How I dye my hair purple! Ft. Manic Panic

As you may or may not know, the underneath portion of my hair is dyed purple; it has been that way for over a year now and I love it! I often get questions on how I got it purple and what products I use, so I’ll explain that today. When I first started dyeing my hair the trend was changing towards “odd” hair colors being acceptable, but it wasn’t as normal as it is now. At the beginning I got mostly odd looks, but with an influx of “rainbow hair” I think people’s perceptions are changing and I get a lot of compliments on my hair! To get my hair this way wasn’t hard, but it did take a good amount of time. Also, though not as expensive as getting a salon dye, it is more expensive than just a box color.

The first step to dyeing your hair is to decide what portion of your hair you want dyed, what color, and how to get it blond. If your hair is already blonde you are good to go (or if you want a dark color put into medium hair) but if you have dark hair like me, you have to bleach it.

Bleaching your hair is a chemical lightening process and can damage some people’s hair, but I didn’t experience any difficulties. It is best to get this done at a salon, but it is a lot cheaper to do it yourself. I use Manic Panic bleach lightning (about $10 or so at my local sally’s beauty supply) and follow the directions my mixing it and applying it to the section of hair I had separated from the rest.  I keep in on for the max time listed witch is either 80 or 90 minutes. I have also used SPLAT bleach before which I do not recommend; while it does lift, it damaged my hair a lot more and it burned when I applied it. While bleach does burn/tingle for a lot of people Manic Panic bleach does not on me, so Splat was a big difference.  Depending on your hair color or if you have dyed it before, you may have to process it a couple of times.

Next , after your bleached hair dries, you will want to tone your hair to get some of the brassy/yellow tones out. You can use a purple toned conditioner and leave in on for a while, or I used manic panic virgin snow (about $8 at sally’s). I just applied it all over the bleached area and let it sit for about three hours.  This not only toned my hair, but it conditioned it very well. Some toners on the market are chemical and can further harm your hair so read your labels and do your research!

These first steps only need to be done the first time you dye your hair, or when you are bleaching you roots which I only do about once or twice a year since do to their placement they are not very noticeable.

After your hair is bleached it is able to receive the color. For the very “purple” purple color of my hair I use Manic Panic Purple Haze, the amplified kind in the bottle, not the tub. I buy mine at Hot Topic for about $10. Another common to find color is ultra-violet which is too blue toned for me. To apply the color simply spread over hour bleached hair whilst wearing gloves until it is soaked. You may be surprised on how “thirsty” recently bleached hair is! Then comb through your hair until foamy to evenly spread it (these directions are on the bottle). Then put your hair in a shower cap or in a plastic grocery bag. Where I differ from instructions is how long to let it set. The bottle says 30 minutes, it leave it in for 3-5 hours. Since this is a vegetable based dye and not a chemical based dye, leaving it in longer doesn’t hurt your hair, in fact it allows it to moisturize deeply for longer. But also be aware that if you heave in on four over 2-3 hours it starts to turn “neon” and really bold. I like this but if you are going for a softer look you will want to only leave it in about two hours. A bottle of dye lasts me about three dyeing sessions on average.

my hair after a dye; the purple is quite dark and blends in with the rest of my hair

After that wash it out until the water is mostly clear, like a lavender color. You don’t want to over wash. Then, I let it dry and do not wash it for about a week or until I really need to wash it. This gives the color more time to adhere to you hair. After this, your color will fade slightly with every wash. Wash your hair will cool water and only as often as your need to. I wash my hair about twice a week.

When you hair gets too faded (my color goes from purple, to pinky lavender, to blonde) just repeat the dying process.

my hair is a bit washed out now

A question I think a lot of people get who bleach their hair is that their hair is expected to be severely damaged. This is not always true. Is bleaching good for you hair? No. Does it damage it? yes. Does every person who bleaches their hair have horrible, frizzy, breaking, damaged hair? No! Think of every fake blonde out there, how did they get their hair that way? Bleach and chemical dyes! And they can have nice looking, silky hair, right? Now, everyone’s hair reacts differently, but as long as you do not over bleach it meaning that you are constantly going from color to color without any breaks, bleaching the previous color out to change, especially if you are going from black to blonde and back again a lot, you should be fine. My hair get a bit frizzy at the very ends when it needs re-dyed, but one I but more Manic Panic in it, it goes back to being my normal hair texture! Since manic panic is a conditioning dye it actually heals your hair.  Also there are also a lot of oil and deep conditioning products out there you can try if needed.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of people that bleach and dye their hair and very few who end up with their hair breaking off/ falling out. I have known many people to bleach and none of them, or anyone they know, has ever had this happen to them.

I hope you found this helpful! What color do you dye your hair?