Coloring ends of hair

[lunasea]

So, I was wishing for a little more fun in my hair routine. I've been growing out dye for 3 years now and I'm kinda bored. Most of my hair is ashy but the ends are really light and pretty thin where they were repeatedly bleached. I've thought about trimming them but they make it easy to put my hair in a bun and I never wear my hair down so...it doesn't really matter if they are thin.

Anyway, I was thinking about dyeing the last couple inches. I initially thought about using henna which would be great for fall BUT I might want the ends to be a different color (maybe even purple...gasp!) in the spring. So I was wondering if anyone knows about any dye that I can use that will wash completely out after a few washes so that I could change it for something else or just let it go natural again. I don't have any experience with self-dyeing but I think, given that my ends have been repeatedly bleached, I might have trouble getting color out of them and I wouldn't want to use anything that would damage them further so I'm looking for something that is deposit only.

Any ideas?

[Katia_k]

Have you looked at vegetable dyes, like Manic Panic or Directions or Special Effects? In theory these should come out after a month, maybe a little less, maybe a little more. I haven't used them but I've been researching because I wanna try stuff on my hair, and I don't think it would survive real dye. So these may be what you're looking for, and would be super easy to apply to your ends.

[psyc2321]

I’ve put Manic Panic in my ends before. It did fade out eventually, but not for months - I wash about twice a week, and my hair, while virgin, is porous from chemo drugs, so probably is comparable to dye damaged hair in its absorption.

It did look pretty though, I’ll see if I can find you a photo!

[psyc2321]

https://imgur.com/Uj87Ekd

[psyc2321]

Damn, no good. Photo here, I maybe don’t have permission to post actual photos yet?

https://imgur.com/Uj87Ekd

[lunasea]

Oooo...that's a lot like what I want...I have much less hair than you...especially at the ends. You say it took months to come out? Did it come completely out?

[Rushli]

Just as a warning, special effects pumpin’ purple does not necessarily wash out after a few washes.... it’s been over a year and I still have a pink streak. To be fair, it faded to an amazing pink color and I have not really minded. I had a heck of a time with rockabilly Blue but it faded to a nasty green. My hair is not even full out bleached. Just did a bleach bath. My ends got it a few times, but my pink stripe only got it once.

[psyc2321]

Oooo...that's a lot like what I want...I have much less hair than you...especially at the ends. You say it took months to come out? Did it come completely out?

It did all come out, and this colour faded pretty evenly, so it still looked okay (this is MP Purple Haze). I’d say after the first six weeks, it probably wasn’t noticeable unless you were looking for it.

I did not have the same experience with MP Cleo Rose, which faded faster initially, but not evenly and left a reddish cast to some strands until trimmed out. I would not recommend using any pink dye that you can’t live with long term (I was warned, but I did it anyway).

[OhSuzi]

So…
Semi permanent box dyes will last about 6 – 8 wks then fade but they usually have amonia in – which will lighten / damage your hair more & the colour will never completely come out.
Schwarzkopf LIVE might have a few exciting colours – but generally there is not that much choice for unnatural colours & the results aren’t always as vibrant.

As per above peoples recommendations Vegetable dyes are probably the least damaging and you can get lovely colours
Google Manic Panic, Directions, Crazy colour – I have used all of these products and had some lovely results.
However….if the ends of your hair are lightened from bleach damage
The colour should be lovely & strong & vibrant
But on the other hand if the ends of your hair are very bleached – the dye might not take that well & rinse out quite quickly
whilst at the same time your hair would be porus and some of the pigment will get stuck in there.
(Especially true of red based dyes as they have smallest pigments - so both rinses out quickest & yet also gets stuck & stainy the most)
So if you did say red, pink or purple, the colour would eventually fade out & you’d be left with some uneven fadey pale pinky / peachy ends.
You might be happy with the more sublte fadey colours too – or you could strategically plan your dyes, e.g. mint green, then when that fades turquoise over the top, then when that fades deep purple.
(If you tried to put a pink or red on top of fadey blue it’s gonna go purple any ways).

You could also try mixing a vegetable dye with conditioner & leaving that on your ends – you’ll get very subtle pale colours & the conditioner will be gentle on the ends of your hair.
(Note conditioner waters the colour down quite a bit so even a vibrant bright purple mix of conditioner / dye is only going to make a pale pinky purple colour – also Id only bother to use a cheap 99p big bottle of conditioner nothing special – watch some you tube vids if youre attempting this)
You can build up the colour by using the conditioner mix ast every wash over & over again.


If we’re just talking about the very ends of your hair there’s minimal risk – so if there was residual dye colours left in there you could use a bleach bath on your ends to get it out.
Basically just watered down hair bleach so still damaging & drying, but gentler than just bleach & will strip most the residual pigment colour out & we’re only talking the very ends that are damaged anyway – worst came to he worst after a few hair tip dye experiments, you might need to get the ends trimmed off – presto chango only normal healthy hair & colour left.

[OhSuzi]

Other alternatives.. cheap jokeshop type coloured hairspray, from £1 - £3 and they only colour where sprayed & then it washes off.
Or hair chalks / coloured hair chalk powder - they work & then wash off straight away - again if your hair is very light & porous, even hair chalk might stain it a bit

[Obsidian]

I've used this http://www.sallybeauty.com/ion-color-brilliance-brights-semi-permanent-hair-color/ION153,default,pd.html?list=Home%7cHome%7cHair%20C olor in rose and orchid and it washed completly out in a couple weeks. I do wash every couple days though and my hair was only mildly damaged. My mom used one of the blues and it hung around for a couple months but it was very faded.

[lunasea]

Thank you for the responses everyone! I suspected that the reds and pinks might be a problem. Thank you for confirming my suspicion. That's kind of a bummer since I was thinking of maybe an orange-ish color for Thanksgiving and changing to red for Christmas and then purple for spring. Has anyone used the Manic Panic Enchanted Forest? That seems like that could work for fall and Christmas. I wonder if green comes out? I don't see it often though. Maybe green is bad when it fades.

I like some of the colors of that ion stuff Obsidian, is that deposit only?

I might just start with the very tips. As I said my hair is very thin there. For those of you who have done the ends, does the color wick up or pretty much stay where you put it?

[spidermom]

I've used crimson and red violet successfully. Both faded a little every time I washed, but it took about 4 months before the color was completely gone. Purple faded really fast and to an ugly shade of gray.

[lunasea]

Interesting spidermom.

My other thought was to get some of that root concealer mascara and making the very tips dark brown so that it goes suddenly from the light bleached part to dark brown....like a feather.

[Obsidian]

Yeah, the ion color is deposit only. It comes in a tube and you squeeze out what you need.
I think you could do pink, red then purple
Each color gets progressively darker and should cover the previous faded color.

You might look into hair chalk. It washed out with one shampoo, you could have a different color each week.

[Rhoward]

Just as a warning, special effects pumpin’ purple does not necessarily wash out after a few washes.... it’s been over a year and I still have a pink streak. To be fair, it faded to an amazing pink color and I have not really minded. I had a heck of a time with rockabilly Blue but it faded to a nasty green. My hair is not even full out bleached. Just did a bleach bath. My ends got it a few times, but my pink stripe only got it once.

I second this advice, on darker hair direct dyes do wash out rather quickly, but on blonde hair, especially if it has been bleached, direct dyes can grab on, and stay there! Be careful

[lunasea]

I second this advice, on darker hair direct dyes do wash out rather quickly, but on blonde hair, especially if it has been bleached, direct dyes can grab on, and stay there! Be careful

Oh geez. This is part of the reason I only want to do the very tips of the damaged part. I will have to cut that eventually.

[lunasea]

Yeah, the ion color is deposit only. It comes in a tube and you squeeze out what you need.
I think you could do pink, red then purple
Each color gets progressively darker and should cover the previous faded color.

You might look into hair chalk. It washed out with one shampoo, you could have a different color each week.

I thought about the chalk but it's supposed to be pretty drying. I was hoping a deposit dye would be less so.

[Anje]

Oh geez. This is part of the reason I only want to do the very tips of the damaged part. I will have to cut that eventually.

No reason you can't reapply the same color as it fades, though, if you like it. And if you stick to the ends, they'll be easily tucked into a bun when you need to look boring.

[lunasea]

No reason you can't reapply the same color as it fades, though, if you like it. And if you stick to the ends, they'll be easily tucked into a bun when you need to look boring.

That's the thing, I do want to be able to change it. But you are right about being able to tuck in the ends, I will want to be able to do that.

[OhSuzi]

As far as I’m aware the colour does not wick up particularly?

I have bleached & dyed just the tips of my hair by having centre parting & tying my hair in bunches & pulling the elastic down to near the very bottom of my hair – so only the last about 2 inches were held in place – obviously try & get your bunches as even as possible & the elastics straight.
or as your hair is much longer then mine you could prob do this with one pony tail or those long banana clip things people use to trim their hair.

Then dip dye / apply dye with brush to just the end up to the elastic – the elastic worked as a resist (Use summat rubbery or plasticy though not soft fabric obvs)
and I didn’t get any bleach / dye past it – it made a straight line.

If you use hair dye then yes at some point it’s going to fade / you’ll want to plan your colours, - the orange to red to purple you suggested sounds great to me & shouldn’t have any issues getting one colour over the top in that order.
But for just the tips there is no real risk of anything being that drastically wrong so long as you don’t dye too far up – just a couple of inches
Dye the tips, colour doesn’t stick - you havent lost any thing.
Dye em & it goes a colour you don’t like, its not strong enough, or it fades – dye em again, or dye another colour over the top.
Dye it a colour that’s too bright – wash it a few times it’ll probably soften up.
If you really felt that dying the tips was a total disaster just trim em off. 2 / 4 months time your hair will be back at that length again & prob slightly healthier.

[lunasea]

^All good suggestions and the voice of reason, just what I needed!