Plum Passion

After lightening my hair to about a 7 in the darkest areas and a 9 in the lightest (my roots were probably a 9 after toner), I applied Mystic Heather to my hair. I did not dilute with conditioner (like some people do in many tutorials I've seen), I used the full strength dye.I have really thick hair a couple inches or so past my shoulders and I needed 2 pots to cover my head, but 3 would have been better since I missed some spots. After bleaching my poor hair was thirsty and it basically drank up all the color. I let it process for 30 minutes and then washed it. I love how it looks. I do need to go over it again to fix the bits I missed, but I love it. The color came out more pinkish than purple, but I like the color.My suggestion: Pay close attention to the instructions and watch Tish and Snooky's video on manicpanic dot com. Make sure you get the hair color frothy. If you can, use your hands to touch your hair to be sure it's not dry in areas that might get clumped together. Sectioning it off in small bits helps with this if you have a lot of hair. Buy more color than you think you will need, in case you miss a spot and need to go over your hair again.I added photos. For some reason the front of my hair processed differently than the rest and I tried to show that. The diptych photo is my hair in natural light right after coloring.----Edit!I wanted to come back to my review to let you know how the color has faded and some other tips I have found out. Hopefully this will help the next person looking for info. I found it very difficult to find reviews and help for Mystic Heather.So after my review I touched up the areas that I had accidentally missed, and then let it fade for a little over a month. On the top where my roots are, the color stayed purple-y, it just got a bit lighter. On the length, it faded down to a pastel pink. On the darker areas that had processed to a 7 and had some orange-y tones, the hair turned that really pretty rose-gold color that it getting popular now. I was pleased with that. In the areas that I'd managed to get down to a 9 the color turned a silver-y pink. All over, it looked like a pastel pink and purple ombre.I shampooed as little as possible with the help of dry shampoo. My hair and scalp is naturally very dry and I live in a dry climate so I can go about 2 weeks without my hair looking or smelling bad as long as I keep it clean and maintained. I don't usually go that long between shampoos, but if I do it helps my color look better for longer.I shampoo my hair like this: I take conditioner (usually a thick deep conditioner) and put it on my ends and length. The I take as little shampoo as I can and use that at the roots, then rinse. Then I go back over that with more conditioner.I recently touched up my color and this time I left the color on for almost 3 hours instead of 30 minutes and it turned my hair a deep purple. Almost eggplant/aubergine color but a little more pink. I love it and I think it looks great. The darker color is helping to disguise my dark dark roots. My roots are very dark chocolate brown and I have a tiny bit of grey. The purple barely affects the roots and grey but it does blend in and make the roots look a little less unsightly. I'm trying to go as long as I can between touching up my roots so anything that helps is a good thing.Now when I color my hair, I allow myself 2 days to do it. Because I always inevitably miss a spot. I don't know about anyone else but I have a lot of hair and I'm not a professional colorist so somehow I end up missing something somewhere and I don't see it until I'm done and the hair is dry. So I buy 3 pots and use the first 2 on the first day to cover my whole head (I do my length first because it takes longer to process than the roots. By the time I am done getting my length covered, they've already been processing 15-20 mins when I get to the roots) and then dry it and take note of the spots I miss. Then I use the 3rd pot to color the bits I forgot about and leave it on the same amount of time as the first.I rinse in the coolest water I can stand (if you stick your head in the tub or sink instead of showering, you will find you can stand cooler water since its not hitting your whole body) and I put a deep conditioner over it.I have experienced much less breakage and fallout with Manic Panic than any other hair color I have ever used. Including the bleach! Usually with box dye and even salon coloring, my hair breaks or falls out badly. With Manic Panic, I have no breakage and very little fallout, other than what's normal to find on your brush or when shampooing. When I rinse out my color I might lose a couple of hairs down the drain and that's it. When I brush my hair, very little hair comes out. Before I used Manic Panic, I'd have a ton of hair in my brush, on the floor, etc. When I shampooed, I'd have fistfuls of it coming out. No kidding! Not anymore. I absolutely love Manic Panic.The color does not last long, and almost every experience is a surprise because your color depends on so many outside factors (this is the fun part for me but I know others want a result they can predict and I understand that) but I can tell that this is a much more healthy option for my hair than other color brands I've tried.

So I need to preface that I’ve been doing my own hair at home for a while. I went from a faded purple that I then stripped, then applied this color and oh my goodness it’s so vibrant. I dyed my hair July 26th, and today is October 16th for an idea (and I’ve only dyed it once which was in July. It still is SO vibrant. It faded to a magenta color but I still get so many compliments on my hair.Some things to keep in mind:- it will stain. If you get it in your tub, let some spray bleach sit on it, it will take it out. If you stain your skin, it can wash out after a few attempts or you can use rubbing alcohol.- even now my hair still bleeds when washing it after dying it 3 months ago, so just keep that in mind.- you’ll have a more vibrant effect if you have a lighter base and it will stick a million times better on pre-lightened hair. It won’t stick to virgin hair well. Your hair doesn’t have to be blonde in order to get a vibrant result but the lighter it is, the better the result will be. (Don’t melt your hair trying to achieve my color, I’ve done a number on it within the last year and I’ve been using bonding treatments to get my hair to where it is)Overall, I absolutely am wowed by how long this color has lasted. It truly is a beautiful color and prior to this, I had arctic fox dye on my hair and it washed out after 5-6 washes. I also don’t wash my hair every day. I’ll wash it twice a week so that will help with the life of your hair color but even so, I’ve never had a dye last this long especially a semi permanent. If you’re looking for a fun color, I highly recommend manic panic. Just PLEASE prepare for staining. Any fashion color is bound to stain. Make sure you’re able to either a. Deal with it until it fades off your skin or b. Take precautions before and/or after applying the dye.

Love it

My hair is naturally dark brown. This was the third product I tried adding some red to my hair. The first I tried was overtone red for brown hair. It worked well, but the color was just a hint of red due to being applied to my naturally dark brown hair. 3 weeks later I tried Lux Red from Sally Beauty. It made it a little more red than before, my hair looked more of an maroon / red. Lots of compliments. Then 3 weeks later I finally tried the manic panic pillarbox red. I was able to get complete coverage with just 1 jar. I put my hair in a plastic bag to really let it set in. The directions say to let it set in for at least 30 minutes. I went for 4 hours before washing my hair out. My hair looks to be a dark magenta now. The color looks great, but the product did stain my scalp more than the other two products I tried. Took 5 days for my skin to look normal again. Keep in mind I just applied it like an overtone, and did not do any pre bleaching to lighten my hair before applying the product. If you are using this product on brown hair, its going to look more like a dark magenta when you get done. It mostly depends on the lighting. In dark lighting my hair looks dark brown with a hint or red. In Bright lighting, outdoors or studio lights the color really comes to life. Looks like a darkish magenta with bright lights. Adding red to my hair was a great decision, wish I would have done it years ago. For some reason I seem more approachable now, people seem more comfortable around me. Before when I just had dark brown hair I guess had more of that rested bitch look. Now I look less intimidating, and its working better for me in social situations.