How to Dye your Hair Blue - Ion Brilliance Sky Blue

Hey, want step by step instruction on How to Dye your Hair a Blue Color and not feel blue about it? Well, you've got to the right place!

Do you want to know how to dye your hair a brilliant blue color? Well, my niece Rachelle recently decided to dye her hair blue! The moment I saw that first picture of her with her brilliant blue hair, I was amazed. I asked her, what is the name of that color? She said it was Ion Brilliance Sky Blue.

When I was growing up, we always talked about the old ladies with blue hair. Little did I know that blue hair on a younger gal could be so beguiling!

This is my interview with my niece, Rachelle Lesteshen. We asked her to tell us "how to dye your hair a blue color ... and not feel blue about doing it!"

P.S. By the way, we opted to add a little blue for our callouts throughout this page. It seemed kind of appropriate, you think?

Photo Credit: My Niece Rachelle after using Ion Color Brilliance Brights Semi-Permanent Hair Color Sky Blue. All photos of Rachelle edited by JaguarJulie.

What a thrill to interview my niece!
Who knew it would be about blue hair? Hey there, this is me! For a brief moment in the hair coloring process, my niece had hair that looked a bit like mine.

And, then she continued on to become a brilliant blue with Ion Color Brilliance Brights Semi-Permanent Hair Color Sky Blue.

I've always love the blue color, but hadn't thought about what it would be like to have blue hair! Perhaps you've seen my article on The Beautiful Color of Reflex Blue?

Well, after seeing my niece with her new jazzy color, I think I am liking that blue.

At my age, I am not brave enough to give this a try. Although I do believe I might try a wig of that color.
P.S. After putting together this interview with Rachelle, I was rather surprised to find so many young gals had actually picked this color and done YouTube video reviews! It seems to be THE color to try!

Why did you pick this color?

Why did you decide to go blue? Blue is my favorite color and I've always been drawn to brightly colored hair. I think it looks pretty.

I've always liked this color and had long thought about trying it. I guess I got the bug one weekend and decided to take the plunge.

In the past, I've actually tried other products to change my hair color, so this wouldn't be the first time. At least I love the color blue!

Had you considered another color? I only wanted blue, but I had thought about using a darker shade or another color in case the bleach wouldn't go light enough. I had been dying my hair red and dark brown in the past and it can be difficult to strip out colors with red tones. Once I saw that the bleach was getting it light enough, I was very happy I went with this shade of blue.

Dare to be a little different! I always knew that about my niece ... she is brave enough to be bold and unique ... even in her hair color.

The Step-by-Step Process
Here we go ... no turning back!

Foiling the hair to bleach it!

Did you need somebody to help you? A friend helped me! I needed help with bleaching my hair because I had never done that by myself before and I don't think I could reach the back of my own head to do the foils back there if I had tried.

My hair is pretty dark, so I needed to bleach my hair to a light blonde.

There are a number of additional products we could have used. Color strippers, toners to remove the yellow, etc.

To cut costs and because I was pretty confident that the bleach would work, we just bought lightener and the dye.

Foil is all on
I think I like this look!

Why foil? It's used to help control the bleach and keep it from getting on the areas you don't want bleached, like your roots.

We used two products from Sally's, the Salon Care Blue Flash Powder in a one ounce size along with a 30 volume creme developer.

The flash powder is an excellent product that got my hair light pretty fast without damaging it. I didn't pre-lighten my hair. I just went straight to bleaching it.

If you do not get your hair light enough or if you are not able to remove all the yellow tones from your hair, this color will not work and could turn green! (Yellow + Blue)

Hair has been bleached blonde
I like it!

Did you consider staying at the bleached color before continuing? I would probably never choose to be a blonde because I don't think it looks good with my skin tone and my eyebrows are really dark and would require lightening, too.

However, we were kind of surprised at how nice my hair color looked after bleaching!

I wish I could handle this type of blonde ... looks a little strawberry.

It doesn't really go well with my skin tones, don't you agree?

Hmmm, this color looks pretty nice!
Yes, I think I look like a movie star.

Hmmm, which one? Hey, let's wait a moment while I admire how I look.

Now my hair was to a perfect bleached color and ready for the next step in the process.

I did not condition my hair after bleaching so that it would be receptive to the dye.

Oh well ... time to move on.

What other colors would you try? I'm willing to try teal and purple and maybe a bright red.

Ooops, there it is!
It's kind of messy stuff.

Why this brand? Originally, I was looking at the Manic Panic brand, but my friend did some research and found that the Ion Brilliance brand and this color was more vibrant and tends to last longer.

Where did you buy it? I was able to purchase this from my local Sally Beauty Supply store.

How many boxes? We used 3 boxes. Boy was I thankful that I bought 3 tubes of the sky blue dye!

My friend who was helping me had on rubber gloves and a tie-dye t-shirt. How appropriate, you know? We were pretty careful to keep most of the stuff on my head.

I used some color remover wipes to take the color off my face and skin when it strayed. Once we got the stuff applied to my head, we wrapped the hair with some saran wrap.

Let me sleep on it!
We didn't realize that this was a lengthy process.

Overnight application?
Hey, who knew?

How long did it take? It took a long time. We probably spent 5-6 hours on bleaching and applying the dye.
I ended up sleeping with the dye in my hair and washing it out in the morning.

How long do you think you will you stay with this color? I've wanted to go blue for years and years, so I'll probably keep it blue for at least the summer, if not longer.

It requires quite a bit of upkeep, though. I have dark roots, so they will have to be re-bleached frequently and the blue fades quickly.

If I get tired of all that, I may try a darker blue or something else.

Let's summarize the how-to step-by-step instructions! 

What were the steps ... So I see you had to bleach your hair first? I didn't realize that would be a step! First of all, we are not professionals and we were just trying this for fun, so our techniques may not be what most consider correct. These are our how-to, step-by-step instructions that we did in my home.

#1 THE BLEACHING PROCESS USING FOIL: I had to bleach my hair because the blue would be brighter on really light hair and my hair was previously dyed a dark brown.

My friend clipped my hair into sections to keep it out of the way. She then mixed up the lightener, put a piece of foil under my hair, and applied the bleach solution to about one inch sections just on the ends of my hair, making sure to avoid the roots/uncolored areas of my hair.

This is because the hair closest to the scalp will bleach more easily and more quickly than the rest of my hair. Those areas should be saved for the last 15-20 minutes of the bleaching.

After applying the bleach solution, the foils were then folded up neatly. This step was then repeated multiple times until all the hair was done. We left the bleach on and checked the process and color about every 20 minutes.

Once the hair on the back of my head was at the right shade, we started removing the foils in the order that we did them in, giving the rest of the hair time to get to the same color. After they were all removed, we applied bleach all over, focusing on my roots. This stage made my scalp tingle a lot.

#2 RINSE AND DRY: Once we were happy with the overall color of my hair, I rinsed it out. We then dried it to check the color. We both felt that the ends were still too yellow, but my roots were the perfect color.

#3 REPEAT THE BLEACHING PROCESS: We decided to do another bleaching session for the ends of my hair to get them lighter. We repeated the foil process, continued to check the color, and washed it back out when it was how we liked it.

#4 APPLYING THE BLUE DYE: At that point, we were ready for the blue and we applied it all over. I decided I wanted to leave it in for a long time to maximize the brightness of the color, so I slept with the color on my hair.

#5 RINSE WELL: I woke up in the morning and washed it out, waiting for the water to run clear.

#6 DEEP CONDITION: I then applied one of my deep conditioning packets to help restore my hair after the damage from the processing it went through.

Drumroll : The finished product!

How do you like it?
It seems pretty uniform.

We were so thrilled to see the overall colors throughout my hair after we rinsed the dye. Keep in mind, you should not shampoo after because it will remove some of the colors.

What did it cost to go blue? I estimate that it cost us about $40-$50 dollars for just the hair dye ($15), powder lightener tub ($20), large container of developer ($4), and a few packets of deep conditioner ($7).

It could cost more if you do not have the dye brush, a bowl to mix the bleach in, the foils, gloves, etc. We had already had those items so it helped to keep our costs down.

The reaction?
What did everybody think?

What has been the reaction of your family, kids? My kids love it so much! Well, kids will be kids and they were hamming it up for the camera by sticking out their tongues. But that wasn't what they thought of the new style!

They can't stop telling me how much they like it and they keep wanting to touch and play with it. My husband loves it. He was the one that encouraged me to finally do it after talking about it for years.

Do You Like It?

Thanks Rachelle! Follow Rachelle Lesteshen on Facebook.
She is a 30-something, mother of two girls, living in Columbus, Ohio.

One final look - before and after!

One Month Later and a Haircut Too!
We are seriously looking good.

Ready to Dye Your Hair Blue?

Here are some of the products you will need:

1. Salon Care Blue Flash Powder Lightener 1 lb.
2. Salon Care 30 Volume Creme Developer 16 oz.
3. Ion Color Brilliance Brights Semi-Permanent Hair Color Sky Blue

Thanks for Visiting!

We love to hear from our readers. Thanks for dropping by. What do you think about going blue?

History: How to Dye Your Hair a Blue Color was originally created on Squidoo by JaguarJulie on May 12, 2014.