Hair Talk: Unnatural Hair Colors
Hello guys, I've decided to make another Hair Talk post! This time I'll be talking about using hair dyes with unnatural hair colors. I had a previous post about bleaching as well, so you can also check it out. :)
If you've known me before, I've colored my hair a lot of times. I color it differently per month, (see picture above!) or sometimes I let it fade to a lighter version, like what happened to my hair during the month of February and May!
A lot of people would ask me how I get the colors so bright and vivid. Well, it's because I bleached my hair before hand. I had also learned through my research about undertones and that there is a thing called color theory which greatly applies to coloring your hair too. I'll try to explain them both simply in this post.
Undertones
Undertone is defined as the underlying muted tone of color or sound. Undertone in hair means that it's the dominating color of your hair. As I have discussed in a previous post, there are levels for blonde-ness of the hair. It also has a corresponding undertone per level that makes it either warm (red, yellow or orange tones) or cool (blue, violet or green tones).
| image taken from Hairstly.org |
As your hair gets lighter it loses blue (level 3 to 5), then red (level 6 to 8), then orange (level 9 to 10) to leave you with a pale yellow base. Knowing your undertone helps you to understand how you can apply color theory effectively to your hair.
Color theory
Color theory in visual arts is about color mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination. Now applying color theory to your hair is relatively easy, since it's basically the same.
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| source: www.kikiquilts.com via Pinterest |
For example, you want to neutralize the green in your hair from a previous hair color. If you look in the color wheel, the color directly across the green is red, which is what you need to use to cancel the green out. Use this to note on how vivid the colors you should get for your hair. If you have a level 7 base with orange undertones and you use a weak blue to color your hair, chances are it will only cancel out and turn into a bluish or greenish brown, depending on how much yellow your hair has.
Applying color theory to your hair color also comes handy specially if you want to avoid weird colors happening or when fading. HairCrazy.com has some infographics on what shade and brand of colors are good depending on your base.
Choosing the right colors
Now that we've discussed the foundation for hair coloring, it's time to pick the color you want! :) I'm going to go with unnatural ones here and will not be discussing browns in general.
Choosing colors really depend on what you like and what your base hair color level is. Basically, the lighter your hair is, the more color options and shade you can do. Think of it like coloring on a piece of paper, if your paper is yellow like manila paper, the colors won't show up exactly the way it's supposed to. If you want a vibrant or very light color, you need to use a white paper. So you need to lighten your base. Again, the only way to achieve a lighter base is by bleaching your hair.
For example, if you want to have a pastel pink hair and your current hair level is somewhere between 7 or 8, putting a pastel pink color (like Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink) will not result into a light pastel pink, but more of a muted pink that might fade easily.
If you really don't want to bleach your hair, it's fine. As long as your hair isn't jet black, you can still have colored hair without bleaching it! :) There are a lot of semi-permanent ones that are dark enough to color up to level 6 hair. I can suggest blue, red or violet vivid colors for darker bases. Just make sure you have enough dye to saturate and cover your hair and really work the dye in so it doesn't become patchy.
That's it for now, I hope this helps you, guys! Let me know if you have questions by leaving a comment below, or reaching me through my socials. 'Til next hair talk! ♥
That's it for now, I hope this helps you, guys! Let me know if you have questions by leaving a comment below, or reaching me through my socials. 'Til next hair talk! ♥
xx
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