Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
I have to be honest with you, dear blog readers: I really miss having platinum blonde hair. Only because I could change the color whenever I wanted to with Manic Panic, but nevertheless, I miss it. I went back to being a redhead because my hair was totally fried from all of the bleach I’d used to keep it pure as the driven snow, but I miss cotton candy pink, I miss ice queen blue, and I most of all, I miss purple. OHHHHH purple, my long-lost hair color love. How I long for the days you sat atop my head. **SOBS DRAMATICALLY**.
Although you have to bleach your hair to get pale pastel colors with Manic Panic, you don’t have to bleach your hair to use it altogether. Desperate to add some flair to my boring strawberry blonde locks, I decided to use a combination of Pretty Flamingo (a peachy pink, orangey dye) and Cotton Candy Pink dye to create some ombre/highlights/color streaks (I’m not quite sure what to call them, really). I’d tried doing streaks and highlights with Manic Panic before, and it didn’t work particularly well. But Pinterest says it’s possible! And everything you read online is true, obviously. So I took a leap of faith by trying again.
Let me take you through my process…
In an attempt to get the purest color possible, I used Shimmer Lights purple shampoo as a toner. The shampoo is supposed to take out red and yellow tones from blonde hair. I put it all over my hair and planned to let it sit for about 30 minutes. Instead, I got sucked into working on this very blog, and it ended up working it’s magic for about 2 hours. And by magic, I mean it didn’t really work. It left random patches of my hair looking gray and dull. This is step is unnecessary. But if you ever ask yourself, “what does purple shampoo do to red hair?”, then here’s your answer:
Let’s move on to the part that actually matters. Before I applied the Manic Panic dye, I washed my hair and blow dried it. You should not use conditioner before applying Manic Panic. Your hair needs to be totally clean and free of product build-up.
After it was clean and dry, I parted my hair down the middle. I separated my hair into sections and secured them into twisty little buns using bobby pins. I planned on dying most of the hair on the very top of my head with the Pretty Flamingo dye and pinned it all together. Then I randomly sectioned off the hair on the sides of my head into twists, with no real visual plan, because I live on the edge.
The hair at the back of my head towards my neck was too short to pin. From past experience, I’ve learned that the hair back there doesn’t soak up dye as quickly as the front. I applied cotton candy dye back there first. Then I pulled the sections on the side of my head out of their twists and applied either pink or peach dye, alternating colors. I finished off the application by saturating the top twist with peach dye, and a little bit of pink in my bangs.
I let the dye sit on my head for a full 2 hours. When I jumped in the shower to wash it out, I saw that the dye remnants were totally white – a sign that all of the pigment stuck to my hair.
After it was dried and styled, it looked like this:
From the front it looks just a tad pink…
…until I turn to the side. WHA-BAM! Peek-a-boo pink realness.
The fade in the back looks even and matches the rest of my hair.
When I part it on the opposite side, you can really see the pink. I really love this vibrant pink shade. The Pretty Flamingo dye definitely made my hair a lot more strawberry than blonde, but the color isn’t stand-out neon like I had hoped. Next time I try this, I’m going to use Electric Tiger Lily dye for a more intense orange, and apply the cotton candy dye more liberally.
Overall, I’m really happy with these results. I’m not mourning the loss of my platinum quite as much as I was before. I’m thinking this color scheme is going to become my signature look for awhile.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Monday, November 3rd, 2014
Last week, my dear friend and Cheap Bitch contributing writer Hannah let me give her pastel purple ombré hair. She’s a brave soul, letting me touch her Manic Panic virgin locks. But it turned out SICK (like, good sick, not gross sick) and here’s how I did it.
It’s worth noting that Hannah’s hair is not naturally blonde. We didn’t use any bleach on her hair before coloring it, but her hair had been previously dyed by a professional. If your hair is naturally this light, you may need to leave the dye on for a longer period of time, as your hair will not be as porous as chemically lightened hair.
First, Hannah and I team-worked on braiding her hair into small sections. We tied the braids with soft hairbands at the point where she wanted the ombré to end. We tied her hair into braids instead of ponytails so the purple faded into the blonde, versus creating a flat line where the purple ended.
Next, we mixed up our dye using Manic Panic Cotton Candy, a tiny dab of Ultra Violet (this sh** is intense, so be careful with it if you’re looking to achieve more pink than purple) and diluted it to a pastel color with white hair conditioner.
Then we applied the dye from the ends of her hair to the hairbands. Since Hannah’s hair is super thick, I applied several coats and rubbed each section between the palms of my hand to make sure it was fully saturated.
We let Hannah’s dye sit for 40 minutes. I then removed the hairbands. When you pull the hairband over the dyed section of hair, it removes the light-colored remnants of dye and conditioner. The dye and conditioner is lighter because the pigments have attached to the hair. It’s a good sign!
I used these less-concentrated dye leftovers at the top of each ombre section to create a natural looking fade. I ran my fingers through each section and let the dye sit for another 15 minutes.
Then I rinsed and blow-dried Hannah’s hair. I felt like a fancy hair dresser. It was fun. Here’s the final results:
So much sass. Can’t handle. **Dead**.
Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
This summer, after much deliberation, I bleached my hair for the purpose of dying it fun pastel colors.
The most common question I get from strangers about my hair is, “how long does it last?” Not considering that most people want their hair color to last for as long as possible, I always answer happily, “not long at all!” to their dismay. That’s because I like to change my hair color as often as possible.
But my love for a new color of the rainbow every 2 weeks was squelched by Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise. When I dyed my hair Cotton Candy Pink, the color faded back to blonde in about a week. Atomic Turquoise was much more stubborn.
The day I dyed my hair Atomic Turquoise. Oooooo, aaaaaahhh.
18 days after I dyed my hair it was a dull, grayish, bluish greenish yellow shade. Not a good look.
I searched the interwebz for tips on how to remove Manic Panic. It seemed every frustrated dye-hard had the most trouble getting rid of this specific color. Many recommended a soap cap, a.k.a. mixing a little bleach with your shampoo to get the color out quickly. But I was afraid of damaging my hair, since it’s already bleached. Other suggestions included washing your hair with Head & Shoulders, as something in it’s chemical makeup gets the color out faster than regular shampoo. Another suggestion was washing your hair with baking soda.
So I decided to mix up a simple concoction of Head & Shoulders shampoo plus baking soda. My very scientific calculations went like this:
It’s a very official formula. Don’t screw it up.
Every time I showered, I rinse-washed-repeated with this mix. I guess you could pre-mix it and put it in a bottle, but I legit just mixed it up in my hand in the shower. I washed my hair two or three times each shower, and then covered my it with Clairol Shimmering Lights shampoo. It’s made to clear dull yellow hues out of your hair. I followed the directions on the back of the bottle, which suggest washing it like you normally would once, then rinsing, reapplying and leaving it on your hair for 3 to 5 minutes, then rinsing again.
This is the big bottle, but I bought a much smaller bottle for around $7 back when I bleached it.
After washing my hair about four or five times, I used Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser conditioner to restore all the good stuff I rinsed down the drain. This conditioner is the sh**. I was very concerned after bleaching my hair that I was going to have fried locks, but I’ve been using this conditioner with every wash, and I’ve never had a problem with dryness or breakage.
And it smells delicious. Don’t eat it though. That’s my professional advice.
Six days later, my hair was back to it’s platinum blonde beauty, and soft as a baby’s butt too.
Say hello to my stylish good friend from high school, Anna!
