I have pink hair. I think most of you are aware of that by now. Like my entire head is Hot, Hot, Pink. Now there are a lot of pros and cons to having hot pink hair. Let's start with the cons first.
- Cons: You stick out like a sore thumb. Bleach kills your hair. People find your obnoxiously bright hair a conversation starter and sometimes use it as an opening to be extremely perverse and obscene. I find that people I never would think would like my hair, give me compliments on it. I'm always being asked how I get my hair this color. People always think my hair is a wig and try to pull my hair out of my head. Please stop, it really hurts my scalp. The dye gets everywhere.
- Pros: My mom hates it. I stick out like a sore thumb. I find myself in conversations I never thought I would. I find that people I never would think would like my hair, give me compliments on it. It makes me new friends. It makes me happy. It makes me feel like a real life Ramona Flowers, and I like that. I enjoy the act of bleaching and dying my hair. My mom hates it.
Now as I said before I get asked a lot about what kind of products I use when dying my hair. So I'm going to tell you all here what I use and what not. I'll also leave links to where you can buy the products as well. I get all my supplies from Sally's, if you don't have a Sally's near you I'm sure your local beauty supply shop will carry these products or something similar to them.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a professional cosmetologist. I only went to to school for like 2 weeks before I decided that I could never do hair for a living. I did rock the shit out of color theory. I would have been a sick colorist. Anyway, moving on... These are just the products that I find work best for me, they might not be the ones that work best for you. Bleach kills your hair, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway. If you are like me and naturally have extremely dark hair (mine is almost black) in order to get the desired bright color that you would like you are going to have to bleach or strip your hair of color. Most unnatural color dyes are only semi-permanent, which means that they wash out bit, by bit. When applied on darker shades they can leave your hair with a bit of a tint or a highlight, but if you want the color on the swatch you are going to have to lighten your hair.
The bleach that I like to use is the L'Oreal Quick Blue Powder Lightener. Now this one is a little bit on the more expensive side, so recently I have been using the Salon Care Blue Flash Powder Lightener. It's a few dollars cheaper regularly and the Salon Care brand of products is on sale a lot at Sally's so you can sometimes even get 16 oz tub for $12. If you plan on keeping your hair an unnatural color for awhile I recommend spending the extra money for the 16 oz tub. They also sell the bleaches in single packets, but with the tub you won't have to worry if you have enough bleach or not. This is a blue tinted bleach. I find that the blue tint helps with preventing a real brassy color while lightening. I also really like the Salon Care one because it is safe for both on and off scalp lightening so it doesn't burn your scalp. I'm sure many of you, if you have dealt with bleach before, know how unpleasant that can be.
Now with the bleach you are going to have to also get a developer. This is what makes the bleach work. Personally I am a fan of the Clairol Pure White developer family. What I like most about them is that they contain protective conditioners so they're not as harsh on your hair. Now I use a 40 developer, but I only use that number on my virgin hair. That means I only use the 40 on the hair I have not bleached yet. When I want to even out my color I'll use a 20 developer to prevent breakage. I do not recommend ever exceeding the 40 volume. Now make sure to read on the back of your bleach the developer to bleach ratio.
On the back of your bleach it will tell you the bleach to developer ratio and how to apply it to your hair. It will also tell you the time it will take to develop and how long at maximum you should leave the bleach on your hair. If you are going to leave it on your hair longer then recommended, which I don't recommend, make sure that the bleach is not dry on your hair. It is when the bleach dries on your hair that causes your hair to break. So make sure that you keep an eye on your hair as it processes and add more as needed. Always apply to the length and ends first. Leave the roots for last since they need the least amount of time to process.
Now if you're like me and have dark hair, you'll find that sometimes your blonde is going to be a bit brassy. Depending on the color you are planning on dying your hair you are going to want to use a toner to get rid of those ugly brassy tones. But if you're lazy and impatient like me you can add a color corrector to your hair dye, and it does the same thing. I like the Ardell Red Gold Color Corrector. They sell it in little packets at Sally's for only $.99.
I really like Manic Panic hair dyes. Some people love them, some people hate them, but I swear by them. Their dyes have always been the ones that take to my hair and stay the longest. For the pink that I have now I happen to use Hot Hot Pink. I towel dry and blow dry my hair a bit before applying the color to my hair with a tint brush. I also take the hair dryer to my hair for about five minuets while it's sitting on top of my head. I find that helps amplify the color.
Now I also get asked a ton of questions on how I keep my color so bright for so long. Answer? I don't wash my hair. Yeah I know ewwww gross. But in all seriousness it's actually horrible for your hair to wash it everyday. Shampooing strips your hair of it's natural oils and stuff. So I use a lot of dry shampoos. The one I really am liking at the moment is the line by TRESSemme. What I also find really helps is that I take what's left over from dying my hair and I mix that with some of my conditioner. I then use that in the shower once a week and I also refresh the color every other week, sometimes longer depending on how the color is holding up. Healthy hair holds color better so be sure to take good care of your hair and deep condition and protein treatment the crap out of it. I also recommend that when you do shampoo your hair to use a shampoo that is meant for color treated hair. I really like the TRESSemme shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair. It says it's meant to keep your hair color looking brighter for like 40 washes or something. I don't know it works for me.
That's all I got. I think I've talked enough about hair for a life time.
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