From Brown to Blue. No.6 on my 40/40 Project - Have Blue Hair

Yikes - I really am going to have blue hair...

Yes. I can officially say I have blue hair. Not a blue rise either. Full on. Blue!

It took two visits to the hairdresser, two different brands as the first ones didn't take, over 8 hours and a zillion cups of tea and hot chocolate to achieve it. I hadn't expected that. 

I also hadn’t expected I’d end up with blue ears like an elf or that I’d have to put a towel over my pillow case to stop ending up with a blue pillow. In fact for a good few weeks afterwards everything that came near me ended up becoming blue. Kinda like King Midas…but blue obviously rather than gold. 

Before heading off for my magical Burgh Island Birthday I booked myself in to get the Blue hair treatment. I wanted to have Blue hair for my Speakeasy Party that I was having the following weekend.

The colours were all chosen and I’d been talking to Ellie my fabulous hairdresser at The Strand about the best way to do it and what kind of effect I was after. Ellie also happens to share the same Birthday as me. Although she is 20 years younger…;-)

I arrived excited and nervous about to have my hair transformed. I used to dye my hair a lot when I was younger – I can remember trying to dye it blue myself when I was about 16, so in fact it has been a long desired look. 

Needless to say some looks worked and some didn’t – like the time I dyed my hair black and it was so shiny it looked like a wig to trying to bleach it myself, it turning orange and looking like a traffic light… So I was no stranger to having my hair a different colour. This time though I wanted it done by someone who knew what they were doing!

From Brown to Blue . Thank you Ellie at The Strand. Ellie shares my birthday - although not the same year!
Two days, two different brands of hair dye and many hours later I finally had Blue Hair! Hurrah!

As the bleach took effect my hair started to turn orange. I called this my Vivienne Westwood moment. The bleach was the part I was least looking forward to. Previous experience with bleaching my hair had left me with a dry candyfloss look. Not something I was keen to repeat. Thankfully Ellie was very aware of this and so made sure it only stayed on the minimum it was needed. It was nowhere near as bad as I expected and my hair remained soft. Great I thought. This is going to be ok.

Next step was to apply the crazy colours. I opted for three in the end so there would be some flashes of pink and purple to break up the blue. I also had the under half of my hair dyed a lovely dark brown, so only half my hair was actually going to be coloured. 

On went the colour

*sharp intake of breathe and a giggle* I was enjoying myself.

Issued with a good selection of magazines the colours were left on for around 45 mins (if I remember rightly).

Then drum roll it was time!

I was excited

To keep the colour in they would only rise out the dye and not shampoo it at this stage. As turns out these Crazy colours don’t actually last that long...

The warm water washed away the excess dye and I waited in anticipation as to what it would look like.

Oh

It was disappointing

It hadn't worked

It was a kind of green colour

WTF??

I felt rather deflated

The Crazy Colours didn't turn out as expected

Ellie was in shock and couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. The purple hadn't taken at all and was brown, the pink was barely there and the blue? Well it was more of a green. I hadn't planned on being an extra in Wicked…

"Don’t panic – said Ellie. We will fix it" (as in the words of the mice in Bagpuss) I had every belief that they would. I was sent home wearing a shower cap to see if putting the dye back on and leaving it in would make any difference and instructed to come back the following day for Part two with a different product. 

This time using RUSK a french brand. It looked a much richer colour and was a more permanent colour. I decided to just go all blue at this point so abandoned the use of any other highlight colours.

Back into the chair I went. Once again loaded with magazines and supplied with wonderful hot chocolate. They really look after you at this place. 

My fingers were crossed I’d get the colour I was looking for and also that I wouldn’t look like a complete idiot. I don’t consider myself particularly ‘cool’ and hated the thought of looking like someone who is trying to be cool. Hang on I’m 40 not am I not supposed to give a Fu*k about that kind of thing anymore…??

Any way…

Sometime later…

Off came the dye…And

RESULT it was BLUE!!!

Hurrah I was happy!

Yes very pleased indeed!

Peeps have been asking me if I'll keep my hair blue now for the year. I did think about it but to be honest the upkeep and the thought of having blue ears again just isn't that appealing!

How about you? Is there something daring you've wanted to do for a long time but have been putting it off? Love to hear from you

How my blue hair looked on Christmas day...Still blue although going slightly green and roots are starting to show. I still like it though. Looking more mermaid-ish by the day!