Venturing into the colourful world of hair dye once more, I had been seeing a HUGE number of Japanese hairstylists and colourists dyeing hair blue. Me being me, seeing a sea of blue hair that looked incredible on my instagram feed was enough to convince me I needed to make the hasty change to having blue hair. Now, I have always wanted to try going an emerald-blue colour, so saw this as my chance and to dip my toe into the pool of blue hair colours without committing to bleaching my hair.
If you want to skip reading the blog, you can watch the video review below:
The hair colour
My starting colour was a dirty blonde with some highlights and lowlights, so setting my own expectations, I knew that I would need to pick a dark enough blue that would cover my natural roots and the darker blonde, while not looking too outlandish on the bleached bits. That is why I opted for Lunar Tides for this experiment. They have an estimated 50 shades, with some designed to cover darker hair. From my post-hair hair dye hunt, it looks like they do some super fun hair dye colour bundles in a range of shades.
The application
Applying the dye was a lot easier than I thought it would be and despite purchasing the 4oz I was able to cover my shoulder length fine hair. I did purchase their brush set – which includes a small, medium and large tint brush which is great for any person who colours their hair at home. I have put my process down below:
- Do a test strand – to check you are happy with the hair colour and ensure you will not have an allergic reaction.
- Prepare your working area, lay down an old towel, throw on an old t-shirt, get the cleaning products at the ready and make sure you have a mirror and some gloves.
- Comb your hair and section it if you need to – 4 quadrants is the ideal if you are going to section your hair.
- Apply the colour to your hairline using the tint brush, this means you won’t have missed spots around the most noticeable part – I also had darker roots so applied this earlier, if you have natural undyed hair, permanent dye can sometimes struggle to coat and penetrate the hair due to the porosity, so you may also want to apply to your roots first.
- Apply the remaining colour through your roots and ends, ensuring to massage and coat every single strand of hair !
- With Lunar Tides, you only need to wait 35 minutes for the dye to process. So grab a good book and chill in the bath tub – saves getting hair dye around the house too.
- Rinse out until it runs clear with cool water (or as cold as you can stand), blow dry and style – then you’re done!
Top Tip: To prolong your colour use cool water when washing and avoid heat styling – opt for the cool setting and use velcro rollers!
The aftermath
One wash in and despite a tinted bath of blue water, the colour has not faded too much. It has gone to a slightly greener hue – which this can be counteracted by using purple shampoo. I am interested to see how much this colour fades with blues being notoriously hard to wash out, particularly since my hair is highlighted.
Cleaning and staining is something you have to bare in mind with this hair colour (and most fun unnatural hair colours). Each time I have a shower, I will need to clean the bath with more than just hot water to ensure there is no blue dye staining my nice white tub! I have also been sleeping with a towel on my pillow, using a old towel robe and avoiding collared and white clothing. My neck seems to be stained blue after each wash despite trying my up-most to ensure it doesn’t. Each time I touch my hair I do get a light blue residue but we will see if that stops over time, for me as a dark colour wearer and someone who is willing to cope with the tiny bits of inconvenience I am enjoying it so far!
Top Tip: If your colour is starting to fade from blue to green, use a purple shampoo and conditioner to help neutralise the colour.
The Score
To make it easier, I have put a scoring system below that will be included in every single hair colour or hair dye blog, so you can compare each hair colour based on the following categories: colour pay off, ease of application, the price and the staining / colour transfer. The higher the score the better it performed, the lower the score the worst the outcome!
Colour Pay Off 4/5
Ease of Application 5/5
Price 3/5
Staining 2/5
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