Hair coloring help needed!

[stardancer]

My kiddo is wanting to have a streak of color put in her hair (Red or Blue). Does anyone know if this is a very involved, hair damaging procedure? Do they have to bleach the hair first before applying the funky color? A couple kids at school showed up with red streaks last year and that's all I have been hearing about all summer! Maybe I should get a blue streak, to match most of my Bellas.

[Egyptianangel]

Hi Stardancer,

You could try hair attachments first to see if she likes them first, Boots (if you have the shop near you) may do them or try typing it in Google. Or you can buy, again Boots, hair streaking colour in reds and blues, green, purples. The semi permanent colours won't harm the hair because they will just wash out in either one wash or several. Have a look here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FUNKY-Clip-in-...QQcmdZViewItem

If you or your daughter have little experience in colouring hair I would advise you go to a hairdressers. Hope I've helped.

[ssipes]

If she doesn't want to damage her hair in a major way, she need to limit herself to products that are generally called "demi permanent" or "semi permanent". These do not bleach or lighten the hair, just deposit color on the hair shaft that lasts about a month. This means if her hair is brown, she could go get deep burgundy.

If she wants stopsign red hair, the hair must be bleached out first. Very very damaging. If she has and wants to keep her hair any length other than short, don't even go there.

If on the other hand she has a very short style, or wants to go short after experiencing the colors for a while, the damage will still occur but won't be so bad to get over.

I would agree that if she only wants a few pieces of colored hair, go for the clip in hair pieces. Seems like the easiest thing to me.

sedonia

[latriamou]

how harsh they have to be will depend on her natural hair color. i know beauty stores sell spray on and temporary hair color that you can use to put streaks in her hair. i'm not sure if they have any peroxide in them that will damage the hair but a good conditioning afterwards should help. most hair coloring products dont have 40 or 50 volume peroxide in them so you should be ok. if your kid's hair is really dark, you may need a high peroxide to force it to change color or go a shade brighter than desired to get the effect. always test out something drastic with a semi or demi permanent first.

[aazura]

Star, knowing your daughter has super long, light brownish blonde hair, I don't think they'll need to bleach but it would depend on how intense the color she wants. Seconia's advice of using a semi-permanent color is a good one -- especially since her hair is soooo looong and I'm sure this she'll outgrown this phase a lot faster than her hair will any permanent color.

[Egyptianangel]

All of the above is good advice. As I originally recommended go for semi-permanent or clip in pieces. Being a qualified hairdresser you can't go far wrong. Good luck.

[tahiradancer]

Jello. To try the colour out. Seriously! It's a fun and funky way to 'try' a colour for a couple of days.

{{{HUGS}}}

yes, I heard jello works....
they also have temporary spray on color - try sally's.

[antimony]

*sugar-free* Jello. Just trust me on this one.

[Egyptianangel]

Really? Eating Jelly? Never heard of that one. How strange. Urmm....what do you do, make it up then soak your hair in it? It's not April 1st. Can't get my head around this one.

[antimony]

You use very little water, just enough to mix it into a thick paste. Apply the paste to the hair, wrap it in saran wrap, blast it with a hair dryer, then rinse.

You can do the same thing with kool-ade, cake decorating pastes or food coloring mixed into conditioner, etc. all you're doing is using those vibrant food dyes to dye your hair. I think a lot of people use jello because the paste it makes is easier to control than conditioner or goopy kool-ade paste.

[sabrinabellydancer]

we used to use jello in junior high to color our hair. the food coloring will stain light colored hair. my best friend had light brown with natural blond highlights...and purple jello stains!

the clip ins are a pain and can slip out, especially from straight hair. if she wants it to stay in without curtailing "kid" activities, i suggest a braided in or bonded hair extension in the color she wants. it shouldn't cost much to do a little piece and will be much less trouble than real hair color.

btw, semi-permanent can permanently stain the hair too. any chemical process can damage the hair.

[Viv]

My two cents worth from experience is that Manic Panic works well. My daughter and I are both henna heads and it's one of the few "other color" dyes we can use without damage to our hair. We did the bleach thing on my daughter's once but for only about half the time the instructions said. Just enough to lighten the henna from her hair a bit. What we found was if we bleached the strip she wanted to color first the Manic Panic dye didn't last as long. We've both done streaks with it and never had a problem or bad reaction with our hair. Takes about two weeks to finally fade from my daughters hair and closer to a month for mine. Hope that helps!

[Egyptianangel]

Hi Sabrina,
Are you a hairdresser?

[stardancer]

We ended up going to my stylist and getting a few streaks in a demi color that will wash out in a few weeks. She is very excited and loves it!! Not sure how I feel about it though. Was damn expensive too. Thanks for the help everyone!!

[Egyptianangel]

I bet it looks fantastic. It will wash out in a few washes, it won't be permanent. Semi's will, however, become permanent if you get a build up of colour, but a one off semi will be fine. Are you gong to get yours done too?