A lot of people like to enjoy the trip to New York to have some unusual experience. Have you thought, for example, about changing your hair color? Yeah! My friend Juliana Goskes is a super adept of the unusual colors and she has been at Manic Panic salon here in New York and I thought her experience would interest you.
“I think I’m going to change my hair color to violet.” That’s how my colorful hair saga (re)started. As a teenager, I had blue highlights (which turned purple because it was easy to applying gentian violet instead of chasing after expensive and hard to find products in the early 2000’s), I had red hair, partial red, and partial black hair … Who knows me for some time knows that I love changing – before violet hair, I got11 a very short haircut! And being in New York was only increasing the desire to do something quite different again.
For over a year, I use some unusual color on my hair. The violet turned pale pink, returned to violet, and got darker and more saturated. My roots were growing, it was retouched, it grew again – and my hairstylist was not available when I wanted to retouch the last time before going to an event. Thinking about alternatives, I remembered seeing a salon inside Ricky’s Times Square full of Manic Panic colors – and since that’s the brand that has been with me all along, I decided to give a chance.
The main focus of Revolver Salon-Manic Panic Color Asylum (the “official” name of the salon inside Ricky’s) is, as the name implies, is Manic Panic’s color application. Yes, they also offer haircuts and services like blow dry and highlights, but the mood is totally relaxed and colorful. The price charged for the discoloration already includes an application of the colors – and here, the sky is the limit. This is a super advantage of more “light” fantasy dyes such as Manic Panic (and other brands I have not used, but I only hear good things about Arctic Fox and Special Effects): as inks are basically pigment saturated conditioners, without ammonia, you can mix at will to create the color you want! Since I’ve been using the products for some time and I know which colors I have at home and how to mix them, I told Lucy the shade I wanted and she prepared. Before applying, she checked with me if the color was the way I wanted it and she check out with me the colors used so I could keep it later.
My root retouching with shine treatment and taxes was $ 130 and a few cents, and I left the place extremely happy with the result and the experience!
And here I leave some tips if you want to try these fun colors:
• Protect your forehead / ear / neck when dying your hair at home and always wear gloves! Having purple hair is cool; having cuticles of the same color … not so much.
• Do you know that beautiful, fluffy towel that that special person gave you? Do not even think about wiping your hair with it. As much as you see the water running clean in the shower, there is a risk of smudging your towel (and clothing) with wet hair. My pillowcases are all clear and I had no problem with spots on them, but I never sleep wet or damp hair.
• In fact, since these colors don’t have a chemical fixative, they will fade. What can be done is to ensure that they take time to fade: always use cold water (in all rinses) and less shampoo (and, preferably, without sulfates and pigments).
• Also, mix some of the hair color with your conditioner. Ideally, it should turn on a saturated pastel tone. That way, you restore some of the pigment that came out with the shampoo with each wash.
• This is a tip I do’nt follow, so do what I say but not what I do: apply a leave-in with sunscreen when you go out in the sun!
I hope you have enjoyed Ju’s tips! Ju, thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Laura Peruchi is a Brazilian blogger, author, and entrepreneur. She has lived in Manhattan with her husband since 2014. Since then, she has shared on her blog varied content about the Big Apple. From travel tips, including unusual things to do, shopping tips, etiquette, restaurants, and a lot more, her blog has become a reference in Portuguese (also available in English) for anyone planning a trip to New York City.
