09.09.08
Purple Hair
My beautiful, talented Daughter has the coolest hair. It has been purple for several years and now she has her beautiful blond tresses shading from deep purple to turquoise. I actually love her hair in shades of purple the best —for some reason it just suits her and her effervescent personality! When she was a teen, I would allow her to “dye” her hair for special costume occasions. I was probably hoping that if I allowed her to do this “rebellious” thing that it would keep her from doing something really harmful. Besides it was fun – for all of us! I think it worked because she is a fabulous, successful young woman who has made a positive name for herself in the LA tech community.
And so she has given me the “recipe” for safe, non-toxic, non-permanent cheap coloring of your hair. Use Kool-aid! Yes, I said Kool-aid! The stuff you used to drink as a child; some of you still drink it. The TV ad with the big pitcher with the happy face on it! Here we go…..
First and foremost, you must only purchase the sugar-less or the kind where you add your own sugar (which you do not add). Reason? You do not want sugar on your head because the flies, bees and bugs will also want to be there! Mountain berry punch is suggested as the color of choice because it evidently gives good coverage, but you are limited only by your own imagination! You mix it in a small amount of conditioner – enough to make a paste- and apply it to your clean hair — as a colored conditioner. You may want to use gloves to protect your manicure! You may need to mix in three or more packages depending on how thick your hair is and how deep you want the color and how light your hair color is to begin with. Then pile your hair on top of your head, cover with saran wrap and wait at least 1 hour. The timing depends on hair length, texture, amount of Kool-aid, etc. You can clean up any mess you made during this time. The longer you leave it on, the longer the color has to penetrate the hair shaft and the deeper the color will be. Gently rinse the excess conditioner out and dry your hair as usual. You can also color just the ends of your hair, or a section of it; the whole idea is to have fun and be creative! Rainbows anyone??
When you are tired of your fun hair color you simply shampoo it. You may need to shampoo your hair two or three times to get all the kool-aid color out, but hey, what fun you had!!! This blogher is not responsible for any inacuaracies or mishaps!!! But, let us know how it went!
pdxfirefly said,
September 10, 2008 at 10:09 am
This sounds like so much fun!
Lamia said,
November 13, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Hey there,
I’m looking to go to school as Nymphadora Tonks for Book Day a week today, and I was looking up ways to dye my hair purple (temporary hair dye is hard to come by in The Philippines). I was wondering if this method would work sufficiantly for dark brown hair?
-Lamia
Lamia said,
November 13, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Or, if not on my real hair, would it work on a blond wig?
pdxfirefly said,
November 13, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Hi Lamia,
Thanks for the question and thanks even more for reading Portland Firefly’s blog. Wow! The Philippines!
I’ll answer as best I can. I think you should have your hair clean and dry before you apply the paste of kool-aid mixed in a little hair conditioner. I also think you should use many (maybe as many as 6) packages of kool-aid. I would also recomment that you do your hair two days before you need it purple. That way, you can add more purple the night before if need be; and you have the extrad added bonus of “advertising” your presentation for a day with your purple hair!
I think the result you will have will give your hair a sort of purple sheen in the sunlight. I would definately try it, since it seems you have no other option other than bleaching your beautiful brown hair and then dying it!
Let me know how it goes!! Good Luck!
pdxfirefly said,
November 13, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Good Idea! I think it would work fabulously on a blond wig! I think most wigs have some sort of coating on them–so you might have to wash it first. You can “dye” the wig today and see how it “takes”. I think Dora’s hairstyle is adorable! Be sure to let us know how it comes out!