-We always use Special Effects... it is by far the best bright hair dye on the market!!
-Yes it is necessary to bleach our hair out before dying it, but we only bleach out the natural color, once the dye is in it stays. We do, however, put new color on top of the old dye job, it really mixes up the color and creates some cool shades! Keep in mind that the colors do change between a fresh dye and after a few washes.. so account for it when you decide what colors to use. I find that mixing the pinks, oranges and reds doesn't show up much in the beginning, but as the color fades they really come out!
-None of these pictures were taken immediately after dying, they all have at least a few weeks on them.
-Rebecca & Molly

Rebecca- nuclear red, napalm orange in two pics. Then Rebecca's Tequila Sunrise- nuclear red, atomic pink, and bleach.

Rebecca and Molly-
These are combinations of nuclear red, atomic pink, napalm orange, wildflower and burgundy wine.

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Hey! My name is Kate and I recently ordered some Special Effects hair dye from you guys. I've had so much trouble in the past with keeping colors in my hair, even when it was done professionally, so I figured I would only try one last time before going to something boring like brown. The reason I used special effects was because of its reviews, so I am glad to help other hair color connoisseurs in any way i can.
To do my hair I dyed it black then waited a week or so and bleached out what I wanted to dye. I used Cherry Bomb and Pimpin Purple and mixed the two in most places but the bottom is mostly pimpin purple, and my bangs have a lot of cherry bomb in it. I LOVED the results! The pictures don't do it justice really because the lighting is bad, but it's very vibrant, and very pretty. Most dyes i've used only last a week, if that. The first two pictures are my hair after 1 week. The next pictures are after 2 weeks. My hair hasn't faded a bit! It's still gorgeous and vibrant. I get compliments on it every day. On a side note, not only is it good color, but it's good for my hair. It didn't fry it or damage it in any way which is a major plus.
-Kate

I took this picture two days after dying. Before I had my hair bleached to a white blonde. I used Atomic Pink on top and Blue Mayhem on the bottom, both by Special Effects. I let the color sit for an hour and blow dried it for the first 20 minutes or so and it came out AMAZINGLY bright. I couldn't believe it.
-Ashley

This is my hair with Fishbowl all over the top and Atomic Pink on the bottom. Both were Special Effects. Before I dyed my hair, it was all bleached blonde, with a really light faded out pinktint in some places. The picture was taken a week after i dyed it.
-Beka

Here are some pictures of two different times I dyed my hair using Special Effects Blue Velvet. The pictures are taken the day of or day after dying. The color lasted a couple months without fading too much. Two of the pics show a smidge of black dye I used on my bangs. I bleached my hair to a very light blonde before dying each time.
-Hannah

Special Effects (Cupcake Pink)-My hair was bleach blonde for a while before I decided to dye it pink.-All I needed to do was bleach my roots to get rid of about 3 weeks of growth.-It has been about 2 weeks or 12 washes since i've dyed it.
-Abby

My natural hair color is black, but I bleached it until getting it almost white.
In the first photo I dyed my hair with Atomic Pink and Fish Bowl From Special Effects, this photo was taken about 4 weeks later after I dyed it. The second picture was taken about 1 or 2 weeks after I dyed my hair, the colors are Atomic Pink and LimeLight From Special Effects.
-Kumis

My hair is naturally dark brown and I dyed it black....bleached the underneath with Manic Panic 40vol bleach kit.
Got it a pale yellow light orange and washed with dawn dish detergent. Blow dryed it.
Put Nuclear Red on by Special Effects and left on for 1 and half hours.
Beautiful color and stayed in for a long time.
-Heather

Here, I stripped the Nuclear Red off to a pale yellow.
Washed it with dawn dish detergent and blow dryed it and put Fishbowl by Special Effects on it.
Left it on for 3 hours after blowdrying 3 minutes
FREAKING AWESOME STUFF AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!

Colored black hair was bleached to pale yellow light orange
Blow dryed and washed with detergent
Put Special Effects Blood Red on for 2 hours
Another AWESOME color by Special Effects
Lasts forever!
-Amy

Here's China in the next 3 pictures. China used all Special Effects brand. "All 3 pictures were taken the week of dying my hair, and they stayed vibrant like that for about 2 weeks give or take a shampoo.

In the first picture i started out with mostly natural red hair, then did low lights with black, and bleached highlights around that so i had my natural color, black and blonde all together. then i put the nuclear red on it and all the various shades of hair acted accordingly.

Second pic is after my hair had grown out a bit, i kept dying it with the nuclear red, then i bleached my roots and put bright yellow on it and blended it into the red, which gave me that lovely orange color in between.

And the third pic is after stripping all the color out and bleaching everything again, then applying orange napalm.

Abigail (on the left) with her friend Lucy- I used Punky Blue Lagoon and the darker hair is just faded black. My hair was originally an orangish blonde colour, so I had to dye it twice to keep in from going really green. In the picture it was just a couple days since I had dyed it.

From Melon Berry- What brand of hair dye: Special Effects Nuclear Red and a bit of Atomic Pink mixed in.
I dyed my hair the lightest blonde I could and mixed the two colors above.
When I got a nice ratio I put it on my hair and let it sit in for a little over an hour.
Then blew dry it for a couple minutes, then washed it out.
What color was your hair before you started? Blonde
Did you bleach your hair first? Nope

After dyeing it

Then, two months since it was dyed.

What brand of hair dye did you use? special effects.
What color of hair dye did you use? pimpin purple, straight out of the bottle.
What color was your hair before you started? blonde.
Did you bleach your hair first? yes.
How long has it been since you dyed it? 3 weeks.
-Sam

My name's Amy. My hair is naturally black and very resistant, so I had to bleach it three times with 30 vol. bleach. I then used Special Effects Deep Purple all over. The colour's about a week old in the picture.

This picture was taken after bleaching my mousy brown hair and dyeing with Special Effects Atomic Pink. Years later, I am still using this dye. For a less conspicuous look, my hair is now dark brown with atomic pink highlights. I retouch every 4 - 6 weeks. And yes, at the end of that time frame the my is still pink. And yes I do shampoo regularly!
-Natasha Elise

This pic was taken about a month after dying my hair with Special Effects Hi-Octane Orange. I bleached my hair to a yellowy-blonde before and i didnt need to retouch the orange for close to 2 months.
-Sarah

Here's Sarah again, this time-
This is with Special Effects brand Atomic Pink on the bangs, Hi-Octane Orange on the sides, and a mixture of Limelight and Fishbowl on the top, all over pre-bleached hair. First pic is three weeks after dyeing. The little pic is right after dyeing.

Hey, this is a picture of my 8 year old daughter Athena. We first had her hair bleached at a salon then I brought her home and applied the Special Effects Atomic Pink, it's a little light because we ran out. She absolutely loves this color, we had the hardest time finding it after the local store stopped carrying it. She didn't want any other pink, we're glad we found it.
Sue

Special Effects. i did a random assortment of Atomic Pink/Wild Flower/Virgin Rose.
What color was your hair before you started? faded pink (atomic pink, special effects)
Did you bleach your hair first? of course! to a pale yellow
How long has it been since you dyed it? a while...last summer.
-Eden

My name is Bekki and I have been dying my hair for over 6 years using a variety of things from bingo dabber, to food color, to hair dye. My favorite hair dye is definitly Special Effects. My hair in the first picture I've sent was bleached to get the colors to stick better. The pink is Cupcake pink by Special Effects and the green is fishbowl green by special effects. That is a fresh dye job, only hours old. I was running low on fishbowl which is why it isn't as vibrant. My natural hair color is a dark brown.

Hi, my name is Margo . I've been dyeing my hair for about 13 years. I bleached my hair beforehand so the dye would be bright. I used three colors of Special Effects: the front section is Pimpin Purple, the stripe in the middle is Fish Bowl Blue, the back is Blue Mayhem. Some of the Fishbowl was layered on top of the Pimpin Purple which is why there is dark blue around the stripe.This was taken a day after I'd dyed it.

Hi, I'm Jenn~ I have naturally black hair (I'm Chinese) and used Manic Panic Ultra Violet for the purple and some generic brand pink, I think it's called Beyond the Zone? It's pretty bad, the lady at the salon said it started washing out even as she was doing the first rinse. The Manic Panic stays for a while though, like a couple of weeks. I had my hair bleached professionally at the salon and it ended up a yellow blonde, with some parts a little darker than others.

The aqua is Manic Panic-Atomic Turquoise & the blue is Special Effects-Electric Blue.
My color was a dyed dark brown.
Yes, I got as much previous old dye out then bleached the under-layer and bangs.
It's been about 3 months since I've dyed it these colors. In the pics it had been about 3 weeks since I had.
Alyssa

Maddie ~ I used Punky Colour hair dye, color 'Ebony' to make horizontal stripes[[not quite a coontail since those are thinner]] and I have never bleached or colored my hair before. In the picture, the camera I used made the colors look faded although they are prominent when looking at them directly in front of you. My natural hair color is the color between the stripes and the lines are defined in person.

In case you want to make horizontal stripes like this, I'll explain how I did it[this is also how you make coon tails];1. put up hair that you do not plan on dying 2. hold hair being dyed as together as possible and put masking tape over each part you do not want dyed.[[make sure the part you are dying falls together when it is down]] 3. Dye each part that is not taped, making sure you get all of the hair dyed, not just the outside of the section 4. After it dries, wash hair with water 5. Take out the tape.You should now have stripes. If you want them darker or more defined with where they start and end, just take a tinting brush and go over them with your chosen color, then rinse[[as usual]] after it dries. I did this a few times so that you could see the stripes better since I did not bleach my hair.

Note- You can also try this webpage with pics to illustrate-How to make a coontail.

Here's Shelby, who has naturally brown hair. Shelby used Manic Panic Wildfire, applying it twice. She didn't bleach it first, but has colored her hair before. The pic is after one wash.

This is me with pink hair, my hair was black/dark brown before because i used to dye my hair black (i'm a natural blonde), so i used a decolorizer and then bleached it a little bit, i've applied a mix of sfx (Special Effects) cupcake pink & atomic pink. I Loved it ! I've dyed it in august 2007 but now my hair is blue but i miss my pink so im gonna redo it ^^.
-Mary Ann

Mai used Special Effects, a mix of Pimpin Purple and Wildflower after bleaching with 30 vol. Her hair was black before she started.
I dye it every 2 weeks because I’m a freak about keeping the color vibrant. I’ve moved on to Fishbowl.
-Mai

My name is Scarlett. Here is a pic of my prelightened hair with Candy Apple Red from Special Effects mixed with my natural dark hair color. I have used every haircolor imaginable in red and special effects is the best. This dye job was only a few days old, but remained vibrant for a few months. Next, I want to try deep purple.

What brand of hair dye: Manic Panic
What color or colors of hair dyes used: Midnight blue, Turquoise, Fuschia shock: I dyed the fringe turquoise and then applied the midnight blue at the roots and mixed it with the turquoise the lower on it.
What color was your hair before you started? Very dark brown
Did you bleach your hair first? Yes
How long has it been since you dyed it? A couple of weeks
Allie C-

Hi there! my name is leesy. On the hair- i bleached it with manic panic flash lightening 30 .( i should've used 40 because my hair was brown) I used manic panic hot hot pink on pretty much all of it. i tried to use cotton candy pink, but i think my hair had to be close to platinum for it to look cool. I did it two days ago.

My name is Niki. I've been using manic panic for 10 years.
I used manic panic wildfire on my hair.
My natural color is strawberry blonde.
I bleached my hair before i put the manic panic on my hair and this is the same week that i died my hair.

This is Fudge Blue Velvet with a Whiter Shade of Pale. He bleached it first with 30vol bleach kit.