This round of dying turned out much more successfully than my last attempt! While I wanted it to be more grey-blue than sea-blue, I feel like I’m channeling Sailormoon’s Michiru with this hair color.

Worn with my Everlane blouse, which is perfect for portrait-style blog photos such as these, and in which, if you can’t tell, I basically live.

I used Bobby Pin Blog’s Pastel Hair posts as a guide, with my own slight variations. Below the cut, you can see the products I used for both this post and my previous one.

Products used:

• Jhirmack Silver Plus Ageless Shampoo from Walgreens: The cheapest, but in my experience, the best purple shampoo (It’s 2/$5 a bottle online.)
• Ion Color Brilliance Brights Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Sky Blue and in Purple from Sally’s: I honestly did not like the consistency of the dyes–they were gritty and hard to blend, which in large part accounted for the unevenness of the color
• 20 Volume Developer

I used these as a shampoo cap, but instead of using white shampoo, I used the Jhirmack Silver Plus Ageless Shampoo–a purple shampoo–in hopes of neutralizing the blue. I used slightly more blue dye than purple, hence the sea-green color instead of a more muted bluish-gray.

Words of (amateur) wisdom:

• Do a shampoo cap if you’re dying by yourself. If you brush it in by yourself, you are much more likely to miss spots.
• No matter what you do, it’s probably gonna come out uneven. Don’t worry–it looks kinda cool.
• If you are trying to achieve a really somber, greyish blue, do not underestimate the amount of purple dye you use. You should be using at least equal parts blue & purple.

How to get blue dye out (you basically can’t):

• Shampooing vigorously will help it fade more quickly, but won’t provide an immediate fix. (Dishwashing detergent works in the same way.)
• Oops! Color remover does not work on blue hair. Save yourself the $12; this product is not designed to remove these types of dyes & colors.
• Using a bleach/40 developer/shampoo combo (equal parts) got a decent amount out.
• Ultimately, dying over my hair was the best way to quickly cover it up. I’m currently sporting a dirty blonde.

Disclaimer: These are not professional tips and should not be used to replace professional advice.