My hair is about to feel like cinnamon toast crunch and it's strayberry leopard's fault.
For you new to the game, Strawberry Leopard is a new semi-perm dye that the folks at Sally Beauty seem to be rewarded for pushing very heavily.
It's also the single worst dye experience that I, a person who has been using semi-permanent hair dye since 2013, have ever experienced. History here. And by "since 2013", I mean that there has not been a period of time between June 2013 and the present date where my hair has not been dyed with semi-permanent dye.
Anyway, since I've still been experiencing Forensic Files levels of red bleed-out from my awful experience, today we're getting the excess dye out.
Now, when you see "semi-permanent" on the dye, you think that'd be easy to get out, right? When you compare that to "permanent" dye, right?
Well, the thing about permanence levels of dye is that the names are kind of misleading. The permanence rating isn't about how many washes the color stays for, and is more a descriptor of how the pigment gets put into the hair. Permanent dye is a pigment that is mixed with an oxidizer, which causes the hair to let go of the pigment in it, and then replaces it with the pigment in the dye (this is a MAJOR oversimplification but what you need to know is that permanent dye=oxidizer and dye together). Semi-permanent dye has no oxidizer in it, and it just is pigment that sits in the hair. This is why people bleach their hair before using semi-perm color: the bleach has the oxidizer that removes the color from the hair, and leaves the hair open to accept the new color pigments from the semi-perm hair color that is added in a separate process immediately after. This is why bleaching your hair to platinum blonde and then putting semi-perm dye on it will last longer than someone with naturally platinum blonde putting the same color on it. The hair sheath is open after bleaching and allows the color in. However, they're done in two processes, and the hair color mostly stays by there being a lot of the pigment and it being very bright, and the color just sort of tangles itself into the hair cuticle any way you want it to.
Anyway, what this means from a practical viewpoint on my head right now is that permanent dye can be removed by re-opening the hair sheath, which allows the color to become unbonded to the hair and wash out. Removing permanent dye is like getting your dog to go outside: you open the door and ask the dog to go outside, and the dog goes outside. Semi-perm color is just kind of tangled in your hair and stays in there through sheer numbers of pigment particles, and getting the pigment out is like getting a bird in your house to go outside: you can do a lot of chasing but you're going to be really damn tired and the bird is going to be scared and you leave the door open for hours and when the bird comes out it feels like a total fluke but you just accept it as the result you want.
So, you might be saying, since my problem with this Strawberry Leopard dye from the start is the sheer amount of pigment that comes out of my hair whenever it gets wet, right? So getting it wet should just get the dye out, right? Sadly, no. Strength in numbers means that this simultaneously is washing out like mad and persistently staying in my hair. I'm lovin' it.
So, you can't just open the cuticle and say, "Bitch, leave," to this, so what do we do? Well, do you know why you can't mix your bright hair colors in with the bleach and do it in one go? You can try, but you'll see that the colors actually disappear when you mix it. The bleach will make the bright colors bleach out before they can get on your hair. So, if we want the pigment to stop, how about we get a process that opens the hair cuticle as much as it can, plus one that oxidizes the hair color itself to be a lighter color? Easy, right?
Enter bleach bath. Bleach is annoying to put on your head and it only bleaches the exact spot it's touching. This is usually good, because it's what lets balyage and highlights and things work. However, if we're willing to sacrifice some of its power for ease-of-application, which BOY HOWDY am I, we can make a weak bleach solution that's easy to apply evenly to the entire head. Bleach, oxidizer, and then add shampoo, apply it to wet hair, and bam, you've put weak bleach all over your head. Now you have to wait longer for it to work, which means you have more control over how it processes. Everything about this is great, right?
Enter cinnamon toast crunch. Fun fact, when I was a kid there was also French Toast Crunch as a cereal and it was shaped like tiny breads. RIP French Toast Crunch. ANYWAY, the good news is bleach bath successfully removes semi-perm dye by opening the hair up as much as possible so that the dye can escape and tackling any of the dye that doesn't move to turn it colorless. The bad news is that RIP any moisture in your hair.
So, there we go, I wrote this all while my hair is processing, so I'm going to go wash it and we can all appreciate the pain I had to go to to remove the pink Strawberry Leopard from my hair just so I can put pink Manic Panic on my hair and NOT live with the crazy Strawberry Leopard bleed out. Do not buy Strawberry Leopard semi-perm dye.
Please note that bleach bathing is usually not needed when you're switching between brands of semi-perm dye, unless you're going from a dark or intense shade into a pastel and have to remove dye that is too dark. This is pain I'm experiencing exclusively due to this dye deciding to be the single worst thing I've ever gotten in my hair and I am counting bird shit AND gum. I'll keep y'all posted as this dye process progresses.
