Dip Dye Hair Guide

If you’re looking for an ombre hairstyle that’s cute, fun, and easy to do at home, dip dye hair color is the trend you’ve got to try. Usually featuring bold and bright colors applied to the very ends of hair, dip dye styles make no effort to blend the line of demarcation like most ombre or color melt styles. To get a brilliant color look that you won’t have to commit to forever, Manic Panic offers up semi-permanent dyes in a crazy impressive range of shades. These colors fade as you wash your hair, so ladies looking for a long-term dip dye look will want to reapply on a regular basis. Be sure to wear gloves and thoroughly protect any nearby surfaces. These types of dye can stain anything! Read on to get our top tips for how to dip dye blonde and brunette hair at home and check out 30 of our favorite dip dye hairstyles.

To get an obvious dip dye style using Manic Panic color, brunettes will need to lighten their hair first. Women with very light brown hair might be able to achieve a darker dip dye color without bleaching, but your final style won’t look super vibrant. Use Manic Panic’s Flashlighting kit on dry, unwashed hair, applying to the tips you’d like to dip dye. Check hair every ten minutes until it’s lightened to a desired level, but don’t leave on for more than 45-60 minutes. Once you’ve shampooed, rinsed, and fully dried hair, you’re ready to apply your dip dye color following the steps in next section, “Dip Dye for Blondes”.

If your hair is already blonde, you can go straight to using Manic Panic dye. Remember that colors will look more vibrant on a pre-lightened base color. Work with hair that’s clean and dry, but avoid using conditioner beforehand as it can make dye less likely to stick to your hair. All you need to do is coat the ends of your hair thoroughly in your desired color (or colors) of Manic Panic dye, leaving on for several hours to ensure maximum color adherence. This vegetable based dye won’t damage your hair like the permanent stuff, so there’s really no limit to how long you can leave it on. After the hours are up, a thorough rinsing will reveal your dip dyed style!

Bold hair colors have been all about pinks and blues for the last few years, but alternate shades like green and yellow are becoming much more popular. Use Manic Panic’s Venus Envy to get this slightly evil dip dye look on your black hair.

If you’re after a more subtle dip dye look, try applying your highlighting shade to only some strands of hair. The end result will be a balayage version of dip dye hair, like this chic lavender look that’s all ready for summer.

A medium shade of denim blue against naturally dark hair makes for a chic dip dye hairstyle that you’ll want to keep around for months.

Manic Panic’s Pastel-Izer can be mixed with a few drops of their more concentrated shades to create custom pastel colors. This two-tone style uses both pink and purple to create a dreamy style that’s fresh for spring.

Skip the second dip dye step if you’re after an edgy blonde-on-black style. If your ends are too orange or brassy after bleach alone, applying toner can help you get to a more white blonde or platinum shade.

With pieces dipped in various shades of purple and blue, this dip dye rainbow will take a little more effort to pull off than a single tone style.

We love the combination of pastel shades against natural dark blonde hair. Although this base color may show some of Manic Panic’s colors in its untreated state, you’ll need to pre-lighten to achieve this pastel shade.

Electric Banana dye over a strawberry blonde base color creates one of the most unique dip dye color palettes on our list.

If you want hair that looks sweet as candy, nothing beats a vibrant shade of bubblegum pink over blonde hair.

Applying a bright yellow dye over platinum white hair can give you this radioactive looking dip dye style.

Shades of aqua and purple work together to create this mermaid inspired dip dye style over platinum blonde hair. As your dye washes out, your mermaid style will gradually fade into a more muted pastel look.

Getting a pure white dip dye on black hair will require a lot of work, and probably several rounds of bleaching. Once hair has been lightened enough, Manic Panic’s Virgin Snow toner can help you achieve this incredible color contrast.