5 minutes with Lizzy Plapinger talking about her neon hair
About the Artist…
Lizzy Plapinger is frontwoman for New York-based chillwave duo MS MR. Fascinated with mixed-media and collage, the duo also have a strong Tumblr following. They have even described their musical style as “Tumblr glitch-pop”. Their Tumblr page streams Rocky Horror-like, art-house and cinema-noir photography. But when we’re talking about hair colour, Plapinger’s famous for her insanely awesome, shape-shifting colour palette. The MS MR frontwoman has been dyeing her hair since high school, and switches it up every tour cycle like the badass she is.
Today she gives us the lowdown about her hair evolution, inspirations and how she gets her perfect highlighter hue. Get inspired to start your own neon-athon. C’mon, you know you want to….
Here is our Q and A with Lizzy Plapinger:
Tell us about the background of your rainbow hair. When did you first dye it?
I actually first starting dying my hair in high school; I had two blue streaks on either side of my part. I immediately fell in love with having colour in my hair and the sort of raised eye brow reactions that it brought out in people. It was immediately polarising and I guess I sort of got off on that (typical 16-year-old reaction). The truth is, right from the get-go I wanted to dye my whole head but I think the streaks were a stepping stone. It wasn’t until the summer I graduated from college that I was ready to take the plunge. I had been planning on going bright electric red and the salon told me they would have to bleach my hair to get it the colour I wanted. Once I knew I was heading in that direction it just felt like I might as well have fun with it before I decided on a more natural colour. I went with pink, and I never looked back.

Who dyes your hair? Do you guys work together every time?
Originally a woman named Lauren McCowan died my hair but unfortunately shortly after getting me hooked she moved back to Australia. Eventually I stumbled upon Lena Ott at Ion Studio and we instantly clicked. She understood my mentality for experimentation and when I came in with bizarre objects and colour combinations she never judged or questioned it but was excited by the challenge! For the past year and a half I’ve been exclusively seeing her, going to her home where we do my hair in her sink and drink beers and watch movies and listen to new music. She’s become one of my dearest friends but more than that, she is a true artist. I’ll never trust anyone else with my locks again.
How often do you dye your hair? What inspires the different colours?
I change my hair colour about every two or three months. More recently I’ve started to change it up based on tour cycles so that every time we’re out I’m sportin’ something new. I never really think about “what will suit me.” Instead I just follow my gut and go for it. Inspiration can come from anywhere: favourite movies, city lights, marbles, My Little Ponies, but really I think it usually has something to do with clothes and what style I’m currently interested in. It’s a fun way to help re-imagine my closet regularly (which evolves as much as my hair does, really).


Talk a little bit about your routine, which products do you use? Any secrets for making the colour last, etc?
For anyone with crazy coloured/bleached hair, these are rules to live by…
1. Buy black towels.
2. Don’t wash it (but really…).
3. If you have to wash it, wash with ice cold water (it will help keep the colour from running).
4. Use a very small amount of shampoo and a good amount of conditioner (bleach dries your hair out like crazy).
5. Embrace dry shampoo and Moroccan oil as your new best friend.
What’s your trick for making it look good on the road?
The truth is, I just don’t wash my hair that much, probably once every week and a half. I’m really lucky that I have curly hair because it’s never gotten greasy and I personally prefer when my hair is pretty messy. Coloured hair is not for everyone, but for a tour troll like me, it works.
Check out MS MR’s music video “Fantasy”, featuring Lizzy’s awesome hair colour…and cheerleaders vomiting glitter as you do.
Follow Lizzy Plapinger online…
Check out more photos of her stunning hair colour, listen to MS MR tunes and stay up to date with tours. Just click the links below:
Website (Tumblr) | Facebook | Twitter
YouTube | Shop | Instagram | iTunes
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Want to create rainbow hair at home?
Discover Anya’s eBook guide: ‘Any Colour Of The Rainbow – The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Hair Colour‘. This guide covers everything from safe bleaching with ammonia free bleach to creating stunning multi colours with foil. Find out all the best products, how to do pastel colours, how to maintain vibrant colour, create ombre colour like to professionals and so much more…
Interview sources via www.nylonmag.com
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- Published in 5 Minute Interviews, Celebrity Hair Trends, Neon Hair
5 minutes with Ursula Goff talking about life as a rainbow hair artist
About the artist:
Ursula Goff is a is a super talented colourist, with a passion for rainbows and vibrant hair colour. With a big following on her Flickr feed, her unique creations have gone viral online. Ursula runs her own salon in Wichita, US, and has years of experience. Ursula’s creativity and passion for colour extents beyond hair, with her stunning handmade tulle rainbow skirts that she sells in her Etsy store.
Today she talks to us about life as a rainbow hair artist and shares some of her creations.
Here is our Q&A with Ursula Goff:
What inspired you to start working with hair?
My own hair has always been a defining feature for me, even when not coloured. It’s really thick, curly, coarse, fluffy, and red. People always commented on it or touched it.
Around age 13, I started experimenting with colour because I was bored – namely, Kool Aide and tinted styling mousse that my mom found for me. Then I moved on to highlighting kits and permanent colour, and around age 15, discovered Manic Panic. Then my friends started asking me to help them colour their hair. So it was just a thing I did mainly for fun.
I never considered it as a career option, though. I first went to art school to study fashion design, which didn’t work out, so I transferred to a state university to study psychology. That didn’t work out either! So I came home and had no idea what I was going to do. Until one day, a co-worker where I was waitressing at said, “Why don’t you go to hair school? You’re always colouring your hair and everyone else’s hair.” So I went, pretty much on a whim, and it ended up working out really well!
The chameleon: Some of Ursula’s many hair colours…
What do you do when you aren’t colouring?
I am an artist at heart, so lots of creative things. I occasionally draw and paint, but more often lately find myself designing clothes, refurbishing furniture, making cakes, and various other crafty things. I also homeschool my kids, so that provides a lot of opportunities for creativity and travel. I’m also am in college again full time to finally finish my psychology degree, in addition to running a small business doing hair and selling my various creations…so I stay pretty busy.
What are you the most thankful for?
Wow, um….everything?! Really, I often stop to ponder how lucky I was to be born in one of the greatest places in the world, in one of the greatest times, with so much access to opportunity and pretty much everything I could ever need or want. My children do not have to want for anything, I don’t have to worry about their safety or security, and I have a husband who loves me very much. At the same time, I get to do a job and pursue an education that are both very fulfilling. I literally have nothing to be grumpy about!
When did you discover your passion for rainbows?
I’ve pretty much always had it! As far back as I can remember, it was something I doodled on everything. If I had something to decorate, whether at home or at school or wherever, you can bet I was using rainbows (and lots of glitter) to do it. My daughter seems to have picked up the preference, also, so maybe it’s genetic!
If you could dye anyones hair who would it be?
Hmm…you know, I think I already get to dye hair on a lot of great people. I love my clients – they are my friends and my social life! And I am honoured that I have been able to help some of them come out of their shells and go from conforming due to all the social pressure to be a certain way, to being who they really want to be without worrying about what other people might think. And that’s really the type of influence I wanted to have – to help others feel comfortable being who they want to be.
Some of Ursula’s colourful rainbow hair clients…
What do you think is the hottest look or trend at the moment?
Well, I am certainly glad to see that colourful hair in general has become popular over the last few years! Right this second, though, I think that we will see more subtle pastels being mixed with natural colours becoming trendy, as it’s a safe way to ease into more extreme looks, or to just shake up one’s natural look a little, and it’s fairly low maintenance.
What do you think is the most rewarding part of being a colourist?
Like I mentioned before, I really love helping my clients see themselves in a new way, or helping them realise their vision, or even just to have a little fun with their appearance. I also really value the relationships that it’s allowed me to develop over the years, both with the clients that I see in person, and with other people in the colourist community – like yourself Anya!
What are your pet peeves?
Probably my biggest one is when someone that has bleached hair asks to go dark brown or black, and I have a clear conversation about how once it’s dark, THEY’RE COMMITTED – at least for several months – and they say okay, and so we colour it dark, and a month later, they want it bleached again! I’m not a wizard!
Which colours do you think are the most popular?
Pink and blue have always been the most popular requests, so definitely those two. Although lately, pastel versions of those, and also lavender, have become very big. Oh, and silver and grey – I am seeing a lot of those, too.
Who inspires you?
I’ve come across lots of great colourists over the years, including you Anya! But honestly, I am pretty frequently surprised by what I see a lot of amateurs and young kids doing – they can be pretty innovative and can really surprise me with their ideas. I think sometimes when you haven’t been boxed in by any formal training (and this applies to all fields), then you’re maybe a little more likely to experiment and come up with new concepts that others wouldn’t have thought of.
I am also frequently inspired by art and photography. There are often really beautiful colour combinations all around us if we pay attention, and I get a lot of ideas just from looking around – something as simple as a pile of fabric in my sewing area can be enough to get the wheels turning in my head. I’ve been exposed to a lot of great colourists online, particularly in places like Haircrazy.info, which is filled with mostly amateurs of all ages who are tremendously creative, and
One of Ursula’s rainbow hair masterpieces…
Do you have any tips for people who aspire to become a colourist?
Pay attention! Look around you – there is inspiration everywhere.
Also, play with a lot of paint; it’s incredibly helpful to understand colour theory thoroughly, and vivid colours operate within the same colour mixing rules that paint does. I have used my experience as a painter to help me come up with good colour transitioning strategies and unique combinations.
When it comes to bleaches and permanent dyes, understand your chemistry and hair structure. I know that a lot of the creative people drawn to this field don’t love science, but in this particular area, it will help so much if you really understand what’s happening to the hair. It will make you a better colourist and it will also help preserve the integrity of your and your clients’ hair when you are trying to work with extreme colours and dramatic changes. Your clients will thank you for it!
Lastly, make sure you are enjoying what you do. If you love what you’re doing, that will translate into your work, and you will feel intrinsically motivated to always do your best and to keep getting better. Even better, it won’t feel like work – it will feel like fun! You can’t put a price on that.
Follow Ursula Goff online…
Check out more photos of her stunning hair colour work. Plus you can buy Ursula’s handmade tulle rainbow skirts in her Etsy shop.
Just click the links below:
Flickr|Etsy|Tumblr
Pinterest|Facebook|Twitter
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Want to create rainbow hair at home?
Discover Anya’s eBook guide: ‘Any Colour Of The Rainbow – The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Hair Colour‘. This guide covers everything from safe bleaching with ammonia free bleach to creating stunning multi colours with foil. Find out all the best products, how to do pastel colours, how to maintain vibrant colour, create ombre colour like to professionals and so much more…
Like this post? Share it online…
- Published in 5 Minute Interviews, Rainbow Hair
Fire up your hair for an EXPLOSIVE night!
“Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot! I see no reason, Why Gunpowder and Treason, Should ever be forgot!”
Welcome to a Guy Fawkes/bonfire night special! Lets bring out the sparklers, and light up the night with some explosive hair styles and fiery colours…
When people think of fire, most would jump for a bottle of red dye. But if we think outside the box and look at flames and fireworks, the ‘Wow’ factor comes from this explosion of light in the dark. To play with the the of use of light, UV/black light reactive hair dye is an amazing way to create hair that literally glows in the dark! Dyes like Special Effects “Napalm Orange” and Manic Panic’s “Electric Banana” glow under UV light, giving your fiery colours by day, but then at night under a black light you will get an stunning effect like glowing embers.
Stylist Veronika Kozachenok, Makeup/hair artist Natalia Oginskaya and photographer Shelukhin Gregory teamed up to create these stunning images all lit with UV light. Black light reactive makeup and hair make these glowing shots look like the streams of light caught on camera from sparklers and catherine wheels. While the lose curls looks like lava glowing as it flows.
For a day time look for fiery hair colours, don’t just stop at one red colour. Flames have many tones and using a combination such as burning orange and a glowing yellow will give the hair multi dimensional colour. If you have long, layered hair and want to style your hair straight and down I suggest your do these colours in foils to create flaming steaks of colour. This look is best shown off with movement, so flick your hair or headbang like Hayley Williams while listening to Semi Precious Weapons’ “Her Hair is on Fire.”.
However for truly flaming hair that mimics the movement, twist and flicker of fire apply red/orange/yellow with the ombre technique, rather than foiled streaks. Start with the darkest colour (red or darkest orange) on the roots and blend out to bright orange, then yellow on the tips. Don’t forget to blend so you don’t end up with band marks. The more random the better.

Photographer: Debbi Rotkowitz | MUA/Concept: Shandra Jade | Hair: Liz Kjart | Model/Wardrobe/Edit: Irene Yuen (aka Looooo)
Then go curl crazy with your curling tongs… or for bigger/loser curls do twists with your GHD. Back comb the roots to give as much hight and body as you like. Flip your head upside down and hairspray it all to give hold and volume. You can leave it down and wild, with movement and bounce, so it’s like flames licking around your face and falling around your shoulders. Alternatively you can pin it all up on your head to look like fire flickering up into the night sky. Check out model Irene Yuen (aka Looooo)‘s up-style for inspiration.
For short hair, such as a fohawk style, tease the hair up and go mad with the hairspray, this style work’s great as you can see the ombre colour blend in action.
Of course, as with any colourful look, you have to go all the way and do the makeup to match! Check out this fire makeup tutorial by Eva Di Martino (aka. PureBlackLove). Hope you have an awesome bonfire night! Note: Thanks to JellyFish Queen for suggesting a blog post on fiery hair for bonfire night!
- Published in Holiday Hair Ideas