Updated date:

Nov 12, 2019

DIY Hair: 10 Ways to Dye Colorful Hair

Author:

I love to dye my hair all colors of the rainbow. I love all things vintage, and I enjoy creating art, taking photos, and doing it myself.

There are so many great ways to dye hair. Here are 10 of my favorites!
Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash

10 Fun Ways to Dye Your Hair

If you're like me, you have crazy hair urges where you just want to chop it all off or put in extensions or dye it bright colors all of the time. Additionally, if you're like me, you probably want to eat pizza for three meals a day and listen to Metallica forever.

If this sounds like you, at least the hair-dyeing part, you're in the right place. Here are 10 different dye methods I've fished around for—some of which I've done, and some of which I long to do.

If you'd like to do crazy things to your hair but need to lighten it up first, head over to my article about how to bleach dark hair. A lot of these methods certainly won't work on dark manes!

You telling me that doesn't look natural?
author

1. Full Head

That's right, the whole thing! This type of dying requires a bit of commitment. If you're planning on going full head, make sure your employer is cool with you having crazy hair. Apparently some people think it's inappropriate for the workplace. Ha!

2. Half/Half

Indecisive? Scared of commitment? Massive Cruella DeVille fan? Well take a page out of the villain's book and go half and half.

This . . . this is something I must do.

10-ways-to-dye-colorful-hair — alisonhenryy

3. Natural to Color Ombre

This is a good one for work - your hair is mostly normal, but you do have some pizzazz. If you need to cover it up, it's easy to just pull up a bun. Also, by leaving the rest of your hair as is, you're reducing the damage done. While you'll probably have to bleach your hair before coloring, at least it's just the ends, which will probably get chopped off soon anyways.

4. Color to Color Ombre

Another way to get crazy . . . The color to color ombre!! This one would take a lot of time and resources to do on your own. Bleaching is highly recommended, plus you'll have to mix up several shades of your two dyes. Refer also to my article on how to bleach an ombre.

5. Bottom Layer

Another good professional-but-cool style is to dye the bottom layer. It's not as visible, obviously, as dying your whole head, but it still makes you look slightly cooler. This would be fairly easy to do as well—just separate the rest of your hair by pulling it up in a giant clip, and bleach/dye the bottom layer as needed.

6. Peek-a-Boos

To copy this look, just dye hair on your middle layers! Depending on how much you choose to dye, this could be pretty easy to cover up for work-related functions. But it looks totally awesome when curled.

7. Layer by Layer

If you can execute it right, this looks awesome . . . You only have to keep in mind how your colors will fade and bleed when washed. Keep lighter colors on top and darker towards the bottom, and remember color theory!! Yellow + Purple = Poop Brown.

8. Dip Dye

Surprisingly similar to ombre, but somehow still different, dip dye is another method that only affects the ends of your hair. The difference here is that an ombre fades, while a dip dye is a stark contrast of colors. And quite frankly, you're not dipping anything—just painting with a dye brush.

9. Tint

Tinting is a more subtle approach to dying. You can easily tint dark hair with red or blue dyes, or use any colored dye as a rinse on blonde hair. Again, keep in mind color theory here. If your hair is yellowy blonde and you do a lavender rinse, your hair will be tinted brown. Yay!

10. Chunks O' Color

Your hair doesn't have to be colored in neat and perfect sections. In fact, why not just go nuts with color and have an insane rainbow mop? Again, be aware of color bleeding and fading.

More on Hair Coloring

There it is, a list of ten whole ways to dye your hair with pretty colors. Hopefully, you've found a way to dye your hair . . . I too feel the hair urges coming on now.

If you're interested in reading some more about hair bleaching, coloring, and care, check out some of my other articles!

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.