the DIY: "DIP" DYED HAIR (UPDATED)

*DISCLAIMER- I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL COSMETOLOGIST/HAIRDRESSER/COLORIST. THIS WAS JUST AN EXPERIMENT GONE RIGHT.*
So if you saw our Candy Hair Color post, you know that Casey and I are pretty obsessed with fun-colored-hair right now. It's not a reasonable obsession but hey, are any obsessions really that reasonable? I decided to take matters into my own hands and give my hair some change. By the way, I really don't recommend trying this at home! It's sort of a miracle that my hair turned out the way it did without ruining my hair. I really don't know what I was thinking but my hair still feels like it usually does, it's just pink in some areas now. Anyways, I'm posting to show you how I did my hair just in case you get brave (or crazy) one day!

This is the stuff I used. It cost about $10 for the lightening stuff and the color. It all came in the same box. This already sounds a little shady... only $10?? The cool thing about this specific box kit is that you don't actually have to lighten your hair first. You could just use the color and it would color your hair pink, it just won't stay in very long at all. My friends and I used this box kit years ago to put red in our hair and in the end the red look like the same color on everyone's hair- dark brown, light brown, and blonde. I wanted to try to lighten my hair so that the color would be more permanent. SCARY.

I separated the piece I wanted to lighten first and then I worked my way around my head. I put the bleach about 2/3 of the way up my hair. You could just use a clip but I was trying to be super precise. This is bleach we are talking about.

I put the bleach in lines that started at different places so it wasn't a straight line across my hair. Then I rubbed the bleach into my hair (with gloves on my hands.) Fold the sides of the foil inward and then fold the bottom upwards to keep the foil in place. I didn't buy special foils, I just made my own. I, and Casey too, literally took sheets of aluminum foil and cut them into rectangles. Let your hair process according to the instructions. I left the bleach on my hair for about 45 minutes and got scared so I washed it out. The color I ended up with was a little darker than I imagined but I didn't want my hair to start falling off. In the end it doesn't even matter... it got as pink, or even more pink, than I imagined it would.

After I washed my hair out I dried it completely and started adding the color. I basically did the same thing here that I did to bleach my hair. Add color, make sure it isn't a perfect line and fold up the foil around it.

Repeat until you've done all of your hair. I added the pink color 2/3 of the way up the blonde part (where I just bleached.) You could just color your tips if you wanted. I left it on for 35 minutes which is what the instructions said to do. Well... if you wanted the color to stay in longer than a week or two. Then I washed it and THEN. I. HAD. PINK. HAIR.

This is probably my favorite picture of the new pink hair. I love what it does when I braid it. YAY! Pink hair.

Looking for a less permanent way to add color to your hair? Check out what we did in this post.

UPDATE
My hair is still pink as of July 12, 2012, but it has faded A LOT. It is a very light pink now.