Beauty Misanthropic

I am dying my hair purple over a bleached base for the first time in over 10 years.  I used to dye my hair pink and purple with cheap youth-market products like Special Effects back in college.  I've dyed my hair various shades of purple brown and red brown and pink brown with 30 or 40 developer to keep my hair more in line with "employment-friendliness" since then.  But as you probably already know, on dark hair, it will only result in highlights, or being able to see the color in the sun.  But I am ready to try more intense purples again.

I have been coloring my hair since I was a young teen, but I am not a pro.  I just try new things and still figuring out what works the best for me.  The only sure advice I can give you is to avoid those drugstore box dyes and get fresh pro supplies from a pro supplier like Sally Beauty or through internet retailers.  Also, you get what you pay for IMO - on average you will get more attractive results from more expensive pigment and developer because the colors are more complex.  You can get all the supplies your salon has and do your own hair for way less money.  And salons are not perfect, I've seen and myself experienced bad dye jobs from the so-called pros.  Once you learn the basics of what gets mixed with that, you just have to figure out what colors look best for you (is it ash-base? red? neutral? etc, all shades have base notes, some will look better and more natural on you than others).


Step 1: Create Bleached Out Base Hair

This is my natural hair color (darkest brown) with only about 2 inches of virgin hair at the scalp, the rest has been dyed at least once.  I do not dye every month, more like every 3-4.  My last color was Pravana Chromasilk Intense Violet Brown.

This is my first time using Joico hair color.  So, I first bleached my hair with Joico Vero K-Pak Creme Lightener + 30 vol. developer (1:1) for about an hour from start to finish, from nape to front.  I sectioned off my hair into 3 and tried to work as quickly as I could.  It did not take very long for the virgin hair to go golden blonde, but as you can see from the picture, the previously dyed hair is not working well with this bleach.

After an hour, I decided to go and and rinse and then redo the darker bits later, for fear that I would lose too much hair if I left it.
Very disappointing!  The level of lightening is not good for an hour of bleaching.

The next day I rebleached with the Creme Lightener + 20 vol. developer (in concern for my hair quality...though I wonder if I should have gone with 40 vol. to begin with).  This time I left it for an hour and a half.  So this is now 2.5 hours total.
It did get lighter, but there is still a huge difference between the virgin hair and the previously-dyed hair.  The first pic shown is a little dark and the second is a little light, but the second go-around did even out a little more than the first round, although I think I still somehow managed to miss a stray dark strand here and there.

I can really only recommend this bleach for virgin hair.  I think I got better results in the past trying to bleach out non-virgin hair using blue powder type bleach.  I am worried that the purple is now going to be very uneven, but I am not bleaching a third time.  The damage is not terrible, but my hair is definitely going to need some TLC now.

Pros:

- bleached out virgin hair fast and evenly
- less damage than usual to hair texture
- did not itch or burn the first go-around!
- chemical smell is not unbearably strong, comparatively mild
- very little hair fell out

Cons:

- way more expensive than powder bleach
- super fail-y at bleaching non-virgin hair
- and, one really big con, for me, is how incredibly difficult this was to rinse out. Basically both times I used it, with 2 different brand developers (one cheap, one expensive), it turned into a slightly gluey, super oily sludge that stuck to my hair and skin like I couldn't believe. You have to rinse this stuff FOREVER, and I had to shampoo my hair with big handfuls of lathering shampoo THREE times, and then I had to scrub and scrub all my skin twice with a scrubby sponge. It also made my tub bottom dangerously greasy. I think it must have super thick oil that protects your hair from damage, but is also a gigantic PITA to deal with. So I will not be buying this lightener again when it runs out. I would rather have more damage than this gunk clogging my pores.

Step 2: Add Color

The recipe I am trying out is -
4/5 (full tube) Joico Vero K-Pak Chrome V4 Passion Fruit
1/5 (.5 oz) Joico Vero K-Pak Chrome RRV Really Red-Violet
+
1:2 ratio (5 oz) with Vero K-Pak Chrome Activator Creme Developer (deposit only developer, does not lift, has no "volume number")

About 8 oz of color is right for me, but I have extraordinarily thick hair that sucks up the mix like a sponge so I have to slather it on thick.  I would need even more if I had longer hair.  I have always had to double or triple portions/boxes.  If you have shorter and/or thinner hair, adjust accordingly.

I could not find the link again, but I got the mix recipe from someone else's blog or forum comments somewhere on the intertubes. My goal was to have a somewhat red-toned dark purple, like basically a darker red-plum.  When I mixed everything, the mix looked the right color (like hex code 660022, for reference).  The RRV is a very very strong pigment, and should definitely be using sparingly, like I did, unless you are after more of an intense red with purplish tones.  Passionfruit looks like a cool light blue-purple from the tube, and if you just used that color, I am not sure if it would be a red-purple or a blue-purple.


- mixed smoothly and evenly with ease (not technically a big deal, I've had no issues using lumpy color, but it's sort of a pet peeve with me)
- dyed evenly over a non-even base
- almost no smell, seems to have some kind of nice smelling added perfume also
- not irritating to skin beyond the annoying wet feeling
- did not seem particularly damaging, seemed like no more hairs fell out than normal rinse
- very little skin staining (just on the nape of my neck, should come out fine on next bath, probably only noticeable because I am looking for it)
- rinsed out reasonably easily

Important: colors like these will often super super stain your skin and your stuff, be careful about splattering it everywhere!  This also includes your bathtub when you are rinsing it out, so check over and clean that tub ASAP or you may not be able to get the stains out later.

I applied this the same way, sectioning off my hair and working back to front.  I massaged the mix into my hair a little when I was done, then covered with a plastic cap.  Left it in for about four hours (from start of application).  The color mix turned a super dark purple shortly after applying.  Over time, my plastic cap actually developed steamy water droplets all over inside, which has never happened before (dunno what it means, but interesting to me), and inside the cap the mix stayed very moist and wet.


Here is my hair air dried, no styling.  The color result matched pretty close to the dye mix color.  It did turn out just a little more red, and more dark, than I desired, but these things are always a crapshoot the first time, and I'm generally pretty satisfied.  It will soften after a few shampoos, and it always takes me a little while to figure out if I like a dye job or haircut, anyway.

I am surprised at how much of a black base this haircolor has.  It's very multifaceted and changes color quite a lot as it moves, and you can see what looks like pure black strands at times.  However - it came out extremely evenly and you totally can't tell any color differences at either end, and I definitely can't say that even about some simpler dye jobs I did over non-bleached hair in the past.  It looks like an expensive and professional dye job (not sure if it looks that way in the photos).

This is actually the most expensive at-home job I've ever done, around $65, although most ingredients aren't used up, so next time repeat will be much cheaper.  A Joico dye job at a salon would be approximately twice that cost, at least.

The last 2 inches of my hair is a little dry and straw-like, but for having bleached my hair over two hours, it's really in great shape, from my experience.  I only used normal conditioner (which I rinsed a lot) and very light leave-in conditioner and I was able to easily brush through my soaking wet hair completely snag-free.


Disclaimer: I am not a professional.  Hair color is risky.  You can lose your hair, develop an allergic reaction, or have other weird freak results sometimes.  I am not liable for you copying me, do so at your own risk.