Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays

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Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays
Oil Slick Rainbow Hair for the Holidays

Though my original plan was to update my hair and sort of transition back to more natural tones (like a mix of various coppers and caramels, maybe with one vivid color as an accent), my go-to colorist, Lauren, just got married and is heading off on her honeymoon and I didn’t think to book ahead (oops!) and I couldn’t want to wait until January 2020 to see her… so I decided that it was an opportunity to see what other talented colorists are in the Phoenix metro.  This, of course, meant that I had to go bolder with the color and maybe I’ll wind down next time.

I went through the various hair inspo photos I’ve saved over the last year to see if any of the colorists were from my area as my starting point, and surprisingly, one was (this was the one I had bookmarked from her).  I just had my hair done and colored by Liz Cook (and I paid fully for my services! nothing to disclose!), and the outcome is magical; it’s definitely a lot different than past iterations I’ve done, so it’s a nice change of pace. It looks different depending on the movement of my hair, which translates particularly nicely in person.

She must have used almost a dozen colors to mix up five different cups of color to apply, and I know she primarily used PulpRiot (I’ve had mostly Joico Intensity in the past), so I’m definitely curious to see how it washes, wears, and fades over the next few months.  It took around five hours from start to finish!  I wanted a mix of teal, pink, purple, and copper, and then Liz added a deeper blue-teal to tie everything together, and the end result actually came out like one of the inspo photos I saved but didn’t think would work (on me) last year!

139 Comments

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Christine Avatar

It’s about time! 🙂 It’s like the copper was sort of a more mid-tone orange and then it turned more coppery on less lightened pieces and a bit yellower (and then looking almost greenish against the teal/blue), which gave it rainbow effect!

Deborah S. Avatar

Ooh, I love it Christine. If you had just explained it I think I would have thought it was over the top but the photos are gorgeous. I love the addition of the teal shades. I am having a big teal moment and this cements my desire to have a teal themed Christmas.

Christine Avatar

Definitely keeping a lot of my natural hair color (black) helps, I think, to tie everything together and make it vivid and bright but is a lot less intense than color roots to ends! My mom said that she has really changed because now she thinks it is so pretty but if I had it in high school, she doesn’t know how she’d feel!

+1 vote for teal Christmas!

Mariyam Avatar

Absolutely stunning! All the chosen colours work so fluidly together yet each colour in itself stands out! Brilliantly done! You always are beautiful dear Christine and this has got to be one of my most favourite styles on you. Suits you sooo much!

Valerie Avatar

What a work of art. That deeper blue teal adds dimension and balances it well. That photo of the revealed backside is perfection, as is the eye look you created. I suspect many pretty colorful eye looks in the near future!

Christine Avatar

I do have to bleach it in order to get the colors to show up + pop, but I’m glad that balayage exists so I can keep some of my natural hair color and blend in the vivid sections so it’s not all bleached!

I bet your hair isn’t boring at all! Beautiful I’m sure 🙂

Andrea Avatar

This is the most beautiful head of hair I ever saw. I don’t know how you keep it in such good condition. Please tell us what you use and if you use a dry shampoo in between I’d love to know which one.

Christine Avatar

Luckily, my pre-coloring routine is easy to roll over into post-coloring – I only use heat on it when I blow dry, which was twice a week previously, and now I stick to washing every week. I use dry shampoo around day five, and I’m using Living Proof right now. If I remember, I use Olaplex prior to washing (so maybe every other week), and I’m currently using Olaplex’s shampoo/conditioner. I try to keep shampoo to the roots/scalp and less so the rest of the hair. You’ll want to wash hair with the coldest water you can stand, too!

Jennifer Avatar

I love how it is dark and intense at the same time. The colors really pop. I’m not usually into odd colors on hair for myself, but I could totally see something like this working for me. It’s very pretty!

Vicki Avatar

That is so beautiful and looks great on you! How long will the colors stay bright like that? So, did you just bleach some of your hair or did you have to bleach all of it?

Christine Avatar

It’s more in a “balayage” style so I have my natural hair from the roots and still have a lot of under layers that are mostly natural hair. There’s definitely a fair amount that is bleached but nowhere near all!

I’m not sure how long the vibrancy will last for me here, though it’s generally anywhere from 4-8 weeks depending on the type of color (more pastel colors fade faster). In the past, most of the colors have lasted for 8-12 weeks fairly well, but sometimes the lighter shades will get merged (like lighter orange or copper might turn more pink).

BeauBlooms Avatar

I saw your post on Instagram Christine! Thanks for sharing – your hair is SOOOO beautiful AND it looks so good on you! Every iteration gets better and better. I especially love the coordinating eye look. My hair could NEVER, so I’m secretly hoping you decide to keep the colors longer 😉

Mariella Avatar

It looks beautiful, Christine, but I can’t imagine the time involved. I’m trying to grow out my grey without going through a scary “let all the grey grow in at once/maybe wear a hat 24/7” option and so just with highlights and lowlights (some of them purple, which I adore), I find it so very time consuming (I sort of can’t wait til most of the grey has grown in, even though I don’t relish being grey – I’m so pale anyways – but then I will just have some lowlights done to make me look less colourless).

Christine Avatar

Love that you have some purple highlights/lowlights!

For as much hair as I have, it’s not too bad; the removing of the prior color + lightening (or raising up the balayage) is really the longest part of the process, since it requires washing + drying twice. The color part is the fastest, lol!

lisas1970 Avatar

It looks so beautiful!! I have fire engine red hair and have to bleach to get the color. I absolutely worry about damage too. I started using dry spray shampoo and conditioner just recently to keep the color longer.

Mariah Osmundson Avatar

OMG I LOVE IT! ITS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! Really, FANTASTIC! I’m sorry, I can’t stop typing in all caps! I have considered adding teal to mine, but I’d have to fade it out because I’m all that hot rose/purple. But this is just GORGEOUS! So pretty!!!!

Kishia Avatar

At first I saw just the pics of the strands of hair and thought, “it’d be super cool if someone could rock this hair the way that it looks on this mannequin.” Then I kept scrolling through and realized that this is your hair! Gurl, you’re such a badass with this hair! I’m so, so, so in love with it! It’s vibrant, beautiful, unique, and makes all my unicorn dreams come true! Kudos to you for rocking (yet again) artwork in your hair like you do on your face (with makeup)!

Ceebee_Eebee Avatar

I’ve been doing vibrants/rainbows for years now and my colorists have used a bunch of different brands but NOTHING fades more beautifully than Pulp Riot. One of my old colorists went to go work for them, actually. They are the best. I hope you have as wonderful an experience with their colors as I always do.

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