Purple Hair: Celebs jump on the pastel trend, and you can too

My dream of purple hair all started with Kelly Osbourne’s lilac hair makeover.

Gone were her grunge days; behind her was boring blonde, suddenly purple rinse had never seemed so chic. And hot on her heels were a host of celebs from Little Mix’s pinks and purples to Rita Ora’s shocking blue and Helen Mirren’s bubblegum.

But as a natural brunette, with hair already dyed a rather unnatural shade of orange-red, how was I to ever achieve Kelly O lilac? It seemed an impossible dream; then Fudge stepped in.

Who better than the creators of the Paintbox colour range than to get all the advice and supervision I needed to transform my hair from one side of the colour spectrum to the other, without it falling out?

[Helen Mirren jumps on pastel hair trend]
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It turns out it can be done, and here’s how:

Planning

I sat down with Fudge’s colour whizz, Creative Technical Trainer Oliver Peto to decide what colour was realistic.

“Always have a chat with your hairdresser to find out what’s possible for your hair,” he advises. He also manages my expectations, saying that as my hair had been bright orange for some time, lilac was quite an unlikely end result, however good the colourist or the product, and I should be more prepared for a pinky or peach hue.

He also says: “The deeper the colour you pick, the longer it will last, so anything pastel will likely come out within a few washes, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you’re looking for a long-lasting result or want to keep experimenting. Bright, deep colours can stick around for a lot longer.

“A good hairdresser will be able to suggest what colour will suit your look – and warn you away from anything that’ll look silly.

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Bleach

If you’re lucky enough to be naturally blonde, you can skip this step, but if your hair is any darker than mid-blonde you’ll most likely find the colours you want to go just won’t show up very brightly.

Oli’s advice is emphatic: “Do not bleach your hair at home. That’s my one piece of advice. At-home bleach products are much stronger than we use in the salon and most people use them wrongly.

“Your final colour depends very much on the condition of your hair so get any pre-lightening and chemical work done professionally or you could end up with blotchy results, as well as wrecking your hair.”

“And don’t wash your hair for two days before your appointment.”

If your hair is already coloured, your stylist will need to strip that colour out first. For me this meant a good hour with bleach on my orange-dyed mid-lengths and ends and a further application of beach, using foils, to the virgin hair at the roots.

Once the bleach came off it was clear that the orange had truly permeated my hair shafts as the overall colour was pale peach with bright white-blonde roots. Not a good look, I’m sure you’ll agree.

So then there's the all important next step – that many at-home peroxide jobbies miss out – the toner. This brings down the yellow brassiness of the colour and evens out any shade variations.

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Things to know about bleaching your hair:

- It might tingle or even hurt – which is why you’re recommended not to wash your hair for 48 hours prior, so there is a barrier of oils to protect your scalp.

- It will change the texture of your hair forever. It will be thicker and courser and need more care. It will, as Oli puts it, feel a bit like doll’s hair.

- It’s non-reversible.

- Root growth is very fast. Showing a bit of root is happily the fashion this season but even so you’ll need them touched up every four to six weeks, which gets expensive.

Fun colours

Once you have your blonde or bleached hair base ready, there’ s no stopping you. There is every colour of the rainbow out there and you can mix several together or add a white toner to achieve the colour and shade you want.

“Mixing in a tiny amount of a contrasting colour can give great results,” Oli suggests. “For example mixing a drop of Blue Velvet with Clockwork Orange and a small amount of Red Corvette gives a lovely burnt orange colour. 

“At home, just mix tiny amounts and experiment, the colours are very strong - add too much and you’ve ruined a bowl of good colour!

“Test on cotton wool to see what you’ve made. The only way to make interesting colours is to experiment so go for it!”

Aftercare

“Watch your towels and pillows and don’t go too close to anything white whilst the colour is fresh!” Oli suggests. “Use a gentle colour shampoo and a colour conditioner as these work to lock the hair down and seal the colour in.  Fudge’s Colour Lock is a good place to start.”

Taking care of your hair after colouring is vital to retail a vibrant shade and also to keep it healthy and manageable. It doesn’t matter what colour it is if it’s a tangled, frizzy mess on top of your head. Colour isn’t a style, however tempting it is to think so.

I have sworn by Herbal Essences Bee Strong conditioner and regularly use Fudge hair mask Dynamite. It’s also worth using dry conditioners, serums and leave-in conditioners to give bleached hair the moisture it needs between washes.

Oli adds: “Definitely use heat protection when using hot styling appliances and try to avoid ironing your hair as much as possible.”

The finished product

Amazingly, despite the peachy tint to my post-bleached hair, Oli manages to pull off a lovely pale lilac shade. It was very subtle and needed topping up after a few washes, allowing me to experiment with various shades of purple (I am a Yahoo! after all) and also gave me the chance to play with other colours, shades and highlights.

As the colours faded out, I was left with platinum blonde, which is pretty fun in itself, and a great canvas for further experiments.

If you’ve never dyed your hair, this season is the perfect time to give it a go.

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