In late 2014 I went absolutely nuts for the pastel hair colour trend. I tried absolutely everything: baby pink, silver, lilac, you name it. By mid-2015, I was bored with the pastels, and decided to do something I’d immediately regret: jewel-toned blue/green hair. This was when Halsey was making her big debut, and I fell in love with how the colour complimented her olive skin. Standing in my tiny bathroom with a colour paddle in one hand and a bottle of Manic Panic blue dye in the other, I spent two hours meticulously colouring my bleach blonde hair into a lustrous shade of blue.
Once it was washed and dried, I took a long look in the mirror. I hated it. I wanted it gone immediately. What’s more – I was in the midst of a very intense job hunt and realized that while I was living in a pretty open-minded and colourful city, many employers wouldn’t cotton to the idea of having a sea-beast on the shop floor.
So how do you get rid of blue hair?
Oh, babe. You don’t.
I did bleach baths once a week. I used Head and Shoulders shampoo, baking soda, and … *shudders* Palmolive dish soap to try and fade the blue hair. Nothing worked. It remained a faintly tinted light green for at least two months, and then afterwards, it was shocking white. It was also damaged as all hell. I didn’t have the $400 to pony up and pay a professional to fix my hair, and I figured I could take matters into my own hands. I probably should not have – but hindsight 20/20 and all that. If I could go back in time, I probably would have just cut it all off and worn my hair in a cute pixie cut until it grew back out again. But, your girl was newly single and wanted some long locks while I made my way through the dick parade. So, I soldiered on, and finally managed to get my very damaged hair back in shape by 2017.
How did I do it?
Basically I walked around all of 2016 with chin length hair as I cut off tiny pieces of the wreckage with kitchen scissors. I used Moroccan oil masks weekly and would go weeks without actually washing my hair (it was so dry, it soaked up all the oils anyway). I shunned heating tools and wore my hair in a bun about 6 days a week.
Finally, by 2018 my hair was past shoulder length and a healthy shade of dirty blonde. I thank the hair gods everyday.