I purpled my hair 🍇

For those who follow me on Twitter or Instagram, this won’t be new news – but I got my hair coloured purple!

I sort of wanted to keep it a secret and not tell anyone until the day it happened. I had told only a few people (one person at work and two other friends), and my parents, what I wanted to have done to my hair. I just wanted it to be a big surprise for everyone.

Back view of my hair in the sun
Back view of my naturally straight hair in the sun
Front view of my hair
It looks plum-coloured here

A brief history of my hair

For the past three years I have coloured my hair red. I love red. It’s my favourite colour (along with the turquoise I use on my blog), and I love the way red hair fades, but mine had faded to the point where I thought it looked terrible. The ends were a light brown-gold colour that I couldn’t stand, and I really hated how my dark roots showed with such contrast to the red at the top of my head.

I’d been used to colouring my hair myself. I’ve only had my hair coloured professionally three times. The first time was the first time I ever got my hair cut (14 years old), and I got foils in a couple of different colours. I hated my hair not long after that because the foils were stripy and they pissed me off. The second time, I had half my hair cut blonde. I couldn’t wait for it to grow out. I was damn near tired of it.

The third time I had my hair coloured was last year, and I got it on the cheap. I believe it damaged my hair and riddled it with many more split ends than I had in the first place. They tried to even out the red colour and it just didn’t work out. Ugh.

Hating my hair, onto hair inspiration

On one occasion in the past few years I coloured my hair ultraviolet, with a dye specially for dark hair, which looked similar to my current hair but more pink. It was hot pink in the sun. It was a fun colour but I definitely preferred that hot, saucy red.

I loved red but I just got sick of it. Nick has mentioned, over the course of time, wanting to see my natural hair colour and wanting it to be that way for our wedding. I was really liking the idea of getting my hair darker, but still something different from my natural hair colour.

I really just wanted to do a brown colour slightly lighter than my natural hair colour. But something about that just didn’t excite me enough, so I turned to the internet for inspiration. I browsed many websites and looked at many photos of different hair colours, both practical and wild.

Although it was tempting to go and do some kind of red again, I had already established that I was sick of it, so I should move on.

I found some pinks and light reds and champagnes, which caught my eye. I also knew that I would not want to colour my hair blue or green due to the speed at which it fades, and the colour it fades to. It’s apparently not that good.

The purpling 💆🏻💇🏻💜

I settled on purple after finding examples of both lavender and violet hair. I didn’t really want to make my hair that much lighter and I also didn’t want to colour the whole lot. I settled on going for a violet colour (it looks a little plum from some angles – the photos don’t do it justice). I wanted to have it done in balayage style, so that the colour would appear more gradual. What I really wanted was to also have my roots grow comfortably into the hair colour, so I didn’t want the purple colour applied to my roots.


I got my hair done by Diego at The Sustainable Salon, who also gave my hair a cut! I am so happy with the result. We ended up pre-lightening parts of my hair (split up intricately with plastic wrap) so that the purple colour would sink in and stand out. On my roots, he applied one mixture of purple to bring out shine, then on the middle section he applied another mixture, and on the ends, yet another mixture. The different mixes of the dyes would give my hair the effect it has now.

So… it cost me a small fortune but that makes up for all the cheap-ass haircuts and box dye I’ve gotten over the years. I love my hair. It’s very soft now and I love, love, love that I have a darker colour. After years of having lighter hair I am just so happy that I went for something that hides itself indoors but comes out amazing in the sun. It’s such a magical colour. I think the colour really suits me. 🦄 I am also glad that when my roots grow out, they will blend in a little with the dark colours. So you don’t have to colour your hair your favourite colour, people. Colour it what best suits you. 🙃

https://twitter.com/georgiecel/status/804599886997901313

My hair is looking and feeling so great and I’ve had it done it in an environmentally friendly way. I want to thank Heather for telling me about The Sustainable Salon. Their service was excellent and I have zero complaints about the result. 💖

Pssst… what happened to your middle parting?

Yeah, well, that I got bored of too. So I decided to put it back on the left… 😅

Comments on this post

Omg! This reminds me so much of my red-purple balayage ombre hair! Awww i miss dyeing my hair and i miss my reddish purple ombre hair :(
My boyfriend likes my current hair better because he’s all about looking natural and shizz but i’m going to dye my hair brown again once i can have my own money from a job. Just to refresh the memory, I mentioned on my blog that my hair went through hell and intense breakage because i bleached them a lot due to my idealism of wanting to get that perfect pale blond shade. Ugh, disastrous. I used to loooove pastel hair colors like lilac and pink but now i’m all about the darker shades. I think dark colors are more mysterious and do not make me look sick if i’m having a lazy day without makeup. I remember when i was blond and i was sitting at home with my bare face, i looked so pale and sickly! Ugh.

I’ve been liking browns lately; like ashy brown, or chocolate brown… I love em. I just find ash colors fade so fast and they fade into this ugly blah color. Maintaining the ashy tone requires purple shampoo and since it’s not easy to find purple shampoo here in indonesia, it makes me reject the idea of going through such maintenance. It’s the same thing with red hair…i love em but every time i washed my hair, it looked like i was taking a bloody intense shower lol no pun intended. I’m fickle when it comes to hair colors…i love having brown hair because black is just too basic for me and i hate looking basic af (lol) but when the roots start growing, ugh i can’t stand that.

Anyway, i love your purple hair though. It’s the perfect purple that i’d get if i were to dye my hair purple. I think it’s a nice change from your usual red hair :D

This colour is beautiful! I’ve seen a lot of people with lilac hair all over, but I definitely prefer this look as it looks more…natural. Well, as natural as purple can be.

When I was younger I really wanted purple hair, but it was against the school rules to have dyed hair. So in the summer break I got some of that spray in colour and my mum put purple streaks in my hair. My hair went so crispy! Never again!

My mum dyes my hair for me because she’s a trained hairdresser, and I’m so grateful because it saves me an absolute fortune.

I’ve always wanted to go lighter but I’m not sure blonde would suit me. Plus I don’t want to bleach my hair.

I love love love this color on you and how it turned out! The gradual change to purple is beautiful, and I love that reddish color in the sun. I’ve always done some sort of red or brown, partly because of how they fade. (I’m too lazy to touch up the color…) My hair is a brownish-red now since the original red color has faded.

I think this blends into your natural hair color really well though! Makes me want to consider other colors the next time I get my hair dyed!

Your hair looks awesome! It’s cool that you get different shades depending on the angle and also super cool that you did it in an environmentally friendly way! I’ve always wanted to dye my hair a different color but I could never settle on an appropriate color. I hadn’t even thought about the way color fades over time but that’s a great point.

I’ve done my hair cheap a few times and you really do notice a difference when you pay more. I think, in this case, “what you pay is what you get” is very true for this type of situation.

Oh wow, it is an adorable colour and it really suits you. I love how the different light changes the shades.

Wow, your new hair looks amazing! Purple is such a beautiful colour, and it definitely looks great on you! The salon have done a wonderful job too, I’d be so happy with that.

I’ve never dyed my hair ever. I really wanted to dye it bright red when I was 15, but my mum wouldn’t let me and said I’d regret it when I moved on to another idea. Probably because I only wanted to do it because everyone at school had bright red hair. I’ve never bothered since, probably because I know I’d never maintain it properly.

Really glad you’re happy with it!

I love how the purple fading look in the sun!!! (Or maybe it’s just that thing where the sun makes hair look 100X better). I never really dig the blue/green dyes because it looks pretty gross after a while. Your red hair was lit! Sometimes, we need that change to get some new vibes. I felt the same with my hair being too long and now it’s too short X’D…. For that small fortune, it looks legit and I’m happy that you’re happy with your new hair look :D. I love that “whatever floats your boat” attitude. Yessss, color your hair whatever you want it to be!

I love the color purple, so imagine my excitement when I saw on Instagram what you’ve done to your hair! I love it, and I think that you rock purple hair very well! 💜

I have loved your hair transformation the moment I saw it on Instagram, it looks soooo pretty that I even told my family for pretty you are looking now and given a chance I would like to highlight my hair too. I haven’t done that ever and now that I have a few grey hair here and there I think, highlighting or coloring won’t any more damage!