She's Like A Rainbow

[rachelmanija]

Yesterday I got my dyed in a style called "oil slick," which is a type of rainbow hair that brunettes can do.





I love it. It came out even better than I imagined. It's prettier in person than in the pics - the colors are both more delicate and more visible, and you can see more of them.

I asked the stylist not to try to cover up the gray in my hair, but to keep it as is so it (I hoped) would become another color accent. I say "gray," but it's actually a bright, glittering white. I like it and hope to have a streak rather than just individual strands some day. Anyway, that worked very nicely - it adds to the sparkly/metallic effect.

Even more photos, in different light and showing how changing my part reveals different colors.

Apologies for the bad lighting and visible camera. I don't like selfies as they change the shape of my face in an unflattering way, so I took these in the bathroom mirror.

Comments

[starlady]

I started doing this to my hair three years ago and I love it unreasonably. Worth every penny. Yours looks great, I love the colors!

[rachelmanija]

Thank you! How do you maintain yours, by the way? I've dyed my hair before but just one color and never did anything special to maintain it. This, I am willing to carefully maintain.

Can you send me some pics of yours?

[sholio]

That looks SO cool! I love how different it looks under different lighting conditions, and I didn't notice in the earlier pictures that it was so bright in front.

I asked the stylist not to try to cover up the gray in my hair, but to keep it as is so it (I hoped) would become another color accent. I say "gray," but it's actually a bright, glittering white. I like it and hope to have a streak rather than just individual strands some day. Anyway, that worked very nicely - it adds to the sparkly/metallic effect.

My gray hair is sparkly too! Nobody ever told me it was so different from normal hair. I don't know why people cover it up (well, I do, because of all the cultural weirdness we have about aging - my mother-in-law once said to me something like, women who don't dye to cover up their gray hair are just "letting themselves go", or something like that). But I really like it. It's an interesting metallic effect, like on a silver car.

[rachelmanija]

Yeah, mine is not only glittery, but it's a different texture from my regular hair - it's crinkled. I'm really curious to see what that'll do to the overall effect when there's enough of it to find out.

I always intended to not cover up my gray, just as a general protest against women being supposed to not age, but it never occurred to me that I would love my gray hair for its own sake. It's so pretty!

[sylvaine]

Oh that is the coolest thing!

[rachelmanija]

It is, isn't it? A friend did it and it came out so gorgeous that I had to give it a try.

[asakiyume]

Super gorgeous. I looked into doing this because I thought you could literally just put dye on hair without having to treat it first at all, but I guess you do have to do *something* to it before hand?

[rachelmanija]

Yes, you do have to bleach it first, but it's a more gentle bleach. You're just lightening it, not completely stripping it. I also gave the stylist the go-ahead to make it brighter. I think you can also do this process with less or possibly even no bleach, but it won't be as dramatic: no yellows, and just a blue-green sheen.

[larryhammer]

+1

[ambyr]

Wow, that came out great!

[rachelmanija]

Thank you!

[nestra]

I did this a couple times and loved it. My hair is longer than yours, though, so I didn't feel like justifying the time and the expense. But the results are always fricking awesome.

[rachelmanija]

Got any photos I could see?

[alatefeline]

Oooooh, shiny!

[rachelmanija]

Literally!

[sartorias]

Wow, that looks terrific!

[rachelmanija]

Thank you!

[naye]

Oh, awesome!

[rachelmanija]

Isn't it just?

[muccamukk]

That looks great! I've experimented with that in a more limited way and really liked it.

[rachelmanija]

Got pics?

[cadenzamuse]

I LOVE IT!

[rachelmanija]

Me too!

[eglantiere]

AMAZING. i can has envy! you look knock-out gorgeous, dude, and vibrantly happy :D

[rachelmanija]

Thank you! You will get to see it in person - I'll do a touch-up before I leave. Think it'll turn heads in Varna?

I am happy and I'm enjoying it. About time!

[cyphomandra]

Ooh, that looks fantastic!! I really want to do something like that with mine, but what stops me is a) maintenance (esp as I have really fine hair and usually wash it every day) and b) work objecting. But the idea of a more subtle blue green shimmer as mentioned in your comments is super tempting...

[rachelmanija]

DO THE BLUE-GREEN SHIMMER.

I also usually wash my hair every day but I'm going to start cutting back. I'll see how it goes.

[havocthecat]

First of all, I love your hair, and it gives me hope that my dark, dark brown Italian-American hair could be actually dyed a color without bleaching the shit out of it someday. I don't know that I'd ever do it, as I'm not sure I'd want the roots maintenance, but knowing I could is nice.

Second, thanks for uploading your pics to DW image hosting, which means work doesn't block them and I don't have to click, curse, get frustrated at not being able to see the pretties, and then hope I remember to check the pictures when I get home.

[rachelmanija]

Thank you! It sounds like you and I have very similar hair (mine's Ashkenazi Jewish, but also very very dark brown), so you too could do an oil slick! If you want to minimize bleaching even more, you could just say so - the colors would be darker and you wouldn't have the golden streaks.

I wish I could take credit for uploading direct to DW but in fact it's just because I don't have another image hoster.

[forestofglory]

It looks great!

[mme_hardy]

Oh, nice. And very flattering.

[schneefink]

That looks great :)

[frith_in_thorns]

It looks gorgeous! I want to get my hair done like that now :D

[minoanmiss]

Oooh, it's so pretty!

[carbonel]

Pretty! I henna'd my hair red for about ten years (and haven't changed my default DW icon, so you can see it there), but when my hair was all gray-white, I stopped doing it.

Every so often I think about doing some sort of color, but I haven't yet. I wear my hair short, so maintenance would be a pain, which is one of the deterrents.

[lilacsigil]

That looks great! I started getting a few grey hairs in my mid-30s and I was super excited because I thought I was going to get streaks at the side, but...it stopped there. My mother is 71 and still only partially grey, though, so I don't like my odds.

[rachelmanija]

Same. I was really hoping for a white streak like Rogue, and in fact I stopped dying my hair for a couple years to see if it would happen. (I used to often dye it copper red). It didn't.

[movingfinger]

That looks wonderful!

[umadoshi]

It looks fantastic! ^_^

I think I'm a bit happier with the brighter colors I've been going with lately, but I was also really delighted by my oil slick colors, so I'm happy to see it coming across my reading page. ^_^

[ETA: In terms of maintenance, the big thing I've been told about other than washing it as infrequently as possible (I wash mine about every four days) is to use the coolest water you can when washing it. I never manage cooler than lukewarm, but my color still lasts really well; I get it touched up every...ten weeks or so? And usually the roots growing in are a bigger concern than fading.]

[rachelmanija]

I've seen some pics of your hair (gorgeous!) but I think not the oil slick - do you have pics of that?

Thanks for the maintenance suggestions! I need to buy a shower cap. Like, tonight. This is why I like living in a big city.

[vass]

Oh wow, it looks fantastic.

Now I want to do that, but my hair's so short it probably wouldn't work (I'm doing the short back and sides thing.)