Purple Streak in My Hair

Yesterday, I spent most of the morning dying a purple streak into my hair. Why? Well, sometimes you just need a change, for one. Also, the heroine in the book I'm writing has purple streaks in her hair, and I am hoping that by having this in common with her, I will someone be more connected to her. Of course, I don't know how I can expect to me more connected to a girl I created in the first place, but what the hell. Anything is worth a shot.

Being relatively new to the process of dying my own hair a bright color, I went to the Hot Topic over at the mall by us and talked to the cashier - who incidentally had multi-colored hair. She gave me some tips, like in order for a bright color to show up on my medium dark hair, I would need to bleach it out first. She also told me which of the two purple dyes in the store would last the longest. I bought RAW products - both their "White Out" 40 volume bleaching kit with toner and their Deep purple gel hair dye.

First, I set up the area in my bathroom. Gloves (the kit came with some, but they were huge, so I bought a pack of 10 gloves at Dollar General for 1.25), small plastic cups to mix the bleach in (You can use pretty much any container as long as it isn't metal), the bleaching kit, aluminum foil, and the purple dye. I also threw down an old pink sheet to catch any dye or bleach that fell onto the floor.

The bleaching part was a little bit scary. Since I was chemically altering my hair, I knew that once I started, there was no going back. Following the instructions on the bottle of bleach, I mixed the activating powder with the bleach solution in the small plastic cup. Once it was creamy, I picked up a section of hair on my left side that I wanted to eventually dye purple, then covered it in the solution. (First, I separated the hair I didn't want bleached and threw it up in a ponytail.) I tried my best to mimic the way a hairstylist "foils" my hair when they put highlights in, but somehow it just isn't as easy as they make it look. My way was much messier, but that's where the gloves came in. I used the foil to press against as I brushed the bleach solution in, then I folded the foil around my hair and then folded it up into a smaller section that I could easily blow dry.

The bleach solution I bought worked off heat activation, so I kept the blow dryer on low and pointed it at the foil section. Every ten minutes, I checked it to see if it was lightening. It pretty much was a slow, boring process. Since my hair is so dark, I ended up keeping the bleach solution on my hair for about 30 minutes. I think it might have worked better with 40 minutes, but it turned out decent, just really brassy instead of platinum blond.

When I took the foil out, I rinsed the bleach off with cold water, then patted it dry with a towel. I thenwashed just the bleached strip with shampoo and cold water, then patted it dry again. I used the toner that came with the bleaching kit and left it on for about 15 minutes, but honestly, I didn't notice that it made a difference.

The next step was to dry my hair with the blow dryer so that I could apply the purple dye. It was very gel-like and extremely prone to staining. It pretty much got everywhere! Instead of using a brush, I just squirted the gel dye into my gloved hands and massaged it into the strip of hair, then put it up in foil again. I didn't need heat this second time, so I just sat at my computer for about 30 minutes, then washed the dye out. I dont' know if I was supposed to or not, but I ended up taking a full shower and washing and conditioning my hair. I was terrified as I watched the purple dye fall off my hair and go down the drain. What if I'd just spend the last few hours dying my hair and then washing it all out?

But there was nothing to be afraid of. Once I got out of the shower and blow dried my hair, a bright purple streak became visible. It's funny because in some lighting, you can barely see it at all, but in others, it's super bright. I really like it. I'm tempted to start the whole process over and put a few more streaks in it before all is said and done.