Palty Marshmallow Ash Experience

I've heard a lot of negative reviews on this hair dye. My experience with it wasn't exactly bad although I can't say it was perfect either. I'll tell you what I did to achieve the end result of my current hair color.

With most lighter colors of Japanese hair dye, Asians have to bleach their hair first if they want anything close to the model's hair color. It's a necessary evil.

I purchased all of the Palty hair dyes from Amazon.com and they all came with instructions that were in English.

About a few weeks ago, I used this Palty Natural Blonde hair dye to color my virgin Asian hair. I wasn't thinking about dyeing my hair an Ash color at the time and just wanted something different.
 

My hair color didn't change very much. But it did seem to lighten to the color indicated on the box.

After this, I started to make a plan of what color I really wanted to dye my hair (this is what I should have done in the first place...).

I decided that I was gonna go for it and bleach my whole head. I've bleached before but it was only the ends of my hair for an ombre. I didn't bleach my hair until after a week from my previous hair dyeing.

I used Palty Mecha Flash Bleach to dye my hair. Since I have hair past my shoulders, I decided to buy two boxes of this (and I'm glad I did), because Palty is stingy and they don't give much hair dye. (=__=)

Here's the famous "Asian Orange" color you get after bleaching your hair. I wasn't alarmed because this is expected and takes several treatments before you can get that pale blonde color. And it's super damaging... I made sure not to leave this on any longer than the instructions stated. 30 minutes max! I also had sample hair sitting on the side. I left the dye on that for over 30 min and it didn't change the hair color any more. The bleaching process was an interesting sensation; my head felt quite warm while the bleach was on. Must be all the chemical reactions... My hair did not feel damaged after using this bleach for the first time. I was surprised by this because bleach is soooo damaging in general.

I got stuck with this hair color for a few days because the Marshmallow Ash hair dye was taking longer than expected to arrive. I made the most of it and it helped to wear a beanie. :3

Heyoo~! Btw, there is a filter over this photo, my hair wasn't this orange. ;)

Finally, it was time to dye my hair with the Ash color. I never attempted this before so I was very excited! I only left the hair dye on for 20 min. I heard warnings from others online that if you leave it on longer, your hair color could turn out darker!

The foam hair dye was a really neat experience. It was easy to apply. I had to be careful not to grab too much of the foam because it would drop on the floor. I have a tendency to apply hair dye as fast as I can so I don't throw off the time my hair is dyeing. It's weird logic, I know..

After doing this, I think that maybe I could have left the hair dye on longer without any adverse effects; when I rinsed out my hair, the hair dye seemed to be rinsing out too.. There was a lot of purple in the water and it took a long time until it ran clear. Just to warn you, my hair felt SUPER dry after dyeing it this time around. It was especially apparent while rinsing. I made sure to deep condition it afterward.

This was the immediate result after dyeing. It looks slightly greenish. This is from indoor overhead lighting at night. I can't say how accurate this is.

Here's a shot from the day after... This was in natural daylight. Woo hoo! No more orange~!

And this is from two days after dyeing. This is also in natural daylight. You can see that the color has faded somewhat. Thankfully, it's still not as orange as it was when I first bleached it. I like to believe that it reflects the color result of the Marshmallow Ash after holding up the color guide to my head.

Marshmallow Ash color guide

According to the color guide, if you want to get the color of the model, you would have to have a darker, copper red tone to your hair prior to dyeing it.... ironically, just like the color I had before bleaching. But I still think it contraindicates what's recommended for someone with Asian hair to obtain the model's hair color (especially due to the high volume of complaints about this not really doing anything to hair that wasn't lightened prior to dyeing). This hair dye will most likely fade over time and even if it did get to the color of the model's hair, it would not be permanent.

After this experience, I realize that the ashy, cool toned hair is difficult to achieve on your own if you have Asian hair. This is mostly because of how tricky it is to get the result of ash color and that the ash tones may fade out over time, requiring maintenance. I'll have to keep experimenting to see if I can figure it out. I'm still too cheap to go to a salon.

I'm content with the results. This hair dye did what it claimed to do to my hair color. I'm just a little worried that the color could possibly fade back to that icky orange.

I've dyed my hair several times with Palty and I always end up feeling like the results are not so different. It's difficult to discern between Japanese hair dyes because they're all just different shades of brown. It's not always super obvious when there are any differences (especially with browns), in my opinion.

All the hair dyes I used for end result (in order from left to right) and disclaimer: I did not use all these in one day.

NOTE: Also, please don't take this as me saying you have to use all of these hair dyes to achieve the Marshmallow Ash color. I only used the Palty Natural Blonde first because I wanted a change. Only after using that did I decide I wanted to try an ash color. You might get even better results if you just bleach virgin Asian hair and then dye with Marshmallow Ash.

It's so much more obvious when placed side by side. :D