I consider this an art project of sorts, it just happened to be wearable :) I'd been itching for a change for a long time but my traditional salon just didn't offer a lot of options for fun colors. I came across this photo on a flickr search and fell in love - RAINBOW HAIR?!?! WHO WOULDN'T BE HAPPY?!?! I've never been much for home dyed hair - I did Ryan's pink muppet 'do for a while and some bad bleach jobs in college, but even though I was going a little outside the box I still wanted it done well and professionally. So I sought out Moxie in St. Paul, and I was way happy with the results.
Nancy was my stylist (I since found out she's no longer there...of course, just when I get comfortable with a new person!) But I'm sure the rest of the staff is capable. They use Paul Mitchell inks, and the process is called "ink burning" - they bleached the hair first, then Nancy mixed up all my custom colors (she was SO NICE about it!) and painted them in, sealing with a flat iron. She then added some subtle layers so the color peeked out the back all around. I LOVED IT! The colors were so bright, I thought it looked like feathers. When I had it down the color was unobtrusive but unique, and if I really wanted to make a more drastic statement, I could pull the top back and the pink & red were very bright.
Though it's technically "permanent", it doesn't last very long. Water is the enemy, so with dyes you want to wash as little as possible and when you do, with as cold of water as possible. This was fine the first couple weeks - every other day I'd strap on my chic shower cap and warm up under a hot shower, flip it to cold to wash my hair as fast as possible, and then man was I awake! But as soon as I started my tattoo I needed to wash my back in hot water and it all fell apart...3-4 weeks it started to look pretty faded, I did have it re-done once (which wasn't that much - only $30 for the ink burn, cheaper to maintain than blond for sure) but now it's pretty much all gone. I was thinking of keeping it through the summer but who am I kidding - I'm lazy and cheap :) It was fun while it lasted though!