hair and skin color

Hi everyone. This is the first time I'm dying m hair. I'm intending to dye my hair black-blue color. The barber says that he is gonna bleach my hair 1-2 times depending on the darkness of my black hair. Then dye the black-blue color so it will be visible. It's quite expensive. I have 4 questions to ask before making my decision.

1. My skin is not too fair or not too tanned. Does dark color hair look nicer on fair or tanned skin?

2. How long will my dye last? Because you know, it's expensive.

3. Bleaching spoils hair! What does it mean? Does it mean that the hair will break easily? or what?

4. Is it worthed bleaching and dying, spoiling my hair, spending my money and get the effect I want on my hair?

I'll appreciate all of your advices.

Hi there,

(1) Personally I like a good contrast between skin color and hair color... but that's to justify my being a fair skinned Asian gal. I'm biased. :) Don't take my word for it-- ask a friend in real life.

(2) Dye lasts anywhere between 6 weeks to 3 months depending on how you treat your hair in the meantime.

(3) Bleaching is basically putting a chemical in the hair to remove organic compounds... namely pigmented compounds or what gives hair its color. But it DOES take proteins away from your hair (resulting in missing parts from the hair shaft) Yes, hair will be more brittle--easy to break--after bleaching so you'll want to keep conditioning well afterwards and possibly do natural oil treatments.

(4) If you're doing this only because of prom, then in my opinion: No it's not worth the trouble and the money.

What does your natural hair look like? What do you like/dislike about your natural hair? If you have your heart set on the treatments then don't let me stop you... after all, you will be closer to the ideal hair that you want. But if I were you I would just flaunt what I've got, pamper myself with a deep conditioning treatment, and go all natural. :) After all, ... it's only prom. :)

(5) Also, you'll want to consider: What if the treatment goes wrong? You'd then end up going to prom looking like a hair disaster. In my opinion it would be better to wait until AFTER prom to do any experimentation if you haven't done it before.

Hugs and have a great prom night

Anais

No, I just doubt the unique variations of people's hair genetics. Not everyone reacts the same way to bleach and dye. You said you were new to chemical dyes so it's hard to know what to expect. So it's, by definition, an experiment.

But the one advantage you have: going in with never-dyed hair. The less times you've dyed in the past, the better chance you have of getting the wanted results. Chemical changes to the hair shaft (the removal of proteins) are permanent ---even though the dye fades---unless you start over fresh, or otherwise wait until the roots grow out long enough to cut off the dyed part.

(Fine hair has to do with genetics, not chemicals. the word "fine" describes the diameter of the individual hair. Any kind of hair can become "brittle" but you can prevent that with deep conditioning treatments.)

There are pros and cons to this. I'm only presenting them, sweetie. It's good that this is what you truly want. Enjoy prom night and be sure to tell us how it went.

Anais

Haha..no problem. i'll let you know about my prom night.

Since my hair is black, will the blue color of the semipermanent hair dye be obvious?