I Whip Ma Hurr Back n' Forth!

So Yeah... Ma Hurr. It's been rather, erm, colourful. Wanna know how I make myself look like a super magical Unicorn? Then read on dear friend!

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Hurr History

I should have know things would end up this way really. The warning signs were there from an early age. I used to beg my mother to let me use those 'wash in, wash out' kits from Wella that came in the little sachets and nearly always made an absolute mess of your entire bathroom. As I got older I started experimenting with semi permanent dye, browns, reds, there was even a rather cringeworthy period when I decided to go black for a while, not a good look on someone with basically transparent skin.

Basically, I just enjoyed mucking around with my look. I was always careful to use products without ammonia, and made sure I gave my locks some down time every so often. When I started to have some disposable income available (yeah... we all know I mean a student loan) I treated myself to professional colouring, and a love affair with ombré began. There was a glorious period when my hair was basically a lions mane. I combination of layers of ombré and a left over red tinge from some previous experiment meant my bed hair had me resembling Muffassa on a daily basis.

When I finished uni, started a job in London and moved outta my parents house and into a flat, money got tight again, which meant I went back to tinging my own tresses. In an attempt to hold onto the ombré I hit up the blonde. Slowly but surely the blonde travelled further and further up towards my roots until one day I went the whole hog and adopted a full head of sunkissed hair.

For the whole of Autumn / Winter I stuck with the golden blonde, but as spring came around and summer loomed I went lighter and lighter until I was pretty much platinum; and people what is platinum if not a blank canvas?

So I went for it. I started with just a small section of pink, but the coloured area grew until it was nearly the underneath of one side of my hair. I didn't want to go all pink (it really would not have suited my skin tone) so I thought I'd whack a different colour on the other side and see how that went. Eh Voila! Blue was born!

Now with the sky turning grey and my slipper socks being pulled out from their lurking place at the back of the draw I'm heading back into the golden age. I'll probably loose the colour all together over the winter. Deep red and dark plum lips look far better framed by milk and honey than sherbet!

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The Home Job How To


I colour my hair myself. I know that this would be considered a cardinal sin by some of you, and I respect that entirely. However I don't have the time or the money to visit a salon every few weeks and I like the freedom that comes with brightening my own barnet.

I'm not overly precious when it comes to my hair. I don't mean that I don't look after it. I'm actually pretty on top of that side of things. No sulphate shampoo / conditioner, an army of hair masks and  leave in treatments, and I rarely style it using heat. What I mean is that when it comes to colouring my hair I'd rather give it a go than shy away and always wonder. Thing is, you can always dye over whatever blunder happens to occur, and if things get really bad you can get a professional to sort it out. I'm more anxious about getting my hair cut than I am about turning a section bright blue.

So yeah, if your attitude to hair colour is slightly less Gun Ho! than mine, maybe head to BLEACH or try hair chalk before embarking on permanently rainbowing your locks.


However ff you want to recreate my look then instructions and a kit list are below!





You will need the following:


Hair Dye - I use the Fudge Paintbox range in the shades 'Vendetta Red' and 'Blue Velvet'

Tin Foil

Protective Gloves (usually available in the household cleaning section of most supermarkets)

Old Newspaper

A Comb / Brush

Hair Grips (not bobby pins but the big toothed suckers!)

A Old Towel

A Plastic Bag


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Step One

Brush your hair and divide it into sections, to dye and not to dye. For me this means gathering up the top layers of hair, from about the tip of my ear upwards, and plonking this on top of my noggin and dividing the remaining under layers of hair in two. Basically make sure any hair you don't want coloured is secured firmly out the way.



Step Two

Newspaper everything! Hair dye is a bitch. If it gets on your clothes / floor / anything it WILL stain. I newspaper my 'work area' and stand on a really big old towel when I'm applying the dye.



Step Three

Gloves. Pull each one on while extending your arm letting it snap back and cackling (ok this is optional but I find it highly amusing... ahem). Once on, unscrew the lids of your hair dye and place them on your newspapered work surface (trying to undo them later when your hands are covered in dye results in waaaay more mess to clear up). Grab your tin foil and rip off sections about 45cm in length (that's one and a half x a standard ruler, if your doing just a small strip then 30cm will do fine!). If your doing two colours you want four bits of tin foil.



Step Four

Take your first colour and squeeze about a walnut sized amount of dye into one hand, go for the fingers rather than the palm. Start from the top of the hair near the roots and carefully start smothering the dye all over the section you want coloured. If you need more dye squeeze a little out at a time. Really get a good amount on there. When your done hold the dyed section up and slide a piece of foil underneath (so the hair is roughly in the middle), then fold or crunch the foil round the hair to encase it.



Step Five

You have two options here. If you're impatient, like me, then carefully grab a second piece of foil and whack it over the first piece just to double make sure everything is contained and your not going to leak dye all over yourself / the sink / the cat, and move onto the other side. Or you can go rinse your gloves off thoroughly (make sure to dry them on some kitchen towel) then add the outer layer of foil (less chance of mess) then move onto side number two.



Step Six

Do the second side the same as the first. Now I don't bother washing my gloves between colours. I start with pink and move onto blue, sometimes this means I'll get a small strip of purple thrown in the mix but I rather like it. If you are using colours that wouldn't blend well then I suggest rinsing.



Step Seven

Remove gloves and wait. I leave my dye on for around 45mins. Usually I spend this time watching cat videos, drinking a cuppa and being mocked by my flatmates for wondering round looking like a prat.



Step Eight

WASH. I tend to pull the tinfoil off, pop it in the plastic bag and then into the bin (the bag reduces the likelihood of the dye getting on anything should any mishaps occur with the bin being knocked over / bag splitting), jump in the shower and get rinsing. If you have sensitive skin then I'd advise kneeling over the side of the bath / shower and getting a friend to help you wash the dye out. I've never had any issues but better to be safe than sorry and all that jazz.

Once the water runs clear then I shampoo and condition as normal (or use a hair mask if you have one handy). Using a colour friendly shampoo at this point is a must. Steer clear of anything by head and shoulders, that stuff majorly strips colour, and it's certainly not the time for anything 'clarifying'.



Step Nine

Give your hair a quick gentle squeeze then wrap up in an old towel (it doesn't matter how well you rinse there always seems to be some colour residue, though only for the this first wash in my experience).



Step Ten

Dry and style as normal. Day to day I use a leave in conditioner and let mind dry naturally. On occasions where I've died my hair and then want to style it I make sure to use a heat protectant, leave in conditioner and an oil.



TADA!


UNICORN!!!

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Tips and Tricks:


If like me you dye your whole head a base tone as well as sections of colour, always do this first. I'm talking the day beforehand if possible. On one occasion I attempted to top up my blonde and do the colour at the same time. The result was a slightly lime green effect just near the roots of the coloured pink section of hair where the blonde dye had overlapped with the Vendetta Red. I sorted it easily by popping a bit more red dye over it the next day but yeah... something to avoid there.


If you want to keep the colour super vibrant then depending on how often you wash your hair it's likely to need re-doing every couple of weeks. Personally I went in for about once a month and over the weeks the colour would dim and turn a pastel hue which was rather lovely.


For all the blondes out there who want to keep their platinum locks looking luscious, Fudge also do a 'Whiter Shade of Pale' toner and mixer that works really well at eliminating brassy tones.


If you are dying your hair for the first time. Always do a test patch. You need to make sure the colour is going to work with your hair and that you don't have a reaction to the dye.


Try and use a no ammonia dye where possible. Be kind to your hair.
You'd rather it didn't fall out right?

If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll answer as best I can :)

Go forth my little mermaids. Go forth and colour!