Manic Panic Hair Color in Dark Hair?

You are the mom and need to take charge!

If it were my son, I probably (with great debate) would let him put the green & black streaks in his hair, no bleaching or total color changes. Even if it doesn't show up, but only until school starts! Then back to normal hair color without colors! I would not like it, but I would have at least allowed him to do what he wanted, but with control!

It's important to pick you battles, but if you give in to his every want at this age, he'll want more as he gets older.

Good luck!!

K.

My son wanted green hair for a while (It was a phase.) He is a dark brunet and we had to bleach his hair blond and then the green dye would hold. It was the only way. The green dye lasted for about 8-10 weeks. If you want just a summer dye job I don't think this would work.

My neice has dark brown hair and every time I see her she has a different color streaked through it! Sometimes it looks pretty cool and sometimes it looks kind of funny. Last week it was bright purple and it looked pretty good!! There are temporary dies that should wash out in 8 shampoos. Let him experiment. It's only hair and he can shave it all off it if really looks bad!!

Hi S.,
I am a hairstylist and think self expression is awesome and I give you kudos for considering it! It depends on how dark his hair is on whether or not it will show up. It is a fact that if he is looking for a bright color, you do have to bleach it to blonde first. In the hair world, we have levels of haircolor. 1-10, 1 being black and 10 being lightest blonde. I'd say if he's anywhere between a 1 and a 5 (light brown) it's not going to be worth your money. But hey, it may be worth a try for his sake. Manic Panic isn't really that much $. Good luck!

I used Manic Panic when I was in 8-11th grade. I have med. brown hair. I used green and it was more of a forest green in my hair. I didn't bleach. It was brighter in my blond and redhighlights. I liked it b/c it was less intense and in the sun it shimmered. It's not too expensive, so experiment.

Depending on what color his hair is naturally, but it most likely will not show unless his hair is very light. One option would be the colored gel pomades that you "brush in."

My hair is medium brown, and I could not get good results without bleaching. The only other thing that may work is to put some "Sun-in" or hydrogen peroxide on the area that he wants to dye to make the hair more porous, then later put the manic panic on- with a plastic bag and heat- much longer than the advised time. This has worked for me in the past, but now I just bleach.

Any color going into dark hair will give hugh but will not show as much as if the hair were blonde. If you bleach his hair and then color it green it will be permanent. The green might fade but there will be a little bit left because bleaching the hair causes it to be porous and grab the color you put on.
About the only thing I can tell you is he might be able to get a green casting from the color when the light shines on it if you put it on dark hair, which is still kinda cool there is a girl on my softball league that does that with purple it is subtle but neat.

Hope that helps a little. I don't know much about the colors out there as I haven't been doing hair for several years. Good luck I hope he finds something

J.

If you put the green dye on really black hair, it will not show up! It will basically be black hair with an almost unnoticeable green cast to it! If he's a brunette, it will work!! Just make sure to leave it on long enough! We just did two bright magenta strips in my 10yr.old (girls) hair. She's a brunette. It REALLY showed up. We used the L'Oreal brand. It was permanent but after 4 days at the beach, swimming in salt water and a pool it's REALLY faded.
My 15yr.old brother has BLACK hair. He put the blue hair coloring in his hair and it looked terrible. Like I said, it was black hair with a blue tint.
If you decide to bleach small strips, make sure to do little bits at a time..just in case he decides he hates it!! Remember that when the color begins to fade, you will most likely still have the bleached color which will show roots, eventually.
Good luck! I think hair color's fun! If all our mom-requirements are met!! ;)

Well, It really depends on his natural hair color. Since you don't want to bleach it (good) it may or may not take well. I have brown hair, It is not exceptionally dark or light, just pretty regular brown. I have found that warm er colors will show up pretty well (purples, reds, magentas) but the cool colors (green, blue) do not show up well especially if it is a really bright lighter blue. "Green Envy" would PROBABLY show up better on darker hair than "Electric Lizard" Good Luck!

Oh yeah, if you lighten the hair in any way, like from a box of blonde or bleaching it, it will last longer than the package says.

if you bleach his hair, the streaks will show up. As a cosmetologist I have had experiecnce w/ the manic paninc hair color. I would recommend taking him to a hair salon or if you know someone that will do it for you. The reason I am saying this if you have no experience with bleach then you could really over process his hair. Then having to cut his hair depending on the damage.

I think that's a super fun idea, and let's him express himself without being permanent like a tattoo!

Check out Sally Beauty Supply if there's one by you. You can buy anything but the kits to do wave/permanents; it's the same products they use at salons, so a super quality and really low prices. I've seen lots of colors there, semi and non-permanent and the staff is super helpful on stuff like that.

Good luck and have fun!

Hi S. - I recommend buying some of that spray on hair paint. It comes in green and I am not sure about black. This stuff washes out real easy so you can allow him to wear it when it is appropriate and wash it out when it is not. Talk it up to him about how damaging real hair color is on hair so that he doesn't think he is missing out on anything. The spray paint will be fun for him and his friends to do or for you and him to do together. My daughter used to want blue hair. Buying these for her to use was a big hit when she would have sleepovers, because it was a way to do something drastic, but could be cleaned up before kids went home, and it has no lasting effects.

Hi S.;
Tell your son about an old man who sat staring at a young man who had dyed his hair many colors - red - yellow - purple - green stripes in his hair.
The young man asked the old man - if he had a problem - the old man replied ----
No problem - as a younger man I slept with a parrott and I was wondering if you may be my son.
Maybe this will make him think about what people will think of his hair of many colors.
Sincerely:
D. Y.

Somewhere out there, there is spray hair color. It washes out easily, as I am told. Never had that problem with my daughter.

Try using Kool Aid to dye the hair , it only lasts until you wash your hair again but hey summer is half over already.

good for you! I know nothing about hair dyes but I think you are doing the right thing letting him try out different "me"s.

Hello!

My 13 year old son is also the little skateboarder and insisted his father (a hairdresser) bleach his hair...we have an ultra conservative family so they were more bothered than us. We did so the week before school was out so he could show his friends, but with the promise he would cut it out for a family wedding next week. It really looked pretty good and he was much easier to find in a crowd. My mother would not speak to us for a couple weeks but we all lived through it and happy to say he held his end up last night and happily cut it for the wedding. You have a great time to do it because - maybe he can get agree to get his cut out BEFORE school starts - it would be grown out by then anyway or need to be redone --it is so much better than other things than can get into and it did not encourage him to do body piercings or tatoos - he was happy with his "do". Best Wishes! - A.

The best stuff to get is Beyond the Zone hair color, it washes out and is not harmful to the hair. you can get it at Sally's beauty Supply if they still have it. I used it on my son and it washed right out and you did not have to bleach it at all.

I would use Ice Gel. It is true that blue doesn't show up real well, but their greens, reds, etc. do show up in dark hair and if his hair isn't black a black gel will do the trick. The nice thing is it washes out so if you and he are going someplace like church, a family reunion, etc., he won't have the color in his hair. When you get into the semi-permanent colors to put in a lighter color you have to use a higher volume of peroxide for it to take and semi-permanent does not mean it is not permanent and will wash out, it won't. As a cosmetologist I see where this happens a lot! The words semi-permanent are mistaken by consumers. If you put dye or tint in your hair it is dyed or tinted.

Go nuts, but go professional. Ask a hairdresser and you can always buzz cut his hair when school rolls around. In fact tell him that, if he wants permanent, then he has to have it all off by school.

My son went through that phase of haircoloring. His girlfriend colored his hair for him a few times, no problems, just startling to see him return from out of town with a DIFFERENT hair color than when he left!! Then he dyed his hair a denim blue color, on basic med. brown hair. It showed up, but he wanted more, so he bleached his hair first. Then dyed again. It was still approx. the same color. I said, his hair is short, so even if he kills it, it will grow back. Waist length hair on a girl would not accept that many different treatments.

Your son probably dreams of vivid colors, but I bet they will not be as vivid as he hopes. I went to Halloween-type spray hair color at one point for my son. It washes out, but may rub onto clothes. Try black Tshirts until you know!

Good luck! Even try a colored gel to boost the color. Have him ask his friends (or your hair stylist) where you can get some.

First, the darker the hair the more it will look like just tinted highlights. He'll have better luck the lighter it is. If his hair is any shade of brown you have to leave it on for a LOOOOOOONG time to even get close to what he wants. This is ok, Manic Panic is not harmful to hair, you could SLEEP in it!! ( he may need to if his hair is real dark). Wrap it in syran or foil and use blow dryer to give the dye a better chance at working. Second, I've heard that green almost never holds..(those girls w/ crayon green are useing extensions) and it fades to a funny shade of green. Third, if you guys do decide to put multi colors on, keep in mind you can only do one at a time. FROM DYE TO DRY is the rule of thumb here. Also keep the strands seperate from all the other hair or it will blend and get all over. I think a cap would be a good idea if you're a 1st timmer. ... I dye my daughter's hair every summer for fun. We've had pink tips, pink streaks, purple....The most important thing I can tell you is to mark your calendar about three or so weeks before back to school as time to start the removal process. My daughter is blond and it takes us a while. Hot oil treatments, prell shampoo twice a day and the warmest water he can stand are the best. High surfactants and high alkeline shampoos are the best for dye removal. I hope this helps ! Good luck and HAVE FUN!!

Ive used the manic panic dye from ( I wanna say spencers?? or hot topic?? wel, one of those ) on my DD's hair. The pink.. but yeah, you should lighten it,, you don't necessarily have to bleach it. My DD had dark brown hair.. I just dyed it like a dirty blonde,, lighter than her normal, but dyed it all over so it wldn't look TOO weird.. then the pink showed up just fine.. It didn't, however wash out in a couple weeks.. It took her two good months to get it all out.. But for a safe semi-color for kids, I'd go w/ this brand, and would do it again.. Now she's talking about blue & purple.. ugh.. glad they're homeschooled, haha.
Good luck,
A.

Do what I do - I tell my 10 yr old that i'll let him put whatever color he wants in his hair ..... during summer vacation. If he did it during school (which I wouldn't care, really), he'd be violating our school dress code....

But there's something I want to say... to all moms! If you don't allow your kids to express themselves or make any attempts to stand out in the crowd now, while they are young, you are going to be surprised at how rebellious they may want to be when they are older! I am not some hippy, let my kids do anything type of mom! I am your typical suburban housewife with 3 kids and a dog! I am an artsy fartsy person for sure, but you would only know it by seeing my cake creations - not by my appearance. I lost myself as I grew up. My parents didn't allow me to find out exactly who I was or wanted to be - instead I was forced to fit in "the box". Knowing what I went thru as a teen and a young adult, I would never do that to my children. Kids can be adventurous, spontaneous and expressive and still have manners, kindness and a want to contribute posititvely to society! You just need to let go of the rope enough to let them find their way with gentle guidance - but you also have to give consequences when necessary! It's really not impossible!

so to all mom's who say... you're the mom, tell him NO! Don't be surprised when you wake up one morning to find your kid really angry with you! There are much worse things that children could do then put a little color back in to our black and white world!!!!!!!

Hi S.,

I do hair. The answer to your question depends on the color of his hair. If his hair is a light color- darkest dark blond or very light brown, then you can get some color to stay for awhile. If he has dark hair, bleaching it will definately show his colors the way he is hoping to. You can decide when to stop the bleaching process (so it does not have to go to a planinum blond to be effective). Bleaching of the hair opens the cuticle and makes it easier to grab the chemical treated hair. You can allow the color on his natural color and get some result (again, depending on his natural color)- the black will show, but maybe not the green.)
Some things you may need to consider before going all out and allowing bleaching as part of his summer is-

How long is he hoping (or are you allowing)to have his hair green and black?

Do you plan on doing this yourself, or going somewhere?

Have you allowed for the full time it takes to (mostly)rinse out- then it will be back to it's bleached color- if you are lucky.

Are you okay with him going back to school with some of this still showing?

Do you know that you might have to do more chemical treatings to get it close to how you want it (removing green and black, and possibly coloring his hair back to his original color- which is not an easy thing- no guarentee(sp) of color matching- it will be frustrating), you may decide to cut some of it to make it look closer to the natural color if for some reason it hasn't faded in time.

There will be plenty of things to consider. Is he is willing to cut it super short afterwards to get it back to normal color, if necessary- if that is even very important to you- I am not sure.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to help you. Make sure you talk to SOMEONE who knows hair).

Have fun!!
A.

At great clips in Mason I've recently seen sample size ICE Hair Spiker Colorz---they are temporary colored styling glue. good for spiking, etc. (maybe other locations have some too) I would try something like that to see how the colors look. Koolaid works well too. My son has used it on his hair, of course it will wash out and have to be re-done everytime. There is also a product ROUX fanci-full rinse, salon formula temporary hair coloring--rinses in, shampoos out
they come in hair colors, so you might find black (can't remember where I found it, but Sally's might have it)
and do they still make grechin formula for men? (to cover up grey, but if there is black -it may work)

I have an 11 year old (sometimes) skater dude, too--no hair colors, but last year before school changed the 'rules' he had hair down the middle of his back

good luck
D.