Blue hair dye over brown hair?

[cassidy_2711]

Has anyone ever dyed their brown hair blue without bleaching? What did the color look like, and what brand of dye did you use? Would it fade to green?

[nekosan]

Yes. I used some color of Manic Panic (it was so long ago, I don't know the exact shade). It came out with green undertones. (Temporary veggie dyes don't stick or show on my hair that well.)

The biggest takeaway I got is: don't dye your hair blue if you are under 5'4". From a sample size of three - 4'11.5", 5'1/2"', 5'2" - short and blue equals smurf. That was the early 90's; maybe people wouldn't jump to that so fast now. Then - it was annoying, and not something I'd want to repeat. Your mileage may vary.

[antler_tines]

It depends on how dark your brown hair is I think. I used to use special effects blue velvet and their electric blue to dye the bleached parts of my hair. I always got some in the rest of my hair too but it is pretty dark brown so it only showed as a sheen. I think it will also be different if you use a blue/green (like teal ) or a blue/purple ( indigo ) the special effects blue velvet never went green on me because it has more purple under tones with no green. You could always do a strand test using a piece of your under layer where it won't be noticeable.

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

One word: Dont.

[cassidy_2711]

One word: Dont.

Reasoning?

[nekosan]

Well - again, from a sample size of three (dark brown, medium brown, blonette) - blue over unbleached hair was varying grades of not-entirely-pleasant green. I think that blue is one of those colors that really needs bleach to show up the way you want it to.

[cassidy_2711]

Well - again, from a sample size of three (dark brown, medium brown, blonette) - blue over unbleached hair was varying grades of not-entirely-pleasant green. I think that blue is one of those colors that really needs bleach to show up the way you want it to.

I was thinking of a dark purply blue just on the underneath of my hair incase it does look bad. But I know what you mean.

[antler_tines]

I wish I had a picture from when I dyed mine. I did for years and always used special effects brand. The blue velvet is super dark blue with purple under tones. Mine never went green, but I couldn't promise the same results. it also faded really quickly from my unbleached hair.

[Aphra]

I have - I used Directions Midnight Blue over virgin brown and grey hair and it worked fabulously (the colour in the jar), and lasted a couple of weeks strong, and several more as a faded tint (I actually still have one distinct streak, but I think that's where it has really clung to some particularly porous grey). The fade for me was blue - teal blue, but it never went properly green (the Directions green did however fade out to the same teal blue).

Caveats:
- my hair is not yours so YMMV
- I was doing a multi-coloured oilslick - I've never tried a full head
- it bleeds. I don't know about other brands (the MP blue based colours don't take well on my hair), but the Directions one was transferring onto pillow cases etc for about a week afterwards. And I ended up with corpse fingernails, as although I wore gloves to apply it, I didn't to rinse it out, and it clings to fingernails as well as it does to hair. On the other hand, it is the excess of pigment that makes it do a good dye job, so I just tolerate being careful and wearing black for a week. It scrubbed off skin fine with soap and water.

I'd say if you want to try it, do a little test strip on the ends of some underneath hair and see how that does. And if that is good for you, try something subtle like an understreak, and see how it goes. I love my multi-colour dyes and have had much better results with the dark colours without bleach than most people suggest, but it is worth easing in, and trying different brands.

[antler_tines]

I think for the most part I have heard manic panic fades quickly. Maybe not all of their colors, but their blues aren't known for lasting power. I think if you can find a purple based blue that might be your best bet. I've been wanting to try a dark purple myself :)

[cassidy_2711]

I wish I had a picture from when I dyed mine. I did for years and always used special effects brand. The blue velvet is super dark blue with purple under tones. Mine never went green, but I couldn't promise the same results. it also faded really quickly from my unbleached hair.

I will probably consider that dye. It doesn't matter to me if it doesn't last long because I just want to try something fun for a little. :)

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

It will turn green. In my opinion blue dye over brown hair never turns into a great look. I used black dye with a blue undertone and when the black faded, all was left was the blue undertone. It looked muddy and gross. I would rather stick to things like henna and indigo but I am sure you don't want a perm look.

If you want a more purple hue you could simply use a purple color instead, or even a deep red. Youd have to experiment.
Im sure those colors would give you that sort of color over brown without bleach, youd have to play around with it but, not blue.
Blue will turn green on brown hair, some people may be lucky but imo you will see green shades more often than not.

[Alex Lou]

I can't see the harm in trying. If it turns green while it's fading out you can just use some red to neutralize or have auburn for a while.

[antler_tines]

Hmm now this has got me thinking. Tomorrow I'm going to look through my hard drive to find some pictures.

[Seija]

It would probably be more of a tint than full on blue, and while those dyes do fade fast; blue is one of the toughest colors to remove completely.
- I had blue hair over bleach and it never faded to green for me, just a greyish moldy color aha. I used Manic Panic

[peronella]

My natural hair color is a medium-dark ash brown. I used Manic Panic After Midnight on it and I got hair that was almost black with a sort of Blue-ness to it. I was happy with it because I was going for a Violet Incredible from The Incredibles kind of vibe and that's pretty much what I got. It never did anything green-ish probably because it was such a dark blue. I did the same thing with MP Purple Haze with similar (but purplier) results.

My hair was unbleached and virgin and it washed clean out in about a week (I washed daily or every other day, it's been awhile so I'm not 100% sure) Of course, I'm not sure what effect you're going for and even so, YMMV. :)

[MidnightMoon]

I have done this. I used to do it for a while to turn my very dark brown hair blue-black without damage.
I have used Manic Panic Midnight Blue and Pravana Vivivids in blue.
The latter was much more pigmented and lasts longer. I must warn you it fades real quick (at least it did on me). I would put it on my whole head, having virgin hair and bleached ends, and it would be removed almost entirely from my roots by the second or third wash. I only shampoo the scalp and then just let the shampoo travel through the length while rinsing it..
so yeah, your roots will likely shine brown again under the light pretty soon.
On dyed hair it stays longer. I have put it over red hair and golden blonde. I find it looks good over bleached red hair... maybe it's because they're almost opposites or the hair was bleached enough for it to stay but not over damaged, unlike my ends which are in worse condition and where it fades more and looks green.

Anyway... it shouldn't look bad, but might fade quicker than expected, and well, it's brown hair so it's not like it's going to be too noticeable unless you have light brown like this or something:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d7/ef/0c/d7ef0c2ed4eb4ae7fe17663fed9bbb57.jpg

[JustPam]

I've not put blue over brown, but have recently had brown put over turquoise (stained from direct dyes) in attempt to cover it, and it can look anywhere from ash brown to slate grey to khaki, depending on the lighting.

A word of caution that blues can be very staining, even to virgin hair, so it may not be easily reversible/coverable if you don't like it.

[Aphra]

The other thing you can do is buy two colours from a single brand and mix them to get the colour you want - so you could mix MP After Midnight with MP Deep Purple Dream to get a blue / purple. Ditto with SFX, Directions etc equivalents. I've not tried it with blue, but I do it with black and red to get dark brown, or a black cherry tone, and it has worked really well.

The best thing I've found for making the colour stay is CWC washing hair in cold water for at least a week (tbh, I get fed up of doing it after a week so I don't know how much it helps if you do it longer). This does have an obvious downside in winter...

Btw, as a random public information announcement for anyone interested in black veggie dyes, Directions Ebony, although now officially brown based, and looking dark brown in the jar, faded green on my hair, while MP Raven just faded out to my natural brown (although I have no idea what it would do on bleached hair).

[Anje]

I did a bluey-violet on my medium-brown hennaed hair a few years back. Not the same, but more purple blues shouldn't be prone to going green on you. My results were very dark, though, nearly black. I think if you want an intense blue, you'll likely have to bleach. For navy blue, you might be OK without bleaching, but it might go through some odd grayish shades as it fades.

Eta: Very, very dark. But this was full-strength dye left in for several hours. (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10638&d=1398714401)

[lithostoic]

Splat over dirty blonde/light brown in 2012. The more vibrant bits are natural highlights. Plus my friend dyed it and we were like 15 lmao so it wasn't the most even application of color.

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/406980_385612831455475_2135356945_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIj oidCJ9&oh=8ac7e79bd8f339935a0b78c46618c953&oe=58F55286

[Robot Ninja]

I did a bluey-violet on my medium-brown hennaed hair a few years back. Not the same, but more purple blues shouldn't be prone to going green on you. My results were very dark, though, nearly black. I think if you want an intense blue, you'll likely have to bleach. For navy blue, you might be OK without bleaching, but it might go through some odd grayish shades as it fades.

I got the same thing with blue-purple over medium brown. The purple itself shows up very purple but as soon as I added blue it went nearly black, and that was with a ton of conditioner mixed in. Which means it's already fading from my roots, and yes, it does look greyish. However, my natural color is an ashy brown. If your brown is more warm-toned, you might get a gross muddy color.

[Alien Girl]

Splat, in my experience, has lasted longer on my hair compared of Manic Panic. Their colors are a bit more neon-y though, which I'm not too into. :)
I don't recommend putting blues/greens over non-lightened hair because the fading usually leads to ugly, stained colors.

[Anje]

Just a thought: there is this stuff (http://www.target.com/p/splat-5-2-oz-permanent-hair-color/-/A-51071608), which supposedly shows on dark hair without bleaching. I have NO idea whether it actually works, but it generated a little ad-based buzz a month or two ago.

[MsPharaohMoan]

One word: luxepiggy.

I'll just drop this here: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=69786 :whistle:

[DarleneH]

I've been dyeing my dark brown hair with blue since October. It just looks deeper, almost black, and then in certain lights the blue shows up. I love it, my friends close to me can see it but the uptight office Nazi's haven't noticed. I work in an extremely uptight corporate environment (I'm a computer programmer at a hospital) and unusual hair colors are a no-no. This is so subtle that management hasn't even noticed it, but I know it's there and it's obvious in certain lights and if you're looking for it.

[melindalucy]

Has anyone ever dyed their brown hair blue, (https://hairstyle-en.com/chestnut-brown-hair-color-ideas-for-long-hair-ideas-youve-never-heard-before-2021-inspiration-hairstyles/) without bleaching? What did the color look like, and what brand of dye did you use? Would it fade to green?

What would happen if I put chestnut brown, 5.6 light mahogany chestnut, over faded blue hair that’s gone a silvery grey colour.

Try a patch of hair and see what the color looks like. If it's decent ..color the rest but don't miss a spot. If you have lots of hair I'd get two applications just to make sure I had enough. Any chance of you going to a professional on a regular basis so you'll always look great for your selfies?? You should go to a hairdresser and you will be better off.