I dyed my hair blue!
At the beginning of February, I decided to dye my hair! Not all of it, I just wanted a little pop of color. I’ve never dyed my hair everrr before because I love the natural color that I have, but this is something I’ve thought about for a while. I wanted something different, but without completely changing my hair. I wanted it to be noticeable, just not at first glance. I’ve seen it on other girls before and loved the way it looked, but never thought I could actually pull it off myself. Until one day I just decided to go for it. So I made my way to Sally’s (Beauty Supply) not having any idea about the products I was about to look at and just went for it. Here’s my story...
Let’s start with some background things you might not know: Unless I’m with people I feel totally comfortable around, I am usually very quiet and shy which is what was preventing me from ever actually going through with this. I didn’t like when attention was drawn to me and mostly tried to always avoid it. I’m not exactly sure why other than that it just makes me uncomfortable and I’ve been that way my whole life. But right now is different.
So many changes have happened in my life within the last year. Some bad, but mostly very good. I’ve gone through some incredibly stressful and challenging times, and other beautifully joyful ones. I am so happy with every aspect of my life right now, I knew that I was ready to do this. I know it’s just hair color, but it’s a big deal for me. I’m not saying I wasn’t confident enough in myself before, but now I’m not as afraid of attention as I once was. Of course I still don’t love it because that’s just the person I am, but I’m in such a happy place in life that it’s not something I constantly worry about anymore.
That’s what I love about only having a strip of my hair dyed is that it’s there, but you almost have to look for it. And once you see it, it’s interesting and brings something fun. I think it definitely reflects the person that I am and that I did this in such a perfect time in my life, full of pure happiness from the inside out. I’m sharing this so you can understand a little bit better and in hopes of bringing some inspiration to anyone who might be in the same situation.
Since I’ve never dyed my hair before or even touched a box of hair color, I had a lot to figure out. But I’ve got it down now! The only items I use are in the picture above. A pair of gloves, a hair coloring brush, foil, a comb, a small tupperware, and ‘N Rage Twisted Teal Demi-Permanent hair color. I don’t use any kind of developer and I definitely do not recommend mixing the dye with conditioner. I saw a lot of people do that online and when I tried it, the color washed out of my hair that night. The brush is optional. I bought it thinking it would do a better job than my hands, but I didn’t notice much of a difference.
When I was in Sally’s, I didn’t know what I was doing or what to buy so I just went for this hair color. I was deciding between maroon, pink, or teal. I thought maroon would be too dark to notice on my hair and they didn’t have the pink I wanted, so teal it was. Manic Panic is a really popular brand, but when reading reviews I saw that it actually fades pretty quickly so it looks like I made the right choice. I was trying to avoid bleaching my hair, but when I didn’t the color wasn’t even noticeable. I ended up mixing hydrogen peroxide with baking soda to make a paste, wrapped the strip of hair in foil for about an hour, rinsed it, and after two rounds of that I was ready for the color.
Welcome to my bathroom..and my glasses! :) In the picture above, that color is what it looks like after two weeks of wear. I don’t know what the average is or how it all works, but that’s about how long I go in between coloring. A few things you’ll need to note is that separating the blue hair to dye it again is an absolute pain!! Make sure you wear a shirt you don’t care about because you will get dye on you no matter how careful you are. And have a rag towel to stand on because drops of dye will fall on the ground.
I know they have those fancy mixing bowls you can buy, but I had this sitting in my cabinet already and I actually think it works better because it’s clear. If you really want to get the dye off after you use it, rubbing alcohol definitely does the trick. This is about how much dye I use for the entire strip of hair, if not a little more than that.
Make sure your hair is clean and go through it a few times with a comb so all of the hairs are completely separated. You can start applying the dye with the brush, but I recommend using your hands to really rub all the dye in. It’s important to not miss any pieces and get it evenly distributed because if it’s not, it’ll be noticeable once you rinse and dry. I probably stand there for 10 minutes working the dye in as much as I can.
Then it’s time to take the gloves off and wrap it up in foil. Rather than leaving the hair fall straight and wrapping it up, I bring it all together in a small ball so all of the dye will be in one place as it sits. The directions on the bottle say to leave it for 15-20 minutes, but I let it sit for as long as I can possibly stand it. That usually ends up being around an hour and a half. Then I recruit my boyfriend to help me wash it in the sink. Since it’s on the side of my head, it’s hard for me to see without using a mirror and I know he’ll be able to see it better to rinse it all out. Once the water starts to run clear again and not blue, I squeeze it out and pat it with a paper towel before hitting it with the blow dryer. I shower at night, so I end up washing it twice and that’s when I apply a leave-in conditioner (as I do daily anyway) to help bring some moisture back to it.
This was my third time dying it so it turned out a few shades darker than it did in the beginning because this time it was already blue to begin with. I haven’t had to bleach my hair with the hydrogen peroxide again yet and probably won’t do so for a while.
Thankfully my natural hair was cooperating with me that day and looked good enough without having to style it. I decided to put the blue on the opposite side that I part my hair so it’s more noticeable and put it just a little underneath the top layer of hair. You’ll also notice in the pictures that I didn’t put the dye completely up to my scalp. That was just so the dye didn’t irritate me and I wouldn’t have to worry about having any reactions to it. Since it’s under the top layer, it’s perfectly fine.
I was so nervous when I first placed the dye on my hair and had no idea how it was going to turn out. I’m completely horrible when it comes to imagining what things will look like. But as soon as I saw the final product, I was in love!! It was exactly what I wanted and I’m obsessed with it. I definitely see me keeping up with this and will most likely switch to a different color once I finish this bottle. Although since I don’t use a lot, it might take a while. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear your experiences if you’ve ever done something like this before too! Have a gorgeous day! :)
~Christina~
