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.

Reflex Blue PMS 286

I absolutely adore the beautiful color of Reflex Blue. That is a pantone color, of the pantone matching system, PMS 286. Is is truly a color with a lot of depth! I personally love working with the color of reflex blue. It was way back in July 2000 that I was first introduced to this particular color of blue. I had just accepted the position of marketing manager with a FujiFilm Hunt company named Anchor. Part of my responsibilities in my position required that I produce marketing pieces.

Over the course of five years in that position, I attended a lot of printing runs for the company's brochures, product catalogs, and other printed pieces. I was constantly checking that blue color of the Anchor logo. You see, too often that particular blue color had a tendency to vary between printed pieces. I would learn that reflex blue can experience a shift in color.

In five years time, I got to see thousands of printed pieces with the Anchor logo. Each time I had a print run, I was wondering what depth of blue I would be seeing.

You know that a lot of companies actually build their logos with this color.

Have you ever heard of reflex blue? Would you have recognized this particular color? Were you aware of difficulties in printing when using this particular color? Like our picture suggests, "keep calm and swim on!"
Let's take a closer look at this color. I've actually included some of my printed marketing pieces which show differences in that color as part of our discussion.

Photo credit: Keep Calm and Swim On Art Print.

Please Take Our Colorful Poll
Cast your vote! Have you any experience working with reflex blue?

1. Yes -- I am in printing
2. Yes -- I am a graphic designer
3. No -- just finding out about this color

Reflex Blue is a slow drying ink

When I was the Marketing Manager at FujiFilm Hunt in Orange Park, Florida, I first learned about this color. We had the Anchor brand of pressroom products and the logo for Anchor was this blue or PMS 286.

I created the marketing pieces and worked with our printing company to produce these pieces. I didn't know anything about the color of reflex blue until I got involved with the printing.

I remember seeing a difference in depth of blue between my various printed catalogs and brochures. It was then that a colleague of mine told me reflex blue ink takes a long time to dry and that the depth of color can change or shift. Then, I heard that some printers say this color never completely dries.

The recommendation I got was to try and pick an ink composed of fewer, rather than more, parts of this blue. Unfortunately, we were locked into PMS 286 as the Anchor logo colour so I had to work with my printer on achieving a colour consistency.

I can remember my printer telling me to wait an extra day for my pieces to dry. In Jacksonville, Florida it is quite humid most of the time, so that would account for extra time in drying.

Check out Printing Ink 101: Why Reflex Blue makes people CRAZY! Read why printers would rather not print with dark blue colors.

A Printed Example : Anchor Brand Logos

This picture is an example of how the color of reflex blue can experience a shift in depth of color. In the example, are two product catalogs that I created for FujiFilm Hunt several years ago.

Both of the catalogs were printed on the same paper stock by the same printing company. Both printed pieces were also coated to achieve a gloss appearance. The only variation was when these pieces were printed.

Looking at the top catalog, you can see that the Anchor logo is a deeper blue whilst the bottom catalog has a slightly lighter color.

Wouldn't you think that the same printing company would be able to achieve the same depth of colour in two separate print runs?

Check out this interesting print industry article, How to subdue the Reflex Blue Blues.

What are the components of this color?

According to my Pantone formula guide, Reflex Blue or Pantone 286 is built with 12 parts of Pantone Reflex Blue to 4 parts of Pantone Pro. Blue.

When you are offset printing a piece with this color, the components to build the CMYK color are 100 Cyan + 90 Magenta + 30 Yellow + 8 Black.

If you are building this color for digital or electronic media, the RGB components are 0 Red + 32 Green + 159 Blue.

Find Pantone Reflex Blue C at Pantone.com. Get detailed PMS colour information from Encycolorpedia for this #171796 Hex Color.

Try a little Reflex Blue sign paint!

What is impressive about this offering is that the company, Sign Paints, have been in the signpainting trade for over 40 years. You'll find that longevity of service with many in the printing industry. The original owner of Rochester Art Supply, Robert Lesczinski, himself was a sign painter. Not being able to find good sign paints, he felt compelled to open his own store.

Try Ronan Sign Bulletin Oil Color Reflex Blue Quart Size. Get a good shot of reflex blue for your sign painting requirements. When painting signs, you will find that a quart really goes a long way.

Another Printed Example : Anchor Brand Logos

In this example of two Anchor brand printed pieces, you can clearly see how the logo on the left piece is lighter than the logo on the right piece.

The product catalog on the left was printed in February 2002; the product guide on the right was printed in January 2001. One year apart and approximately the same time of year ... so the humidity here in Jacksonville, Florida should have been about the same.

However, we see a color shift or a change in colour between the two examples. All other "factors" should be identical.

Check out Are You Getting True Reflex Blue from another printing industry professional.

A Printing Industry Expert Opinion!

I didn't have to go very far to get an expert opinion on the challenges of printing with this colour. My now ex-hubby was a technical director at FujiFilm Hunt. He has been in the printing industry for over 30 years!

We both worked at FujiFilm Hunt for a number of years. I had many opportunities to discuss print jobs with him as he worked right down the hall from me. He had more experience in the printing industry than me so I relied on his expert opinion.

I can actually remember him wetting his thumb and rubbing it across the Anchor blue logo on the product catalog. It showed a smear! It wasn't totally dry.

He concurred with what others in the printing industry reported; that reflex blue can be a tricky spot color. That you can experience a slowness in drying and that the color can change or shift.

He told me that there is a chemical component in the dye that makes up the color that interacts with other chemicals in the printing and coating process.

When printing collateral marketing materials, I generally had them coated to give the pieces a matte or gloss finish. However, the aqueous coatings can also cause a color shift because they are a water-based product.
Find out more about Reflex Blue from The Printing Industries of America. A good place to get information is directly from the industry. Learn more about printing from the experts. Find out more on this particular color.

One More Printed Example : Anchor Plastic Bag

There is a time in the printing process when you will find that you are more flexible with your logo colors. It is when you are printing promotional items like plastic bags.

I have had this plastic bag in my possession for well over twelve years. Still the blue colors are rich and deep. However, this blue is not a reflex blue.

I am sure we told this printer that our color was reflex blue and they did perform a color match. But, this color is darker than the blues we achieved in our other printed pieces.

An example of this color in an art print of sorts!

Here is an example of the beautiful reflex blue color which is printed on the background of this artsy photo : A Favorite Art Poster Print by Masao Ota!

This is my all-time favorite art poster by Masao Ota.

It is Marguerite, Pure White on Reflex Blue by Masao Ota. This fine art print poster measures 19-3/4 inches by 15-3/4 inches.

I love big bold daisies and love how this flower is displayed so vividly on the background of reflex blue.


Yves Klein International Blue

You might enjoy reading Yves Klein 1928 - 1962. International Klein Blue. It is in German.

Thanks to Tom Maybrier for making this recommendation! He mentioned that reflex blue reminded him of Klein's International Blue. Who knew?

If you search on eBay, there are a variety of items in this particular color.

It surely does resemble reflex blue PMS 286, you know?


So, what do you think about this color?

Will you be using this color in your next print job?

1. I already do use it.
2. I might want to try it.
3. No, I think I will use another blue color.

Are you a fan of this color? What kind of experiences do you have working with it? Why not add a little of your own color to our guestbook?

History: The Beautiful Color of Reflex Blue was originally created on Squidoo by JaguarJulie on June 13, 2008. On April 4, 2013 this lens earned the Purple Star Award for quality content. Highest lensrank ever achieved: #2,311 overall. Lens #371 in the quest for Giant Squid 400 Club.