Rainbow hair is bold, beautiful, and eye-catching. It is a way for clients to express themselves and an artistic outlet for stylists to push the creative envelope with each unique masterpiece. As this trend has grown, the options available to professional colorists have also grown. There are so many brands of vivid hair dyes available now, but today we are going to talk about my personal favorite: Pulp Riot.
My very first shipment of Pulp Riot. Check out the beautiful artwork on the packaging!
David and Alexis Thurston, who you may already recognize from Butterfly Loft & Butterfly Circus, are the founders of Pulp Riot. Together with a partnership of innovative artists including including Ash Fortis, Iris Smith, Jay Wesley Olson, Ricky Zito, and many others, Pulp Riot was formulated and tested. Luxury Brand Partners, parent company of well known and loved brands such as Oribe and R+Co, joined in partnership with Pulp Riot to help deliver this artist-driven brand in the biggest way possible.
Pulp Riot's launch started with an exclusive limited and controlled online only release, for which I was fortunate enough to receive a code for early access. I immediately ordered the full package and fell in love with the product. After the limited release, Pulp Riot became available to all industry professionals on their website. Now, in addition to being available online, you can find Pulp Riot on the shelves of SalonCentric starting February 1st!
What first attracted me to Pulp Riot was the amazing work of the artists who developed the product. These highly skilled colorists work behind the chair on a regular basis, and I knew they understood the needs their product would have to meet to surpass competitiors. They made sure that everything we could ask for in a color line exists within Pulp Riot. Zero degrees of separation between the people that create the product, and the people that use the product is an equation for success.
Upon the unpacking of my first order, I fell in love with Pulp Riot before I ever opened a tube. The beautiful, unique artistry on the boxes is incredible. The convenient packaging of an easy to squeeze tube, with a flip top to open and close, and a bright label depicting the color in the tube placed right on that top, was simple genius. These may seem like little things, but when you have been working with tubes that are not easy to squeeze, caps that require you to screw them on and off, and tubes that will not stand or store in any easy way that you can clearly see the label on them, these small differences stand out. They really thought of everything!
My handmade DIY Pulp Riots watch chart, made from level 9 untoned blonde hair I saved from a client.
Packaging aside - it's what's inside that really won my heart. Highly pigmented, creamy, conditioning color. The color is also 100% vegan. Pulp Riot has amazing spreadability (meaning less product used, to cover a larger amount of hair) and mixes very easily when customizing colors. Their "clear" mixer is not actually clear, instead it is more of a milky-white color which really helps provide dilution when trying to adjust the opacity of a custom shade. All 16 shades in the line are intermixable. You can combine Lemon with Fireball to make a beautiful orange, mix Absinthe with Lemon to create a vibrant neon style green, add Velvet into Smoke to create a smokey violet...the possibilities are endless.
One of my mermaid clients, and a full Pulp Riot Rainbow transformation. We did not remove the preexisting color.
The colors generally do not bleed when rinsing, either. I see very little color run off in the water when rinsing my clients. More of what I see is a "foam" coming off with the color - some say it looks like shampoo rinsing out - and I believe this is due to the starchy base of the color mixing with water. Simply rinse the hair until the water runs completely clear. I have been able to create looks such as the one below, where previously with other color companies the darker shades bleeding onto the yellow would have been a huge concern.
Color bleeding is not as much of an issue with Pulp Riot. Following standard stylist tricks for vivids, including cool water and high pressure rinsing, I am able to create looks like this without the darker colors at the top dulling the vibrant hues on the bottom.
Semi permanent dyes definitely require special maintenance to maintain their vibrancy, and I educate all of my clients extensively on how to care for their new color. However, I have to say that out of all the vivid dyes I have used before, Pulp Riot stays vibrant the longest and fades more true to tone than any other. My clients are amazed at the vibrancy of their color and the beauty of their fade outs. I personally seem to get the most compliments on my own hair once it begins to fade!
My own Pulp Riot creation featuring Velvet, Jam, Mercury, and Smoke. Fresh on the left, vs. 5 weeks old on the right.
While it stays in the hair very well, Pulp Riot is also fairly easy for us professionals to remove when the time comes. I stumbled upon that fact by accident one day, playing with some lightener on freshly colored hair that had been cut from a client. It started removing the vivids in seconds, right before my eyes! I have experimented on mannequins as well as performed removal several times on my clients, and I have to conclude that overall I have far better experiences removing Pulp Riot than removing other direct dyes.
Removal of faded Pulp Riot color, using lightener and 20 volume.
Removal of OTHER vivids, using lightener & 20 volume.
I have been able to create so many different looks with Pulp Riot. I can paint with confidence and ease thanks to this amazing product. Did I mention, it also smells great? Nearly every client has commented on the pleasant smell of the color. Not really something critical to the experience, but a nice bonus!
Pulp Riot is not just a company that's bringing us haircolor. Pulp Riot is forging the path by providing innovative education, encouraging collaboration instead of competition, and empowering, recognizing, and supporting the artists that use their product. For more information, check them out at www.pulpriothair.com