AFter searching the entire net (ok maybe i'm overexaggerating) i realized that there are'nt really any helpful sites to say what hairdyes work and which ones don't.
(If you think this is a result of me screwing up my own hair, congradualations, here's a cookie.)

so far on my list of worthless products is
1.Beyond the zone color jams, in huckleberry blue (especially if your hair has natural red tones)
2.Any hair color bought at a dollar store (need i comment?)


on my list of colors and brands that do work is
1. clairol hydrience (the dark red/burgundy shade)
2. powdered color remover from sally's beauty supply (the turquoise blue and white packet)
3. beyond the zone color jams , razzberry kamakaze (it's just they're blue dyes that are worthless.)


Please, if you've dyed your hair blue/green/pink/purple/orange/red or any other outrageous color and the dye was awesome, please let us (and me too!) know.

I already put up a review about Wella's Magma line of color. You can read that one here. We also have a thread about Manic Panic here, not to mention another thread almost identical to this one.

~spidey



Edited By spiderlimbs on 1143112788

The ones I've found that work:

1. Clairol Herbal Essences in Midnight Black (?). First, the permanent color actually lasts as long as it says it will. When I used the Herbal Essences semi-permanent dye in the same shade, it actually lasted a lot longer than the box said it would. Second, it's pretty gentle; my hair bounces back from the trauma in less than a week, and I don't have a lot of itching or hair loss.

2. Loreal Color Rays in Red (highlighting kits). Unlike a lot of bright colors, this product will work on previously dyed hair. In fact, it will work over fresh dye, but the color will be muted (with blue black dye, it comes out fushia). Like most reds, it fades noticably after two weeks. However, unlike some of the reds I've used, it fades to brown rather than orange. It does take a little practice to get your technique right--you've got to be very careful to put enough on and to do it evenly or your highlights won't develop right.

I can think of a couple of products that didn't work right, but I don't have the exact names right now. I'll add those later.

Note: Both products (especially the Color Rays) are made to work on dark hair. My natural color is a very dark brown, which could influence how the dyes last and fade. I wouldn't recommend either one for people with lighter hair.

Nicky Clarke Semi-Permanent in "Liquorice" (blue-black)-
(too wimpy for a permanent dye.)

OK, this stuff is awesome. It says it washes out in 15-20 washes but I've made it last longer in the past. It's also very gentle and has conditioning properties, which leave hair really soft and shiny (and smelling great!). My only problem with it is that the bottles are pretty small, so I usually have to buy two packets.
(Note: I already had very dark brown hair when I started dying it. I wouldn't recommend this colour to anyone who has lighter hair.)

Special Effects. Great for all those unnatural hair colour needs.

My experience is limited, as I only just test-dyed a chunk the other day to see how it would go over some natural roots as well as faded out old colour. But, it exceeded my expectations and gave me the result I was pretty much looking for.

I used Devilish (formerly Ruby Red), which is a blue-toned (as opposed to orange-toned) red. The test chunk came out with a vibrant kind of violet/fuschia cast on top of my hair. Very nice. Though depending on the colour scheme of an upcoming photoshoot, I might have to mix it with a more fire-engine red, but we'll see.

http://www.specialeffectsusa.com

I purchased mine from http://www.amphigory.com/ and can highly recommend their selection and service.


Lilith

This is one for the "Avoid" list:

Herbatint http://www.herbatint.co.uk

I picked a packet of this stuff up at the health food store once, happy to have found a purple hairdye in a brick-and-mortar store and thinking it would be nice to have a hairdye that might not be so terrible for one's hair.

I didn't pre-bleach my hair, so I don't know if that would have made a difference to the end result.

I put the dye on over my natural colour roots (light mousey brown), and some very faded old red dye, hoping that it would just give me a purple toned cast on the top. It came out reddish-brown, even less exciting than the stuff you can get in the regular supermarket/drugstore.

Bleh. Avoid.



Lilith

woah!woah!- keep it natural dudette!- dese outrageous colours can get people 2 faint- NEway whatever you like best.. i like your idea. sorry, ders no wild colours i sell in my shop- only brown, black all da usual ones. well, it's cool 2 be different so keep it up.

Drake:

Ali G called. He wants his schtick back.


~Nachtzehrer~

Okay, so you're saying that wild colours are bad... then you're saying they're good? What do you mean? Do you mean the fumes of the product can cause the user to faint? Or the colour will make old ladies faint in the street as you walk by? I've used many crazy colours and the worst thing that happened to me was a Hutterite asked me why I would do such a thing to myself.

*No offence to Hutterites. They're usually very polite, well-mannered people.

Back on topic my husband and I both tried out different hues of L'Oreals new line 'Ultra-Violets'. While the first couple of days were really exciting, the colour faded practically instantly. He's a red-head again, and I have a reddish hue to my black. Not that I complain about his red. It's dark, vibrant, and gorgeous! I prefer him that way, so he can keep it. I found there was a more permantent purple tint to their 'Noir Fatales' deepest plum colour. I think that's what it's called.

I've tried L'Oreal's Colour Rays as well, and I found it did not show up on my previously dyed hair at all. Not a tint. It sure showed up on my roots though. It was electric. I would love to be able to use it, but I don't like my original dull brown enough to grow it out. So now I have a box of purple sitting on the shelf collecting dust. No, I'm not giving it away. I may use it someday.

I've been doing mine with Special Effects for well over a year now, with different color combinations every 6 weeks or so. True, I have mine done at a salon by someone who's quite skilled with such colors, but I have only great things to say about Special Effects. After a good bleaching, the colors are VERY intense, and if you don't wash your hair too often (usually only twice a week for me), the color lasts without issue until you've reached the point that your need to do it again due to the roots growing out.

Between my partner and I, I think we've hit every color other than the orange and yellow - Cupcake Pink is the only one that I've run across that tends to fade out quicker, and that's just due to how light it is. And if you have a single color, getting an additional bottle and adding a squirt of color to your conditioner every day or two will keep it lively.

Hello Everyone,
Something is weird with my hair, it never stays the shade i dye it for more than a week. I dyed it red about 9 days ago and it's hot pink now. When I dye it Black in about a week its Brown. Any suggestions on Brands of Hair Dye? Thanks.

DevAdvent

My best advice is, stay away from the cheap kinds. Oh, and you may just be one of the 'lucky' people with really resistent hair folicles.

Seriously though, it depends. Is this red one of the 'natural' red shades or are you talking about red like the colours on this message board? Reds are honestly really hard to make stick. I asked a hairdresser about it once and he said it had to do with the size of the molecules of red dyes. *shrug*

In either case, the entire point of this thread is to get haircolour brand recommendations. Plus, you can do a search on 'dye' and get a number of other threads on the subject.

Red dyes have larger molecules than other colors, meaning you have to let red dye soak into your hair much longer to get the red into your hair follicles. It also washes out the most quickly for that reason. Whenever I dye my hair red on top of bleach the intense red washes out pretty quickly and leaves behind brassy orange. I guess those are the molecules that are "stuck."

My dye never lasts very long because I have bleached my hair over several times. I have to re-do it once every week or so, and I do everything I can to make it last.

I know a friend of mine who does funky Special Effects dye on bleached hair usually leaves the dye in for 12 hours before rinsing it out. I believe it works really well for her.

Special Effects also lends itself to being added to your conditioner (due to being a one-bottle dye, not needing seperate colour/developer etc.).




Lilith

I figured I'd add some black hairdye reviews here as well...

Over the years I've used many different storebought blacks, and I'll say that generally I've been pretty happy with all of them. My hair dyes pretty well so I've not had too many issues.

I do prefer blue black colour when I can get it, because it really does that almost unnatural blacker than black colour... "regular" black can often have a bit of a brown undertone on it for me.

The following dyes come to mind that I've used:

Garnier Nutrisse
L'Oreal Feria
L'Oreal Preference
Revlon High Dimension

Mostly I think I've used the Garnier one because it has a good blue-black (Licorice iirc). Revlon has probably tied with usage I think. Mostly it seemed to be which one was on sale

My one complaint with Feria is that it's a bit runny, so if you had it on it had a bigger tendency of dripping... which is not a good thing with permanent black dye really, especially not where other surfaces than your hair are concerned. Though a self-made cap of clingfilm would help contain everything, as well as keep your head warmer if you do like I do and keep the dye on your hair for a long while before rinsing.

Other than that, the colour has been fine with all of them.



Lilith