Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Temporary, Semi, Demi, Permanent? What's the Difference?!

I know a lot of people are confused on the subject of what is temporary? Semi-permanent? Didn't even know there was such thing as a demi-permanent?

So, temporary dyes are, well, temporary. Temporary in the sense that they are one time use. Temporary dyes are anything from spray ins, such as the photo on the right, colored gels (the kind that comes out during Halloween season), and rinses.

Apply the temporary coloring right over your own hair color (without bleaching or anything). When you wash your hair, the color comes out. Temporary cannot  lighten your hair.

Semi-permanent.
Semi-permanent hair dyes are most likely the vibrants. Red, blues, orange, yellow, green, purple, teal, etc. Semi-permanents do not require a developer but they do require that your hair be bleached to show up vibrant. Take a white piece of paper and get a pink crayon, the color comes out pink. Take a black piece of paper and try to color it pink, and it doesn't show up. Same concept with your hair. The darker your hair, the less likely it'll show at all.

Semi-permanent will last anywhere from 1 week to 3 months depending on your hair color, how damaged your hair is, what shampoo you use, how often you shampoo, and the temperature of water you use when shampooing. My brother got blue pieces in his hair (it was bleached). He shampoos twice a day with very warm water. His blue washed out in one week. I personally have red under my bangs and wash my hair twice a week with a color safe shampoo in between lukewarm and warm water. My red lasts about 2 months before it starts fading at all. Also semi-permanents cannot lighten hair.


Demi-permanent requires a developer for it to work, but a low volume developer. Demi's are a deposit only color which means, you can only use it if you are going DARKER. If you have dark blonde hair and want to be a chestnut brown, you can use a demi-permanent. They are not damaging and give you the healthiest, shiniest color. But, they cannot lighten your hair.

Permanent hair color contains ammonia which is mostly meant for people who have virgin hair (has not been colored) wanting to go lighter. Since this dye has ammonia, it is not meant for anyone to use if they want to go darker because it can take a toll on the hair for the worst.

Permanent hair dye also is very useful when trying to cover a lot grey or resistant hair.




Well, now you know the different types of hair dyes and what they are meant to achieve and why they are used! :)

17 comments:

  1. I found your blog at Soompi, and I want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! I can tell I'm going to love reading your entries! I don't know anything beyond box colors at home so this is really helpful! Thank you for sharing! :)

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  2. :) No problem! If there is anything else you are interested in, let me know and I can write about it!

    -Vinni

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  3. Hey!
    You answered my question on Yahoo Answers a little earlier, and I had another question for you. I can dye my roots with the HiColor HiLights Red, but I was wondering what could I do with the part of my hair which is already colored with Manic Panic Rock N Roll Red? Do I just use HiColor but with a 10 vol. developer? I'm using a 30 vol. developer for the roots.


    Thanks for helping me out! (:

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  4. Hi Courtney!
    Just run the HiColor with 10 like you said through your ends to freshen it up and get it to match your roots.

    -Vinni

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  5. Thanks! :)
    I already posted this, so I don't know if it went through or not...I hope I'm not bothering you with my questions! Anyway, I'm dying it tomorrow, so I'm a bit nervous how it'll turn out on my hair. My last question is my hair is bleached under the manic panic dye (i dyed my bleached hair with manic panic's rock n roll red with a l'oreal paris boxed dye) and was just wondering since it says "for dark hair only", do you think my hair would capture the color? My whole head is red, currently. But from Manic Panic. It's kind of a bright red. =/

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  6. If it says its for dark hair only, it might be because it could take darker on bleached or lighter hair or may fade or not even take at all. I don't have much knowledge on box dyes, so I wouldn't trust it if it says for dark hair only.

    -Vinni

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  7. hi, I have no idea how to send messages or anything on here, so I was wondering if you could answer a question for me, but I hardly ever check this, so if you could or had the time could you email me the answer to what I'm about to ask to spaceshipgirl99@yahoo.com ? my question is, 5 weeks ago I tried to give myself highlight type things with this bleach stuff but it didn't turn out that well, and I REALLY want to dye it black again but I don't know if it's safe or it will fry my hair or something...I don't know if it matters but, last october, I got highlights, then I dyed it dark brown again in december, then in february I dyed it burgundy, then only four weeks later in march I dyed it black, then I did the highlight type things 5 weeks ago. I just don't know if it's safe to dye my hair again. If you could answer this I would appreciate it sooo much :D

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  8. oh, one more thing. I go swimming almost every day and I don't know if the chlorine would fade my hair?

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  9. Oh Vinni (I send you a tweet about help dying hair orange), I dyed it a week ago, but didnt lighten it before (kinda scared to do it, but Im looking for a lighter tone).

    I used "fantasy look" permanent hair colour creme color 9.4 very light copper blonde (the ladies from the shop recommend this) mixed with 150ml of peroxide (30 vol 9%).

    I just applied direct, but m guessing I have to get my hair lighter BEFORE applying this to get the tone I want.

    I am so lost. thank you yet again <3

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  10. Diana,
    I'm not familiar with Fantasy Look, but Google says its a permanent hair color. It should've lightened your hair if you have virgin (no dye on your hair) hair. I'm assuming you don't because it didn't work.

    Yes, you'll need to bleach it to get the color you want. Don't be scared. Just don't use anything higher than 20 volume developer and use an On-the-scalp bleach. An off-the-scalp will burn you and give you abrasions (chemical burn).

    -Vinni

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  11. aw, thanks Vinni!

    I will take your advise <3 Yup, you got it my hair was previously dyed dark brown. Thanks for your help!!

    Love your blog n_n;

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  12. Hi! I have a problem, I bought Raw's White out kit (bleach) and raw's true blue (demi-permanent dye), I bleached my hair and it turned out some parts orange ando some parts light brown, I thought that if I dye it over with blue it would come blue but it didn't, it turned out green and now I don't know if I should bleach it again and how much time should I wait to do it. I will be so thankful if you can please answer me.

    Thank you.

    btw, Nice blog!

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  13. Yeah, you didn't leave the bleach in long enough. The lighter you get your hair, the more vibrant the blue will be, so try bleaching your hair again and this time check the hair every 5-10 minutes to see if your hair is light enough before washing it out. Wash it out when its a pale yellow color. You can tell by taking a paper towel and just wiping the bleach off of a little chunk of hair.

    Make sure when you bleach your hair again to apply the bleach to the darker pieces first if you can. And you don't have to wait any certain amount of time to bleach your hair again.

    -Vinni

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  14. hi, question,
    i bleached my hair and dyed it 4 times to get the color to stay in,Virgin hair,wont even hold a perm...i finally got magenta to stay in.i love it.now its time for touch ups.i have a 10 and 20 lift, i want it darker this time so should i use the 10 and not the 20?last time i used 20
    blessings

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  15. Hello,

    I need some advice on how to fix a yellowish-orange hair to a cherry/ blood red dye. I recently helped bleached my friend's hair and it did not turn out the way i thought it did. B/c i had my hair bleached b4 and it turned out great, but not with hers; This is all over-the counter products. So, what i'm trying to say was; she wants her hair like " Rhianna Red ", before i had to dye it red; it has to be bleached. Will it be ok if i just continue on with the dying red part or fix the different colors of bleach ?

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  16. I have a question. Why can't I color my hair and then relax it?

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    Replies
    1. The chemicals in a relaxer or perm can strip the color out of your hair if you color your hair first before relaxing. Also the chemicals can sometimes react with each other causing extensive amount of damage to the hair, leading to major breakage.

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