BigDreams wrote:
I have never died my hair myself....Did you get a friend to do it or actualy do it yourself?
can you tell me how you did it? Did you bleach it first? Does the colour stay in well?

I did it myself, mostly because while I love my friends I wouldn't necessarily trust them not to screw up my hair! I started by bleaching the places I wanted to dye and leaving the bleach on for about 20- 30 min.(although last year I did my whole head purple without bleaching anything, so it can be done that way too.) For the brightest results, you're supposed to get your hair really close to white, but as I said before I'm way too afraid of screwing my hair up. A friend of mine actually gets hers WHITE, but she's got really short hair so she doesn't have to worry about breakage. After rinsing out all the bleach, I put in the color. First I separate the hair I want colored from what I don't (rubber bands are my friends...I actually use the ones you get from the tack store because they're cheap and disposable) and put on latex gloves to keep the dye from staining my hands. I also always make sure to wear a shirt that's old and gross, because it's going to get dye on it. I use a tint brush to start applying color, then I comb it through with a fine toothed comb (actually it's a $1 plastic flea comb bought just for this...all the fine toothed people combs were expensive and the less fine ones didn't get the color in as well. I never said I wasn't cheap!) Once the color's in, I roll it up into mini buns with the el cheapo rubber bands and let it sit. The dye has to be left on for at least 15 min., but I usually let it sit for an hour. I've found that the color stays pretty well. The blue and purple have lasted the best. It's a semi- permanent dye, so it does come out a bit with each shampoo, so I just don't shampoo as often. Using a tiny bit of shampoo followed by more conditioner works for me.

Here's the website of the dye I use:

http://www.manicpanic.com

The reddish magenta was Deadly Nightshade, the blue is After Midnight Blue, and the purple is Ultraviolet. The pinkish magenta was a different brand that I wasn't as pleased with. It came put more easily and it seemed like it rubbed off on EVERYTHING when it was wet. Not cool.