Hair DIY: Five Ideas for Blue Hair and How to Do Them at Home

Tori is a 28-year-old, three-time animal mom and DIYer living in Northern Atlanta with her boyfriend.

If you are about to dye your hair blue and are looking for inspiration, then look no further! I'll give you some of the best ideas for blue hair and tell you how you can execute them at home!

Ideas for Blue Hair

1. Teal Ombre
2. Midnight Blue Hair
3. Ice Pastel Blue with a Shadow Root
4. Hidden Blue Hair
5. Blue with Green Highlights

1. Teal Ombre

To achieve the teal ombre/dip dye look, you will first need to lighten 3-6 inches of the bottom of your hair to be as blonde as possible. I like using Ion Color Brilliance Bright White Creme Lightener and Ion 20 volume developer to achieve the right shade. You'll need to be at a level 9 or 10 blonde (both very blonde, almost white). Make sure you do not leave your lightener in for too long, and also make sure you don't use too high of a developer. I typically do not like to go any higher than 20 volume. 30 and 40 both fry my hair too much, but with 20 volume I can control the lightening process a little bit more without frying my hair.

After you've lightened your hair, section it out and apply conditioner to the midsection just above where the lightened hair meets your natural hair. Do not put conditioner on the lightened hair. Then, apply Manic Panic Semi-Permanent dye in Atomic Turquoise to the lightened part of your hair. Blend it with the conditioned portion so that when you wash it out, it will fade into your natural hair. Then wrap with plastic wrap or tin foil and sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

I like to leave the dye in for an hour because it helps give my hair more staying power. Since the haircolor doesn't have ammonia in it, you don't have to worry about it damaging your hair while it's processing.

2. Midnight Blue Hair

Midnight blue hair looks super gorgeous when it's done right! There are a couple of ways to achieve this look. You will need to have your hair lightened just a bit, I would say to a level 5 or a level 6 blonde. It doesn't need to be white blonde, but do remember that the lighter your hair is, the brighter the midnight blue will be.

Manic Panic in After Midnight Blue or One N Only Argan Oil Hair Color in Midnight Blue would be my recommendations to achieve this look. I like both dyes but I will tell you if you're looking for something that is more washable, choose the Manic Panic. I've discovered, at least for my hair, that dyes with argan oil in them have much longer staying power than those that don't.

If you want the blue to be a bit darker than in the picture, you can try mixing in some black dye with the blue dyes at a ratio of 1 part black to 3 parts blue.To cover your entire head, there are a few methods to get there - you can put the dye in like shampoo and rub it around until everything is covered (you will have to take extra care in this method because you are more likely to miss spots). The second method is to section your hair and take a tint brush to brush on the color. This is the way that I recommend because you definitely won't miss any spots and it keeps your hair neater while you're dying it, but it will take longer and you will probably need someone's help to cover the back of your head.

3. Ice Pastel Blue with a Shadow Root

This blue is such a beautiful shade! But fair warning - pastel colors are hard to upkeep. To achieve a look similar to the one in the photo, your hair will need to be as light as possible, level 10 or higher. You will also need to use an excellent purple shampoo to remove any brassiness, or the blue may come out looking more mint green than anything.

To start, you'll need two different colors of dye - one for your shadow root, and one for the rest of your hair. If you like the grey as seen in the picture, I recommend purchasing Ion Color Brilliance in Titanium for the roots (it may pull a little blue at first, but will fade to gray).

For the ice blue portion, I would use Manic Panic in Blue Angel. Depending on the length of your hair, you may need more than just one tub of the manic panic.

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To achieve this look you'll need two tint brushes, two color bowls, and tin foil sheets. and to apply the dye in sections. Part a flat section out of your hair and slide a piece of tin foil under it. Because the root color is much darker, I would start with applying the blue first, from about two inches down from your scalp, all the way to your ends. once the blue has been applied, apply the gray from the root to where the blue starts, carefully blending into a nice fading gradient. You will need a friend to help you with the back.

I would let the dye sit for an hour, with the last thirty minutes under a warm hair dryer to help lock in the ice blue, before washing it out.

4. Hidden Blue Hair

Hidden color hair is an awesome way to have a little bit of fun without being totally committed to color! This kind of color is great for people who have jobs with stricter dress code policies - depending on how much of your hair you dye, it can be easily hidden with creative hair styling.

To achieve this look, you can really use any blue that you like the best - but to imitate the streaks in the picture, I recommend lightening your hair to at least a level 7 blonde first and then using One N Only Midnight Blue and Electric Teal Haircolors. One n Only brand Haircolors have amazing color payoff and will take more than a few washes to fade out, so I think they are perfect for the hidden rainbow style. I had Electric teal in my hair for almost 4 months without redying and it looked beautiful the whole time.

To apply, you'll need two tint brushes, two colkor bowls, and foil or plastic wrap. Decide what section of your hair you want to apply color to. Part your hair above that section and tie back the rest of your hair so it's out of the way. If you want natural hair underneath your dyed section, part your hair again underneath the dyed section, tie back the hair that is not being dyed, and pin tin foil underneath the section you're dying.

First you'll need to lighten that section. Once it is the desired shade of blonde, take the teal tint brush and paint a 1 inch section from root to tip. Then do the same thing with the blue tint brush, alternating until the whole section is coated with dye. Place a piece of tin foil on top and pin it to the bottom ton foil piece to keep it from moving. Leave the dye in for 30 minutes to an hour, using warm heat to seal if you like. Once you rinse it out, you should have beautiful hidden blue hair!

5. Blue with Green Highlights

Hands down, I think this is my favorite look out of all five. However, highlighting is a difficult method to do by yourself, and will take a lot of time so make sure you are careful in choosing the placement of your highlights or else it may not turn out the way you want it to. I would only recommend doing this type of coloring job at home if you've had experience coloring your own hair before, as it may be a little frustrating to do if you're doing your first at-home coloring job.

To get colors as bright as this you'll need to lighten your hair to at least a level 8. As far as the colors to use, I recommend One n Only Argan Oil Hair Color in Emerald Green for the highlights, and Ion Color Brilliance in Sapphire for the base color.This comb will also be helpful for sectioning your hair for highlights.

There are a couple of different ways to do this. The first way is that you can just take random sections of hair and paint them whichever color you deem appropriate, then let them sit. But doing this may result in chunky color that doesn't blend as well as this image.

The more time consuming way will gain results most similar to the photo. You will need a friend to help you with this. Section your hair out and work on 3-4 inch sections at a time. In your first section, part out a flat section of hair, and then take the pointy tail end of a comb like this one to weave in and out through the section. the pieces of hair that end up on top will be your green highlights, and the pieces you weave out on the bottom will be your blue hair. Tie the section that will be your blue hair. Place a piece of tin foil in between it and the green hair section. Paint the green hair, and fold it up out of the way when finished. Place another piece of tin foil under the blue hair, and do the same thing. Repeat this until your whole head has been covered. Leave the dye in for 30 minutes to an hour and then rinse out!

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.

Questions & Answers

Question: How do you change your current hair color from red to this cool color?

Answer: My recommendation is to use a color remover to get your old dye out and then you should be able to put this one in! If your red came from a permanent color not a semi-permanent, I would go see a professional to get to this color blue!

Comments

Teresa on March 22, 2020:

I'm trying to dye my hair with sapphire ion permanent brights creme hair color instead of creme developer can I mix the color with something else to get my sapphire hair colir