How to Dye Rainbow

In order to get your colors true you’ll need to get your hair as light as possible. Don’t assume this is impossible if you have naturally dark hair; my hair is nearly black and I manage to get my roots almost snow white without toner on my first bleach session.

I recommend L’Oreal Feria Bleach Blonding if you have thick or long hair because it gives you a good amount of bleach, but if your hair is shorter the Manic Panic Flash Lightening kit works just as well. I use the Feria because my hair is very thick.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to bleach out all the pink, but the majority of it is in the under layers and in the back so it will be covered by the darker colors and shouldn’t effect too much. The only place I may see it is in the ends of the yellow but it still shouldn’t be too noticeable.

One of the hardest parts of dying the rainbow is sectioning the hair. Start on one side of your head and just use the pointy end of the dying brush to part each section in a straight even line, then wrap that section in a hair tie. Once you’ve got one half sectioned evenly, doing the rest is much easier because you can just match the sections up at the part so they’re equal on both sides.

The colors I used were Special Effects: Cherry Bomb, Napalm Orange, Limelight, Electric Blue, and Deep Purple; Manic Panic: Atomic Turquoise, and Electric Banana; Color Fiend: Turquoise Tsumami. I mixed the three different blues together, despite them being different brands. I don’t suggest doing this unless you have a bit of experience or are willing to take some risks.

Now that you’ve got your hair sectioned, untie just the front section for red and apply your dye, then wrap it up in some tin foil to keep the color from touching any other sections. Do this again for each color, just be cautious not to lay your hair over other sections and make sure it stays secure in the foil to avoid any mistakes. Let sit for as long as your dye instructs. I use and recommend Special Effects, a vegetable dye, so I let dye sit on my hair for a few hours to get the most out of it as possible.

Be extra cautious when rinsing! This is the part that could totally mess up the rainbow because the dye tends to bleed a lot and may bleed into each other if you’re not careful. This is a good time to get a friend to help you out if you haven’t already.
In the sink rinse out each other separately not allowing them to touch at all, especially with the yellow. It may also help to tie off the sections again after rinsing them. I say to do this in the sink because if you were to try to rinse it all together in the shower you’d end up with a mess of bleeding colors. Good luck and happy dyeing!