Everything I draw ends up wearing a bow-tie

Multi-coloured Hair Dye Walkthrough

Because a whole bunch of you asked for it! Under the cut because this is going to get long and I’ll be using pictures to help.

SO, you want to be a rainbow, excellent decision! But first things first- if you want bright, long-lasting coloured hair you are going to have to bleach it. Whether it’s dark as a moonless night or sandier than the saharra, bleach will help your hair take the dye and help the dye stay the colour it’s meant to be! However, bleach is the part of the process that can super mess up your hair. If you leave it on for too long you can damage both the hair and the roots, which can lead to breakage or in the worst case hair falling out! SO DON’T DO THAT! Bleaching is not that frightening or difficult, but don’t take it lightly; whatever brand you use follow the instructions, and if it’s a new type for you always do a test to make sure it won’t affect your skin badly.

There are guides on doing that elsewhere though and this guide is really just for the fun part so I’ll get right on with it \o/

I’ve used the flash-lightning bleach kit that Manic Panic sell on their site, partly because I still had some left over colour in my hair. It was still hanging on well to the areas that were bleached last time, but if you look close enough my roots have grown a lot! So a re-bleach was in order. To give you some idea of the before-after look, this is me before;

aaand this is after a 25 minute bleaching session (and yes, I do know I look like a Malfoy)

but that shows you how kick-ass the bleach kit is; no more roots and certainly no left over colour! The instructions are very easy to follow as well, just make sure you rinse and shampoo ALL of the bleach out- it might take a while, but if you have any bleach left over it will keep working on the hair, which for one could damage the hair, but it will also remove whatever colour you try to put on afterwards! Oof! So yeah, rinse rinse rinse.

Also do NOT wear clothes that you will get upset about if they’re ruined at any point during dying or bleaching. You might think this one is obvious, or you might think you’re awesome enough to do this stuff without getting bleach or dye on your clothes- trust me, nobody is that awesome, especially not if sod’s law has anything to do with it.

Next; the SUPER FUN bit, which is to plan a colour scheme! Doesn’t have to be a complicated one, in fact the best combinations are usually the simplest. Opposites on the colour wheel work great, but similar colours like purple and blue blend into each other very nicely. I’m only doing two main colours here, but I’ve gone rainbow before so you can pick as many colours as you want to- just find something that works for you! Keep in mind the end result will almost certainly end up a little different than you expect (expecially if you’re mixing colours like I am), but if your base plan is sound then you can’t go wrong! This time I decided to go for a super weird combination; steely-lilac on top with pink-orange flashes at the side. Why? Because I goddamn felt like it.

For the lilac colour I mixed Manic Panic’s Lie Locks, Blue Steel and the white pastelizer (using a spare container avoids cross-contamination and means you can keep what’s left over!)- I wanted the colour to be fairly pale, so I used quite a lot of the pastelizer.

For the second colour I mixed Hot Hot Pink and Psychedelic Sunset- the pink is very strong, so I used two parts orange to one part pink in this case. I used no pasteliser because I wanted this area to be concentrated, and the orange washes out pretty quickly compared to other dyes. Also, no, I am not being sponsored by Manic Panic, I just really like their colours and the dye is really easy to use- it’s nice and gunky so it doesn’t run, and applying doesn’t really require a brush or anything fancy; all you need are some plastic gloves and away you go!

Before you begin chucking goop on your head, however, you are going to want to use this; vaseline petroleum jelly.

This stuff here is the magic trick in the process, and I wax lyrical about it over here, but in short you want to coat the skin next to your hairline in vaseline (making sure not to get it on your hair!) so that the dye doesn’t stain your skin. Boom- a nice and tidy edge to your muppet-coloured mane.

Now for the hilariously ugly WIP stages. I’m going for a sort of badger-marking pattern here, so I left the ‘stripes’ that I want to be pink untouched. If you want to have clearly defined patches of colour, you need to keep the dyes as separate as possible.

If you’re worried about doing the back of your head, don’t be! I do this with my own two hands behind my head without being able to see a damned thing- practice may play a part, but your body is programmed to move symmetrically. Have a little trust in yourself and you can get those vertical stripes bang on centre every time- if you’re still worried, get a friend to help, or even just ask them to check you’ve got it right. I have wavy hair too, so getting it poker straight isn’t such a priority.

Make sure the hair strands are covered from root to tip; you can generally manage to do this by touch, and there’s no such thing as too much dye! When you’re happy with your first colour’s layout, put on fresh gloves and move on the next.

As you can see the pink is much brighter than the lilac; I always use the lighter colour first, so that I can over-run with the stronger one and blend them together where they meet. You won’t be able to change the darker areas once they’re down, whereas if there’s a light section you want to be dark instead there’s a better chance of being able to correct it. Also, if you started with the darker colour, then tried to over-run with the light colour, there would be a bigger chance of the darker pigment mixing into the light colour, which would muddy things up. If that’s the look you’re going for that’s super! But if you want clear differences between the colours try to keep them as clean and unmixed as much as you can- you can cover areas with foil if you want to be absolutely sure, but it can get a bit fiddly and might require a second person to help.

Manic panic dyes all blend together pretty well (even the turquoize and pink I used before blended into a royal blue when mixed), so don’t worry about where the two sections meet. Just make sure that every part of the hair is covered- as you can see I missed a tiny part just behind my ear there, so I went back and patched it up. If you find that you missed a part when it’s all dried and done you can easily go back and finish it, you just have to put up with having a bit more dying.

Which brings me on to the least joyous part of the job; waiting.

These dyes are henna-based, which means you can leave them on for as many hours are you’re willing to look like a chump for. As you may have noticed, I really don’t have a problem with that, so I leave the dye on for about four to five hours (yes, seriously). If you want to sport this here super-model look, get yourself a shower cap. It’ll prevent drips getting everywhere while you continue doing whatever you do, and containing the dye will make it set into your hair better so the results will last for longer. Also, the longer you leave the dye on, the longer it will stay! If you’re going for a pastel look this is especially important. If you’re using darker colours, such as navy blue or a dark purple, you can get away with a relatively short amount of dye time- but it will still wash out faster than if you leave it for an extra hour or two. The decision is ultimately yours! As for me, I searched for the most ludicrous show cap I could find, and let me tell you there was quite a lot of deliberation over which one to pick.

When you’re finally bored of looking like an idiot, wash it out- it’s recommended that you rinse the colour out with cold or tepid water, as that keeps the dye in your hair better. For the first rinse try to use a stainless steel sink or the like; the stronger dyes can stain porcelain, so try to avoid it for the initial ablutions (unless you don’t mind have a tie-dyed bathtub). From the second wash onwards the amount that comes off isn’t so bad, so you can get away with a slightly warmer experience next time! No shampoo is needed to rinse it out on the first go, and try to use only a little shampoo in the following washes- the less soap you use, the less dye will come out!

I always let my hair dry naturally because it’s an unruly mass of chaos and I like it that way, but I recommend natural drying after the first few washes to let your hair recover from the abuse of bleaching. Use lots of conditioner too- you want that colour to stay on your head? Make sure the hair does too! Treat it nicely! Also, one thing you might not have thought of but is worth mentioning- buy a dark coloured pillow-case! Your hair WILL stain light cloth for the first week or two. It might be a pain, but white or light coloured pillows are no-go for a while, especially if you’ve gone for a dark shade of colour. If you’re like me and you don’t care then you get free multicoloured pillow cases into the bargain \o/

Aaaand that’s about it! This is a lot of text, but when you’re doing it that process is a lot easier than you’d expect, it just involves quite a lot of patience and a bit of daring- but the results are always worth the effort! We officially live in an era where no hair colour is impossible; best of luck, and go have fun!