How to wash and maintain multicolour hair?

So I've been wandering around the web and found the follow things:

- Lightest colour on top.
- Respect the colour wheel to see what will work okay when it bleeds and what doesn't.
- Cold water (as always).
- Lather the lighter parts in conditioner like a barrier. (I wonder it coconut oil would work as well as a barrier)
- Wash in sections in the sink.

Edit: just noticed a huge error.  😮

Ok, so I have a full rainbow in my roots with green lengths. I didn't dye the lengths when I did the rainbow, but all the dyes used for the rainbow were undiluted. I was worried for the colours bleeding into eachother. I did mostly do the actual rainbow colour scheme, so the colours next to eachother are mostly not too different.

But I didn't do anything when washing it, I don't even use hairdye friendly methods. I use soak and float shampoo bar from Lush because it helps with my temperamental scalp. Then I condition with whatever conditioner I have at hand. When I'm cold I'll just go in scalding hot shower, when it's hot I'll do cold. And it still looks ace. Yes, it's faded, some colours more than others, but you'll have this with just one colour as well.

I think it's more important to choose a dye (brand) with little rub off for instance. I love (LOVELOVELOVE) adore. Most of my rainbow colours came from adore. It's long lasting and doesn't rub off. So it doesn't bleed (much) either.

When rubbing the shampoo into soapy bubbles through my hair, the bubbles did go a weird purplish brown the first couple of washes. But it didn't bleed into eachother.

Some colours are notorious for rubbing off, I had royal blue from stargazer once. Lovely colour, but I ran my hand through my hair and my hand was blue. I think cerise from directions is like that too? Haven't used it, but I think it was this one that many people say is super pigmented and rubs off.

I think it's doable to do blue roots, purple lengths and pink ends. I'd choose a pink based purple rather than a blue one. For better transition and the fact a lot of blue based purple dyes just go blue after a couple washes. 😛

Ah so my old plum may come in handy after all!  ;D

Cerise hasn't been runny with me, unfortunately it's clingy! I'm force fading it and it's a though cookie. But that would be my pink in the ends anyway so I'm not too worried about that one.

But it seems do-able! Adore is on my wish list but quite pricey to get here and shipping costs are not my friend at the moment. I'll have buy some Adore eventually as I want a natural semi at hand in case I have to get temporary normal hair, so I'll purchase some fierce colours at the same time.

Thanks!

You actually don't have to do the first two things on your list at all. You can have any mix of colours you like. Though not two opposite colours next to each other as they don't blend well, like pink and green. All you have to do is dilute darker colours. I've had darker colour on top many times and as long as I dilute the dyes so they don't bleed much when washing it's generally fine.

But yeah, otherwise it's just follow the rules for keeping your hair colour vibrant 🙂
http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php/topic,11009.0.html

Oh, that's even better! Diluting was part of the plan anyway because I don't want to do this enormous force fade ever again.  ;D

I'm happy to hear it as I darker colours work better close to my face than bright pink. Now I just have to get a decent even base.

Thank you both!