A Question About Hair

[lydy]

Does anybody else dye their hair at home for kicks and giggles?  I've found this lovely blue dye by Arctic Fox.  It's a "semi-permanent" dye, which means that it washes out over time.  Since I'm startling with quite dark brown hair, the result is a story-book blue-black hair, just the other side of natural black, with the grey hairs individual strands of electric blue in sunlight.  I look like an evil witch-queen.  It pleases me mightily.  I wish it didn't wash out so fast, but my air doesn't really keep dye in it, even when done professionally, and blue dye is notorious for not being very long-lasting.  

The one really annoying thing is the thirty minutes of heating it with a blow dryer once it's been applied.  So boring. And loud.  And tiring.   So I googled "electronic do rag", which eventually led me to "thermal beauty caps."  There are a couple different styles on Amazon for about $30, and then there are some "gel caps" which you heat in the microwave, and then wear, which run about $15.  And...I dunno.  Anybody have any sense of whether or not it's worth the money, and if there would be any issues with using one of those, instead of the blow dryer?  

Comments

[rushthatspeaks]

I have been dyeing my hair blue for fifteen years now (granted, I bleach it first) and have been getting perfectly reasonable results just by wrapping my hair in an ordinary plastic grocery bag and sitting in a warm room for an hour before I rinse.

Now, mind you, your specific brand and flavor of blue dye, which I have not tried, may genuinely be heat-activated, but over fifteen years I've gone through three kinds of dye (Manic Panic, Special Effects, and most recently and confusingly the best of the lot, the CVS house brand, Splat) and all of them have a) told me to blow-dry for half an hour and b) been fine with a plastic wrap and sitting for an hour instead.

My suggestion would be to try wrapping it and sitting for an hour, rinse out a lock to see if it's taken, and then doing the blow-drying if it hasn't.

I've never heard of the thermal caps, but it's neat that they exist.

[lydy]

The dye takes, I'm just hoping to find a way to get it to be a little more permanent and a little less semi. Possibly I should look into Splat. I won't bleach my hair first, that's way too much like work. But I don't mind wandering around the house for a couple of hours wrapped in saran wrap.

[lydy]

I've tried Splat, and I really like it. It's somewhat more vibrant, and I think it is longer lasting, though it's hard since I'm not making a clean comparison. I didn't blow-dry it, but I did leave it on for four hours instead of one hour, and I used six ounces of dye instead of four ounces.

My bathroom looked like I'd murdered a smurf, after I was done. Must be more careful during the "comb through hair" phase.

[gracedpalmer]

I have hip-length medium-brown hair, and I keep the front part either blue or purple. I use semi-permanent dyes and have never done the heating part, but get pretty long-lasting color (2-3 months) by leaving the dye in for 4-8 hours under a regular plastic cap. It's annoying, but doesn't damage the hair and definitely improves the longevity.

Caveat: I've used Manic Panic, Special FX and Punky Colors, but never Arctic Fox. It does seem to be the same type of dye, however.

[lydy]

Well, today I left it in for three hours, instead of just one, so we'll see if that increased the longevity. I've been wondering about trying Manic Panic, since a lot of my friends seem to like it.

[gracedpalmer]

Manic Panic isn't the absolute best of dyes, but it is readily available and comes in a lot of colors.

Good luck with your dye! I hope it stays put for a while.

ooh, blue-black hair!

[bibliofile]

Thank you for posting this! I got a Black Friday special of lavender, which darkened the brown and colored the grey. (I have salt-and-pepper coloring, these days.) I liked the effect, but I can't afford salon dyeing.

[haertstitch]

there's a non permanent pink
that is very permanet

[carbonel]

I have one of the old-fashioned cap-type hair dryers that I got from Freecycle to use it for when I was henna-ing my hair. It concentrates heat at the back of the head, but it does get warmth all over.

Since I'm not using henna at the moment, you're welcome to borrow it, as long as you promise not to throw it out without checking with me first.

[lokifan]

I used to have hair that colour! For two years or so, and it was pretty great :) I was nineteen - I'll have to try it again for better blue highlights when I start greying!!