Special Effects SFX Hair Color Hair Dye Blue Haired Freak by Special Effects

Special Effects dyes are wonderful. The colours are great and you can buy a few and mix your own even better unique colours, plus the formula doesn't harm your hair or smell toxic and give you a headache.I bought:* Sonic Green* Blue Velvet* Blue Haired Freak* Virgin Rose* Burgundy WineThe only problem...or less than perfect thing...I am finding with them is that they are taking agggges to wash out. They are *very* long lasting if you apply them to bleached hair!(I know it is impossible, as these dyes stain the hair really so the colour has sunk right into the hair, but I'd love a magic instant SE dye removal product!)The long-lastingness of the dyes is not a problem at all if you have one colour or pattern of colours that you want to keep for months and months. It is great. I was really amazed at how long and well the colour lasted.Colourful hair dyes have come so far since I last did them over 10 years ago I'm so happy to see! The colour used to fade as soon as you looked at it. Even when hair was freshly dyed back then it was nowhere near as VIBRANT and deeply chromatic as any of the SE dyes are. I was surprised how little dye I had to use too. My 5 bottles will last me many years probably.Sonic Green and Blue Haired Freak mixed together make the most beautiful aqua and turquoise colour. Burgundy Wine or Virgin Rose mix well with either of the blues to create beautiful violet colours and pinkish purples.I started off doing my long fringe (about 1/4 of my head) in Virgin Rose on the left, then Blue Haired Freak and then more Virgin Rose and finally a chunk of Sonic Green. Was so happy with the result.Now about a month later the fun of doing my first recent dye job has faded though I have some more ambitious ideas and am trying to wash out the colours now as much as possible so I can start with an almost blank canvas. It is hard going though. I have washed my hair about a dozen times this week with harsh dishwashing detergent and it still hasn't faded all that much even though I've left the soap on for over an hour. The pink in particular is very stubborn to get out.(If you want to go colourful just for the school holidays, SE pinks are not a good idea, unless you are okay with dyeing hair dark brown or black right before school starts.)I want to get rid of as much of the pink as possible so I can re-dye most of it blue. Blue Haired Freak is the most lovely colour and I was surprised to find it looks even better as it fades! I might even have a go at mixing the dye with conditioner when I put some on next to try and get a more pastel colour (as I have seen people demonstrate well on some online videos). I love how bright and light it is compared to the deep fresh, full-strength and quite dark colours.I'm thinking Blue Haired Freak in the middle with Blue Haired Freak mixed with Sonic Green on either side...in a nice graduation from one to the other. Or Blue Haired Freak in the middle gradually turning into a violet colour on the edges...and all in bright soft pastel tones. A bit like Dame Edna's hair but without the perm! Or pink becoming purple, then turning into blue and then on the right a big chunk of green....like a little colour chart...lovely!All you need to do bits of hair different colours is a tinting brush and some hair pins and tinfoil. You divide hair into the sections you want and then wrap up the bits of hair separately in foil, held secure with a pin, when you've put the dye on. Then leave it for 1 - 2 hours or more depending on how deep you want the colours. If you put old towels down in the bathroom and wear an old shirt when you dye, and gloves, clean-up isn't very hard.My only critique of the product is that a jar with a screw off lid would be far easier to use. As it is this bottle means you have to work out how much you'll need ahead of time and squirt that amount onto something ready to use, instead of just dipping your brush in a pot as you go - which is so much easier. Plus sometimes I've had to hit the bottom of the bottle hard and wait awhile to get dye to come out as it tends to gel in the bottom of the bottle. (I can't stand up long so that really annoys me.) This product repackaged in a little fat easy-open jar would be perfect.My advice if you like to change things around is to maybe avoid the pinks, as they are far more colourfast than some of the other colours. I wish I'd stuck with blues first up, then I'd be free to do more blues, or purples or greens over the top any time I liked, or all three. The pink is more limiting.I have significant issues with chemical sensitivities (as part of the severe neurological disease I have called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - see the HFME site for info on it, if you want to). I got around these by only bleaching and dyeing my hair starting about an inch form the roots - so none of the dyes or bleaches touch the scalp and the skin at all. The rest of my hair is natural brown coloured. I think it looks better not going all the way to the roots, personally. Plus doing it this way avoids all regrowth issues and means I only will have to re-bleach every 4 months or more. Pretty low maintenance, which is what I was after.The bleach is smelly and toxic though, even if you don't apply it to the scalp. Even with all the precautions I took (well-ventilated room, making sure bleached hair was on top of head as it processed etc.) it did give me a half hour headache. I used Manic Panic's 30 volume one. I feel it is still well-worth it though, seeing as how it'll last a really long time, and the actual dyes are so non-toxic too.I have been too ill to do anything with my hair at all really for about a decade. Making my hair all pretty colours was my way of celebrating the fact that finally my health is slowly improving and that maybe soon my life will be about more than just basic survival...and have a bit more fun and life and colour in it!Being very ill means boring clothes and hair (and even music and room decorations and other things) and not being able to do so many things that make up who you are. This felt like a small way of reclaiming my non-ill personality a bit too. It made me feel more myself than I have in years. It is a small thing but to me, symbolic.It doesn't help me cope with every day that much, it is all still really hard each day...but now and then when I see a glimpse of blue or another colour in my hair's reflection it makes me smile...as does planning which combinations of colours I'll do next. I love these SE dyes!I'd recommend going colourful, in a big way or even only in a small section of hair, to anyone whose job allows it... and especially anyone that is ill or for other reasons just needs or wants a bit of fun and excessive colourfulness. More beautiful and unexpected colour in the world is always a good thing!Happy dyeing everyone!Jodi Bassett, HFME