The Blue Hair How-To

Pictures pending. Also, keep in mind, I am the canvas; my wife is the painter.

Once about every 6 to 8 months, I get my hair bleached professionally. I'm a big proponent of getting bleaching done professionally, because it's easy to screw it up as a do-it-yourselfer, not to mention easy to hurt yourself. I've found a very good (if expensive) salon locally that I go to for this.

My hair ends up being pretty damned porous afterwards, we think, which is why it holds onto this particular dye very well -- I get this to some extent even when there's enough outgrowth of unbleached hair too, so it's possible my hair's fairly porous (or damaged) as a baseline. At any rate, bleaching more frequently than biannually would translate into too much hair abuse, so that's where I draw the line.

The brand of dye I use is Special Effects. Hot Topic once carried it, but stopped for reasons of insanity (near as I can tell). These days I order it in lots of 6 or more off of various internet sites (such as amphigory.com).

It's powerful stuff -- uses, I think, pigments similar to what are used to dye vinyl. It's a lifestyle decision to use Special Effects, not a "oh, I'll just color my hair blue for the weekend and it'll wash out" sort of thing.

The shade of Special Effects I use is "Electric Blue". I think it's the best one they have, though they've recently added more blues to their catalogue and I'm interested in giving them a go. Electric Blue has the added advantage that, as it fades, it starts shading towards middling and then light purple, ending in a kind of silvery-lavender when it hits the maximal fade point on bleached hair.

How powerful is the stuff? Well, what you see in those wedding photos is from a dye job two weeks prior followed by daily shampooing. And generally I've got a good blue going for at least a month, and a good purple going for another month or two following that. Then again, I leave the dye in for quite some time, as you'll see below.

Things that are vital in the application the dye:

• Have someone else do the application of the dye. Yes, some people have the coordination to dye themselves, but it's tricky at best and can lead to mishaps.

• Both you and your dyer should be wearing latex gloves.

• Brush, then shampoo, your hair in advance. Avoid conditioner unless absolutely necessary; some conditioners will block the hairdye from penetrating as much as it can.

• Lay down a tarp -- extensively -- and cover yourself with a disposable poncho if possible. Your dyer should be similarly attired, or at least be wearing clothes that can get stained. Sit in a metal folding (or otherwise stainable) chair.

• You should cover the "perimeter" of your hair (the hairline, the ears, etc) with some kind of thick masque goop (though others may use vaseline for this), because it will STAIN your skin. I use one of those "Mint Julep" masques, I forget the brand.

• Use a toothbrush covered with dye to address the hair that borders the mint julep demarcation. It's a little slower going, but the attention to detail along the borders keeps the end product from looking uneven or messy.

• Once the demarc's done, lay the dye on thick (Special Effects stuff is fairly "goop" like) on the rest of the hair. Take a hair brush you don't really care about using for anything other than hairdying and use it to work the dye through the hair.

• Twist the hair up into a reasonably tight bun, keep it in said bun using one or more hairties, and get it all under a shower cap.

I leave the dye in for several hours at least (2-3 minimum), and sometimes, I wrap a pillow in several towels and sleep with the dye in (if I'm feeling hardcore about it).

Now, before you wash the dye out, make sure you read these points:

• Your shower will become whatever shade you dyed your hair.

• It'll take at least a week before the shampoo-water stops running a darkly opaque shade of whatever you dyed your hair.

• The skin where you let this water run over will become a pale (or not-so-pale) shade of the dye. This can continue for longer than the "dark water" period.

• The skin-dye residue can lead to potential embarrassment when, say, the color ends up on your ass, and you end up leaving a blue butt-print on the toilet seat at a friend's house. Sorry about that, Jim.

• To address the shower: Dow Scrubbing Bubbles With Bleach. Nothing else takes care of Special Effects stain like Dow Scrubbing Bubbles.

• To address the skin: Noxema Clear-Ups (also branded as Noxema 2-in-1's). Few other things have done the job that these puppies have, but even so, there are parts of you that will still be pale blue (or purple, pink, green, whatever).

• When rinsing the dye out initially, I've found going to the sink in the garage and having my wife do some extensive shampooing salon-style can get out a lot of the dye. More latex gloves are a must! Wrap your hair up in a stainable towel afterwards and retire to the shower for more shampooing, 'cause a second round may be necessary.

• While I'm on that, keep latex gloves in the shower, you'll need them in the first couple weeks.

• Failing a salon-style rinse, or even in the case of one, shampooing in the shower is an interesting exercise. Be careful of sudden turns or whipping your hair around; you'll leave great big splatters of color on the shower walls, curtain, doors, and, if you're not careful, ceiling. Get a good (blue) lather going with the shampoo, and don't be afraid to let it sit for a bit before rinsing it out. If possible, hold your hair a bit away from your body to keep the water from running too extensively down your skin.

That's pretty much it.

Questions? Email iago AT iago DOT net.