So I hear you want to dye your hair pink*…

…*or blue or purple or yellow or green

“You know what Medium article you should write next?” my best friend said. “One about what you to do make your hair the colors it is.”

All right, Cailin. Challenge accepted.

You will learn I really only make one face in pictures. Sorry about that.

For the past two years, at least some of my hair has been nearly every color of the rainbow. These past two years aren’t the first time I dabbled in crazy hair color: I dyed my hair super bright red for most of my late teens and early twenties and, after a bout with bleach, stumbled into a color that perfectly resembled a creamsicle popsicle (still my father’s personal favorite in the long history of my hair colors.)

Now, in my wiser years (scratch that — I’m older and have to hold a job where people look at me, so “winging it” has a higher risk/reward ratio), I don’t go the route of “I’m tired of this color — let’s grab a bottle of bleach and see what happens!” I get a lot of compliments about my hair — my favorite among them being “I wish I could do that!” whereupon I spend five minutes convincing whoever I’m talking to that they can, in fact, and should do “that” — and now it’s time to explain what I do when I dye my hair and more importantly how I keep my hair some fluorescent shade of the rainbow.

Question one: did you do that yourself?

Hell no. As I said, back when I was younger, poorer, and much more of a honey badger I did play with at-home hair dyes. But then I learned the valuable lesson of “it doesn’t matter how strong the bleach is or how light blonde your natural hair is, red’s gonna go orange and you’re never gonna fix that on your own.”

Super bleach hair and super dark blue = my hairdresser almost cried.

Perk one: natural blonde means it’s relatively easy to bleach up my hair to a super white shade. However, this can be attained even with dark brown hair. I can’t stress enough that you need to go to a good stylist for this, no matter your color, so you don’t burn your scalp and make your hair fall out of your head. If that sounds scary and you have super dark hair, rocking a bright color on dark brown or black hair can also be amazing: it ends up catching the light like an opal and I love it. But if you want to go super-saturated color, bleach is a necessary step.

Next up: semi-permanent or permanent colors are a must if you want your color to last more than a couple days. There are lots of different brands, so I also recommend going to a salon for a consult: they are usually free. It might sound scary to use something with the “permanent” label but, in actuality, nothing is permanent when it comes to hair dye. Your hair will grow, other hair dyes exist, and your color will inevitably fade and wash out. Using hair dye designed to last for as long as possible buys you time and vibrance. It’s not a marriage contract.

Mixing strands of regular color really helps the grow out phase.

Important tip: I don’t dye all of my hair anymore and am a big fan of the ombre look for both fashion and practical reasons. When growing out a head of bright red hair, my blonde roots made it look like I was balding or something was seriously wrong with my head. By feathering the color into your natural hair and not dying it to the root, you gain a lot of leeway in the growing out-period — which helps a lot when you want to go a couple months before you have to dye it again (or for when you decide you want to go back to your normal color.)

Did you just get that done?

I dyed this 3 weeks ago.

Nope. Generally the answer to that questions is I have not recently gotten my hair dyed. On average, I do get my hair done (both cut and colored) every 2 months, but unless I want the color to wash out (usually so I can do a different shade — I usually swap colors each time I go because I like to give my stylist a challenge) I’m putting in serious effort to keep it as bright as possible. After all: the process can take up to 3 hours (especially if you are getting your hair bleached before the colors goes in) and beyond the expense of time, stylists who do bright colors are on average a bit more expensive. They are worth it — trust me, you want someone who knows what they are doing.

How do you keep it so bright?

Short answer: really, really cold water.

Seriously.

I know. I should wear it like this all the time.

Long answer: because I only have some of my hair dyed, I have to keep it separated from the rest of my hair so that the pieces I want colored stay bright and the pieces I don’t want colored stay normal-looking. This was way more important back when I used to bleach all my hair because bleach likes to slurp up any hair dye that does wash out in the shower and tint the rest of your hair. For separation, I like to employ what I call the “drunken unicorn” method. It’s super sexy.

Important note: directly after you get your hair dyed, you need to go on a hair-washing hiatus for two days. Dry shampoo is your friend during this time. Also ponytails. Or a hat. Or not going outside. Whatever works for you.

When you get back to washing, keep your hair under a shower cap until you are ready to shampoo, then turn your water to the coldest possible setting. If you have a tiny shower like I used to, I recommend doing this in a sink so you don’t have to freeze your ass off. If you have a bathtub, stand as far back as possible and stick only your head in the stream of water, tipped forward. If you have done this for two years and thought “fuck this noise” like me, buy one of those shower heads that comes with a handheld unit you can employ so that you minimize how much of your body you have to stick into a freezing stream of water (unless that’s your jam, in which case, this is probably the hairstyle for you.)

I use color safe shampoo for all of my hair but I wash the natural parts first — again, lean over, this is key so that your little drunken unicorn hair doesn’t touch your normal hair — and i put a little bit of shampoo only on the roots of the dyed piece. It’s a rare day I actually soap up the ends of the dyed hair: every shampoo strips color faster than plain water, your roots need cleaning way more than the rest of your hair, and shampoo will inevitably rinse over your dyed hair while you get all the soap out, so that’s enough to get it clean.

Then, the final step: take out your drunken unicorn ponytail, still keeping it away from the rest of your hair, and use aconditioner that your hairstylist has tinted with hair dye. Then, rinse this out (don’t over rinse!)

If your hair is freshly dyed, I recommend drying the drunken unicorn piece first and then the rest of your hair as an added precaution about dye bleeding into unwanted areas. After about a week and a half, it’s usually pretty safe to towel dry your hair all together.

Don’t you get hair dye everywhere?

Not gonna lie: I didn’t love purple.

Yes and no: definitely more yes when I was new to this and definitely yes when it was dyed dark blue. These days I use primarily white towels and pretend that streaks of bright color all over them is my contribution to modern art. I also dry my hair while still standing in the tub because water drips with hair dye in them wash out of porcelain tubs well but not so much off the toilet seat (as I learned a couple months back.)

What’s the easiest color?

That strip of bleach blonde in the front was a serious PITA for washing.

“Easy” is subjective. The best color for you is what makes you happy and what looks good on you. Warm colors, like pink, are “easier” to control in terms of bleeding but fade pretty fast. Blues have a habit of bleeding everywhere and fading to green. The green can be combatted with cold water (even if you don’t have any hair dye in conditioner) and a solid base in the beginning. I wouldn’t go at-home manic panic with blue and expect amazing long-term results. Mixing two colors is also tricky: one of the two mixed components tends to fade and leave you with a different color a week or two out than the one you originally wanted. Blending multiple colors next to each other (whether natural and dyed or two different dyed colors) is always a pain in the ass to maintain because they really want to bleed into each other and all become a single shade.

Personally, I’ve done loads of shades of red, pink, and raspberry as well as blue, purple and teal. I’m trying yellow in a couple weeks. We’ll see how that goes.

Any other advice before we end Pink Hair 101?

This is my favorite hair color ever. Also, my dog, who is adorable.

Nope, not that I can think of! Feel free to leave a note or respond to the story if you have questions or want the name of an amazing hair stylist in Oakland or Manhattan. Trust me, having a good recommendation is worth its weight in gold.

And good luck with your future pink* hair! I’m a big fan of more people having bright locks, so spread the joy.

If you liked this story, please hit the ❤ button below — and let me know if you have something else you’d like me to write about. You can also tweet to me @dahanese or write comments here to start a conversation!

Header image from www.chicvegan.com