A few months ago I embarked on a quest to have the most fabulous purple hair. So far I have not had a ton of luck. My natural hair color is medium brown but I normally dye it black. I have heard it almost impossible to bleach it to a light color when you have black dye on your hair.. To start, I spent over 8 hours at the salon and ended up with a tiny purple streak in my bangs, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and bleach a portion of my hair myself. I ended up with the roots very light and the ends reddish brown. I added some purple over that and it is did produce an interesting ombre effect that random people seemed to love. I got quite a few compliments on it. Then my roots start growing out and I decided to bleach again. I bleached over all the previously bleached hair and did a bigger section of hair. It came out quite light and I was happy because I thought the purple would really be vibrant. I added the purple and within a week I was left with dingy gray hair. My hair was FRIED and would not hold color. It felt like muck. SO GROSS. I went in and had over 7 inches cut off and it feels so much better. I also have done numerous deep conditioning treatments and finally my hair is holding color again. Below is my hair journey and opinions on a few different purple dyes!
(stock photos from SallyBeauty.com and Pravana.com)
(stock photos from SallyBeauty.com and Pravana.com)
My first at home bleaching experience. I used Clairol Born Blonde Maxi bleach kit. It costs between $8-$12 depending on where you buy it. I like this kit better than buying the bleach and developer at Sally Beauty because it is easier and you apply it in a bottle just like you would normal hair dye. As you can see the results are UGLY. I was horrified when I seen how light the roots were and how dark everything else was. I was hoping putting some purple over it would look okay.
I put an entire jar of Manic Panic Ultra Violet ($13 at Sally Beauty) all over my whole head and this was the results. I was pleasantly surprised and thought it looked okay. People around town seemed to really like it though. I got quite a few compliments on it. The Manic Panic Ultra Violet is the priciest of the all dyes I used but I prefer the color over all the others. It is such a pretty bluish/purple. Plus I love the cream formula.
The Manic Panic faded and it was time to redye and of course I was broke. I went to Sally Beauty and seen the ION Color Brilliance Brights for only $4.99. I figured it was worth a shot but expected it to suck. The color is much more of a true purple with no violet tones in it. I thought it was pretty but I do prefer my purple more intense. The formula is also a cream but really thick. The thickness came in quite handy when redoing my hair line and roots.
My friend Stephanie was going to the beauty supply to pick some Pravana up for herself and offered to get me a tube of the Violet. I paid under $4 for a BIG tube. The Pravava is also a thick cream formula which I like. I thought the purple was gorgeous and vivid. The only thing I did not like was it stains everything. My straightener was purple, my hands, my pillow, my shower and when a piece of stray hair falls out if it gets wet it leaves a hair stain wherever it lands. ANNOYING!!!
My roots were about a half inch at this point and the grays were starting to show through so I decided to do another round of bleach. Once again I used the Clairol Born Blonde Maxi and below are the results. Like I said above I was JAZZED!! It came out so light and I thought the purple would look absolutely magical over it. Boy, was I wrong!
I used Manic Panic Ultra Violet again. It did apply patchy and look off to me but it was vivid so I was happy. I washed my hair once after applying Ultra Violet and it all washed out to an ugly gray purple color. I applied Ultra Violet again and the same thing happened. My hair felt AWFUL. It was so dry and even when I did deep conditioning treatments it felt like muck. It was bad. It would not hold color , the ends were so frizzy and it would not hold a curl at all.
I ended up going to the salon and having over 7 inches cut off. I went to Sally and bought some Beyond The Zone Color Jams in Purple Passion, heat protective serum, texture putty stuff ( that is the technical name for it...lol) , a deep conditioner, and some gel for my boy's mowhawks. The hair color was $5.99 and came in an applicator bottle but the bottle is quite thick and hard to squeeze with one hand so I emptied mine into a bowl and applied with a brush. The formula seems to be a cream/gel. It is much more of a true purple than even the ION was. I actually find it to be a bit dull and too dark but it does blend well with the rest of my hair. One thing that I dislike is the smell of ALL Beyond The Zone products. They do not small bad, but do not smell good either. They just smell weird. Blech.
I am done with the bleaching. I will keep touching up the purple for a few months and then I think I am going to go a bright red. I think it will blend my roots and bleached pieces nicely. Overall in my purple journey I liked Pravana best. It was the most cost effective and one tube lasted forever. The purple was really pretty and it faded less than the other purples. I also mixed some of it with my condition and I was able to go almost a month in full head dying. I do like Manic Panic Ultra Violet best as far as color but I found it to be the quickest to fade and it was the most expensive. The Ion and Beyond The Zone were both my least favorite. The Ion was cheap but the tube was also small. Both lack the vibrancy that I love in a purple.
Do you have a favorite hair dye? A better recommendation for a purple? Let me know!!
Thanks for reading,
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