The end of the school year is fast approaching and many high schoolers are impatient for the arrival for summer. Not just for a three month break from homework and teachers, but because that means they get to dye their hair the bright, vibrant colors most schools ban. Here’s how to properly dye your hair for the summer.
First, you’ll want to bleach your hair. If you already have bright blonde hair with very little orange to it, you’re already one step ahead. If your hair is darker, however, this is an important step. Bleaching your hair gives those unnatural colors to pop and last longer. If you’ve never bleached your hair before, you may be hesitant – that’s okay, it’s harmless if you do it correctly and use a good brand. I find the brand Splat has a good bleaching kit, although it can be messy.
With your bleach, dye the parts of your hair that you want colored. Some kits come in a bottle like any other hair dye, some are a powder that you have to mix in a bowl; it all depends on which brand you buy.
Next, you’ll notice that your freshly washed bleached head is orange. To eliminate this, you’ll have to buy a toner. This tones out all of the orange and brassy hues to your hair and even out the blonde. If you put in your toner and find that your hair is still too brassy, I would recommend buying L’OREAL Brass Banisher. It removes extra brassiness, leaving you with the perfect shade of blonde. Ask a sales rep, hair stylist, or google which volume of toner you should use for the specific bleach you used, because the volume is very important and specific for the best and healthiest results.
Next, you should be ready to dye your hair. I would recommend not doing all of these steps in the same day or even a couple of days. The volume of the bleach and toner you use could seriously damage your hair, so try to be patient and wait a good amount of time between each dying process (a week or two).
Once you pick your hair color, it’s time to dye! Depending on which brands you pick, this process could alter, but I always like to use Manic Panic colors. They’re very vibrant and fade really well and doesn’t leave your hair looking like a gross mess.
Most hair dyes will last about 2-3 months, if you wash your hair with color safe shampoo and conditioners or you could continuously retouch your hair every few weeks. I like manic panic for this part because not only do the colors fade out really nice, but the dye come in containers that you can use to retouch up the color which doesn’t force you to go out and buy another bottle every time you want to re-dye it. Don’t worry, these colors will wash out in time for next school year. A few washes with dandruff shampoos and a little baking soda will quickly rinse out the color.
Color safely and have fun!
