Chronicles of Ombré Hair: Part 2 – IS IT FOR YOU?

Don't understand what this is about? Click here to read from the first post.

Let me clear up a few things before we start in the actual dying process...

1.       These posts is going to extremely extensive/in depth/over the top for something so trivial. I am going to state absolutely everything I know about hair-dying here, because I know that if I had something like this to read before I were to dye my hair, it would’ve been so much easier! I am going to try and make it slightly easier to understand, but it is going to be a lot of writing. If you are not interested in dying your hair, then press the little x in the corner right now.

2.       This is not an instructional post about dip-dying hair. They both involve two different colours of hair on one’s head, but they are slightly different.

~BONUS NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE~

Ombré literally means “shaded” or something like that – French is most definitely not my best subject.

Anyways, this means that there is a gradation of shades between the two colours, as one slowly blends into another. Dip-dying is more about having two different colours that are abruptly change into each other- I.e. there is no fading into each other.

The Hairington Twins

3.       I am mainly going to explain how to ombré to red from black, but of course this will also work with other colours. I will state in italics if any steps will change if you wish to ombré blonde/blue/rainbow/etc, from any other hair colours.

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU OMBRE YOUR HAIR:

·         Do you only want this semi-permanently?

Well, if this is the case and you have very dark hair (like black Asian hair, like mine) then it is simply not going to be possible to ombré your hair to a lighter colour. If you use a semi-permanent dye, the colour on the box will NOT be the colour that will come out of your hair. If you use a coloured semi-permanent dye (like a red or purple colour, which seems to be all the rage nowadays), your hair will have very little difference, unless you are directly under sunlight, then a slight tint would be visible. If you want an ombré which is actually visible under normal light, a permanent dye will HAVE to be used. The only way of removing this colour from your hair is I suppose chopping it all off, or dying it all black, as that would be the only colour dark enough. I have seen colour removal kits on the market, but I doubt it would work on dark hair, purely because they only remove hair colour which is darker than your natural colour.

If you have light hair such as blonde, then it will be possible to use a semi-permanent or temporary hair colour to achieve ombré to a darker shade or colour, but not a lighter ombré.

·         Do you want to keep your hair in perfect condition?

If so, this will not be possible. Obviously, if your hair is already strong, healthy or resistant to split-ending, the damage could be reduced. However, there will always be a negative impact to its condition when dying hair, regardless of whether you use semi permanent or permanent dye. There are temporary hair dyes that are vegetable based dyes (e.g. manic panic) which are ammonia and peroxide free, but still will dry hair out to a certain degree. Of course, aftercare is highly important and can prevent any further spilt-ends from forming, but subjecting your hair to such strong chemicals inevitably will cause significant damage.

·         Do you do lots of water sports/swimming/wish to shower a lot?

If so, then this may be a slight problem. If you are wishing to dye your hair an unnatural colour (such as red for example), even if the small print of the packaging says that it is permanent, the colour will undoubtedly fade and also bleed when in contact with water. If you are in contact with water a lot, then the colour is not going to last very long at all, plus chlorine from swimming pools also cause detrimental effects on the colour – you don’t want green hair (unless you are going for that look!).

IN SUMMARY:

If you are aware that...

1.       Ombré hair is going to be a permanent commitment (unless you chop it off or dye over with black)

2.       Your hair will be damaged by it

3.       When you go swimming, you will leave a trail of hair colour behind you

And you are still not put off...

TIME TO COMMENCE THE DYING PROCESS.

Yay,

NEXT STEP WILL BE UPLOAD TOMORROW

Peace,

Rebecca x