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If you know me personally, you know it's not out of left field for me to make a drastic hair color change without warning. Call me Ramona Flowers, but I friggin' love drawing attention to my hair with dyes in bright colors like blue, green, pink, or purple. It's not something I do often (lest my hair get fried from bleach) but having colorful hair has been a decade-long obsession of mine, so I've tried just about every temporary, permanent, semi-permanent, and demi-permanent dye on the market.
If you're like me in this regard, you know that dyes on the ROYGBIV spectrum can take enough maintenance to qualify as a whole lifestyle because they wash out so damn quickly. In that case, let me put you onto one of my favorite dyes out there: Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color.
I'll preface this review by saying that when it comes to hair dyes like this, a lot of prep is involved. Semi-permanent hair dyes are a type of dye called direct deposit, which, as cosmetic chemist Ginger King explains, infuse the hair with pigment directly without a developer. "Direct deposit dye, also known as basic dyes, directly deposit colors on top of the hair shaft," she explains. "Everything else requires a developer, as that is how the cuticles open up for the hair dye to go in."
So depending on how vibrant you want these shades to appear, you'll have to lighten your hair with bleach first in order for the pigment to sit, which is exactly what I did. Here's the part where I need to lecture you for a second: don't bleach your hair at home because it can lead to more disaster than it's worth. "Bleach is very strong and can go wrong if you aren't careful," colorist Rachel Bodt previously told Allure. "The technique for this service is very meticulous, meaning it requires a lot of attention and detail."
I lightened my own hair bit-by-bit at home (hypocritical, I know), but I've got a decade of practice and mess-ups under my belt and went in expecting the absolute worst outcome. If you're thinking about taking the plunge into rainbow-colored hair, consult with your go-to hair colorist about how you can and should lighten your hair — it might be a long process, but it's worth having healthy, shiny hair at the end.
Nicola wears Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Kowabunga
Once that's sorted, the application process couldn't be easier with this dye. When your hair is dry, separate it into as many sections as possible and coat each one of them with the dye from root to tip, either with an application brush or your fingers. The Semi-Permanent Hair Color has a similar consistency to a thick and creamy hair mask, so it doesn't take much effort to fully saturate the hair. I like to squeeze the dye out into an application bowl before I do this so I can see how much dye I have left at any given moment. You'll also want to take a tip from Brian O'Connor, the colorist who cofounded Good Dye Young. "Use mirrors both in front and behind you when applying GDY hair dye," O'Connor advises. "If you are doing it yourself this will help you not miss any spots."
And please, please wear gloves during application. These dyes are powerful, and I should know; I learned this lesson the hard way and once had green hands for a whole week. As O'Connor points out, you should also do a test strand every time you dye, otherwise, your results might surprise and/or disappoint you. From there, all you've got to do is let it sit for 30 minutes — or you can leave it on a full hour for more vibrant results, according to O'Connor. Rinse it out with cold water and have a bleach-based bathroom cleaner at the ready because it can lightly stain your sink or shower. I like to blow-dry my hair immediately afterward to prevent the dye from bleeding or dripping anywhere.
Now, here's the real tea on Good Dye Young's semi-permanent dye: This is hands-down the longest-lasting direct-deposit hair dye I've ever used. The first color in the range I tried was Kowabunga, a slime-green shade, which I used on a pale yellow-blonde base. Avoiding shampoo is the most surefire way to keep these types of colors looking fresh, according to O'Connor — and in past years that's exactly what I would do until my roots became greasy beyond dry shampoo — but with Good Dye Young, I didn't feel a twinge of guilt when I got my hair wet in the shower because this formula does. Not. Budge.
Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Kowabunga
Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Ex-Girl
During the two and a half months I had Kowabunga-green hair, I shampooed at my regular rate of twice per week and only refreshed the color once for the sake of covering my roots. In the past, I've had to refresh my color as often as once every week or two weeks (like I said, having bright hair is sometimes a lifestyle of its own). That was a brand priority when developing the Good Dye Young Formula. "Most people who dye their hair [either] want a quick change of colors or something that doesn't fade after one shampoo," O'Connor explains. "To me, it was really important to be able to say we have the pigmentation that stays for a long time."
It's safe to say that it earned those bragging rights because, despite the fact that I continued to shampoo my green hair regularly, I'd always get comments about how vibrant it was. If you're ready for a long-term color commitment, these are the dyes for you; just come prepared with a plan if you think you might want to swap shades eventually. I had to lighten Kowabunga out of my hair with bleach because shampoo and hot water couldn't do it alone when the time came — consider that before diving head-first into one of the brand's more vibrant shades.
It was fully worth risking the damage, however, to switch to one of the brand's most popular shades, Stoned Pony, a gray-ish lavender that I mixed with a quarter-sized dollop of neon-pink shade Ex-Girl. The light, muted orchid that resulted does fade slightly faster in comparison, but that's just what pastel shades do. Even so, I wore the shade for a solid five weeks before it needed a refresh, still a success in my book.
Nicola wears Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Stone Pony mixed with Ex-Girl
Let me add real quick that this review is wildly biased because the brand was cofounded by Hayley Williams (of Paramore fame), whose hair I've been idolizing since the sixth grade. Which brings me to another thing I absolutely adore about Good Dye Young's semi-permanent dyes: the 14-shade color range, which spans the whole rainbow with high-impact red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, and pink hues. Additionally, the brand carries a line of pastels in green, blue, pink, peach, and lavender. Basically, it covers all the essentials without getting too complicated.
That relatively small range was selected very intentionally, as O'Connor tells me — he's also been Williams' right-hand stylist and colorist for the bulk of her career. "Ultimately what first started the range was everything I had previously done on Hayley," he explains. "People for so long would ask what I was using on her to achieve those looks, so I used my knowledge of the formulas I used and created my own color for us." In other words, Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color is the easiest way for me to shamelessly copy one of my favorite musicians, so, of course, I'm obsessed with it — but that's not by far the only reason to be obsessed with it.
I'm telling you all this because there's no better time than the present to have the wild, fun hair color you've always dreamed of. As O'Connor will tell you, more people are doing it now than ever, he thinks due to this year's massive shift to remote work and school. "I think people who are in school or an office job that has restrictions now have the opportunity to be creative and be who they've always been because they're not being put in a box or told it's not professional," he explains. "That's why there has been an influx [in at-home hair dye jobs] because they don't have anyone telling them they can't do that or that they are not going to be allowed in some settings."
Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Color in Stoned Pony
Good Dye Young Hair Lightening Kit
And once you get that color, you'll never have to worry about keeping it vibrant. To keep that color as fresh as possible, O'Connor says you can simply shampoo less, always rinse hair in cold water, and keep hair well-conditioned. You can also mix your Good Dye Young shade of choice into your conditioner for a boost of pigment in-between touch-ups, but this formula is so long-lasting, you probably won't need to — and that's on Good Dye Young being low-key magical. So if you've been eyeing all those celebrities with light-pink dye jobs or just want to infuse a little more fun into your beauty routine, these near-invincible dyes are a perfect place to start.
Good Dye Young Semi-Permanent Hair Colors, $18, are available from gooddyeyoung.com, Sephora, and Sally Beauty.
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