When a friend of mine asked if I wanted a hair dye kit that she changed her mind about, I was hesitant to say the least. I’d never done anything adventurous with my style, always wearing neutral tones of makeup and only varying my hair with slightly different shades of blonde. Then I realized that summer is coming and it’s the perfect excuse to be “young, wild and free.” Lucky for me, one of my roommates is a dancer who has been doing makeup and hair for years at a level equal to a beautician. If your roommate doesn’t happen to know anything about beauty there are plenty of easy DIY videos on Youtube that walk viewers through the process step by step. Photos by Jenny M.
The dye in the kit was Wella’s Semi Permanent Color Charm Paints valued at $7 per tube. If you decide you want to customize your color, buy a few different ones to mix together. The kit came with plastic gloves, an applicator brush, 2 shades of dye, clear bleach solution to lighten the pigmentation of shades and clear mixing bowls. Before application, make sure that the hair is dry and clean since that’s the best condition for the dye to be applied. I would also recommend covering the surrounding floor area and chair being used in a plastic trash bag to protect it from being partially dyed. The first step is to decide whether to mix a singular shade or several shades into a clear mixing bowl using the mixing brush.
Related: How to Get Your Summer Bikini Body
When the dye is mixed make sure you have everything else in order including gloves, clips and a brush to section the hair starting from the bottom. These sections should not be too thick or the hair dye won’t fully saturate. Before you start on the bottom section, make sure to clip up the rest of the hair so it is out of the way. Keep in mind the thicker someone’s hair is the more sections you will have to do. Take a chunk of the first section and saturate the tips, about an inch lower than how much hair you want colored. Start to feather the color up the hair to create a soft blend from the natural hair color to the dyed section. Continue saturating and feathering the dye into the hair throughout all sections.
Once all sections are colored, allow the dye to sit for the recommended time. In this case, the dye set for 20-30 minutes. Rinse the dye out of the hair but do not use shampoo or conditioner for 2-3 days after or else the color will significantly fade.
The dye can be used to colors one’s entire head but in my case, I decided to dip dye my hair instead with the picture below being the result. In the future I’m going to use less clear mix in order to make the dye more pigmented and cover a wider amount of hair. This was a fun way to ease into experimenting with fun hair colors and I plan on trying some light purples and teals.
Definitely have fun with it and experiment with what you want! Worst case scenario you don’t like it but it will fade within a month and can try again with another shade. These dyes are so easy to use someone who’s never done anything to their hair before can apply them!
The final result(!):
Photos courtesy of author