Hi Dears.

Quick backstory….A few weeks ago my daughter Marley asked if I could do this to her hair……Dye one half like a sunset with a city-scape on it, and the other half like the forest, with a little log cabin, to represent her city girl/country girl sides. I was delighted, and absolutely up for the challenge.

We decided to start simple, though, and just do sunset colors. That is what this post about……Mixing colors to create a beautiful pastel water-color wash effect. Which also brings to mind dyed easter eggs.  So, I put this little story together about the magic of color mixology.

Easter-egg dying. Most of us have done it, and many of us have double-dipped our eggs in different colors, to get that marbled, beautiful wash of water-colored prettyness….You know what I’m talking about?

Say you start with 3 different egg-dye colors, and you dip different parts of your egg in each color, letting the colors overlap a bit here and there…….You end up with a veritable rainbow of colors on your egg.

Thank you, BTW, to Martha Stewart for this great post on coloring easter eggs naturally!

Well, the same works for coloring light-colored or bleached hair with a veggie-based dye, like Manic Panic.

To get this marbled pastel easter-egg like color in Marley’s already naturally super blonde hair, I got veggie dye in the primary colors….Red, yellow and blue. I am particularly fond of Electric Banana, Blue Moon, and Cleo Rose. I got myself some inexpensive conditioner, a couple of bowls and color-brushes. 

And I started playing around mixing colors together separately in bowls, with conditioner. I began with a couple tablespoons of conditioner in each bowl, and I added very small drops of color into each bowl, mixed well, and then started blending. I ended up with 5 pretty, soft colors. Light pink, light blue, violet, yellow, and a nice sunset orange. These colors were perfect for (almost!) 8 year old Marley, because she wanted just subtle hints of color. Nothing too loud, bright or long-lasting.

When it was time to apply the color, I clipped all her hair up, sectioning the sides off and out of the way, and started working with the hair at the nape of her neck. I made a horizontal parting straight across the back, and inch above her hairline.

I gently painted the top half of the section pink, and the bottom half of the section orange. The trick was…… I overlapped the orange onto the pink, towards the bottom of the pink half. The beauty of this method of coloring is that you can get very messy with it, and because we are working with very light colors, if does not need to be overly precise. That first section ended up with 3 different tones on it…..Pink, orange, and pinkish-orange.

I worked my way up the back of the head in one inch horizontal sections, painting different combinations of color onto each section, making sure to overlap the color. Sections that were too wide, I split in half and used a different combination on each half.

When I reached the top of the head, I moved to one side and worked my way up the side section in the same way, and then did the other side.

She sat and watched Karate Kid, I cleaned the house. Then we rinsed her hair, and fell in love with the sunset on her head. We spent the rest of the day at the beach, running around in the rain and attempting a picnic.

Babes, this easter….Instead of eggs, color your hair.

Please enjoy this fun, messy, and intuitive hair coloring technique! Your kids will love it.

For more beautiful My Little Pony Hair and pastel hair color recipes, check out this post!

And for a lesson on the color wheel and color theory, click here!

If you are a DIY hair-cutter who is curious about DIY home-hair coloring, I highly recommend using DIY hair color by Madison Reed, which Resorcinol-Free.

If you purchase a Madison Reed Radiant Color Kit, you will receive not only the colors of hair colors your choice, but also the necessary tools to apply it. The entire line is designed for the DIY hair colorer! And if you need to tone in between coloring, be sure to check out their Color Reviving Gloss to refresh and revive your hair.

Also, I recommend a shopping stop at Beauty Store Depot for all your other DIY hair cutting and coloring tools to fill your toolkit!

Need a custom DIY hair color consultation to help troubleshoot your hair color at home?

$30 buys you a one-on-one online consultation with HTHG regarding your color and how to get it where you want it. Click here.
xoxo, HTHG