I love having short hair, it comes in handy when you change your hair as often as I do. If I get sick of a certain colour or it fades out badly, I can simply shave it all off and start again, without having to worry about over bleaching or damaging my hair!

For this look, I let my hair grow out for a few months so I had a bit more to work with compared to my usual buzzcut. It’s important when choosing and creating a new design that you pay attention to the direction that your hair grows and falls, so that you’re not trying to fight it the whole way there. I have a slight cowlick to the centre-right of of my hairline, so when I did this look I tried not to take the colour too far past it, as I didn’t want to have a random coloured piece sticking up on days when I don’t feel like styling it too much.

Of course, testing out the products you plan to use is important too! I always patch-test on my arm the day before using something to make sure I’m not allergic to it. I use Attitude products because I was actually part of the development team before the brand was launched, I loved testing out the different colours as we finalised the collection and I’m very confident when using them these days!

THE PERFECT BASE

I started out with the Ghosted lightening kit to lay the groundwork for the rainbow, as my hair is naturally quite dark. I kept to a block in the middle of my head as I love the contrast between the bright colours and my natural colour. Trying to keep the area even can be tricky when using bleach, but a hand mirror helps a lot and you could always ask someone to check the back just to be sure!

TIME TO CREATE THE RAINBOW

When picking out the colours, it was important to me that they blend into each other, a blocky rainbow is also find but I was looking to create a seamless transition between them. Using something like a colour wheel can be useful here if you’re worried about some colours not mixing or ending up muddy.

I decided on a cool-to-warm gradient starting with Playful purple and ending in Proud pink that also included Brave blue, Free green, Happy yellow and Ecstatic orange.

When laying down the colours with a brush, its always a better idea to use a small amount and add more later if needed, since its such a narrow design with multiple colours you can end up with uneven blocks of certain shades if you slop too much on at once!

To create a smooth gradient, I would overlap the colours slightly and use the brush to blend the edges together, this can be easier with some colours that are closer together on the colour wheel or part of the same shade family, which is why picking your colours well is key!

To help the colours really saturate, once applied I cover the dyed area with cling film and leave it to sink into the hair, sometimes up to several hours if I have other tasks to do or a movie to watch. Unlike bleach, this will NOT damage the hair, and since Attitude dyes are packed with nourishing ingredients it actually ends up making my hair super soft afterwards.

FINISHING TOUCHES & AFTERCARE

I always make sure to rinse my hair with cold water after colouring to really lock it in, and try not to use too hot water when subsequently washing it to help the vibrancy stay longer. Obviously a bright style like this that includes multiple cool-toned colours (cool tones tend to bond to the hair less well than warm colours) can be high-maintenance, but I didn’t find it hard to take a few minutes every few weeks to touch up the colour with the same techniques I used to create it, especially if you have cleaning to do in the meantime while you wait!