How To Dye Dark Hair Multicoloured Without Ruining It Forever

Turquoise is having a moment (Instagram/Kylie Jenner)

Whether it’s opal, mermaid, pink tips or pastel purple, there’s no denying that multicolored hair is the bomb right now.

But while naturally blonde peeps can dye their hair every colour of the rainbow and have it actually show up, if you’re raven haired (and by that of course I mean any colour lighter than dark blonde) your only chance to go rainbow is with the help of a big ol’ bottle of bleach.

Great for neither your hair’s condition, or your wallet.

Celebs often use weaves to get these funky colours (Instagram/Lily Allen)

I’ve always been a hair chameleon. Mousey brown by nature, by design I’ve been everything from gothic black to lilac purple. But after the reckless years of regularly battering my hair with chemicals and colourants it’s pretty unhappy with me.

After one particularly brutal bathroom bleaching session my next visit to the hairdressers ended in a stark warning that if I did it again it would fall out.

So for a year and a half I put myself on a no-dyeing, intensive hair care programme.

After 18 months of boredom I dyed it a natural-looking auburn. I had it done professionally and didn’t lighten the hair. It washed out a few weeks later.

I really was learning.

Natural auburn-ish and healthy as hell (Yahoo)

Natural To Multi-Colour

But the explosion of multicolour hair all around me was too much. I decided I had to join the trend.

But how to do it without destroying my hair again? It was the longest and strongest it had ever been - and I didn’t want to turn it into a straw-like dry mess.

So I turned to the experts at ColourNation, a colour-specialist hair salon near Oxford Circus. I met with colourist Lucia and showed her a selection of pictures of turquoise and green hair dos - a collection of mermaidal options, if you will.

“I don’t want to bleach the whole thing,” I said straight off the bat. Lucia shook her head sadly.

“Impossible,” she warned. “Without bleach you’ll just never get the colour.”

She suggested a compromise. The best way to preserve the health of my hair, and still satisfy my colour cravings was to leave my roots well alone, and go for the dip-dye look, so when I’m bored I can always cut it short.

As I wanted a mermaid emerald, turquoise and mint mix, Lucia suggested I darken the top of my hair to give a nice contrast.

We discussed my colour options (Yahoo)

When you’re thinking about what colour to choose, here’s what she recommends you consider:

• The colour of your eyebrows - they shouldn’t be darker than your hair colour

• What colour your natural hair is. If you’re very, very dark it will probably be impossible to get you to a lilac colour, say, as no matter how many times you bleach it you’ll still have a slightly orange tint, which mixes well with green and blue colours, but will always make pink or purple look at little peachy (not necessarily a bad thing!). This is where it pays to talk to an expert
  

• Upkeep - no matter what colour you choose, it won’t be permanent, so you’ll need to put the colour back in regularly. In my case, doing a spectrum of greens made more sense than trying to put some streaks of, say, pink, in, because when I come to do it myself I’ll be able to just rinse in one colour and it will top up all the shades.

Designing My New Hair

I talked to Lucia for a long time about shades and designs and I’d recommend getting everything decided in advance of your dyeing session. Talking to an expert is essential as they’ll have tried all your crazy plans out before and know what works and what won’t.

Lucia knew exactly which colours would complement each other, and work with my natural hair texture and colour.

We looked through the colour charts and after much deliberation decided on Ocean Blue and Turquoise. Lucia tells me she’ll weave these two colours together to give movement to the hair, to avoid it looking like a stark block of green.

A sensitivity test and a week later I headed back in for the colouring session.

Going Multi-Coloured

One thing to be prepared for is that it takes a long time to completely transform your hair colour. I was in the salon for a good four and a half hours.

Lucia first gave me an unscheduled trim, saying that it was better to tidy up and split ends now, rather than cutting off the colour later, so if you’re planning a cut do it first.

Developing (Yahoo)

Then there’s the bleaching stage and the colouring stage.

This seems like a good time for me to stress that getting the right colourist for you is really important. Years ago I had my hair dyed lilac, a process that took a similar amount of time. I didn’t really get on with the colourist then and spent many hours not being able to have a normal conversation, and never wanting to go back to have my roots touched up. Awkward.

Lucia, on the other hand, was an absolute joy and I had a great time shooting the breeze with her.

To save time, Lucia mixed up all the colours for a single application process. She had three pots - one with the dark colour for the top of the hair, one with a darker, turquoise green and one with a lighter, mint green.

While I watched, she expertly stroked the right colours onto the right strands of hair and folded them up in foil.

The colours themselves don’t take very long to settle into the hair, just 15 or 20 minutes. Again the hair heater enclosed around my foil’d head and I waited impatiently to see the final result.

The last thing left was just to wash out the colour and dry and style the hair. Lucia added a little purple toner as she rinsed my hair, to bring out the blue tones and calm the red ones, and as she turned the hair dryer onto the bottom of my hair a beautiful turquoise began to appear.

(Yahoo)

Ta daaaa: A mere four and a half hours since I’d entered the salon, I had mermaid dip-dyed hair. Pastel streaks entwined with the deeper green of the turquoise and I was in love with my locks.

Upkeep

Lucia advised me that I’d need to keep putting colour into my hair. She recommended getting a violet one to keep an red tones down, as well as the turquoise to keep my hair mermaid. But really, the world is my oyster. When the colour fades to the bleach underneath, I can colour the ends whatever shade I like.

Lucia’s top tip for upkeep was to mix some colour with water in an empty water bottle and rinse this through the hair each time it’s washed to give it a quick top up - making the dye go further and colour last longer.

The best thing of all is that as my hair grows, it’s pretty healthy. I can condition the ends with add extra moisture, but the roots are just as healthy as they were before and if anything, shiner thanks to the semi-permanent dark colour Lucia chose for me. The bleached bit does get dry, but the colors tend to be conditioning and I’m perfectly happy knowing that I can always lop them off when the time comes.

Mixing up a little purple with my turquoise (Yahoo)

From one natural brunette to another, I urge you to colour your hair whatever shade you fancy, life’s too short for boring hair. And if it’s not going to harm your hair long-term, then what are you waiting for?

Colour Nation has been creating beautiful hair colour designs for 15 years at its central London location near Oxford street. Head to www.colournation.com for more info or get in touch with the studio, at 5 Winsley Street, London W1W 8HG or on 020 7580 3669.

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