How I dip-dyed my hair yo

Here I'll show you how my hair went from this:

           

to this!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1. The colour you want to dip dye

Brands I'd recommend are La Riche Directions and Manic Panic. Manic Panic lasts a lot longer that La Riche.

Choose a colour that you suits your lifestyle: for example, if you're going to school the next day, it might be a good idea to do something a bit toned down, like red.

You can buy the hair dye from eBay and Amazon from as little as £3. You can also get it at some hairdressers, but it might be cheaper online. 

   2. Hair bleach

This is very important if you have any colour hair that is not light blonde. If you try and put colour on dark blonde, brown or black hair, it will do zilch, and you'll be sad :( 

The bleach just makes your hair like a blank canvas, and make the colour as vibrant as possible. I used Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL in Absolute Platinum: this really lightens your hair a lot. 

But be warned! Schwarzkopf only works on"virgin" hair, i.e hair that has never been died. If you try and put it on dyed hair, it will go as orange as an....orange. OK?

If you have died your hair, then go for a bleaching kit, such as L'Oreal Perfect Blonde Highlighting kit.

So yeah, your hair needs to be the colour of custard or lighter for the colour to show up. 

  3. Tin Foil

You need this to wrap your hair in this when the dye/bleach is on. It just makes the colour stronger coz it's keeping in the heat. 

  4. a Paintbrush or similar

You need this to paint the colour on, because it's really hard to just mush it in with your fingers.

  5. PATIENCE

You really need lots and lots of patience. It's better to leave the dye on a bit longer than not enough. Get some movies and chocolate at the ready. 

OKAY, once you've gathered all this stuff, you are ready to rumble. 

 Here is how I did my hair

note: This may not work on all hair types etc, so please don't take my word for it. Just use your common sense and it'll all be dandy.

STEP ONE: COMMENCE BLYEACHING

• Mix up whatever bleach you are using. Cut up squares of tin foil, approx 30cm squared. Get a smallish section of your hair (about 1/6 of your whole hair) and squeeze your bleach over it, with the tin foil behind it. Once your sure you've covered this whole bit, fold the tin foil around it. Only apply bleach up to where you want your colour to go. Mine was quite high, almost up to my ear, but adjust to whatever yo want!
• Repeat the tin foil process with the rest of your hair, until all of it is wrapped in foil (except the top bit of your hair).
• Right, now you wait. I left mine for about 35 minutes, because it was a very strong formula and I didn't want to frazzle my hair. If you are using a weaker formula, or have dark hair, then anything from 45 minutes to an hour should do it. To see if its done, look at a little strand, wipe away the bleach, and see what colour it is. Remember it will be lighter when it's dry.
• Okaaaay, now its time to wash it out. Take off all the tin foil, and look at your hair. It should be a nice light yellow colour, NOT orange. If it's orange, maybe leave the bleach on a little longer.
• Using a shower head, wash all of the bleach off. DEEP CONDITION with good quality conditioner. This helps your hair look less like straw. Let your hair dry naturally, and voila! You now have a perfect blank canvas to put some snazziness onto.

STEP TWO: LE COLOUR

• To put the colour on, you do exactly the same as you did to apply the bleach, but using a paintbrush You can afford to leave it on for longer to achieve a STRONGER colour. Make sure you cover your hair with dye evenly to avoid streakiness (something I should of done when I did mine). I left the lilac in for an hour, and the colour was fairly bright.
• Right, wash it out, and let it dry NATURALLY. Now go out and show everyone your new jazzzzzy hair :)))
• Whenever you wash your hair, be careful. I just shampoo the top bit of my hair, which happens to be the only bit that gets greasy. A good thing to do, to keep your colour bright, is to make a mixture of hair dye and conditioner, about a ratio of 1:5. Leave this for 5-10 minutes to maintain the colour.

I hope this helps anyone who wants to experiment with their hair, and remember, this is what works for my hair, so it may not work for yours!

Maddy x