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!
Woah…Fantastic!! You wear it well ?. I love the peekaboo effect.
After this, you may find yourself going back to a more natural palette and then finding it ho-hum. Not knocking natural hair, but I can’t seem to stop colouring mine in very unnatural tones ?
Haha, probably true! The motivation is sort of… laziness? Just not wanting to think about preserving hair color or minimizing the damage, you know?
SAME!!!!! I go around the color wheel throughout the year!!!!
I’M SO IN LOVE WITH THIS!
The rainbow colors on top of the black reminds me of the rainbow patent colored Dr. Martens that I am saving up for :’)
Thank you! 😀 Hope you get those Docs soon!
Your hair looks gorgeous! Love the additions… :o) Sorry about your colorist but exciting that you got to branch out to a new colorist!
It is! I figured I’d take it as an opportunity to try someone new and what their creative vision would be! They’re both lovely, and it never hurts to have more than a few experts on hand!
Oh yeah! Gotta give credit to the talented stylist, Liz! Can I clone her and move her to Boston?
Wow. Wow. Wow. So beautiful on you, Christine. Just fierce. My favorite coloring yet.
Thank you, She-ra!
Wow, this is unreal! Gorgeous comic book heroine-level hair 🙂
Aw, thanks Kira!
I love this compliment as much as I love Christine’s hair!
So beautiful!
Thank you, ACP!
Wow this is like fairy tale, so beautiful
Thanks a lot, Weijia!
Completely beautiful and perfect for the season. I hope you enjoy it for all of us that are too lazy for the upkeep!
You know, I’m pretty lazy, so the whole “wash once a week” to preserve color is SO easy to adhere to. I do stress a bit about the damage (bleaching), and the icy cold water is less than fun 😉
My jaw literally dropped when the picture loaded on my phone. Just stunning!
The first time I read that as you dropped your phone, and I was like omg I hope it’s okay, LOL!
Thank you!
Holy cow, that’s beautiful!!!!
Thanks a lot, Kristi!
Holy moly your hair is stunningly gorgeous!!!! You look amazing!
Thanks so much, Kay!
Gorgeous ??
Thanks, Nicole!
Lovely how the eyeshadow look matches the hair rainbow!
It’s a good sign when the hair color you do inspires you to do a look!!
I was just wondering when there’d be another hair post! I really love the gold (copper?) tone in there as it really makes the other colors pop.
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!
Christine, OMG it’s stunning!! LOVE IT!!
Thank you, Katherine!
Well it’s another winner! It’s beautiful.
Yay! Thank you!
OMG! Amazingly beautiful! I lack the words.
Thank you so much, Lesley!
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.
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!
I’m really in love with your new hair! It looks beautiful on you. I love how it matches your eye look, too.
Thanks a lot, Rachel!
Your hair is stunning and I am jealous!
Thank you, Jessica! 😀
That’s so cool! Just magical!
Aw, thanks Pami!
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!
Thank you so much, Mariyam!
Wowies!! You actually did what I’ve only dreamt about doing (I’ve had oil slick pics in my phone for at least 4 years already, but just don’t think I can sit for 4-5 hours without getting fidgety)! It looks very artfully and skillfully done, too. Very cool! ?
Aww! I hope you can try it sometime, Nancy 🙂 Possibly break up the appointments? About half the time is lightening/bleaching, and for me, super long hair + having to dry three times = long time, lol!
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!
Thank you so much, Valerie! 🙂
This is the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen!!! ?????
Thanks, Bonnie!!
Gorgeous!!!
Thanks, Florence!
I bet this colorway would look really interesting in a braid!
It definitely will/would!
Amazing they can do that on dark hair! It’s stunning and beautiful on you Christine. My hair is so boring.
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 🙂
LOVE IT!!!
Will look completely different depending on how you part and style it, would love to see a photo of a loose plait/braid.
Yes, definitely! Well, I can only three-strand braid, so we’ll see, lol!
What fun! Beautiful mix of colors and yo eye look is fantastic wit it! Kudos to your colorist , that’s not an easy job!
Thank you so much, Mary!
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.
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!
Beautiful hair color that uplift the mood! The eyeshadow look harmonized perfect with your hair!
Aw, thanks, Amalia!
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!
Me too!! I’ve found that I dig these deeper but still vivid kind of colors against my natural hair color!
OMG, I love it! You totally rock this look. I’m wishing I had dark hair right about now.?
Thanks, Anne! 🙂
I love it, Christine! Beautiful inspo photos, amazing adaptation. Thank you for sharing the details with us!
Thank you so much, Blue!
Christine your hair looks gorgeous, and how did you manage to match the eye look perfectly?! Very pretty!
LOL! Well, the eye look came second 😉
Maybe, just maybe, I’ll walk into my salon one day and come out rocking this look!
Fingers crossed 😉
Absolutely jaw-dropping!!! I love it!!
Thanks, Jill!
Your new oil slick hair color is fabulous! I am decidedly jealous!
Thanks a lot, Allison!
Your new hair is literally art in motion! The end result is more beautiful than the inspiration pics…just gorgeous. Liz Cook is quite an artist!
Thank you so much, Patricia!
You look fabulous!
Thanks, Rebecca!
Love it. Looks great!
Thank you, ShariP!
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?
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).
Very , very beautiful
Thank ya, Sirina!
This and your original are literally the most amazing color jobs I’ve ever seen!
Thanks, Michelle!
it’s so beautiful Christine!
It’s so beautiful yet playful!
thanks for inspiring me!
Thank you so much, Bridget!
Absolutely. STUNNING. I’ve had this done to my hair before and loved it. I would absolutely do it again.
It’s a great combo!
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 😉
Thank you so much!! Apparently my hair is on the stronger side, so it has been OK (bleaching obviously causes damage, so it is by no means 100% perfectly healthy) so far, but it’s definitely something I’m keeping an eye on!
OMG! Christine! This is magically beautiful! I’m absolutely in love!
Thank you so much, Brooke!
Talk about #hairgoals! And the eye look pairs PERFECTLY with it! I bet these colors would look so amazing in a braid. You are so beautiful!
Haha! Well, it should since the eye makeup was totally hair inspired, lol 😉
Thanks, Alana!
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).
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!
Christine, you’ve knocked it out of the park! Your hair is gorgeous and I can’t stop looking at all of the colors! Very beautiful…..
Thanks a lot, Dolores!
I love this, your hair looks really great! I have… mixed feelings about using the term “oil slick rainbow” to describe a hair-related thing. But I get it, and it does look very cool. 😛
Thank you, Allison! 🙂
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.
Dry shampoo is such a lifesaver! I mean, you don’t have to twist my arm at all to wash my hair less by any means — I was only doing it every 3-4 days prior — but I don’t know if it would be as tolerable without dry shampoo!!
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!!!!
Aww, thanks a lot, Mariah! 🙂
Oh, this is gloriously beautiful. Love the matching eye look too!
Thanks, Alison!
That looks incredible! So vivid. I can’t wait to see how it fades!
Super curious to see how long it remains defined!
Wow!!! Beautiful!
Thanks, Bonnie!
I think your hair looks absolutely beautiful and matches your colourful eye look and personality. A great job by your hairdresser.
Thank you so much, Genevieve!
Gorgeous!
Thanks, Colleen!
Christine! Your hair looks like a dream! It is a lovely, unique departure from the pastel-y unicorn hair (which is rockin’, too). I am in awe!!
Thanks a lot, Pamela!
The red and pink stand out in your makeup review faceshots but the actual color(s) are BEAUTIFUL! I ❤ it! Thanks for sharing!!
It’s really in all about how it ends up laying! It’s pretty cool! Thank you! 🙂
I am SO in love with your hair!!
Thanks, Taryn!
Oooh, beautiful! Thank you for sharing your inspiring pictures!
Thank you so much, Jenny!
This is so gorgeous I could cry!!
I am so tired of being stuck in jobs that dictate what I can do with my own body.
Hope you’re able to play sometime! 🙂
Whoa !!!!!! Looks hot on you ! Enjoy!
Thanks, Jane!
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)!
Aw, that is so sweet! Thank you, Kishia! 🙂
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.
Absolutely gorgeous!!!