When it comes to the rainbow-hair trend, we've got good news and bad news. The good is that pretty, pastel mermaid hues aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The bad is that maintaining those dusty lilacs and ocean-inspired teals quickly gets expensive (every three weeks, y’all!). Luckily, inventive fans of the trend in the Philippines have come up with a way to DIY-dye using something you’ve likely always just tossed in the trash: tissue paper.
As one beauty blogger explains, after putting bright strips of the gift-wrapping staple into a saltwater solution and letting the dye bleed out, you can stain the ends of your hair ombré by dipping them in the mixture and letting them soak. Others have modified the technique by wrapping their hair in saltwater-soaked tissue, sort of like how a colorist would use foil for highlights. And while we've noticed that green seems to be the most popular shade, you can do the trick with any paper color.
We have to admit: We weren't expecting the color to look — or last — like semipermanent dye might (anyone who’s tried dyeing with Kool-Aid knows what we’re talking about), but the results were surprisingly similar to that of a salon job: As one DIY-er showed, the hue can last around three weeks before fading to something soft, but equally cool. You know what else is cool? All that money still in your checking account.