I've been thinking of colouring my hair for a while now and have always wanted ombre hair, but at the same time didn't have the heart to let go of the blonde mane of hair I have reluctantly kept for all this time. So a few days ago, I thought bugger it - let's do this!
Having bleached my roots a week prior and still seeing a yellow tinge, I thought I would re-bleach and tone so I would have no hint of regrowth when colouring the ends. I sectioned my hair down the middle and tied the ends to where I wanted the ombre to begin. At first I used a bit of Purple Hill (Fudge Paintbox) mixed with conditioner, and the more I put on the more sloppy I became. I grabbed Cyclamen (Crazy Colour) and added it into the mix. I've always loved blending colours together as they pretty much act like paint, although my intentions were never to be pink!
I ended up with a pink and purple hue. If I was aiming for that colour I would of been pleased, but my moment of indecision and carelessness had left me irritated at what I had done. So the next morning I decided to bleach bath the ends to remove as much colour as I could. Doing this is pretty simple; you just mix up a small amount of bleach powder and a low developer (10 or 20 vol), and combine with an equal amount of shampoo. I painted this on the ends of my hair and wrapped in foil to retain some heat and process quicker. My ends are screaming for a trim, but I begrudge it for the moment as I want to grow my hair past the length it always seem to stay at. After 10-15 minutes, I opened the foil and the colour had almost gone, except for a few deep purple hues. This didn't both me as much, as my main aim was to get rid of the pink.
This time around, I decided against tying my hair off as I think it makes it more difficult to saturate strands and instead, opted for spreading the hair out on foils to give it a less levelled look. Keeping the Cyclamen firmly away from my mixing bowl, I used only Purple Haze and conditioner this time. At first I added about a teaspoon of colour into conditioner and saturated both sides of the hair. I then added more colour to the remaining mixture and painted it onto the ends, so it would add a gradient effect. After leaving it for 30-45 minutes, I washed it out using cold/tepid water. (TIP: When using high pigment colours, to retain the colour use only cold/tepid water as it will help lock it the colour and prevent running. This way you will be able to keep the colour for longer! :))
Ultimately, this is what I was left with. This picture shows the colour better for what it looks like in 'real-life'. In pictures it keeps coming out a more standard purple colour as opposed to the lilac/lavender it presents. So after my silly decisions the first time around, I corrected it and love the bit of change I have injected into my hair.. for now that is!
If you are looking to use a bit of colour, you can pretty much combine colours together or pop some conditioner in to 'weaken' the mixture to get the desired shade you want. There will forever be an ongoing battle as to what hair dyes give you the most longevity, but they pretty much all will give you at least a few washes out of them, or more if you stay away from washing your hair with boiling water!
If you are looking to use a bit of colour, you can pretty much combine colours together or pop some conditioner in to 'weaken' the mixture to get the desired shade you want. There will forever be an ongoing battle as to what hair dyes give you the most longevity, but they pretty much all will give you at least a few washes out of them, or more if you stay away from washing your hair with boiling water!
xx
