Getting the most out of your hair colour

When it comes to semi-permanent dyes, most people know that they fade really quickly or that some of them aren't as vibrant as they could be.
It can also be quite costly to constantly be buying hair dye especially if you have long hair.
I'm going to share a few tips and tricks that I've learnt on my journey with semi-permanent hair colour as well as being a hair student.
Hopefully these tips and tricks get you more long lasting colour as well as a much more vibrant colour.

The texture of dye

The texture of the dye is one of the most important things when it comes to how vibrant the hair is.
With semi-permanent dyes, you're gonna want to look for something that is thicker such as La Riche Directions or Manic Panic. Dyes like Crazy Colour or Adore are more liquidy and have more of a water content than they do of dye so more water is going into your hair instead of the dye. I use La Riche Directions as it's affordable and easily available.

Put it on dry hair

A lot of instructions on dyes say that hair should be damp when the dye is applied which doesn't make sense really. When hair is wet, the water molecules are in the hair which takes up space in the hair that could have been replaced by dye. So if you put the dye on dry hair, more of the dye molecules will get absorbed into the hair so you should get a more vibrant and long lasting colour.

Try not to put anything on your hair

Hairsprays and products often contain alcohol which draw moisture out of the hair as well as semi-permanent dye. In the past, I've used a lot of hairspray and I've noticed that parts of my hair would be a lighter colour where I'd used hairspray. Dry shampoos can also have this effect especially aerosols cans. A dry shampoo like Lush's No Drought is a god send for semi-permanent colour as it doesn't contain alcohol and stops hair from looking greasy due to less frequent washing. Look for alcohol in the ingredients of products, the further down the list it is, the less there is of it in the product.

Cool water

When you do wash you hair, wash it in cool water. The warmer the water is, the more colour will come out of your hair as it open up the cuticles on the hair shaft.

Make sure that it's absorbed into the hair

When you apply the dye to your hair, you should leave it on until you can touch your hair and no colour goes on your hands. A lot of people like to leave it until the dye dries which they can do as the dye will act as a deep conditioner as well (this is because they're vegetables dyes) which is good but it can be quite time consuming. After about half an hour, you should be able to touch your hair and have a very weak colour on your hand or a whiteish conditioner colour. This means that the pigments of the dye have absorbed into your hair.

Hopefully with these tips, you can get a long lasting and vibrant colour.
I live by these hair tips and I rarely have to dye my hair (about 2-3 times in 3-4 months) and the colour stays pretty vibrant

I hope these tips helped somebody and feel free to message me or leave a comment if you want to know more or if you're confused about something :)

How to bleach dark roots with minimal damage.

Ugh it's that time again, time to do my roots! My hair is naturally dark brown/black. My roots grow to about an inch and a half every 2 months so I do them roughly every 2 months.

It's a ball ache to do my roots but I've found a particular method on how to bleach them with very minimal damaging. COCONUT OIL!! I have always have a pot to hand just for that little bit of shine and conditioning when my hair is a tad lack luster.

Anyways, what you do is saturate your roots or wherever you're going to bleach with coconut oil and then run the excess through the lengths. Like you want it to look like you've dipped your head in a fryer. Let that sit in for at least 1 hour.

 

I usually whack a carrier bag on my head along with a towel wrapped around it to keep in the heat and then I go to sleep with it. Do not wash out the coconut oil. Apply the bleach right on top of it!

Then I apply the bleach to my hair by taking small sections across starting from the nape of my neck to the front of my head. I use TruZone 30vol developer and the TruZone blue powder bleach and leave it for roughly 1 hour or 45 minutes and it looks like this

It's like an orangey/yellow colour. I need it to be lighter so that the colours are more vibrant. So I waited for my hair to dry and then re-did my coconut oil on the roots and waited for 1 hour and then used 30 vol bleach for 30 minutes to get this result.

This is more of a light blonde but there are still some brassy tones so I used PRO-VOKE Touch of Silver shampoo. I left it on for roughly half an hour so that my hair went platinum.

 

This is the result afterwards.

I then wait for my hair to dry and then put on my dye! 

This time I used Manic Panic in the Colours Ultra Violet and Green Envy. In my opinion, they're the same as Directions dye but cost £10 and they both last the same.

I hope this helps someone!

Thank you for reading :)