Alternative Hair Colors - Dye / Color, Wigs & Extensions

If you aren't sure what color or shade to dye your hair, or you just don't want to even bother with dye at the moment, wigs are a great way to see what looks best on you. Buy or borrow a wig to wear for awhile, so you can get accustomed to how you look with whatever color you choose, as well as whether or not you're comfortable with the attention that color may get you. If you tire of the wig quickly, it's fine, and you can just wear different wigs out & about until you find a color & hairstyle that fits you best.

Check out the wide array of wigs from Amazon below and see what you like...

You can also check out wigs at Hot Topic.com, look at pictures of Cosplay wigs on the Gothic Lolita Wigs Tumblr blog, then view & even purchase a wider array of wigs on the Cosplay Wigs USA website.

Photo of yellow bob wig courtesy of Photobucket.com.

Orange Wigs



Yellow Wigs



Green Wigs

Blue Wigs

Purple Wigs

White Wigs

If you want streaks in your hair instead of color all over, or you want to dye your own hair but add length & fullness to it, hair extensions are a great option. It's best to decide what style you want before you start, as you have several options.

If you simply want a streaked look, with whatever color/colors you choose to stand out colorwise but blend in hairwise (so it looks like your own hair), you can get the extensions done professionally, or you can buy clip-in or glue-in hair extensions to do yourself at home.

If you're dying your own hair and getting extensions to fill out your look, you or your hairstylist can dye blonde extensions at the same time that your hair is dyed, so that the extensions and your hair will be the exact same color.

Visit HairResources.net to see the first of 6 steps/pages on the research and process to be aware of when getting hair extensions. It also describes 7 ways to get hair extensions done (which inlcude clip-ons & glue-in extensions).

You can also visit the DIY Rainbow Hair! Tutorial on Buzznet for more detailed tips on how to dye extensions yourself.

Rainbow hair extensions photo courtesy of WeHeartIt.com.

Orange Hair Extensions



Yellow Hair Extensions

Green Hair Extensions

Blue Hair Extensions

 

Purple Hair Extensions

 

White Hair Extensions

 

Rainbow Hair Extensions

If you are ready to dye your hair whatever color it is you want to dye it, you need to make sure you're going about it the right way. While it's best if a professional hairstylist dyes your hair, you can do it yourself at home.

The best way to dye your hair will depend on two things:

1) How light or dark your own hair is at the moment, and
2) how bright or dark the shade(s)/color(s) is/are that you want to dye your hair.

For instance, if you have, say, dark brown or black hair, and you want your hair to come out a bright yellow or orange, you'll need to bleach your hair accordingly. Otherwise, your hair will just come out with dark with a tine of whatever color you put on it. But if you have blonde hair, and you want to dye your hair a dark brown or black, you don't need to bleach your hair.

Where bleaching your hair is concerned, always make sure you wash all the bleach out of your hair. Let it dry (I don't know if it's ok to let it airdry, but I've seen plenty of videos where the bleached hair is blowdried). It needs to dry so that the color will take to your hair better. Apparently it doesn't work as well when the hair is wet.

I've heard several things where hair dyes are concerned. A lot of people will use the Manic Panic brand because it's vegan. If you use it according to the directions, it doesn't last much longer than 2 weeks. But leave the dye on your hair for 1 hour- 1 1/2 hours at least (you can leave it on longer than that if you want, since it is conditioner-based), and it will stay much longer than two weeks. I've also heard that mixing Manic Panic colors, as well as using the Manic Panic AMPLIFIED dyes, allows for the color to come out much better on your hair. I have also heard that the Special Effects brand naturally will last much longer (how much longer, I do not know). But there's other dye brands available besides just those Manic Panic & Special Effects.

Even having said all that, it's really best to talk with someone who has dyed their hair the same color you want to dye yours (and/or several other colors). They'll be able to give you pointers on what you should & shouldn't do to your hair, before and after you dye it. You can also watch video tutorials online (and watch several of them).

For more tips & techniques on how to dye your hair, click here. You can also check out the YouTube video tutorials (just below this section).

I've also reblogged a few dye tips on my Tumblr blog- one about hair dye jobs in general (with special Manic Panic instructions/tips I previously mentioned) & tips on using Manic Panic hair dye on dark hair.

Photos of girl with purple hair & yellow hair are both Angelica Muderotic, courtesy of her blog, theReal Muderotic (some photos on the blog are NSFW [Not Suitable For Work], so proceed with caution). Click on the photos for their sources. To see more of her personal photos, click here. She knows a lot about dying hair as she's had it several colors, so if you have any questions you'd like to ask her, read her blog FAQs here first, then ask her a question on her Formspring page.

Photo of girl with green hair is of Lindsay Woods, courtesy of her Buzznet Photostream.

Photo of girl with blue hair, wearing a Ramones tank top is courtesy of Restezcalme.Tumblr.com (click the picture for the source).

Orange Hair Dye

Yellow Hair Dye

Green Hair Dye

Blue-Green Hair Dye



Blue Hair Dye

Purple Hair Dye

 

White Hair Dye




Black Hair Dye

Top Row - Patricia Field (costume designer, fashion designer & stylist), Kelly Osbourne (singer, actress, and daughter of Ozzy Osbourne), Nicki Minaj (rapper & singer), Pam Hogg (UK fashion designer, singer-songwriter & scriptwriter/director), Katy Perry (singer/pop star), Jared Leto (actor & lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars) and Lil' Kim (rapper).

Middle Row - Rihanna (singer/pop star), Lily Allen (singer/songwriter), Cher (singer & actress), Lady Gaga (singer/songwriter/pop star), Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga again.

Bottom Row - Hayley Williams (songwriter & lead singer of Paramore), Gwen Stefani (singer, songwriter, solo artist & lead singer of No Doubt), Beth Ditto (songwriter & lead singer for the indie rock band Gossip), Brad Pitt (actor), Amber Rose (model who dated Kanye West), Juliette Lewis (actress, former lead singer of Juliette & The Licks, current lead singer of The New Romantiques), Katy Perry.

Photo courtesy of Flavorwire.com.

Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com.

• Tish & Snooky's MANIC PANIC® N.Y.C. Online Store (which has dyes, wigs & much more)


• MANIC PANIC® Hair Swatches (listing of all MANIC PANIC® hair dyes available along with hair color swatches)


• HairCrazy.Info- (A Guide To Alternative Hair Styling [and coloring / dyeing, actually])


• Hair Dye Forum (Forum where you can ask anything & everything about dyeing your hair [or extensions or a wig])


• CandyColoredHair.Tumblr.com- Blog with pages & pages of photos of people with various hair colors, shades, and hairstyles


• F**kYeahYellowHair.Tumblr.com (Tumblr blog dedicated solely to yellow hair; I can't link directly to it here because of the profanity in the URL; just copy & paste [with the actual curse word spelled out] into your browser's URL box)


• BeeUnique Alternative Hair Dyes & Accesories (it should be noted that they sell 4 other dye brands besides MANIC PANIC®)


• BeeUnique Alternative Hair Dye Gallery (Gallery with photos of people with several different hair colors)


• A Rainbow of Star Hair Colors (presented by InStyle magazine on Lifestyle.msn.com)


• MSN Wonderwall's Hairdos & Don'ts: Color Edition


• Easter Colored Hair Gallery on Audrey Kitching's Buzznet Page