The purple hair experiment

I think, at least by now, I've established that I'm weird (and proud of it). My entire life, I've always wanted purple hair. The older I get, the more I want it but my numerous conditions and my innate desire to "please" everyone else has kept me from it. Besides, once you reach a "certain age", purple hair probably looks stupid. The side joy of zombie meds? Now I don't care what other people think and I WANT PURPLE HAIR! I'm way too scared to go purple the way most do...bleach your hair white, then color. With bleached hair, not only do you have to worry about the damage, but you have to constantly keep it up (which gets expensive). I wanted a method of going purple without the bleaching.

At numerous stages of my life, I've tried to go purple, but due to the conservative nature of my hair dresser, the closest I ever got was a burgundy that looked somewhat purple in the sunlight. But with all the natural reds and my hair, as it fades, red tends to go orange on me. Epic fails, one and all. So going to her for a full purple would be out of the question and I was forced to look for alternative methods.

First, I should say that this isn't an ad for a particular product probably because, before it's all over with, I'll probably go through several. I watched numerous YouTube videos on the subject, trying to find various solutions, when a new product caught my attention and I thought I'd try it first. You can only get it at Target and I can only get it online because they are NOT going to carry it in bum-fudge Arkansas. It's called Splat Midnight Amethyst and it's made for brunettes with no bleaching (there is also a blue and a red for those that are interested).

It came in yesterday (I ordered three boxes and a bowl with a brush) and I decided I wanted to do a test patch to see how it does. It is EXTREMELY messy, but it smells amazing and the coverage was really good on the strip I tested. I wrapped it in foil to keep it from bleeding into other hair. The directions say to leave it on 30 minutes to an hour (or longer) and I went with longer, leaving it on for 1.5 hrs.

Lessons learned? Wear a disposable lab coat, better quality gloves (than those that come in the box) and have a spray bottle of bleach handy for clean-up. Never ever wad up the foil because it takes an act of heaven to get it out. Prepare yourself mentally for a cold water hair washing...it was WAY worse than I was expecting and I hated every moment of it.

I didn't think of a before-and-after picture scenario because I didn't know I would be posting about it, so here is the after and forgive the quality of the photo...our work bathroom has a VERY dirty mirror and the lighting is horrible (although better than in my house).
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I want the test to sit for a while to see how it does. If all works out well and it fades nicely (not pink or green), then I will do my whole head or, at bare minimum, the underside. Updates to follow.

Comments

Linda said…
Oh I think it looks great Keiley. You should do all of your hair.

Linda
Tiffstitch said…
Oh cool!! That looks like excellent coverage. I recently went black on top with red on the bottom layer that was over my brown as well. I hope it lasts well for you.
Mii Stitch said…
Looks good!!
Go mad for it if it makes you HaPpY :)
Justine said…
I like it! Think it might look cool just to do the underside - but if you want full purple then go for it!
Bea said…
Glad you did it - looks great. If you want to go full, go full.
Oh my awesome 😀I'm addicted to purple as well... maybe one day I'll go purple again.
Heather said…
Ooo that turned out cool!