What is Vivid Hair?

Vivid hair refers to hair that is not a natural colour. This can include colours like blue, fire engine red, pink, purple-anything you don't naturally find on a person. Vivid hair has grown in popularity over the years, especially with the younger crowd. Vivids are fun, bold and keep things interesting!

Check out these ten tips about vivid colours before dyeing your unicorn hair!

1. Vivids Don't Last As Long

The life of a vivid colour on your hair is short, and even shorter with pastels. This has to do with the size of the colour molecules as well as the porosity of your hair and other factors. This means that you will have to do more frequent and weekly upkeep with your vivid or pastel hair colours.

Bright hair dyes are typically semi-permanent but with recent technology some do come as a permanent colour. Due to their short lifespan, vivid and pastel colours will have to be reapplied or touched up more frequently than your usual natural hair colour. This will all depend on how often you wash your hair, what products you use, and the brand of colour as well.

One of our long-lasting favorite brands is Manic Panic. It has a long life on your hair and has a more gradual fade. For colour that's easier to remove and a more noticeable fade-out, we recommend our ion Semi-Permanent Brights. Don't be fooled, those ion Brights still pack a vivid punch and have lots of colours to choose from.

2. You May Have to Lighten Several Levels

Adding a vivid colour to your hair generally requires lightening your hair first. The amount you'll have to lighten or bleach depends on how dark or light your hair is (referred to as the “level” of your hair). Find out your current level to see how much you need to lighten your hair before dyeing it.

Always be careful when lightening your hair, especially if you've already previously lightened your hair. You will want to choose the best developer for the level and texture of your hair for the best results.

3. Not All Hair Dye is the Same

Hair dyes and hair dye brands are not all created equal. Some hair dyes don't last as long, others aren't cruelty free like you might want. Often a bad dye job with vivid hair is a lot more noticeable than with natural colours–and harder to fix.

Make sure to check out highly rated hair dye from ion, Strawberry Leopard and more.

4. Wash with Cold Water

When you wash your hair, make sure you use cold water. Hot water will cause your vibrant colours to bleed and fall out of your hair much quicker.

The reason is that when hair gets wet, the cuticle (outermost layer of the hair) expands quicker and opens wider in warm water. Vivid colours are direct dyes, meaning they don't penetrate past the cuticle-- they just sit on top. The wider the cuticle opens, the more the colour particles can wash away. It is recommended that you wash your vibrant coloured hair in cold to lukewarm water

Also consider using a colour sealer from ion to keep the vivid colour in your hair.

5. Dry Shampoo is Your Best Friend

When you don't want to wash your hair with cold water, dry shampoo is your best friend. Using dry shampoo can give your vibrant hair the look and feel of clean hair without stripping away the colour like a shower would.

Choose your dry shampoo carefully, though. Some dry shampoos can leave build up that require unnecessary scrubbing. We recommend the Eva NYC Dry Shampoo if you have vivid colours you want to protect.

6. You Can Use Colour Depositing Shampoo or Conditioner to Make it Last Longer

Colour depositing shampoo can help rejuvenate your dyed vivid hair colour without having to go through the entire bleaching and dyeing process again. Add the colour to your favorite shampoo to deposit colour while you wash. Our favorites include Colour Lux and Wella Colour Fresh Masks.

7. Warmer Colours Stay Longer than Cool Colours

As a rule, warmer colours tend to stay in the hair longer than cool colours. Reds and oranges may stick around longer than grays and pastel blue, for example. But there are exceptions to this rule depending on the colour's undertones, so pay careful attention to what you are mixing if you're using more than one colour or placing colour over existing colour. Some purples can be warm-toned or cool-toned depending on whether it's got more red or blue undertones.

To keep colours around longer, we recommend this colour-safe shampoo from ion, but any shampoo free of sulfates and parabens will do the trick.

8. Vivid Colours Can be Hard to Get Out

Although some vivid colours tend to fade fast, others can be hard to get out of your hair. Certain colours may linger, especially if they have strong undertones that remain even after the top colour fades.

If you don't plan on keeping your vivid colour around forever, make sure you have the right products. Shampoo with sulfates should help to quickly strip vivid and pastel colour from your hair. For more intense and stubborn colours, consider a Strawberry Leopard Colour Remover or a Colour Off Kit.

9. You Will Need to Touch-Up Your Vivid Hair Colour Every 1-2 Weeks

On top of washing your hair with sulfate-free shampoo and adding a depositing conditioner, you will have to actively touch up your vivid colour every 1-2 weeks. This means either scheduling frequent colour appointments or putting on gloves and reapplying the vivid colour yourself, primarily to your ends. Your roots might need bleaching if they're not light blonde once they've started growing out in order for any bright colour to take.

10. Sunlight Can Speed Up Fading

Believe it or not, being in the sun more often can make your vivid hair fade faster. This is especially true for pastels. This means that while out for long periods of time in the summer, you may want to wear a hat or you will have to touch up your hair sooner. This is why vivids and pastels tend to last longer in the autumn and winter.

Of course, if you have bright hair you don't want to constantly have it covered, so you may also want to apply a Leave in Colour Protector to protect against styling and environmental heat.

Make sure to be careful when trying to remove colour from your hair or lighten your hair to apply vivid colours, especially if it is already damaged.

How to Make Hair Dye More Vibrant

If you notice your hair colour fading or it doesn't come out as bright as you'd like, there are ways to make your vivid hair even more vibrant.

1. Add Colour to Your Shampoo

   If you have leftover hair dye, add it to your shampoo! This way, you can add colour as you lather so that washing doesn’t make your hair colour fade even faster.

2. Use a Depositing Shampoo

   If you have no leftover colour, you can use a colour depositing shampoo to add colour with each wash.

3. Boost Colour with Conditioning Treatment

   A conditioning treatment like ion Colour Pigments can revitalize your hair colour between salon visits.