"We all love a good Hair pinstrosity, right? We, my daughter and I, did a little experimenting back in April. A little back story: my daughter has been friends/classmates with a wonderful little girl named Maureen since kindergarten. In March Maureen was rushed to the Children's Hospital and was diagnosed with a very rare form of Leukemia. Less than 2 weeks later she passed away from complications from an infection. The school organized a "wear blue" week in honor of Maureen leading up to her memorial. My daughter wanted to go an extra step. She wanted blue hair!!"
"I had no idea how to do this so I turned to Pinterest. I found a few different ways to dye hair, but I wanted a non-permanent option. I decided to try this pin:"
http://shoulditpinterestyou.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/dye-hair-with-food-coloring/
"The blog post showed nice easy directions - I even had everything on hand!! Score a Use It Up challenge as well!! I used a hotel sized bottle of white conditioner & a bottle of blue food coloring. I even pre-cut my foil into easy to use sheets like my hairstylist uses."
"Mixing it up seemed to go okay, just like the steps on the blog."
"I put a towel over my daughters shoulders and my lap. Divided up her hair in sections so I could easily apply the mixture. I foiled each section. I thought it looked a little light, but I figured the blue would show up with her blonde hair so it didn't need to be too dark."
"I continued on until her whole head was foiled. Following the blog's instructions, we let her sleep in them over night. I wrapped her head in a scarf and then put a knit cap over it so that nothing would fall out and possibly stain her new sheets."
"The next morning she jumped out of bed (a rare occurrence for her) and we took out the foil for the big reveal. Not bad!!"
"The last step of the blog said to rinse but not to use shampoo. My daughter put her hair over the edge of the tub and I watched all the blue rinse away down the drain. OH NO!!!! It was Monday morning, less than an hour before school. No time to run to the beauty store and buy blue dye (if they even have it) and I am about to have a very disappointed daughter when she realizes that this pin was just BUSTED! No color remained in her hair at all!"
"I didn't even have that much blue food coloring left, some but not a lot. In a hail Mary pass I put the ends of her hair in the bowl and put the blue food dye directly on her hair with the help of my handy dandy sponge brush. I had no idea if this was going to work, if the dye would stain everything or be permanent. All I knew is my daughter wanted blue hair and it had to be this morning."
"To lessen the chance of having blue food coloring everywhere I went ahead and blow dried her hair. It seemed to seal the majority of the color onto her hair. It did have a nice effect."
"It lasted the week that she wanted it too. She was turning a little smurf-esque by the end of the week, but she didn't ruin any clothes at least. The night of the memorial when we got home she took a bath, we all laughed at the results."
"It lasted the week that she wanted it too. She was turning a little smurf-esque by the end of the week, but she didn't ruin any clothes at least. The night of the memorial when we got home she took a bath, we all laughed at the results."
"On the GCT scale the original results was a 1. It didn't work but at least her hair was in the same condition as it was from when we started (maybe a little softer!).
My fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants results were a Pin Win! It gave her the blue hair she wanted and last the week until she shampoo's her hair and then it came out without a trace."
First off I am very sad to hear of the passing of your friend. I think the schools memorial was a very thoughtful and sweet thing to do, and I was touched to hear how passionate your daughter was about it. We send our love to those who were close to Maureen.
As a hair dresser, officially I am supposed to say " I wouldn't recommend this because you just never know what can happen. Everyone's hair is different." I have had a few friends who used the one wash spray Halloween dye on their blonde hair and it didn't come out for MONTHS. One of them even attempted bleaching it out and still no luck! I would suggest letting colors be left to the professionals, but as a kid who colored my hair myself staring when I was 11, I know what it's like on the other side!! When you need blue hair you NEED BLUE HAIR! So...you all have been warned!
But...I actually think this might work for like a "one time use" kind of thing. It WILL stain your clothes, and your towels, and your skin but it is kind of fun and it is a kid/mom approved way of adding color for a little bit. I haven't tried this, but it's kind of fun and I am interested to see if anyone else has tried this with similar results?? I have heard of girls using markers, or Kool-aide, or chalk and water to try this affect but never actually using actual food coloring. So Pinstrosipeeps, what's the word on the street??? To blue or not to blue??
Happy Thursday!!
I can only see the very first picture (from the pin). :-(
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a problem with the pictures. Only the first one is visible. I can see other photos from your site, so I don't think it's my computer.
ReplyDeleteEmilee... All your pictures are dead links :(
ReplyDeleteNone of the pictures are showing up for me, even when I refresh the screen. I'll come back later cause I'm dying (see what I did there?) to see them!
ReplyDeleteI can't see any of Amber pictures! :S
ReplyDeleteThe pictures aren't showing up? :-(
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it is just me, but the pictures are not showing up. :( I pressed teh "compatibility" button since my Windows upgraded last night, but that made no difference.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the story, however. I am saddened to hear of the loss of such a young person, but I bow down to Amber and her daughter. I adore the daughter's attitude and think it is FANTASTIC that she honoured her friend this way. and I know that a lot of parents would never agree to dying a child's hair blue, so I am also impressed with Amber and her willingness to let her daughter express herself and to the fact that she didn't quit when it didn't go as planned. You are a GREAT mom. Actions like THAT will be remembered.
I just wish I could see how her hair turned out! (Blue, semi-permanent, hair dye IS available, my daughter has been dying a streak of blue in her hair for almost three years. When you just do a streak, one bottle lasts a lonnnngggg time)
I visit a school where a bunch of the girls dip dye their hair with Kool-aid. I don't know the details, other than they dipped the ends of their hair in HOT Kool-aid (I don't know how long or the ratio of Kool-aid to water) but I do know that it had been in the girls' hair for months, so I think Kool-aid is a more permanent way to dye hair funky colours.
Update:
DeleteThe photos are showing up for me now.
Her hair turned out GREAT!!!!! Love the bathtub pic! :D
The pics are working for me.
ReplyDeleteI remember in middle school (I think) trying to dye my hair with food coloring directly as the poster ended up doing. Then I remembered we were still swimming in gym class but oddly enough most of the blue stayed on my hair in the swim cap! Crisis resolved... Until I walked out and it was pouring rain outside. Ugh. From then on I only used Manic Panic.
ReplyDeleteSomeone told me that Manic Panic rubs off on things (sheets, towels etc.). Is that true? My daughter's blue dye is almost gone and the place we bought it has closed. We are considering using Manic Panic next time since that is readily available. Thanks!
DeleteI have not tried any of Manic Panic's blue shades, but I have never had any issue with their other colors rubbing off. I think with any dye like this, it is really important to rise the hair really really well after washing out the dye (I like to do 2 conditioner rinses, and then comb my hair out under the running shower head until the water runs clear). If the color is really deep, then it's probably likely that you'll stain your towel after the first few times you shampoo no matter what. Otherwise, I would just make sure to dry my hair completely before wearing light colored clothing. In my experience, if a dye is going to rub off, it's more likely to do so from wet hair than dry hair.
DeleteThank you so much for replying! Last I heard, she wanted to switch it up and do purple with the next bottle. It sounds like Manic Panic acts the same way that her current bottle does. (Wild Colours -or something like that)
DeleteThanks again, I won't worry about it any more!
I wonder if this would work better (as in not staining things as much) if you "sealed" it with hair spray or something.
ReplyDeletePhotos are working for me.
ReplyDeleteI tried dying my hair with red food colouring years ago when I was in my 20s. I had just had a perm that day, and I doused my head with straight up dye. Lets just say that it didn't wash out - ever. Those were the days before pink hair was in... and I worked at an office. I did keep my job - whew!
I've never tried food coloring... I've used washeable/water-based marker, acrylic paint, costume make-up, colored hairspray and a temporary dye product called "streekers". (I've looked them up and they're $12 per bottle now, but I seem to remember getting mine from a bargain bin at Ulta for only a few dollars each.)
ReplyDelete... The acrylic paint's not a great idea. I did get it all out, but you probably shouldn't try that one.
I've never tried dying my hair with food color, but I have dyed other protein fibers with it (wool, silk, alpaca). For that, you have to add heat and an acid to get the dye to set. I usually use vinegar. I would expect that human hair would work similarly, but I'm not sure if you'd be able to wash the color out after setting it. Maybe using vinegar but no heat would work to get a week of color?
ReplyDeleteI knew a lot of little girls who dyed their hair with hot Koolaid. I dunno. I'm conservative about hair color. I figure I would have an Anne of Green Gables moment.
ReplyDeleteI have not tried dying my hair with food coloring, but in preschool my friend and I dyed our hair with KoolAid. I was over at my friend's house, and her mom was occupied helping her older brother with something. We often played beauty school at her house with fake little kid makeup. That day, we decided to try hair as well. My friend's mom regularly dyed her hair at home with henna. The henna she used came in little packets roughly the same size as KoolAid packets, and were apparently colorful, so my friend assumed KoolAid was the same thing. We weren't sure how to mix it, but there was a can of mousse in the bathroom, so we emptied that into a bowl, mixed in the KoolAid, and slathered it on our hair.
ReplyDeleteMy friend's hair was light honey-blonde, very thick and long. My hair was almost white-blonde, thin, and apparently very porous. I say this, because the KoolAid color (fushia is what we went with) stayed in my friend's hair for a little over a week. It stayed in my hair for 3 months.
Fortunately, our parents had a sense of humor about this. Really, who can get mad at a couple of 3 year olds who wanted fushia hair?
kool aid works.. manic panic is a whole ton of fun too!!! When I was in highschool we had spirit days.. I was a blonde then and our school colours were blue & gold.. so one of my guy friends conned me into doing blue streaks in my hair with bingo dabber.... 4 dabbers later I had 6 very blue streaks... and nothing took it out.. I even tried peroxide... I now have 6 permanent blonde streaks in my hair (and I have since gone back to my natural auburn but the blonde streaks remain)
ReplyDeleteI dyed my hair orange with food coloring a couple of times...I mixed a few drops into a handful of mousse, slathered it on and let it dry. It washed out easily enough when I got around to shampooing.
ReplyDeleteI actually just re-dyed my purple hair last night! Kool-Aid powder (unsweetened!) mixed with conditioner will give you a few days of color on almost any shade of blonde. The rule is that the longer it sits, the brighter it gets, the longer it stays. If you do the hot Kool-Aid dip dyeing thing, it lasts a little longer. Personally, I want long-lasting color so I use Special Effects semi-permanent dye. I've tried a looooot of colors from a lot of brands.
ReplyDeleteOh, and if you rinse your hair with white vinegar after depositing any sort of temp/semi/demi color on it, the color will hold much longer. Also, always wash your hair in cold water as quickly as possible w/ a non-foaming (ie, sulfate free) shampoo. Punk rock hair is finicky, y'all.
I just really wanted to like this comment, especially, "Punk rock hair is finicky, y'all."
DeleteI color my hair with food coloring all the time, but after any failed attempts using conditioner or shampoo I created my own technique which is basically the same as here. After I shower is towel dry my hair and put on a bathrobe and gloves and literally dip my hair into solo cups of food coloring and a tiny bit if water. Then I wrap it in plastic and dry it as normal, then straighten it the next morning for added heat hold. I must say though, this is an INSANELY messy way to do it, but it works good!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Baking soda paste will get food coloring off of most surfaces. :)
ReplyDeleteDoes it work on brown hair , mine are light brown
ReplyDeleteWill it work on light brown hair?
ReplyDelete3-4 drops Gel food coloring and 20 volume cream developer works great. It is semi-permanent. put onto hair, foil, then hit with high heat from hair dryer. To get it to fade wash with dish soap in hot water. To get it to stay wash with color treated shampoo and use cold water. I used this with hot pink in my hair when my mom had breast cancer. I'm sure it would work with conditioner. The liquid food coloring doesnt work as well because it causes the conditioner or developer to seperate. I paid a ton at the salon and it faded in a week. The Gel food coloring lasted 1-2 months.
ReplyDelete