Funky Tip #1: Dyeing with light-type hair colors

Golden blonde hair still has a fair amount of yellow. Still a long way from white.

Just a level shy away from white, platinum blonde (or palest blonde) is the ideal shade for dyeing with our semi-permanent dyes, especially the light-colored ones and toners.

Level of lightness of hair color greatly influences the effectiveness of the dye's color result.

Light-colored semi-permanent hair dyes are tricky to use on the usual Pinoy hair, mainly because none of us are born natural blondes. >_<

So we bleach our hair, and it goes through a random process of turning into various shades of brown, red, and blonde (depending on our natural hair pigmentation and resistance to bleaching agents). The thing with using light-colored semi-permanent hair dyes is that the base hair color must be as pale or as close to white as possible to be effective. The yellow, brassy tones of bleached hair must be minimized, because these tones can "mix" with the dye to produce unexpected results. 

For example, if your current base hair color was medium to dark blonde, where there is a fair amount of yellow or brassy tones, then you might get these unexpected color results:
COTTON CANDY PINK - barely-there pink or none at all
SHOCKING BLUE - more green than blue
ATOMIC TURQUOISE - dark green rather than bright green-blue
LIE LOCKS/ ELECTRIC AMETHYST - slightly grayish or no effect

So what kind of hair will light-colored dyes work on? I'd recommend pale blonde (like the yellow of the inside of a lemon) or any shade close to beige or platinum blonde or white. 

Achieving this is not easy for Pinoys who have to bleach their hair from black --> brown --> red --> orange --> yellow --> to blonde. It can take as much as 2-3 bleaching sessions to get there. Talk about a lot of work! @_@

But there is a limit as to how far you can bleach your hair without breaking it. If you've already bleached your hair enough (and afraid one more bleaching session will break your hair!) but have not yet achieved the required blonde color, I would suggest pre-treating it with Manic Panic Virgin Snow to neutralize the yellow, brassy tones. Virgin Snow is a toner dye. The pale violet color of this dye "tones down," dulls, or neutralizes the hair's yellow tones to create a whiter color effect. It's used like the other dyes: apply on dry hair, let it sit for 3 hours, rinse and you're done and ready to move on to the next dye.

Just remember: the less yellow your hair is, the more effective the light-colored dyes will become; thus, producing truer, more vibrant color results. (This is also true with the darker dyes!)

If you have questions based on this feedback, feel free to ask me here or email me at [email protected]. Thanks! ^_^