So yeah, if you've been keeping up with the blog and my instagram you should already know by now that my hair has gone from purple to all-out turquoise! I for one am overjoyed that I've ditched the turquoise ombre and the full-headed purple and have instead gone for the complete mythical look!
I'd wanted to do this for quite some time but thought I'd ease my way into it by going for the initial ombre. The plan was to then go the whole nine yards, but I actually got a bit bored of Turquoise and went purple first. Upon first glance of my purple barnet in the mirror I realised my folly! I dreamt of mermaid-turquoise tones once more.
Anyway, as much as Turquoise is my absolute favourite colour in the whole wide world, it's extremely tricky to get it right on your hair. Getting the right balance is tough, particularly if you're in favour of bluey turquoise as opposed to greener shades.
It took me a grand total of 3 days, yes THREE DAYS, to get the colour just right. That's mainly due to the need to take a break from the hair killer that is bleach. My super-dark hair needed bleaching twice, so a break was essential!
I've put this post together as a bit of a guide to the process and products I used to achieve my look, including photos of my hair at various stages afterwards.
HERE WE GO:
DAY 1
BLEACHING
I used Jerome Russell Bblonde High Life Powder Bleach mixed with Jerome Russell Bblonde Cream Peroxide 12% 40 Vol. To know how to bleach, I'd suggest reading my previous post on it HERE. No photos of it in this post as I binned the packet immediately after use!
In that post I mentioned how I bleached my hair to make the ombre, in this case though, you apply it all over. I have to warn you, you need to be extra careful around the root area. And make sure you don't rub the bleach into your scalp, the last thing you want is chemical burns! A great tip for this is to apply Vaseline around your ears and hairline to protect those areas.
If you're seeking a much bluer turquoise, you need the bleach to take your hair down to a Platinum Blonde colour (i.e. no yellow at all!). Just think back to primary school: Yellow + Blue = GREEN! If 90 minutes of bleaching still leaves you hair yellowy, rinse it out, sleep on it and bleach again the next day.
In my case, my hair was a pale yellowey blonde colour. As well as rinsing the bleach out after the 90 minutes had lapsed I applied a Protein Treatment to my hair to strengthen it before bleaching again the next day. I'll do a post on this in future, because without it my hair would definitely have snapped off left, right and centre!
DAY 2
BLEACHING ROUND 2!
L'oreal Paris Feria by Preference in Extreme Platinum Power
So, as my hair wasn't quite taken down to the shade I needed for my blue-dominated turquoise, I used L'Oreal's Paris Feria by Preference in Extreme Platinum Power. It comes with a sachet of bleaching powder, a handy Platinum Blonde dye, a bit of oil and peroxide. I'm not sure what % peroxide they supply, but as it claims to lift 8 levels of colour I'd presume it's 12%.
Same as with the first bleaching, I applied some Vaseline to my ears to protect them. I then mixed all of the above 'ingredients' in the bottle provided and applied it all over my hair, again taking care around the scalp. This time I left the bleach on for 50 minutes, as that's how long it took my hair to reach the desired Platinum Blonde Colour.
I followed that up by giving my hair a good rinse, making sure I get rid of all the bleach mix. Another clever little tip here is to carefully towel dry your hair and apply the Violet coloured conditioner (this also comes in the box). The violet conditioner will attack any remaining flashes of yellowy colour and neutralise them.
By this stage my hair was looking pretty much as I wanted it to, there were still a few tiny patches of pale yellow but I wasn't that bothered. The choice here is to accept it or bleach again, don't think my hair could have taken another beating though to be honest! And besides, tiny little patches will add a little depth to the end result.
The next step is to apply the protein treatment again, typically you should only really use one of these treatments every 4 to 6 weeks as too much protein can make your hair break off. But my personal opinion is that my hair needed every little bit of help it could get after two rounds of intensive bleaching!
DAY 3
TINTING
L - R: Fudge Paintbox in White Shade of Pale & Manic Panic Amplified Formula in Atomic Turquoise
I first used Fudge's 'Whiter Shade of Pale' back in the day when I was still hairdressing. It worked a treat on clients that were suffering from an acute case of canary yellow hair or brassiness. It's essentially a conditioning violet toner.
My hair did look very platinum blonde, but I'm nothing if not a perfectionist and there were a few areas I thought could do with a little toning down. So I smothered this straight onto dry hair and left it on for just an hour. Then I applied Manic Panic's 'Atomic Turquoise' right over it, tied my hair into a bun and left it on for a whole day!
At the end of the day, I gave my hair a good rinse out and voila: Blue Turquoise Hair!
I think it's important to mention here that since dyeing my hair this colour, I've limited shampooing to just 3-4 times a week to slow down the fading process. There's nothing worse than putting in all this effort to get your hair the perfect shade, only for shampoo to wipe it out in days. On that note, don't use Head & Shoulders. It's like Nail Polish Remover for the hair!
On my non-shampoo days I put my hair up into a top-knot or spritz it with Fudge's Sea Salt Spray to give it that little extra bit of texture and allow it to soak up some of the natural oils. I think I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: Use SLS-free shampoo, it'll keep the colour for longer!
WEEK 1
Hair looks incredibly vibrant.
WEEK 2
The turquoise is beginning to fade into a pastel blue colour.
WEEK 3
As you can see, the hair fades from a vibrant bluey-turquoise down through light pastelly blue colours into a kind of minty blue shade. I actually quite like the way the hair progresses through the shades as the dye begins to fade but eventually it will need another top-up. The next stage begins to look like dishwater otherwise!
But you know what, I freaking LOVE my hair!
I'm liking it at this pastel stage, you can see a few yellowy-green patches throughout which is wholly down to the unevenness when bleaching. I think I'll be keeping it this way for a while though, probably until I have another dream of being a mermaid in Dubai and wake up feeling like going all vibrant again!
I hope this post was helpful to some of you. If you have any questions, let me know :)
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