I’ve always liked crazy-colored hair. Back in the day I was obsessed with Gwen Stefani’s pink hair when she rocked steady in No Doubt. I adored Rachel McAdams’ pink streaks. And of course Lady Gaga has been an influence, with her many colorful hair transformations.
Well this week, I decided to finally take the semi-permanent plunge and dye some of my hair purple. Below, I’ll show you how I did it, and how you can try this look yourself!
Related reading: Blonde vs Brunette vs Redhead: My Hair Color Experience Trying All Three Shades
Placement and Tools
My friend Erika works with special effects makeup and has tried her hand at working with colorful hair dyes on herself and friends. Luckily, Erika was there to show me how it’s done.
What You’ll Need:
- A plastic bowl (I have this one that’s made for hair dye)
- Rubber or protective gloves
- 2 tint brushes
- Hair bleach/bleaching kit (such as Manic Panic’s bleaching kit)
- A comb
- A hairdryer
- Bobby pins/hair ties
- Manic Panic semi permanent hair dye in the color of your choice
I should preface this entire experiment with a few points:
- If you have darker hair, you’ll have to bleach the hair you want to color. I have relatively light brown/dark blonde hair, but I still needed to bleach it to a slightly lighter shade. Bleaching first is essential if you aren’t naturally light blonde – otherwise, the color won’t show up!
- Yes, bleach does damage your hair. There is no way to avoid this.
- It’s helpful to do a test strip first to see if you have any allergic reactions to the dye. Avoid diving right in and dying your whole head first!
- All colors fade with time and hair washings. If you go red, you might have pink hair after a while. Mine will fade to a light periwinkle color.
My test strand and color placement
Erika helped me decide on the placement of my purple chunk — behind my ear and up towards the top of my head. This way, the roots aren’t visible, so when the bleach grows out, the roots won’t show. The purple also blends in really nicely with the rest of my hair when placed here, acting as a “peek-a-boo” color. You notice it, but it isn’t the first thing you see.
Getting Started
Applying “Ultra Violet” and combing the color through.
Let me start by saying that I had to pull my hair over into a side ponytail with a part so far to the side that I resembled a very feminine Donald Trump. While I looked ridiculous, it allowed for the rest of my hair to stay out of the bleach and dye that Erika would be applying to my chunk of hair.
Although you can’t really tell from the photos, Erika first bleached the specific piece of my hair so the color would show up. Just a disclaimer: You have to be really careful when working with hair bleach! Manic Panic sells hair bleaching kits with complete instructions, which are good for beginners. Erika mixed up the bleach in a bowl and applied it with a tint brush.
After the bleach was applied to my dry hair, we pinned up the piece (so it wouldn’t sit on my skin/the rest of my hair!) and waited for a solid hour. Make sure to consistently check your hair for color change – the longer you wait, the lighter it will be, but be sure not to go platinum white! You don’t need to lighten your hair to that extent for the color to show up. As you can see in the photos, the bleach only lightened my hair a few shades.
It’s best to wear gloves when applying the bleach and color, though Erika didn’t (this dye washes off skin pretty easily).
Then came the easy part — the purple. After rinsing out the hair bleach when it was blonde enough, Erika used a different tint brush to apply the Manic Panic hair dye in “Ultra Violet”. She thickly applied the dye from the roots of my hair to the ends. We then combed through the hair to get any excess dye out and to evenly distribute the color.
Make sure to rinse out your sink thoroughly. Semi-permanent hair dye won’t stain your sink if it is cleaned up immediately and well.
Sitting and Waiting
After the “Ultra Violet” dye was applied, it was time to wait! Some prefer to pin the colored section up while it does its job, but I left my soon-to-be-purple streak down. Applying heat is key to getting semi-permanent dye to last! Right after applying the dye and getting out the excess dye (your hair shouldn’t drip), I used a hair dryer to apply heat to the strands. This helps “set” the color and also to dry the piece of hair that is damp from the dye.
After the piece was dried from the hairdryer, I waited for a good 2 to 3 hours with the purple dye in my hair. Erika said that some people leave it in a lot longer, but I was too anxious to see what my hair would look like. It turns out that 2 to 3 hours is a great amount of time because my hair turned out a vibrant shade of violet! After waiting, I rinsed out the piece in the sink with cool water until the water ran clear.
Note that I just rinsed the dye out – I didn’t shampoo. As Erika told me, It’s important to NOT SHAMPOO THE FRESH COLOR RIGHT AWAY. It will all come out if you do, so wait a good 24 hours before shampooing your hair.
The Outcome
I absolutely love how my hair came out, from the placement to the color. I love the purple peek-a-boo streak!
Maintenance
The dye I used is semi-permanent. All dyes fade out with time and washings. In order to keep my hair vibrant for as long as possible, I now go a few days at a time between washing my hair, and even then, I don’t directly scrub the purple strands.
The purple isn’t permanent, but the bleach is. When the purple fades out, I can either re-apply color or go over the bleach with a brown dye to get it back to normal.
What Do You Think?
I hope this tutorial was helpful. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I’ll try my best to answer them!
Please keep in mind that dye and bleach formulations vary, so the methods and processing times I discussed are only for the Manic Panic brand products – other semi permanent dyes might not take so well to heat or being left on so long. If using a different brand, follow their package instructions.
And finally, if you don’t have a friend to help you, are seriously in doubt about doing your hair yourself, or are planning to do a larger section of hair than I did, you’ll want to consult with a hairdresser first, to avoid making a mistake you’ll regret.
Would you ever try out a Manic Panic color? Have you ever dyed your hair a crazy color? Let us know in a comment!
*All photos were taken by me. Thanks to Erika J. for all her help and knowledge!
I love the way that this turned out!
Looks beautiful!
If I had a job that allowed me to dye it this color I totally would after this post!
woah, I always dye my hair bright coulors but any of the semi permenant dyes i used only need to be left in for 20-30 minutes not 2-3 hours!
I love it. I put pink highlights in my hair a few weeks ago. It’s fading fast but looks amazing. As soon as my local beauty store restocks the manic panic shade that I need I’m going to touch it up.
Wow, I love it!! I would love to do that with my hair. Unfortunately though I have super dark hair and I’m scared of bleaching it!! You look great though!
I tried the hot pink Manic Panic and it didn’t make any change to my hair. Admittedly, I didn’t have 2 to 3 hours or overnight to leave it on. I would definitely second the need to bleach before applying bright colors. The article warned about bleaching too white but I want to caution against stopping the bleaching too soon unless you really want hair the color of a baby chick. If it winds up too yellow or turns brassy later, the Manic Panic toner *is* great or try the grape Kool-Aid in your shampoo trick I saw somewhere else online.
Love! I did this a few times and I always love having that pop of color in my hair. Good tutorial too!
I’ve use manic panic countless times in the past, and have NEVER had to leave it on for more than a half hour. I believe it even states this timing on the packaging.
However, I do think your end results came out lovely!
I got my hair dyed two summers ago, similar to yours – a bleached underneath patch, with purple dye applied. But the place I went to didn’t have bright colors, so my stylist mixed ice blonde with violet, which could barely been seen with my brown hair except in bright sunlight. Within a few days it washed out, and for the rest of my senior year I had blonde patches, since my mom refused to let me dye my hair myself and I refused to pay to get it done again.
It looks really nice. I’ve been meaning to add some more colour to my ‘do for a while, in the form of a subtle streak. I had a full head of purple hair when I was in high school, among other colours, but professional stuff prevents me from doing that now.
As another suggestion, purple is one of the hardest colours to maintain, it rinses out so easily. Reds fade quickly, to either pink or orange. Manic Panic is also not the best brand. Special Effects is a much better brand, and you shouldn’t have trouble finding it if you live in the States. Their Wild Flower Purple is my all time favourite colour, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and fades to a beautiful lilac.
I love manic panic! This year alone I’ve dyed my hair fuschia and blue (at seperate times) with it, usually leaving it on for an hour. They’re so bright and fun. The purple looks great
You look really pretty and it looks good on you, but I would never wear it. Too 90s for my taste…
Personally I would never dye my hair (I love my 100% natural red hair), but I can definitely appreciate cute dyed hair! I’ve got to say, this looks ADORABLE!!! Great job on a very interesting post. <3
I put a purple streak in my hair two years ago. Since then, I have also dyed my hair countless times. Needless to say, the color is STILL there! Of course it faded to a light pink, and my hair has grown since then. But, there’s still a few inches of my hair that has the pink dye in it.
I tried this trend last fall. I had my hair died a dark violet brown and had two big peek-a-bo0 streaks in a bright purple! I LOVED it!!!
It takes a lot of upkeep because the color fades. But over all, one of my favorite looks that i’ve tried if not my favorite 🙂
I dont wanna sound rude at all… cause I actually love the way your hair came out… but isn’t this kinda like getting a feather in youe hair?
I used to dye my hair with Manic Panic all the time. It’s vegan and that’s awesome!
I stopped doing it because the bleach is bad for the environment but it’s kinda fun to have some color in there : )
I literally went to the store today to get purple hair dye! So glad that I haven’t done it yet. This post taught me something. Perfect timing!
I love this! I dyed my hair with Manic Panic for years and it’s a great product.
Some tips for maintaining the color though: (p.s. I’m not a professional, I’ve just done this a million times!)
-While the color will be vibrant with only an hour or so processing time on the hair,
the conditioning benefits are enhanced by leaving it on longer, overnight if possible. Also, it will set into the hair a little better, keeping it vibrant for longer.
-When rinsing the color from the hair, try using a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water. It restores the PH balance, sealing the color into the cuticle better.
-I know the Manic Panic bleaching kits and similar products are tempting and cheaper, but I’ve found that highlighting/frosting/overall lightening boxed products from brands like L’Oreal and Clairol (you know, basic drugstore brands) are less damaging. The developer/bleach ratio is foolproof this way. Just be sure not to use the conditioner included; it will close the cuticle and the oils will make the hair impermeable to the dyes in Manic Panic.
Happy Dying!
I have the whole underneath half of my hair dyed, ( I switch between Manic Panic and another brand) And I agree with most of what she is saying. The coloris super long lasting, but be careful when you rinse it out in the sink or shower. It stains EVERYTHING. My neck was magenta for a week. Yet luckly I have long hair. Also, I would go lighter than what she sugested. One, the color will last longer, especially if you have dark hair like me. Second, once it starts to fade the blonde and the color will create a cool combination. If your lazy like me that means dying less ofter!
Hope it Helps:)
Lynne – day-after hair is better, especially if you need to bleach the streak first. The oils in your hair are some of the same ones bleach can damage.
You probably ought to add something about not using bleach in a metal bowl – something about the metal has some kind of reaction with bleach, although I don’t know the specifics. Some brands of dye (Feria in particular) tend to have metallic particles in them that can react badly with bleach, too. And like other people said, Special Effects tends to have longer lasting dyes (try Pimpin’ Purple, from experience it turned out rather similar to the purple you have in now). I also wouldn’t mind seeing some kind of post from you guys about the placement of the streaks – I’ve actually been thinking of doing streaks in my hair, but I don’t know how to place them.
That looks great on you!
I’ve had a lot of fun with Manic Panic and crazy colors over the years, and I definitely found that washing my hair with cold water kept the color from fading; it stayed vibrant a lot longer than if I was washing my hair with hot water. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s an option if you’d rather not redye constantly!
It looks really cute! I have my bangs dyed purple. I use Punky Colours now, though. I think the staying power and vibrancy is a lot better. Plus, it smells like grapes 🙂
Also, with vegan dyes like Manic Panic you can leave them in overnight to get better color w/o damaging your hair.
Wow! It looks awesome! Also you’re really pretty and your hair colour is nice…=] Its a cool way to make your hair have something a bit different without going too over the top. Love it!
Ooh, pretty! Last summer I dyed two streaks of semi-permanent turquoise in my hair, but it started transferring to my naturally light brown hair. Even when my stylist bleached over the blue, it just lightened it! I basically had to grow it out.
This looks awesome!
My hair is almost black, I’d like to do this a few times, though I wouldn’t want to mess it up.
I’m dreaming of doing this for quite a while but to be honest I’m kind of scared of what the bleach would do. I think my hair color is the same as yours and one of the things that I’m really proud of is my hair. I love its color. So I’m afraid of all the bleach effect long term…I’m a little bit natural about my hair, I only wash it with shampoo and I don’t put any kind of hairproducts (I think my hair grows quickly because of this) so while I’d love to paint my hair in some crazy color I’m still not sure to be honest, just because of all the future problems I might have…
I did this to my hair for almost 10 years but with blue. From 6th grade to Junior year of college, I loved it and it was a huge part of my identity ( I was always “the girl with blue hair”)….too bad I had to grow up and get a real job. If I could do it again, I would.
I always liked PaintBox dyes. They came in a tube which made them super easy to put on yourself. Brushes/combs can get so messy!
I have blue hair with a pink chunk in my bangs, and I love it. 🙂 The upkeep is a bit of a pain (I touch up once every 6 weeks or so), but it’s definitely worth it. My hair has really become a part of my identity in the past year and a half, and I intend to keep it that way for a long time.
Lol I have a random sreak of hair like that except mine is blonde haha…yours looks cute *^^*
I loved this post! The purple hair streak looks amazing on you and I love it’s placement! This has inspired me to dye my own hair streak–blue though. (:
Any tips on how far to bleach black hair? My hair naturally has some chlorine in it though as I’m on a swim team and my hair is now slightly brown-ish.
That’s so awesome! That is exactly what I was going to get. Plus, our hair is the same color!
I’ve been doing this to my hair for a few years now. In order to keep my streak a vibrant shade of turquoise I apply a small amount of dye every few days in the shower after i’ve shampoo’d and then i apply conditioner to the rest of my hair, leave for a few minutes and rinse. Most of these dye’s are suspended in a conditioner base and are not harmful to hair so there is no problem with regular application.
I’ve never seen a hair dye that could take on brown and live!
Love this. I use Manic Panic to dye blue streaks into my hair. I’ve never left it in for longer than 40 minutes or so, but if it won’t damage my hair I may have to try. My hair is so long (butt length) that I can’t dye it myself. My mom and aunt have to help me, and the upkeep can get annoying. The last time I dyed my hair I went to a salon (the same place who’d put the color in originally) and got new highlights and had them redo the blue streaks since after almost a year of having them and redying them at home they’d gotten a little messy. I definitely plan on keeping the blue for as long as possible, so I may have to look into a permanent color.
aw!………….. i gonna try it………….hope it doesnt turn out to be a disaster 🙂
Jen K–I had to bleach my hair to get the color (in the photos where the dye is going on my hair, you can’t really tell, but it is a bleached strand). Although I have pretty light colored hair (pictured above), without bleach, the color just won’t show up vibrantly.
It’s atypical for my hair to be any natural color.
When I dye my hair, I am very partial to warm hues; the cool tones not lasting as long as I’d like them to.
I’ve never had much success with Manic Panic – I used the exact same color as Erin, and was left with a purple blotch in my bangs. *Shrugs & laughs.* I look better with pink & blue hair, anywho. xD
manic panic is way more expensive for something that fades so fast if you can try to find adore brand, it lasts longer, cheaper and has a great selection
For all you who love funky colors i strongly recommend using Vero K-Pak color intensity by joico! It seems to last longer than manic panic i find and the color always turns out awesome!
I like the placement of the streak, but I’m surprised the color turned out like that, especially if you bleached first. When I did the same thing with the same exact dye, it turned a very rich true to the package poster paint purple color.
The way yours looks in the picture looks how mine did after about 2 weeks. It seems like you left it on long enough, so I would think that it looks faded and uneven like that because it wasn’t painted on thick enough or even enough.
Purple seems like it was a good choice for you. You have to be careful with red colored dyes with a placement like that because it’s easy to look like you’re bleeding from the head… (maybe some people want that though).
This was really helpful to me so thank you! I’m planning on dip-dying my hair this week, and I’ll need to bleach my ends before hand as I’m a dark brown/redhead kind of colour at the moment. Thanks for letting us know that the colour fades but the bleach doesn’t! It’s a tip worth knowing.
Overall a really useful guide, cheers! xo
I DYE MY HAIR PURPLE AND I WANT TO CHANGE IT TO BLUE. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I CAN DO WHEN MY PURPLE STARTS FADING?
About how many weeks does it last?
Bobbi–I always recommend a sulfate-free shampoo, just because it’s better for your hair. The color will last longer if you go longer between hair washings.
Mila–If the purple fades out to a really light color, you could probably go over it with a darker blue to achieve the color you want.
Devon–I would say my color was vibrant for a little over two weeks, and by the time a month rolled around, it had faded to a light lavender. Since I bleached the hair, all I had to do was go over it again with purple and the color was back!
I bought almost the same shade purple a few days back and was going crazy trying to figure out where to place my stripe. I freaking Googled ” where to place stripe in hair” I swear to God! Lolz your entry was near end of page one btw. Thank Gawd girl cuz I was going ocd about the placement of my purple streak! We part our hair the same so I am doing my stripe where urs is. I was going to put it on the other side, but I thought it wasn’t right for some reason. I wanted the “blend” you mentioned.
When I was 17 I had hair waaay down my back and dyed it all the exact shade of manic panic you have. My dad freaked! He screamed all the way to school..lol..he got used to it, when I got a job working at an indoor kids playground. Then I dyed it back to cinnamon red. Better in his eyes. Not by much though. He was old old fashioned. I miss him.
Than for awesum tutorial. Going to dye my streak now!
Why would you dye hair without gloves? That’s so dumb!
I’ve done full head, both bleached and non-bleached… bleached had mixed results. I’ve done pink, blue, periwinkle, orange… I preferred a brand called “special effects” over manic panic- more consistently had good results.
I did this with blue! I have really dark brown/black hair and it looks amazing now – just starting to lighten up to a teal-green color! love it!
I love it girl!! I would never dye my hair permanently a wild color… But I do have a clip-in in every color of the rainbow- they’re made from real hair and when placed properly they look LEGIT! And my fave one is purple of course! 🙂
I love this! I’ve never dyed my hair a non natural colour before, but I always thought that if I did I would do something similar to what you’ve showed us. Purple all the way 🙂 This was really informative, thanks for sharing!
I love the way it turned out 🙂