Blue Hair, Don't Care! Skipping the Salon to DIY

Gen Z gifted us millennials something mixed in with our confusion, and it's the dirty roots trend.

I've had unnaturally colored hair for most of my adult life. My father had very few rules he enforced during my teenage years, and one was that I could not have weird hair. I believe I've dyed it (mostly blue) ever since I aged out of this parameter.

The one issue I've always had is that I care about my hair A LOT. I'm not one to have dainty nails or a put together outfit... But my hair? I take my hair very seriously.

Because of this, I've always let my roots grow in before bleaching and retouching my color. Thanks to gen Z, I've let it go pretty far in recent years.

My hair grows crazy fast. In this picture I have about 9 months of growth, roughly 3-4 inches of dark brown roots.

The same thing happens every time. One day I look in the mirror, and I suddenly hate my roots. Then I know that I'm ready to touch them up. I usually have a hair appointment 30 minutes later.

This time, I let my blue fade out into a turquoise blonde before making the decision. And on this occasion, I decided not to go to a salon.

This is typically a HUGE no to me, I've been known to pay through the nose for my hair.

Part of this choice is time, it takes anywhere from 5 to 7 hours to get my hair dyed. The other aspect is money, last time I went in to a salon I spent an ungodly sum. So, I decided to see how I could do on my own. I headed to do some thrifty shopping, and collected the goods.



In case anyone is hoping to learn here, I want to note that volume 30 bleach on dark brown hair is an abomination. I should have used volume 20.

Since I had only dyed my hair once in the last year, and it was feeling pretty strong, I skimped a bit on quality purchases. Manic Panic is a brand that's nostalgic for any US punk or goth over a certain age. This stuff was nearly holy to me when I was younger.

I slapped it on to my hair, and waited...

Crud. That isn't right.

My hair lightened fairly nicely, but I had some dark spots here and there. The most notable thing to me though, was that it had a yellow tone to it. This is 110% a no-go if you are applying blue. You'll end up with green, either right away, or when it begins to fade. Damn me, I had to bleach it again.

Bleach two
You can probably tell from this pic, my hair did great on the second bleach. When I rinsed it off, I had an even blonde that held up to inspection...

All accept one detail.

It STILL had a slight golden tone to it. That wasn't going to work at all, so I headed to an actual beauty store. Toner time!

Purple cancels out yellow, this I know. The exact wizardry that you use to balance this without having purple hair is a total mystery to me however.

Luckily, I found an employee at the shop who really knew his stuff. He told me he worked at a salon as his main job, and I could feel his confidence as he helped me select what I needed to fix my golden conundrum. Deliverance.

I got the goods and headed home, getting ready to slather my hair up for the 3rd time.

If I had been smart, I'd have gone to the beauty store before the second bleach. This blunder ended up costing me a chunk of change, but still an insignificant one compared to salon costs.

The man who helped me was kind enough to write the instructions on the boxes for me, sensing my anxiety bubbling in my gut.


This might look a little strange.
You may be asking yourself, why would you lighten your hair just to darken it a non-vibrant color like this? Do you hate yourself?!

I promise there is a method to the madness.

It's magic, and you just have to wait to see it...

I let this sit on my hair for about 30 minutes. I overlapped the toner onto my blue-ish hair a bit, whereas I did not touch the majority of my hair with the bleach.

With the new growth blended into the remnants of the last blue, it was time to wash and blow dry!

---

Success!

YESSSSS! I actually liked this color a lot, for a brief moment I considered leaving it this way for a week or so. Instead, I decided I'd go an ashy tinted blonde perhaps next year, when I'll be ready to do this all again...

With the right base achieved, it was time to move on to blue!

The dye I picked is premixed, which is how salon dye comes as well. The brand I picked has a "clear" tube that you can mix into the others to alter the shade. I wanted a deep ocean like blue though, so I left it as it was. I typically go a medium blue, so it was fun to switch up.

Final color!

Woot! When I was finally done, my hair was exactly the color I'd hoped for! Depending on the lighting, the way it appears is wildly different. In the cloudy day sun, you can see all the electric blue highlights in my braid.

Here's a photo in a dim room vs. in the sun.


The first photo isn't the best. It's apparently really odd to take a photo of your own hair, I kept having to retake it because of glare... Then eventually gave up.

I was really quite pleased with the final result! I saved a ton of cash, and was able to take the time to do each step as it was convenient. I'd say it took about 7 hours, but I split them over two days instead of sitting in a chair for them consecutively.

Of course, now it was time to give my hair some love.



Years ago, a stylist told me about Olaplex bond builder, and I became obsessed with it soon after. Since then, I've always had some on hand.

Sadly, I tapped out the last of my #3 Olaplex between bleaches. Letting the healing properties permeate my hair for a handful of hours, I knew I'd need more.

When I got to the beauty store, I spotted this stuff. It has all the same stuff that Olaplex has as far as I can tell, but it's wayyyyy cheaper. I decided to pick some up for aftercare, and so far it seems just as good. Here's my before and after pics!



Although my hair turned out well, there were several steps that gave me anxiety during this process. I'm fairly certain I won't be dying my hair at home again... but it feels cool that it worked this time.

Do you dye your hair? If so, do you prefer to do it at home, or in a salon?


All photos are my own, comparison pic made on Canva.