blue to silver after months.

[MermaidSabrina]

Just to let you know, don't do firetruck red . I've learned my lesson :p , when you wash it , it comes out and leaves stains in the shower,it stains the towel when i dry my hair,if I use headphones afterwards, it stains them too, and it also stains pillows .never again !

[Blondie]

If you wash your hair with a sulfur-free shampoo it shouldn't take out the color, however it won't lather that well.

[Seatan]

Just to let you know, don't do firetruck red . I've learned my lesson :p , when you wash it , it comes out and leaves stains in the shower,it stains the towel when i dry my hair,if I use headphones afterwards, it stains them too, and it also stains pillows .never again !

Yeah, red is especially bad for that. Especially fire truck red since it is semi-permanent. Any intense color will stain things like towels and pillows, though. Best thing to do is make sure your hair is TOTALLY dry before laying your hair against anything that could stain, and using a special towel just for that. There are many, many downsides to dyeing your hair cool colors, but it's SO damn fun!!! I REALLY wish they would figure out how to make them permanent colors.