Achieve Vibrant Purple Hair at Home

I used to have a folder on my phone with images of purple hair pulled from Pinterest.  One day I found a box of deep purple dye at the drugstore (it was Vidal Sassoon London Lilac - which I'd still recommend) and dyed the under layer of my hair purple.  Once I fell in love with it, I then decided to make it official and headed to the salon.  I did that for while then I decided that I didn't really want to pay a zillion dollars to get my hair dyed each month, I tried to find a cheaper alternative.  

The dye I used in the salon was Pravana, I'm pretty sure I used the color Wild Orchid on the bottom layer of my hair and then Violet on the top layer.  You can find Pravana online at places like Ebay and Amazon for about a drug store price.  However, if you don't like to wait, you can head to the actual drugstore and pick up Splat Hair Color.

I found Splat after going to Sally's only to find that the only bright colored hair dye was temporary.  Splat does make temporary color however the range of permanent hair dye colors is great.  I chose the color Lusty Lavender as I thought it would be something different than what I had, however the lavender color closely matched the Wild Orchid color from Pravana.  Eventually I decided to try out the other purple color, Purple Desire.  As of this post, my hair has a layer of Purple Desire on the top layer and then the rest of my hair is Lusty Lavender.

Each box comes with a bleach kit and the color.  If you have medium length or longer hair, you may need two boxes but at about $11.99 at Walgreens (where I buy mine), that's pretty affordable.  The cheapest I've found it was Target, but the shade range is limited.

This is my hair just with Lusty Lavender, you can see it's more pink than purple on bleached hair.  It looks nothing like the box and never did!  It also really sticks to well bleached areas, like my roots.

I would suggest getting a bowl and brush from Sally's as this will make for easier application.  Pick up a box of gloves as well!  The first go round I did not use a bowl and a brush.  I found that my hair did not bleach evenly because I ran out of bleach towards the end (I would recommend getting two boxes to start with if you're hair is shoulder length or longer!)  With good rationing and bowl + brush, I might have been able to make the bleach go through the length of my hair.  I also missed pieces when I was using the dye applicator provided with the box so I used a second box (just the dye) to touch up the places I missed.  The third time I dyed my hair, the bowl and brush helped tremendously.

I recently re-dyed my hair.  I started with the bleach first, just on the roots.  The bowl and the brush were very helpful here because I only needed a little bit of bleach to do all of my roots.  I sectioned my hair into very thin layers and went all the way around bleaching my roots, using a mirror to help me see the back when I needed.  When in doubt, I made the layer of hair very thin to make sure I didn't miss any parts.  Once this is rinsed out you'll need to dry your hair to apply the dye.  I usually do the bleach one night then the dye the next.

When I went in with the dye, I did the same thing - sectioned my hair into very thin layers and then started at the root and pulled the color through with the brush.  Instead of doing my roots first and then the rest of my head, I did each section all at once because it was easier for me.  To get the top layer a different shade of purple I first sectioned a U shape of hair from about my temples back.  Using a clip, I kept this section up an out of the way.  You don't have to have multiple bowls either - I rinsed my bowl & brush between applications and made sure to dry them.

This purple color will stain!! So to be careful I suggest getting all the bathroom rugs and other stuff out of the way.  Use an old towel over your sink and just take it slow.  You won't be a pro the first time you do this but you'll get better, promise.  The water in the shower will continue to run purple for quite a while - even up to the point the next month where you need to dye it again.  So be careful when you're hair is wet that you're not sleeping on the queens sheets!  Make sure you dry your body super well, too, because you don't want purple foot prints on the carpet down the hall.  I'm lucky that we use black towels!  Also don't put your towel on the floor or on something else while it's wet as the purple might leach onto the carpet, tile, pile of dirty clothes.  Wash these towels together too so your other clothes don't end up stained.

To keep my hair color lasting longer I try to shampoo it at most 3 times per week.  When I do shampoo I use the Redken Color Magnetics shampoo and then whatever conditioner I have on hand.  Splat also makes a small bottle of shampoo and conditioner to preserve color.

Overall, I am very impressed with this dye and have gotten many compliments on it.  I will continue to use this brand as I think it lasts long enough & the price is decent.  I highly recommend these kits to anyone who is looking to maintain fun colored hair, permanently, at an affordable price!

I hope this was helpful!  Do you have any fun hair coloring tips?

xoxo, Moe