My hair has been a variety of colors. For the most part of my life, it has been a dark brown-almost black shade. Thanks to that whole aging thing, there is now a good amount of grey in there too. That is one of the reasons I elected to dye my hair. I have done the usual boxed dye that you can buy in almost any store but I was never really impressed with the results. My next attempt was using henna hair dye from Lush.  It was slightly better but a lot of work. Lately, I have been using either Manic Panic or Ion Color Brilliance. These are the dyes I'm going to talk about today. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to hear about the other dyes as well!

In this super old picture from 2007, you can see my hair in it's natural state. Very curly and very dark. How do you go about turning dark hair into blue hair? It's really not that difficult. You just need some bleach. I know, it sounds scary, but it will be OK! Promise!

Like most people, I was terrified of bleaching my hair. So, for my first bleaching and dye job, I turned to the professionals. I went to a reputable local salon and had them bleach my entire head. It took quite awhile for my whole head to turn that lovely yellow color. I think it ended up being somewhere around 60 to 90 minutes. I've heard horror stories about hair falling out or scalp burns but none of this happened. I think boredom would have killed me first. 

After the bleach, the hairdresser dyed my hair bright red. Once again, this took forever. In the end, it took about three hours to bleach and dye my hair. And most of that time was spent sitting around waiting for the magic to happen. Even though I was happy with the results, it was rather expensive to go to a professional. I decided that I didn't want to spend that much every six weeks to touch up my roots.  So, despite my fears, I took it upon myself to do it at home.

First, I'd like to say that I am lucky enough to have a husband that is willing to help me with this process. Since I don't have eyes in the back of my head, it gets a little difficult to see back there. We work together on the project. I get the bleach and the dye ready; he paints it on my head. A partnership, indeed.

In order to get my hair to that nice yellow color, I use Manic Panic Flash Lightning bleach kit in 30 volume. Everything you need is in the box and it is super easy to mix together. Simply pour the bleach powder into the supplied container then add the cream developer. Mix until smooth and creamy. (Yeah, the directions say that.) Then you use the supplied paint brush, excuse me tint brush, and brush it on your hair. Once it is applied, you stick a plastic cap on it and wait. 

But waiting is hard, yo. Thankfully, you don't have to wait very long! Even though my hair is super dark, it only takes about 20 - 30 minutes for my hair to reach the desired yellowness. It is amazing! 

When your wait time is up, you shampoo the crap out of your hair. I hate this part the most because it makes my hair feel like straw. That is why they invented conditioner!  However, you don't want to use that yet. 

So, you got all the bleach out of your hair and you let your hair dry. Don't put your dye on wet hair! If you are too impatient to wait for it to air dry, you can use a hair dryer. Just don't fry your hair too much. 

From here, you just put on your favorite color of your favorite brand of hair dye. Personally, I have used Manic Panic's Vampire Red and Manic Panic's Atomic Turquoise. I just dyed my hair last night and I switched it up to Ion's Cyan color. It is a little darker than AT but that is OK. Head over to my Instagram to see pictures of the new color. 

Once the dye is on your hair, put on a new plastic cap. You can add a little bit of heat from a hair dryer, if you want, but it isn't necessary. How long you leave the dye on is up to you. I have had good results leaving it in for only a half hour and I have had good results leaving it in overnight while I slept. Either way is fine. It mostly depends on what color you are looking for. Do a little bit of research to find what works best for your particular color. 

And that is it! Now your hair is a brilliantly funky color! Feel free to ask my any questions in the comments. I will do my best to answer what I can. Are you interested in reading about using henna on your hair instead of cream dyes? Let me know! The more funky hair we have, the better life is!