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Since starting university last year, my hair has been an array of wild colours. Various shades of purple, pink and blue dip-dye, even purple and green at one point… then a few months ago I dyed it all a dark navy blue/black.
Recently, I decided to bleach the roots and dye them bright blue. I had some leftover peroxide and bleach powder, so I dip-dyed the rest of my hair, and went a bit wild with pink and blue dye… Harley Quinn style. I love it, especially the blue fringe!
As I’ve tried a variety of different bright hair dyes, I thought I’d write a blog post about which ones I recommend, and how I got my naturally dark brown hair to look like this.
You Will Need:
- Peroxide Developer
- Bleach Powder
- Bright Hair Dye(s)!
The Bleach
As my hair was already dyed a very dark blue, almost black, it took a long time (and two attempts) to lighten the dip-dyed ends enough for the bright colours.
It was much quicker and easier to lighten my brown roots, which is why my fringe is a brighter shade of blue than the ends of my hair, despite using the same dye.
I used 40vol peroxide developer because I had such dark hair before. If you have ‘virgin’ (un-dyed) hair, or lighter hair than me, you should use a lower volume so it’s less damaging. I left it on for about half an hour, then did the ends again for another half hour the next day.
If you have medium-long hair like me, I’d recommend buying bleach powder and peroxide developer separately, rather than a box kit you can get in Boots, because even if you’re only dip-dyeing your hair, it probably won’t be enough.
Online beauty salon supply websites like Capital Hair & Beauty are great for getting all the things you need individually, with lots of choices for peroxide developer and bleach.
Time for Colour!
For the bright colours, the length of time you need to leave it on varies on what dye you use.
I find that dyes with a more gel-like consistency (such as La Riche Directions, and some of the Manic Panic dyes), don’t show up as well, regardless of how long I leave them on. This may be because I have curly hair and I find that it’s harder to get these dyes to ‘sink in’ to my hair?
More liquid-y dyes like Crazy Color, and thicker ones like Live Color XXL need less time and show up more vividly for me. Personally, I’d recommend Crazy Color the most, but one of my friends swears by La Riche Directions. I tried a purple dye from them once and it wasn’t great.
Manic Panic also has a good reputation. I personally love their Rockabilly Blue, but Cotton Candy Pink isn’t as bright as I’d like.
Capital Hair & Beauty sell a variety of semi-permanent hair dyes, including my favourite brand, Crazy Colour for only £2.50! They also have Schwarzkopf, La Riche Directions, Wella, and lots of other brands.
Of course, brightly coloured hair dyes fade pretty quickly when I wash my hair, but that’s part of the fun!
I always have varying shades of blue, and it’s easy enough to change it to purple or something else if I want to. Right now, I’m loving the pink and blue ‘Harley Quinn’ style hair, so I think I’m going to keep it like this for a while.
Okay, I think I covered everything!
I’m currently writing this with blue hands because I touched up my blue roots this morning… I’d recommend wearing gloves but mine ripped, so now I have Smurf hands.
Thanks for reading,
*This blog post contains sponsored links from Capital Hair & Beauty.
I love your hair it looks super cool! I wish mine would dye properly, I never get the colour I want!
Hahahaha smurf hands lol, wonder how long it will last. Hair looks good
i am loving the colours in your hair! ive never really had bright hair before. blonde was probably the most crazy colour ive done
I love those colours and wish I could do something similar but I can’t with my job. i’d love to go ombre from orange into pink then purple, but over the years I have been a few different colours! It’s definitely addicting x
I love your hair. It suits you so much.
Wish I had the confidence to have my hair like this:)
I absolutely adore your hair! I used to have my hair in an array of bright colours but now I just stick to a deep purple, my hands are always a tinge of pinky purple from touching it and when it rains it runs but I couldn’t live without it! x
I wish I could dye my hair all these awesome colours, I love your rainbow hair you look like a cool mermaid x
Your hair looks amazing, I really wish I could die my hair crazy colours like this but work would not like it at all x
This is a really neat look! It’s awesome that you were able to achieve it yourself! I like the colors you chose!
oh dear not smurf hands lol. I love the hair colours though they look great.
I love your hair!!! I used to have blue hair (like bright blue) and I miss it so much x
Oh my goodness your hair looks amazing! I would have loved something like that when I was younger (OMGosh I’m getting old!)X
I think it looks amazing and if I could get away with it, I would totally do the same with my hair x
I think it looks great, I do love the colours you can get for your hair these days, my Daughter would love this in her hair x
Ooh I love it! I actually used that Cosmic Blue dye a few weeks ago, but I didn’t bleach my hair first or anything so it basically just came out black. Will try again one day!
your hair is so out there and cool. I do like it. I need to sort my hair out. It’s simply boring at the moment,
Angela
I love this! I think dramatic hair colours like these are amazing. I especially like the rainbow ones I have seen. I’m not sure I could pull it off myself though.
I love it! When I was at uni I had every colour there was, but now I am back to my boring natural colour.
Your hair is absolutely gorgeous! I used to have pink and purple hair, but it has gotten a bit boring in the last few months! Definitely need to get some more colour put in! 🙂 x
Sarah / Sarah Smiles