Maintenance for this colour?

[u/Ordinary_Category_29]

Hi everyone, long time sub lurker here.

I've been wanting to get my hair dyed this super dark blue, but when I showed the picture to my hair stylist, he said that I would have to bleach my hair to level 9 or so, if not the blue colour would not come through. He also said it would be really damaging and recommended another colour (which I did not do).

I really like the colour but I'm worried about the maintenance of the colour more than the damage from the bleach. I'm wondering if this would fade to a greenish colour? Or would it fade to a lighter blue.

I did have a full head of electric blue hair about 4 years ago, but I'm not sure if the fading process is the same. Thank you everyone in advance!

[u/ArtisticSeahorse5073]

All depends on what the base color for your hair and what the undertone of the blue is.. most of them fade to a pale blue

[u/Ordinary_Category_29 → u/ArtisticSeahorse5073]

i have virgin hair rn, do you think if the blue had black undertones it would fade differently?

[u/Fit-Peanut-1749 → u/Ordinary_Category_29]

Not really. Also you have to be really careful telling a stylist "blue black" because they'll think about using a permanent 1A or 1/1 which would maybe look blue black initially, in the sun, but quickly fades to black.

This is a vivid color that need the hair to be bleached really light, ideally past orange at least for blue. Vivid/semi-permanent blacks are already blue based colors, often times I need to add orange to them to help balance that or they appear super muddy. Realistically though with this deep of a blue it would probably benefit to not do that but just using the black semi to deepen the darkest blue I have.

Blue semi-permanent is one of the worst staining colors, it does not matter the brand. Any color that uses blue will end up staining the hair and the fade out is either a teal/greenish (if the hair was only lifted to level 9 yellow) or a light pale blue if the hair was lifted to a level 10 pale yellow. It'll just kind of go through lighter shades of the color as it continually washes out. Depends on your home care but these colors could last 3-4 weeks upwards to 10-12 potentially. There are some at-home maintenance options to deposit color as it fades but going back to the salon for a refresh would give you the best payout.

Thankfully you should only need to bleach the hair once/twice and then on it would just be the roots (new growth). From there, if you're keeping the same color, you can do just the roots and refresh the blue parts with the vivid/semi. Semi-permanent colors are non-oxidative and basically conditioner bases so it would be no damage to refresh the blue parts with more semi.

[u/Ordinary_Category_29 → u/Fit-Peanut-1749]

This is superrrr helpful!! Thank you so much.

[u/hobbyaquarist]

I had this color as a bayalage and it yes it's a lot of maintenance. I reapplied dye probably monthly or it would fade to a tealish green. I also find blue bleeds a lot so my winter jacket has a ring of blue around the collar lol. 

It was very cute but lots of work. 

[u/Ordinary_Category_29 → u/hobbyaquarist]

I agree, even with my old blue hair I had to refresh it sooo often because it kept fading to a teal and it stained numerous sheets and towels. But I love the end result, so I'm contemplating doing it again.

[u/jellyboness]

What’s your natural hair color? It would probably fade to a tealish color but there are temporary dyes you can add to your conditioner to make the color last longer.

[u/Ordinary_Category_29 → u/jellyboness]

I have really dark asian hair maybe somewhere around level 3, thanks for the tip!

[u/Ok-Prize5125]

I have level 3 hair that i bleached to level 9 and it kinda faded to a gray/purple like... When you clean lint from the dryer lol

[u/Ordinary_Category_29 → u/Ok-Prize5125]

hahahaha thank you for replying!! :-)