DIY Hair Pastel Hair with Food Colouring

I used Red Food Colouring

The last time I bleached my hair and played with colours was 7 years ago.... and then nothing since then. The results were very good though especially considering it was my first time DIY!

This time round, I decided to try my hand at another DIY job... but using Food Colouring that was just lying around the house (from a failed baking attempt haha) !

Honestly, I like my turquoise dip dye results from 7 years ago better, but I was attempting a pastel shade this time and it's harder to get right, I feel.

Here's what happened, and I'll share my input on what went wrong etc, so you can improve on it when you do it.

 It's much easier to keep things neat if you tie a pony tail before starting.

I used a hair bleach I bought from Shoppee, was real cheap like $6... unfortunately, that's my first mistake here because it didn't bleach my hair light enough despite me leaving it on for like 1 hour (supposed to be 30mins). 

If attempting Pastel Shades, you MUST go lighter than this blonde :(

 This is how light it got. On hindsight, I should have gotten the same Palty Flash Bleach I used 7 years ago because that was was damn fast acting, big difference in the shade of blonde it reached in just 15mins, compared to what I got here. (Click here to see previous results using Palty brand bleach)

And if you're attempting a pastel shade, it's very very important to get the bleaching done right to a very light blonde or even better, colourless strands ( I didn't! boo hoo)... otherwise the pastel colour is too light and subtle to show up nicely on dark blonde or worse still... light brown hair.

Ok, previously I used stuff like Manic Panic to colour hair, and they worked well. But costly. I've found that using food colouring can give you the same results as regular tubs of Manic Panic dyes! (But the Manic Panic AMPLIFIED range colours are still far more vibrant than the shades from food dyes. But manic Panic Amplified can't achieve Pastel hues, obviously). So yeah, the end result you're aiming for is something to take note of when deciding what to use.

I mixed a few drops of red food colouring into a bag of hair treatment conditioner, and some developer. (You know how in the DIY hair dye boxes there's a tube of hair colour and a plastic bottle of white liquid you have to mix together? Developer is the white liquid... I just used a squirt of developer that came in my hair dye bleach box). My tip here is to go darker... don't make the mixture a light pink because the end result on your hair after rinsing off is far lighter than what you mix in the bag.

As usual, I have unorthodox and lazy ways of doing things... haha... just plonk the end of your pony tail straight into the bag, and squish it around so the mixture spreads over your bleached ends. Easy!

 Leave for 20mins or so, and rinse until the water runs clear.

 

Tadahhhh! Here is my results! I'm ok with it but I should have gone lighter blonde with a better bleach like Palty or something, I think that would have given me more pastel pink in my hair, instead of only at the very ends (which were the lightest from bleaching).

The food colouring will not run or like stain your shirt on a rainy day lol. (well, that's what i've found so far) Once you wash and rinse until water runs clear, the rest of the colour is set in to your hair already. It fades with every wash over time (as does other hair colours like Manic Panic, April Skin Turn Up Colour etc). Will need to redo the colour every 2-3 weeks or so if you want to maintain the shade (not the bleaching!I mean just add food colour to your conditioner and apply to the hair).

Ok lah... will see how, maybe in another 7 years I will feel like doing this again hahahhahahaha