Colour Dye Recommendations

Please post your colour dye make & variety and your experience with it so far!

Updated: 10th February 2014
(I'll be maintaining this long term and adding in more of everyone's advice to the first post - any corrections, please let us know. Thanks to everyone's help!)

Reds:

Special Effects - Nuclear Red

sXedevitchka: "only lasted one wash in cold water...[but]...most awesome, most bright color I've ever used"

Snowflake Love: "no problems faded real nice"

Punky Colors - Poppy Red

Alexis: "Rub[s] off on anything it touches...turn[s]...pink after 10 washes or so"

Punky Colors - Flame

CorpseQueen: "nice red/orange, fades more to orange...very long lasting...hard time getting out!"

L'Oreal Colour Rays - Red

Sonic Architect: "permanent, very vibrant and required no bleach at all"

L'Oreal Excellence HiColor - Red

Jenni Dunfee: "really pleased...regular permanent dye...it doesn't really fade"

L'Oreal - Red Brown

nicole: "fades quick"

L'Oreal Excellence HiColor - Magenta

Jenni Dunfee: "really pleased...regular permanent dye...doesn't really fade"

L'Oreal Colour Rays - Red

Snowflake Love: "LONGEST lasting red I ever had and its definitely bright"

Beyond the Zone - Candy Apple

CorpseQueen: "nice shade of red, fades fairly quickly to a lovely pink...lasts a month or two"

nicole: "works amazing"

Manic Panic - Vampire Red

OctyOck: "not as dark as it looks in the bottle...really intense eye popping red"

Colorsilk - Red Brown

nicole: "fades quick"

La Riche Directions - Pillarbox Red

Kobalos: "good colour match, but took longer to settle in...didn't fade much in 1st wash...is lasting forever! :)"

Pinks:

Punky Colors - Rose Red

Toxic: "rub[s] off on walls...only did it bad night after...after 2 or 3 washes it stopped"

Special Effects - Atomic Pink

Cassy: "lasted over nine months"
LenaBean: "stayed in...even after dyeing it brown and then bleaching back to blonde!"

Special Effects - Cherry Bomb

Alexandra Sloan: "awesome!...lasts for months...best for the first week...after a few washes it does get lighter, but still stays really vibrant"

Color Fiend - Pink

Sonic Architect: "took but I needed to touch up every few days"

Splat - Pink

Emily Beth: "vibrant...will last about 2 months & fades into cool peach BUT destroys my hair if I try to maintain boldness of pink"

Manic Panic - Candy Pink

Jenni Dunfee: "pretty decent...reapply after about 3 weeks...because it starts to look too orange"

Manic Panic - Hot Hot Pink

Pamparius the Sailor Man: "This is very pink and fades extremely slowly."

Beyond the Zone - Pink

nicole: "works amazing"

Fudgebox Paintbox - Pink Moon

Raspberry Razorblade: "it came out really bright and lasted ages!"

Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL - Raspberry Rebel

Mali DeLan - "It's extremely vibrant and it fades in sort of a pleasant sunset-looking pink."

Greens:

Adore - Forest Green

Emily Beth: "lasts a really long time AND doesnt fry your hair"

Punky Colors - Spring Green

CorpseQueen: "Amazing shade and it lasts a long time"
Protagonist: "Its the tops."
Kaarina Rotten Crotch: "is fucking amazing"

Alexis: "has stayed in my hair for months"

Punky Colors - Forest Green

CorpseQueen: "Super great...lasted a few months...leaving hair tinted light green"

Special Effects - Iguana Green

LenaBean: "absolutely the best color I have EVER had"
Sonic Architect: "needed touched up about every week or so"

Special Effects - Limelight

lil Lauren: "DON'T get tho bc it wont stay in that long bc its such a lite color"
Khaos: "if your hair holds color well...touch it up after a few weeks...well worth it"
Hangman XIII: "no money for bleach...looks good"

Electric Lizard - Forest Green

CorpseQueen: "didn't take AT ALL didnt even tint her hair"

Manic Panic - Electric Lizard

Sonic Architect: "did not take at all"

N'Rage - Green

ZachWilson: "outlasted manic panic and splat. Without redying form the first 2."

SplaT - Neon Green

ZachWilson: "lasted about 1 week without fading from blonde"

Directions - Spring Green

Lotte: "didn't take at all...looked completely washed out already"

Kobalos: "Left it in over night to take...washes out quite easily. Bright vibrant colour"

Fudge Paintbox - Green Envy

Raspberry Razorblade: "was pretty average and came out way more yellowy."

Blues:

Stargazer - Coral Blue

Kobalos: "Needs bleached hair...24hrs to dye in, with enough, makes alright colour...1/2 strength after few washes"

Directions - Alantic Blue

Antikia: "didn't last for very long"

Manic Panic - Shocking Blue

mike-o-psycho: "fades too fast about a week & it is almost greyish" (from swimming)

Manic Panic - After Midnight Blue

Sonic Architect: "stayed really well"
Jenni Dunfee: "did the best in my hair....would last me about 4-6 weeks before...needing touched up"
Alexis: "really dark navy almost blue....washes out in 2-3 weeks & slowly turned...green after that."

Color Field - Blue

Sonic Architect: "two weeks or so and still looking decent"

N'Rage Mix and Go - Blue

Jenni Dunfee: "looked horrible and spotty and grey...Made me leary of bleach and dye in one"

Turquoise:

Manic Panic - Turquoise

Jenni Dunfee: "probably my favorite...faded pretty fast [daily wash]"

Alexis: "did not turn out at all on my natural dirty blonde hair."

Punk Colors - Turquoise

CorpseQueen: "AMAZING COLOR & long lasting, fades to nice light blue after few months"

Purple:

RAW - Purple

Sonic Architect: "washed out in a day"

Manic Panic - Purple

Jenni Dunfee: "only lasted about a week...but it turned such an ugly color"

Manic Panic - Ultra Violet

Alexis: "nice and darkish for a few days, but eventually turned my hair grey"
LenaBean: "turned my hair navy blue for three weeks. It was icky!"

Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL - Cyber Purple (permanent)

Lotte: "darker purple...more subtle and not so 'eccentric' and extremely vibrant colour"

Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL - Mystic Violet (permanent)

"more on the pink side...more subtle"

Punky Colors - Plum

Alexis: "its dark and last forever. It also smells really good."

Punky Colors - Violet

Snowflake Love: "so far lasting really nice. The ends of my hair are fading to a bleach white/purple look"

Ion Brights - Purple

braids: "color can vary depending on how much you use"

Yellow:

Punky Color - Bright Yellow:

Alexis: "Lasted quite a while on...bleached hair....re-dyed...before ever needing to touch it up"

Colorsilk - Blonde

nicole: "always comes out copper or orange/yellow"

Orange:

L'Oreal Excellence HiColor - Copper

Jenni Dunfee: "really pleased...regular permanent dye...faded a little during the summer/swimming"

Punky Colors - Flame

CorpseQueen: "nice red/orange, fades more to orange...very long lasting...hard time getting out!"

Special Effects Napalm Orange

Steve: "when first dyed its a borderline red but fades to the definition of orange. Think crayon colors."

Special Effects High Octane Orange

Nahtch: "more red than orange...Its now been about a month, now its much more orange"

White:

Manic Panic Virgin Snow

Alexis: "[On]...super dark brown- black hair...40 vol bleach...is supppper light and as close to white as"

Black:

Nice & Easy - Natural Black

Jennifer Rose: "decent permanent, stays colorfast & doesn't fade to ugly gray/green shades"

Manic Panic - Raven

Alexis: "washed out in a week"

General Brand Advice:

http://www.mohawksrock.com/forum/topics/what-hair-dyes-work-best-for-u

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kobalos on July 29, 2011 at 2:31am

Glad to help out - it's great so many folk have helped here and offered their experiences to add to it.

Good luck with the Punky Colors Spring Green - sadly I couldn't find that brand here to try it. Will look forward to hearing how it goes though.

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Permalink Reply by Alextreme on July 29, 2011 at 4:22am

Ah that's a bugger, think this is as close as I can find, it might even be the same brand renamed because all the products from Directions hair dye have the same names as Punky Colors. either way, the photos from Direction's Spring Green look pretty good and I'll let you know how it goes!

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Permalink Reply by Kobalos on July 29, 2011 at 1:01pm

In which case, you'll be trying the same one I had in last year - make sure you leave the dye in for much longer than recommended on the box, otherwise it tends to just all wash out. Does give a nice green though when it finally stays. :)

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Permalink Reply by Alextreme on July 30, 2011 at 9:32am

Wicked, will do :) never died my hair before, so I'm looking forward to it apprehensively! I might also try for this doing what rhema faye says in the comments, insanely good result just there, could take quite a few attempts to get to it!

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Permalink Reply by Kobalos on July 30, 2011 at 10:11am

Yeah, that spray-on hair dye does seem to get some great effects like his. Reminds me of this guy's example & side here - also I think he probably did the same with his green here. Not as bright as rhema faye's, but then I don't think he bleached it first, yet still gets a very vibrant green or blue from that spray on stuff.

I've been semi-tempted myself to try it out, but so far stuck with semi-permanent dyes instead. Great thing with spray on dye though is you can get really crazy patterns on the 'hawk like checkered boards! :O

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Permalink Reply by Alextreme on July 30, 2011 at 10:18am

true! all the mohawks in my display picture are spray colours without bleach, pretty awesome outcome without too much effort, except on the last day of the festival it rained really hard and all I could taste was the dye haha

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Permalink Reply by Kobalos on July 30, 2011 at 10:24am

heh heh awe...that's really awful - gotta hate the rain for 'hawk ruining. =) What we'll suffer for art's sake. :D

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Permalink Reply by Kiki Wanderer on July 29, 2011 at 2:58pm

I found it interesting that the shocking blue didn't hold. I used it last year and it lasted almost 4 months with one dye. It was vibrantly blue for half of that, and then faded to a light blue-ish purple.

The manic panic red on the other hand I found I needed to reapply dye to every two weeks, and then it faded to a funky pink before going away completely.

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Permalink Reply by CorpseQueen on July 30, 2011 at 12:42am

Dye reacts to many peoples hair differently from others. The condition of your hair, the shade, the way you dye, and the aftercare will all effect how the color takes and lasts. Its normal to get varied results..

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Permalink Reply by Kobalos on July 30, 2011 at 10:13am

Yeah, I'm beginning to find that out too - sometimes the dyes just don't hold.

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Permalink Reply by Aydyn Haylyn on July 29, 2011 at 3:37pm

I usually get mine professionally done because my hair is so sensitive and will dry out very easily if I bleach it. Colors aren't soo bad but I still get those professionally done too because I can't do my hair myself. So I can't really help you on that.

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Permalink Reply by Alexis on August 5, 2011 at 4:43am

I HAVE ONE FOR WHITE! :D

My boyfriend has super dark brown- black hair. We made half of his head white. 40 vol bleach for quite some time, then Manic Panic Virgin Snow. His hair is supppper light and as close to white as I think it can go. So, good new for Manic Panic for once. I will update after it fades a bit.