Orange Hair - Dye / Color, Wigs, Extensions & Other Products

Orange is a fiery, attention-getting color to begin with. You have to be bold to want orange hair. Far more exciting than plain old brunette or blonde. It's not often seen in the everyday world, but orange hair pops up here and there in fashion (particularly alternative fashion). This webpage will help you get the orange hair you desire-- if you dare. Click on the Table of Contents below to go to a specific portion of this webpage.

Photo of Elsa Billgren (yes, Elsa, not Hayley Williams of Paramore) courtesy of Elsa Billgren's Flickr (with permission from Elsa herself). (Click here to view Elsa's lovely blog. [NOTE: it's written in Swedish; Google Chrome users can translate the page, though.])

Wigs are a great way to figure out which color, shade and style you like best. You might look better with dark orange hair than you do pastel orange hair, and better with long hair than short hair. It depends. There are plenty of wigs to sift through and buy on Amazon, eBay and elsewhere. Or, you can go into a local wig store near you and try on several wigs in person before deciding what you want.

If you want orange hair that blends into your own and looks like it's your own, try out hair extensions. While this is another great option if you don't want to dye your hair, or a great option if your want to add more length in addition to dyeing your own hair, note that extensions take more effort than a wig does. You can buy orange hair extensions, or you can dye a pair of blonde extensions yourself. OR, you can bring a package of hair extensions with you to a professional hairstylist to show them exactly what color to dye your hair. They can put the extensions in some time after that (probably not the same day, since your dyed hair and scalp might need a break before putting the hair extensions in).

As I will mention on all of my hair color-related webpages, hair extensions can be done several different ways. Here are a few of them:

• Clip-on hair extensions can be clipped and pinned in with your hair, and then brushed or combed to blend in with your own hair. This is probably the easiest way to get extensions done.
• Weaving/Sewn-in hair extensions, where your hair is braided a certain way, and then the hair extensions are sewn in along the braids.
• Braided-in hair extensions, where the extensions are just braided in with your own hair. This is usually only done when you're going to have all your hair braided up or have dreadlocks.
• Bonding/Glued-in extensions. To my knowledge, there are different types of glues that can be used. But the best kind of glue to use for this process is protein glue. I had extensions done this past summer with protein glue, which my hairdresser told me is best for the hair since hair is made up of protein as well, which makes the glue more gentle on your hair than other glues.

Check out HairResources.net for more info (first of 6 steps/pages on the research and process to be aware of when getting hair extensions; also describes 7 ways to get hair extensions done [which include the four ways I described above]).

Photo of orange hair extensions courtesy of Etsy (click photo to view more info).

There's two ways to go about dyeing your hair orange. You can use orange hair dye, or you can mix red hair dye and yellow hair dye together until you get the shade of orange you want. You will need to bleach your hair first before attempting to dye it (especially if you have dark hair), otherwise the color will not show up very well. Do some research to see how to get the best, longest-lasting color possible. In fact, you can start your research with the videos farther down on this page.

While you should still do some research on your own about how to dye your hair properly and what brands and colors work best, I've included a YouTube playlist with a few videos below for you to watch and learn from.

Orange Hair Dye Video Tutorials

The "Hayley Williams Inspired Hair Tutorial" features a girl-- Brittany Balyn-- dying her hair orange. The dye job is wonderful, and she gives a good yet brief step-by-step explanation of the dying process.

In the "Blue to orange hair...reviewing 3 orange hair dyes" video, a hairdresser uses her client/model, Alice, to do a pictorial review of three different kinds of orange hair dye from three different brands. She also discusses what she's done to Alice's hair to prepare it for the orange hair dye. This happens over the course of a few weeks, not days.

In the "Bright Orange Hair Tutorial" video, a girl talks about how she dyed her hair bright orange by mixing 3 different colors from 2 different brands, then let it sit on her hair for a few hours. She also makes a very notable comment about how much attention her hair color gets her. Something to keep in mind if attention and staring bothers you.

The "How to: Dye your hair orange and my new piercing" video features a girl talking about her trial-and-error process of dyeing her hair with red and yellow Manic Panic dyes (because orange dye wasn't available at the shops she visited). She also talks about getting a piercing with a friend. Unrelated, I know, but it's in there.

The last video-- "Questions & answers on my hair :)"-- features a girl discussing the brand and color dye she used on her hair, as well as the products she uses to maintain the color and keep her hair as healthy as possible.

Because I can't feature as many products as I would like to on this webpage, I've opted to throw them all onto one single list, which I am linking to here --

List of Hair Bleaching Kits, Products & Hair Color Remover; Hair Toning Products; Protein Shampoos, Conditioners, Serums and Protein Fillers

And now for a brief description of the hair products on this list...

Hair Bleaching Kits, Products & Hair Color Remover on Amazon:

There are some hair bleaching products you can use, along with a hair color remover kit if you don't like the way the dye job comes out...

Hair Toner Products on Amazon:

If you bleach your hair but it comes out with brassy tones (yellows & oranges) in it, these products are supposed to help get rid of the brassiness. But read the directions for how to correctly use your chosen product in order to get your desired results. And definitely read the reviews for these products.

Protein Shampoos, Conditioners, Serums and Protein Fillers on Amazon:

The protein fillers are to be used a good 30-60 minutes before you apply your color. It restores protein in damaged hair & allows the color to stick better. Also, using protein shampoos and conditioners will keep your hair healthy. But READ THE DIRECTIONS.

Hayley Williams at the Grammy Awards; Nicki Minaj at the 2010 BET Awards show (likely wearing a wig, if not hair extensions); Cher wearing an orange wig at the Burlesque UK movie premiere; Lady Gaga with orange hair in Summer 2012 (she also had orange hair for a Rolling Stone photoshoot back in 2011); Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element.