All my world in one grain of sand

[venta]

Once, long ago, I used to dye my hair regularly. My hair's long, so I only ever go for semi-permanent dye so I don't have to wait for it to grow out. I think I stopped having silly-coloured hair when I started going to business meetings as my CEO's technical advisor and wanted to do an impression of a grown-up professional.

But I don't do that any more, and a few months back I bobbed into Boots on a whim to buy dye. The brand I used to use didn't seem to be available, and Ealing's Boots no longer uses the handy level 1 - level 2 - level 3 categorisation. In fact, they didn't seem to have any semi-permanent dye at all. After a few minutes I gave up on the idea.

Other shops seemed similarly afflicted. There are huge numbers of ludicrous dyes available, but nothing that didn't have scary bleach in it. Turquoise hair would be awesome... But probably not awesome enough to have it slowly disappearing down my back for the next n years.

Then, unexpectedly, Superdrug in Whitby! A nicely categorised display, two for a tenner. Don't mind if I do.

And it turns out... The stuff has improved since I last bought it. It's easier to put on - and it goes further. Despite having mixed up two sets of bottles in anticipation, I only needed one. (Disappointingly, ChrisC refused to let me dye his hair with the spare mixture.)

For the first time ever, the instructions for the allergy test are plausible. They always used to say: mix up the bits, use immediately. Oh, but also do a test 48 hours in advance. At least this one tells you to use one of the unmixed halves for the test. I mean, I still didn't bother doing it, but it's not their fault I'm slipshod.

And here's a thing: the instructions for the allergy test warn you that if you've ever had a black henna tattoo then it's "very likely" you will have become allergic to the hair dye. This is not something I've ever heard before, and certainly not something that festival stalls offering black henna tattoos advertise. In fact, it sounds like black henna tattoos are generally ill-advised anyway; I had no idea. I've never had one, and now probably won't.

Anyway. My hair is now, um, black cherry apparently. As hair colours go it's not that silly - my hair's not very dark, but it's dark enough that semi-permanent dye is never going to have a huge impact. In a slightly dark pub last night, no one noticed my hair had changed colour (or at least, no one commented). I shall have to stand under lights if I want people to notice :-)

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I rarely need two packs of dye; only if I want a really deep and even coverage all over. Which I tend not to. (Currently: green bits at the top, deepening into "midnight blue" at the ends. To make the whole thing properly midnight blue would have taken another box, admittedly.)
Turquoise growing out is less of a problem than you'd think though - if you're prepared to dye over it with a darker colour (e.g. black cherry!) it'd be gone as soon as you did. I've had lots of odd colours in and some wash out quickly, some get dyed over. (The green is one of those. I decided I could only live with "most of it green" for about 3 days.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

My hair is quite a lot longer than yours, I think, but yours is much thicker. Possibly the reason I no longer need two packs is that mine's getting thinner!

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Even at hip length I rarely used two - after a while you're only really needing dye on the roots and near the scalp as ends don't lose as much dye from regular hair washing. You may find if you re-dye in the next 2-3 months you won't even use the whole of one bottle - or rather, you will, but it will be a case of attempting to use it up rather than needing to!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh, and do you bleach before dyeing? I'd have assumed turquoise wouldn't even be visible on dark hair without.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Depends what I'm starting with. If it's been dyed anything too dark (or bright red), yes, bleach is the only way to get a clear colour. Over my own natural hair or lighter dyes, greens and blues work. Dye-stripper like ColourB4 doesn't tend to give me noticeable results - other people get much better results with it though, so this may be to do with how long I've been dyeing it and/or how thick it is.

I have recently been introduced to the idea of galaxy hair which is rather awesome, though I think I need a second pair of hands to get really good results. :D

[venta.livejournal.com]

Galaxy hair, you say! I don't think I can imagine managing to do that on myself, even with extra hands.

Someone we camped near at Glastonbury had multi-coloured hair, not quite in that style, and it looked absolutely brilliant.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I've got the green and the blue currently in there (though some of the green is washing out faster than other bits, thanks to the way I did it), and I have purple dye... this may or may not happen. :)