Wednesday, 19 June 2013

oooo someone's got lilac hair!

I tried pink hair a while back and for ages I've been itching to try a new pastel colour. I wanted to try turquoise but I have a feeling that the second that starts to fade it will look incredibly wishy washy. Anyway I decided to go for purple and I looove it. I look like a young Dame Edna.

I thought I would share some tips and tricks to dying because there really weren't that many instructions and I had to try a couple of times before I got it right.
I used La Riche Directions hair dye in Lilac. I love this brand because it's semi permanent and it's conditioning. This means that it isn't going to wreck your hair and also it washes out quite quickly. Some people may not like this but I lie being able to try things for a little while without them being permanent.

On the Directions website it recommends that one pot will cover a shoulder length head of hair. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS! I'm not quite sure why they'd say it actually as it cuts down on their sales. I used two originally and my hair looked decidedly weak and grey rather than lilac. I then went over it with another pot but the back is still less than vibrant so I would probably recommend using four pots for even coverage.
To apply the dye I used my fingers (you should use a tint brush but ahhh well) to rub the dye into the roots and then work it down the entire length of hair. Then you will need to comb the dye until it begins to froth a little. Apparently the frothing tells you that the dye has been activated and can start its work.
When you're done combing bundle your hair under a towel and play the waiting game. The pot recommends you wait 15 minutes. I think this is another gross understatement. The first dye I waited and hour and, like I said before the results looked sooo faded. The second time I left the dye in for about four and a half hours which was a lot better. So if you can just bung it in and then get on with your day.
Finally just wash it out and you're done! Although dying my hair twice was a little bit of a hassle it was good in some ways because it meant that on the second time around I could concentrate the dye on the less vibrant areas rather than just wasting dye on putting it everywhere. It's still a little patchy but I think it works. I'm a fan.

10 comments:

  1. Looks so good!
    One thing I would recommend is getting a darker purple and diluting it with white conditioner then applying that as a dye! That way you only need one pot which will last you aaaaages so is much more cost effective and also you can mix it to the exact shade of purple you want!
    But anyway, I love this!!

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  2. You look good!! I would never dare to dye my hair in a "non-natural colour", but it looks pretty awesome :D Sorry I didn't comment on your holiday posts, I did read them! It was great to follow your Florida highlights :)

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  3. Brave girl, haha I use to have magenta hair back in the day. I just "liked" your post. I just discovered you could do that a few days ago. And you can share too!

    Ali of

    Dressing Ken

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  4. Love! Wish I were still young enough to do that with my hair. Maybe when I retire :)

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  5. I love it! I don't think I would ever be brave enough to dye all of my hair, but I'm thinking of dying my tips a color! I'll have to check out that product!

    XXLizzy

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  6. Oh my gosh SO pretty! I love it!! I'm insanely jealous of anyone with blonde enough hair to dye it on a whim. I had blue in my (very brown) hair for a while, but I had to bleach it a lot to get it to show up and it got so fried and sad. I finally gave up :( I miss it every day though! And I never got to try a pretty shade of lilac like this. Le sigh. Maybe one day....

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  7. so i totally agree with the person that says you should choose a vibrant color and mix it wih conditioner. because bots lilac and the one called pastel pink are not totally covering. the color is not designed to be even, but more lika highlights, like the pastel pink for instance gives you a base om peach color with blonde and pink highlights in it and in my experience the lilac works the same way. anyway, its always good to have it on your hair as long as possible. or use the one called lavender, its more vibrant but still not too dark, and it has these lovely pink tones in it. ah, rambling away being a hair-dye-nerd, i'm sorry about that. (but you really shouldnt need 4 pots, when my hair was your length i used 1 and now that it's longer I use 2...) also, you could try to put the hair color directly onto your hair without making it wet first, sometimes this makes the color stick better.

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  8. I agree, use A LOT of dye when colouring your hair with this dye. I used one pot, and it made my hair all sorts of weird shades (none of which were lilac). Looks great on you though, looks like you found the magic amount of dye :)

    Alex from www.polkadottedpixels.com

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  9. I love it! I am surprised you got the colour you did using Directions Lilac. I wanted to do my roots a different colour and blend it into my blue hair. I bleached the regrowth to a very light colour then used 1 pot of lilac. All it did was act as a toner and didn't leave any noticeable purple pigment.

    Sooo.... It is a great toner! (bonus) but a weak dye. Have to agree with the others here. For other people wanting pastel purple I strongly recommend:

    Use La Riche directions in Violet, mix only 1 quarter tub with a lot of blue/violet toner conditioner. Mix enough to coat all your hair well.
    The toner conditioner carries the pigment better than normal conditioner and gives you more even coverage. Plus this way your 1 tub of La Riche will last you for months!

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