I’ve had a few people ask about my hair routine. What products I like, what do I use to dye it, how do I stop it from falling out, etc, so I figured i’d write up a post about it and share it with everyone.

PLEASE NOTE – I’m not a hairdresser, nor have I had any sort of training. This is just what I do, and may not work for everyone.

I shampoo and condition my hair once to twice a week. My hair tends to lean more towards the side of oily, luckily the bleach kind of levels it out. If it gets a little oily and lank, I will use a little of THIS (Lee Stafford Dry Shampoo: Poker Straight for Oily Roots). I use Organic Care Shampoo & Conditioner in Colour Shield. My hair seems to love this and it only costs about $4 a bottle! I pick it up from Woolworths. I’m not sure if it’s available worldwide, but I know you can get in New Zealand! Actually, my Mum got me onto this Shampoo, she uses the Dry Nourish and my Dad uses the Apple Fresh Fruits.

I never usually use much on my hair product wise. After my unfortunate bad perm, I picked up a bottle of Schwarzkopf Extra Care Hair Repair with Liquid Keratin to try. I noticed a slight  improvement to my hair over about a month. I’m subscribed to a couple of beauty boxes and I’ve received a few trials of hair care products, Keratinology & Ulittle Beauty (OMG! I LOVE THAT NAME) natural shine hair serum are both pretty good. My favourite, by far, and I mean seriously, I would MARRY THIS PRODUCT is Sunsilk Co-Creations Yuko – Perfect Straight Detangling Mist. This has worked wonders turning my hair from a fluffy crazy mess, to nice and sleek.

My hair is naturally a mousy brown, now with added silver streaks. Yep, I started going grey young. So of course, to get bright colours, I have to bleach my hair. I bleach my hair at home, by myself. I’ve been bleaching my hair for around 10 years now. It’s never fallen out, but I have over-bleached to the point where the ends are pretty brittle. These days, I wait until I have an inch of regrowth before I bleach it. If I want to change colour, I do not bleach it out, but fade it out as much as can be. I generally will do a weak volume bleach over my whole hair every 4-6 months, to lighten my hair.

Hair dye! I get asked a lot what brand do I use, what colour am I using etc. Well, there is no easy answer. I’ve tried so many. I like so many. Some brands are better at one colour then others, while they suck at another. Currently, i’m using La Ruche by Directions.

So, this post is getting long, click through for some more info on dyes, colour charts and some tips & tricks I use.

COLOURS & BRANDS

I have had so many different hair colours, you can see a fair few in THIS IMAGE. I always tend to go back to pink, or aqua, sometimes purple.

La Riche – I’m currently using La Riche, so all the recent photos you see of my hair colour is this brand. It’s pretty good, it has staying power, which is great, but it’s quite messy. It runs like crazy and no matter how long you rinse the colour out for, it will end up transferring some to your towel. It also stains your pillow. However, I’ve been picking up super cheap from Ebay HERE. Around $25 for 3 bottles, including shipping, where as to buy it HERE in Australia, it costs around $32 for one tub including shipping. As i’m not rolling in money, the price of this dye > mess.

Fudge – I know a lot of people don’t seem to like Fudge, but honestly, I’m a huge fan. My favourite pink hair is Pretty Flamingo and my favourite purple is Purple Haze. I also find Fudge pretty convenient as it’s stocked in many stores in Australia, I can just duck out to the shop and pick some up. It’s also pretty good price wise between $13-$18. The fading depends on the colour, the blue does not like my hair, it washed out in one wash and seemed to act more like a toner. The purple lasts forever, as does Raspberry Beret. Pretty Flamingo has pretty decent staying power, but it fades to a really pretty pastel pink. The formula is great, it’s certainly come a long way from when I first started using it. Doesn’t run much at all.

Manic Panic – It comes in the Classic Cream Formula or Amplified. The first time I used Manic Panic was the first time I decided to try aqua. I used Atomic™ Turquoise and loved it. The tub is 118ml and actually goes a long way. The amplified is said to last longer, but i’ve never really tested between the two. Some of the colours glow under UV light too! I have to order this online, so it can be a little more pricey.

Special Effects – This brand is probably the best in regards to sticking power. It also overtook MP as my favourite Aqua colour. It is however, more expensive then the rest. The bottle is 118ml, but doesn’t last as long as MP.

Tips & Tricks

• When using bright colours like Fudge etc, don’t stick to the recommended time. I often leave mine in for a few hours. I’ve even heard of people leaving it to set overnight. However, DO NOT do this with bleach.
• When you rinse the dye, and when you then wash your hair, use cold water. Cold water seals in colour, hot water helps strip it.
• In between main dyes, I will mix some of the colour in with my conditioner when I wash my hair. Leave it in for 10 minutes and wash it out, it helps keep the colour fresh. This works well when I have two tone hair, as the pink often fades faster then the blue/purple I use.
• Conditioner is great to add to the hair colour to make it stretch further, though it will dilute the colour. This works great though if you want to go straight to pastel coloured locks! THIS COLOUR was made using Cherry Bomb mixed with conditioner.

Some other bloggers have covered a lot of this info too, make sure you check out Ruby Velours “How to Dye your hair” & The Dainty Squids Hair Tips & Tricks.