Purple Hair?!?

I'm getting to where I finally can say that I have a definite favourite colour. It's purple. Below is a portrait of me by one of my Sunday School kindergartners. I was wearing purple that day. :)

"Gimme five... er... nine!"

I was inspired by a fellow member on my long hair forum who has hair about my length, but purple. It's mouthwateringly gorgeous! Unfortunately, I could never pull that off & I have a distinct fear of bleach, so that'll never be, excluding wigs. :sits up suddenly - "Hmmm...": So I splurged on some Manic Panic vegetable-based semi-permanent hair dye. Semi-perm meaning it should stay 4-6 weeks. I had a friend help me put in some streaks & SIL Shelly rinsed it out for me. No bleach, just the colour over virgin hair.

The evening it was done, rinsed only with cool water.

I loved it while it lasted, all of about 2 days. Tops. I do have more but it's a lot of trouble for one day of colour. I'm toying with the idea of bleaching (!!!) two streaks - one at my left temple & one above & behind my right ear - so that I can have funky colour there. But, there's the whole bleach damage/maintenance thing. Not sure I'd like the long term effects. I've tried to find clip-in extensions, but the longest reasonably priced ones I can find are only 18 inches long. That's half the length of my hair. I guess I just need to start saving all my shed hairs & make a clip-in extension of my own that I can bleach & colour.

My ends.

My naturally lighter ends took & held the purple better. I can still find some slightly purple-hued strands here & there when I'm searching for split ends. If I use my imagination...