5 things to know before opting for a GREEN hair | Hair Color Idea

Hair coloring has been an addiction to me ever since. I get bored too quickly of my dark brown hair and even when I feel a bit low first thing that comes to my mind is ‘let’s change the hair’. Not good at all for hair but we have only one life right? Moreover, the hair will grow new with time so hair color is a ‘Yass’ always. Nowadays I’m totally into green hair, ombre to be more specific. I find green really goes with my skin tone but it’s not really easy to maintain like other usual colors. However, it took me a bit of trial and fail to reach the perfect ‘green hair’ point and maintaining it. So today’s article is about ‘5 must-know facts’ from my experience that you should know if you’re thinking to go green with hair.

1. Pre-lightening process:

Unless you have a natural light/blonde hair you’ll have to go through the pre-lightening/bleaching process. It will depend on your hair health, how damaged are they or if they’re in the condition to take the bleach. Do expect damaged hair after the bleaching process. Especially, if you have dark hair like me then the hair takes a lot of time (which means more bleach and damage) to lose color. No matter how expert the hand is who’s dealing with your hair you’ll get the damage. So be prepared for that.

2. Know your hair type:

It is very important to know what is your hair type and what type of color can suit you. My hair type is extra fine hair, quite unusually thin. Like, my 20 hair strand is similar to one normal hair strand. It’s not that I’ve very thin hair but I simply born with such fancy hair. Thus, my hair is very stubborn when it comes to color. No matter how much you feed them they won’t be fulfilled with the desired opacity. And sometimes they might go in a totally different direction.

In the picture above you seeing I’ve done black and gray ombre hair, but I didn’t. This was my first attempt at green hair. After pre-lightening my hair specialist applied green hair dye (was a softer tone of green, Shiseido Aqua Matte – 11 to be more precise) but my hair declined that badly and I ended up getting a black-gray ombre hair for that day. This wasn’t bad, I got to rock such dope hair color (quite trendy now in Asia) for a week :p
So, do expect such experience as well. I did go to the salon to get my green hair after 8/9 days as I was told.

3. Choosing the right professional for a perfect ‘Green Hair’ outcome:

The first time I did my green hair was this (the picture above), A cool toned deep sea green and quite popping. I did like the color at the end however, this is not what I expected. The pictures I collected and showed to my stylist as a suggestion was totally different (just like the pictures below, my next green hair) compared to the outcome. I’m not sure if it was my failure to make him understand my desire. Additionally, it did bother me big time when the color came out wrong (black gray ombre) in the first place. After all, the hair colorist should’ve known the color fact.

Needless to mention, for the current green hair I switched my previous stylist (yes, had to pay a bit more as well) and got just the perfect blend (last picture) of green ombre hair.

4. Limit of hair wash:

Within my experience, I can say regardless of everything the color green last way to less than other colors. To mention red-based color last for a surprisingly long period of time. Last year when I did pink hair color and purple, later on, both of the colors lasted me more than 4 months. The green tends to last only two weeks. First time I didn’t care about my hair washing limit, washed my hair almost every day and so within two weeks it was all gone.
Recently (the picture below) I’m limiting my hair wash to 3/4 times a week (using products for color treated hair) and the color seems to hold up well. However, I don’t think my recent color will last more than 3 weeks.

5. Damage Control:

I did my first green hair 5 months back. When the color was gone I changed my hair (couldn’t take the coppery tone hair for long) back to dark brown. But my lust for that perfect muted green kept bugging me. Before deciding to opt again for the green I knew I’ll have to go through the pre-lightening process again so I started taking care of my damaged hair. We usually take care of our hair after the damage but if we take the precaution then it is possible to prevent damage to some extent.

Two weeks I spent recovering the health of my hair as much as possible then went to the salon for a new color. Loved my recent green hair and obviously, my hair is pretty spoiled again but who cares as long as I can revive it (wink wink) with a bit of care.

What do you think? Isn’t my green hair looks gorgeous? I didn’t notice before taking the picture that my hair has grown quite long as well 🙂

Just now came up one thing in my mind! Don’t we see a lot of people with virgin hair (hair that never been F***ed up with dye or bleach) giving advice on how to prevent damage? At this point, I’m finding it hilarious, words flowing into my head, “do you even know what damage is?’ ..haha never mind! just a random thought.
Anyways, let me know if you’re interested to know how I’m taking care of my F***ed up hair and keeping it alive 🙂 I would love to share my hair care routine with you.