Hairscapades: How To Color Your Hair Red/Violet

First off, check out How To Bleach Your Hair and Blue Hair.

I colored my hair about 2 weeks after having blue hair.

lol-face & blue hair

HOW TO

Bleaching equipment

•  foil
• gloves
• mixing bowl & brush
• bleach powder
• developer

Dyeing equipment

• mixing bowl & brush
• gloves
• dyes: blue, pink, red, violet
• white conditioner

1. Bleach your hair.

Again, check this post How To Bleach Your Hair. This time I bleached my whole hair.

A wacky-picture that is not meant to be seen by people but for reference purposes is posted. WHAT.

As you may see, the previously blue hair, when bleached turned platinum blond and the previously black hair just turned orange. 

2. Mix the dyes.

So after you bleach your hair, wash and towel-dry. You can wait a few days before coloring but I did this right after because I looked stupid with two-toned blond hair. Me he he.

Mix it with white conditioner. You're using white and not any other colored conditioner so that the color when you mix it will be the color deposited on your hair. What you see is what you get.

You can experiment on the mixing of colors. Put in the red first, then the blue and add the pink until you lighten it enough to kinda look close to magenta. 

3. Apply onto hair.

Use the gloves and apply it. Section your hair for organized dyeing of hair. 

4. Leave it on for 1-3hours.

The time depends on you. I think 1.5 hours is enough but if you want to make sure (and if your hair does not absorb well) add in a couple more minutes.

5. Wash your hair with cold water and towel dry.

Washing with cold water works better with colored hair. Hot water strips the color off the hair more quickly. 

Quick Notes

• I actually didn't intend to have a two-toned hair. It was actually by accident that it turned out like this.
• Blue plus bleach = platinum blond. Now I know. If you're aiming for platinum blond, you can bleach it, put blue dye then bleach it again. Hmm..
• If you're going to cut your hair, cut it before you bleach your long hair. Stupid me.
• Long colored hair is very hard to maintain (not to mention, untangle)

TA DA

Red Violet Hair

Red violet hair

Red violet hair

For the dyes, hit them up here DIY Beauty Shop or text them at  09178031721 or 09178131721.

Hairscapades: How To Color Your Hair Blue

I am hair crazy. The first time I colored my hair was in summer when I was a high school student. I was going for red, my ultimate dream hair color but the salon did not do a good job of transforming my hair into a fiery color. They bleached it & colored it... and it turned into a strawberry blond kinda hair. Well maybe an uglier version of the picture below.

Strawberry blond (c/o fragrantica)

After summer ended, I changed it back to black because my school didn't allow colored hair. The next time I dyed my hair was right before our graduation ball. No more strict hair rules in college. Yay! I had it done in Ms. Bambbi Fuentes' Salon near GMA7. It was awesome. Pardon the poor image quality though.

red hair

blue hair

DIY HAIR DYEING

You might wonder why I opted to dye my hair on my own.

First off, you need to bleach your hair if it is dark. Colors like blue won't show in your hair if you apply it on unbleached dark hair. I myself bleached my own hair with the help of Ate Raquel & Ate Jovie but I recommend that you let a professional do it. Bleaching your hair evenly is a hard thing to do. Up until now, I have different shades of blond when I do it myself. 

Most salons only have the natural colors like the different shades of brown to brownish red but nothing intense or different like blue. You will need to buy a dye on your own. Why have it done in a salon if you bought the dye anyway? You can just apply it on your own. Leave the bleaching to the pros. You can do the dyeing on your own, free of charge. I don't have any problems applying it myself because even if i re-coat my hair many times, it applies evenly.


HOW TO COLOR YOUR HAIR

For steps on how to bleach your hair, check out How To Bleach Your Hair. 

What you will need:

• Mixing bowl & brush
• Gloves
• Blue Dye
• White Conditioner

1. Prepare the dye.

I used Special Effects' Blue Velvet mixed in with white conditioner. I think only vegan dyes can be used with the conditioner. You can also use this technique with Manic Panic. I used WHITE conditioner so that when I mix it in with the dye, the color that sticks to my hair will be the color that I see in the mixture.

White conditioner with the vegan dyes are recommended for pastel-colored hair but it works just fine for non-pastel hair. It depends on the amount of conditioner you put in to make the color pastel. One great thing about using conditioner with the dye is that you can get more out of your dyes. You will use a smaller amount of the dye which is great because they are not cheap. If you want to have darker/more intense color/s, you can just use the dye on its own.

dye with conditioner

Sorry for the poor image quality. Most of the pictures were taken using an iphone.

(optional step)

You can actually do a strand test. After dyeing a small portion of your hair, leave it on for about 30 minutes and then wash it. If you love the color already, continue applying the dye to the rest of your hair. If not, bleach that dyed part again. 

2. Apply the dye onto dry, pre-bleached hair.

blue hair

If you want to do it the organized way, section your hair and clip it. Do one section at a time. Make sure you've covered every strand from root to tip (or from starting point to the end point).

I actually just put the dye straight onto my hair. I didn't split it into sections or anything because the color applied evenly.

You might want to ask some other person to recheck and apply dye to missed spots.

3. Leave it on for who knows how many hours.

If you want your dye to really seep in, you can leave it on for 1-3 hours. Manic Panic/Special Effects are great dyes and they do not damage your hair.

4. Wash your hair with cold water. 

Washing your hair with cold water retains the color of your hair better rather than washing it with lukewarm water. Your hair will bleed. By this I mean, every time you wash your hair, the color in your hair will be washed off. 

Use black towels or towels with the same color of your dye to avoid staining. Towel dry your hair first before slipping into some clothes if you don't want them ruined.

TA DA

braided blue hair

blue hair

blue hair

I bought my dye from a now non-existent Multiply shop. However I found a new shop that carries Manic Panic dyes which are quite similar to Special Effects.

Hit them up here DIY Beauty Shop or text them at  09178031721 or 09178131721.

If you want to see another hairscapade, check out Red/Violet Hair.

Hairscapades: How To Bleach Your Hair At Home

FIRST OFF

I apologize for not being able to post for two months. I didn't realize that it already had been that long! As you may have noticed the title of my blog, my sassiness is seasonal. It was on hibernation from june to early august.

So I have decided to bleach my hair and dye it blue again on my own.

I've decided to do so because for me it is more cost-effective. Having my hair bleached in the salon will just cost me more money and an awful lot of waiting because my dark black hair reacts poorly to bleach. It will need to be bleached for a couple of times before it turns blonde.

You really need to bleach your hair if it is black, no questions about it (Unless you're using dye that already has bleach in it). If your hair is dark brown to light brown, bleach it until you have achieved the lightness you want. If your hair is blonde, just go ahead and color it right away. You have it so easy.

Just a precaution

• It is recommended that you go to a professional salon to bleach your hair. If you think you can do it on your own, go do so at your own risk.
• Bleaching will make your hair very dry and elastic. It is possible that your hair will be prone to hair fall.
• Bleaching to the roots will sting. It will feel like your scalp is burning, well just a little bit.
• Leaving bleach on the hair for more than the recommended time may cause the hair to be burned off and just fall.
• Based on my online research, you cannot bleach and perm your hair at the same time. Well, not the exact same time of course. You cannot bleach your permed hair and you cannot perm your bleached (and dyed) hair because it will be too much to handle. Ask a professional if you want both.
• According to my online research again, you have to have some kind of conditioning treatment days before you bleach your hair.

Yeah I'm sorry for scaring you a wee bit there. Just be careful and consult a professional before doing all of these.

BLEACHING YOUR HAIR

What You Will Need

bleaching equipment

• Foil & scissors
• Gloves
• Mixing bowl & brush
• Bleaching powder
• Volume Developer

bleaching & dyeing set-up

1. First off, wash your hair and towel dry it.

2. Wear your gloves (and mask).

You should wear your gloves because the mix of bleach & developer irritates the skin. The mixture is also hard on the nose so you would want to cover it.

3. Mix your bleaching powder and volume developer (correct ratio) in your mixing bowl. 

Ask the store attendant for the ratio (as long as the consistency is creamy, I think you're good to go). I bought mine from Landmark Makati City. Just remember to buy a huge amount of these two especially if you are going to bleach thick long hair that is stubborn to bleach. I ended up buying again and again because I bleached my hair a couple of times. 

According to Yahoo answers, there are different types of developers. These are the:

•  10 Volume (3%) is for deposit only - this is great for going darker
• 20 Volume (6%) is great for gray coverage and lightening up to 2 levels
• 30 Volume (9%) lightens up to 3 levels
• 40 Volume (12%) lightens up to 4 levels

I used the 40 volume because I had really dark hair. 

4. Prepare the foils.

Cut the foils in the length of your hair. The foil should be able to cover the length of your hair and twice the width so that you will be able envelop it.

5. Put the foil under your hair and brush in the bleach mixture. 

This is hard to do on your own especially when you need to bleach the hair on the back of your head. Make sure to put a fair amount of the bleach mixture onto your hair. See to it that even the back side of the hair is completely covered with the mixture. Close the foil. Repeat until you have covered every strand that you want bleached. 

Only apply the mixture onto the part of your hair you want bleached. If you only want to bleach and color the tips, apply the mixture onto the tips.

If you want your whole hair to be bleached, bleach it a little bit far from the scalp. Only put bleach near the scalp on your last lightening session or put it 15 minutes before you rinse your hair. The roots of the hair will bleach much more easily.

applying bleach

bleaching hair

I only bleached half of my hair because I only wanted the color blue to start at that point. One wrong thing I had done is to just apply the bleach as is because the blue had a harsh line. My hair did not have an ombre feel. It is recommended to tease your hair at the starting point (if you're not bleaching from your roots to the tip) so that you can have a smooth transition from the old color to the new color.

6. Wait for 20-50 minutes.

You can check your hair every so often. Do not leave the bleach on for too long or your hair might just break off from the part where you bleached it or from your head if you did the roots.

You can also blow-dry your hair to kick start the bleaching process.

7. Rinse your hair with cold water and condition.

You should put in the conditioner for quite a longer time than usual because you've damaged your hair. Oh things we do for beauty.

8. What to do if you haven't achieved the lightness you want after one bleaching.

The result after 1 session of bleaching

You have many options.

• If it really is super dark brown, you can bleach it again. From my web surfing skills (lol) some said you can bleach after a minimum of 2 days, 1 week, blah blah. Just make sure your hair can handle it because you will notice that when you pull your hair, it will stretch like an elastic band. Bleach until you have achieved the lightness you want. That is what I did. 
• If your hair is orange/yellow in color, you can use a toner. I have never used one before but I currently have the Manic Panic Virgin Snow.

I don't have a decent picture of my bleached hair so here is a sample of it.

Here is the "Eew it looks awful but whatever because I'm just bleaching it so I can dye it a different color" face

I bleached my hair not for bleaching purposes per se but to be able to apply a different color to it. So yeah, my bleaching sucks. It sucks only because I didn't mind if it was even and it was painstakingly hard to do the hair at the back. 

If you wanna see my colored hair, check these out Blue Hair and Red/Violet Hair.