How to double dip dye using Directions

You can certainly apply it all at the same time, although you may have to be careful and rinse the areas separately.
If you are concerned that you won't have enough dye you can add water to thin it out (Directions is very thick and creamy so can take a fair amount of water) and apply to dry hair.
Start at the top and apply not quite as far down as you want that colour When you come to the second colour you just blend the two colours where they meet, or you can mix a little of the two to make an intermediate shade to apply at the join for more of a smooth gradient look.
You can also add conditioner to make the dye go further and make the colours lighter. Dark Tulip and Cerise are both heavily pigmented, but I wouldn't dilute the violet too much. It also helps to  prevent bleeding/run off when rinsing.
You can leave it on as long as you want, I aim for at least 4 hours, overnight is even better.
Rinse with cold water, ideally rinsing the darkest colour first without letting it run over the lighter colours. Leaving the foil/cling film on the lighter colours will help to prevent the Dark Tulip staining, but since they are all in the same colour palette it shouldn't be a major issue.

Thank you!!! So just to be clear, do you think applying the dk tulip, then a dk tulip/violet mix, then violet, then violet/cerise mix, then cerise in that order?  And as I do it wrap clingfilm over the dk tulip top, and also clingfilm the violet/cerise separately from the point that I applied the dk tulip/violet mix – do I clingfilm as a “pony tail wrap” of the whole pony tail (ie violet and cerise in same wrap, or should I wrap the violet and cerise separately?

Also, how much conditioner should I use, for example would a 2:1 ratio of 2 parts dye to 1 part conditioner be too much or not enough? And lastly is it ok to use my usual alberto balsam raspberry conditioner?

I would wrap in small pony tails so you can remove them individually for rinsing. i find foil easier than cling film. It is really only to help you with the rinsing, so if you foil each colour you can then rinse each colour separately.
There is no magic formula for diluting with conditioner, you can add as much or as little as you like depending on the shade you want. A tiny amount in a lot of conditioner will create a pastel shade. if you don't want to alter the colour, I add an equal amount of warm water and mix thoroughly. Directions Violet is not a very strong colour so that is the one to be careful with or it won't cover fully. Cerise and Dark Tulip can take a lot of diluting. so experiment and try on a strand test to make sure you are happy with the colours.
Have you done the bleaching already? How light is the bleached part?

Bleaching tonight, hoping for good results but who knows! My tips are naturally lighter than roots anyway & end as almost a dirty blonde shade (my hair gets darker every year, my mums was the same & is damn near black, with the odd grey now!).

Actually - how long should I leave it after bleaching before applying the dye? Can I dye the same evening? (read somewhere else that was fine aslong as you rinse well, and also that the dye will go further on wet hair, so to bleach, wash, dye while wet is fine?)

Completely fine to use straight away as long as the bleach is thoroughly washed out. I find i get better coverage adding water to the dye and applying to dry hair than using neat on wet hair. Plus it is easier to section and create accurate gradients on dry hair, so i would dry after the bleach and before the colour. My hair is waist length and very abundant (although the strands are actually quite fine) and that is what works best for me. I find it is easy to miss bits with long hair, especially if applying whilst wet.

Hi just to say I did it!!!! It didn't come out as three toned as I hoped, the Dark Tulip & Cerise kinda took over the Violet a bit, but I am really happy with the result and I think the violet def helped with blending the colours, I did apply on dry hair and started with a little water but found I was able to apply neat dye with a little leftover which was great! I was originally planning on leaving it on for around 4hrs but as it was so late by the time it was all on I decided to foil up big time and sleep in it (amazed that I didn't even get a smudge on the bedding!) I used a very tight neck t-shirt like a reverse alice band on my hair line and then wrapped the foils in the t-shirt and put a few bands over the whole lot to keep it together - wasn't as uncomfortable as I expected either fortunately 🙂

Pic 🙂

Moderator combined posts. Please do not double post.

Looks amazing 🙂

That is positively stunning!

Lovely

A method I like to use is applying the first colour to the 1st 3rd, then gently tease/back comb the middle, apply colour, then add the final colour to the tips. This creates a nice blended result and avoids any lines. Just be careful brushing out after 🙂