Confessions of a Literary Addict

Let’s start this off by stating that I am a super duper picky person when it comes to hair dyes and if the color payout isn’t to my liking when I’m going for the gold, I’m going to turn it down without a second glance. Don’t let that fact scare you away from this overview of Directions hair dye, though! I’m not saying this one was bad right off the bat (because… well read and you’ll see how I feel about it!), all I’m throwing out there is a disclaimer that I’m hella picky about my hair colors.

And, so, now that that’s been said, onwards!

Over the weekend I was at Animazement up in Raleigh, NC, and as I was rolling around the dealer’s room I stumbled upon a booth that sold hair dye. It was the first time I had seen this at a con, and it was the first time I had ever seen the brand Directions (which I’ve only ever seen sold overseas) being sold somewhere that didn’t require it to be shipped to me. While I was a little iffy on the price tag ($10 for an 88ml tub, which was more than I usually paid for hair dye), I was so insanely curious about the color payout that I snapped up a tub for myself in the color Alpine Green. Why Alpine Green? Because my friend was cosplaying Sailor Neptune and I had a mighty need for pretty blue-green hair.

Now, to start off, my hair had already been bleached (or, colored, technically, but it was a golden blonde), and while I have heard you can use this dye on virgin hair, I would not recommend doing so. This dye is SUPER pigmented, but hair that has not been bleached will not have the same absorbency as hair that is bleached, and will not pick up the color nearly as vibrantly, even if you already have light hair. The damage, as far as I’m aware, is what allows the color to slip into the hair follicle. Without that damage, there really isn’t a place for the color to nestle into. So, while it’s not good for your hair, I do recommend some bleaching before you dye.

Anyway, this is what my hair looked like!

You could really see my roots at this point, so before I went about coloring my hair, I deciding to bleach those bad boys up. When bleaching my hair, I like to use a method from Alyssa over at XOVain, which uses coconut oil to decrease the crunch factor.

Once that was all finished, I slathered on the dye really thick, which I later realized was unnecessary since wow this stuff has some serious color added into it. Forgive the terrible lighting, my bathroom is really bad for that.

Make sure to use Vaseline around your hairline and on your ears! Believe me, I’m so happy I did. That smudge there wiped right off.

I used a little less than half of the pot, and I think I only really needed to use one third of it at the very most. At least now I know, so if I use this dye again it’ll last a lot longer than it will this time. I’m not sure if this is the same for all the colors, but it definitely is for the Alpine one!

From there I sat around on my tush for about three hours with a shower cap on, even though the tub says 30 minutes. I rarely listen to the recommended time, since most often I like to use vegetable dyes and you can keep those on for as long as you like. From there, I rinsed until the water was mostly clear. Washing it until it was totally clear was not going to happen. I’d be in there all night.

This is how it ended up looking towel-dried and in bad lighting, but let me tell you. The picture really doesn’t do it justice, it’s a really pretty shade of greenish-blue. I took a picture in the light, too, to help show the color difference.

Ignore my expression please, it was really bright and I was not thrilled about that fact. But! It really shows off the color well. I really like how the color came out. I feel like it would be a little more blue on lighter hair, but this is what it looks like on my more yellow shaded locks. Definite jewel tones from this one, though! I really love it.

I’ll come back once it starts to fade and update this with how it looks as it fades and how long it takes to. It’s super vibrant though!

Overall verdict: will definitely be buying this again once I can. I want to try the other colors.

xoxo Nova, who feels like a MERMAID

UPDATE: roughly two weeks and three washes in, with hot water (because I am a wimp) and color-safe shampoo/conditioner.

 

Fading a little, slightly more green than blue at this point, but the color is really holding up! This stuff is potent!