Coming To a YouTube Channel Near You!

If you’re one of the more than 124,000 people who have viewed “Dumb Ways to Die” on YouTube, you’ve learned from the cheery chorus of colorful dancing beans that setting fire to your hair, poking a grizzly bear and shoving your fork in the toaster can all be fatal. You’ll also appreciate “Bad Ways to Dye,” the Schwarzkopf Professional takeoff that spotlights common haircolor mishaps.

“We were all brainstorming ideas one day,” recalls Sonya Latreille, PR & Digital Media Manager for Schwarzkopf  Professional, “and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be a great idea to parody “Dumb Ways to Die” as a way to promote professional haircolor for consumers?’” The vote was unanimous, and Team SKP got busy, first sourcing the color hotline logs for FAQs, then working with an illustrator on storyboards and a songwriting team on music and lyrics. “We actually recorded the soundtrack in the studio where Taylor Swift works!” Sonya reveals. “We also had to work carefully with the illustrator to show him exactly what common haircolor tools—like developer and swatch books—actually looked like to make it as authentic as possible.” 

Want to avoid bad ways to dye in your future? Click here!

Now It’s Your Turn. Here are 7 Bad Ways to Dye!
“A woman who had been bleaching her own hair for years decided to ‘make it healthy again’ by dumping brown box dye on it.  When it turned orange, she applied an ash toner. Needless to say, when she came in it was with orange roots and green hair. She asked for highlights—I balayaged it to break up the discoloration, but she has a long road ahead of her.” –@Bribotronic

“My sister’s girlfriend was a beauty school dropout. We decided she would color my hair red and blonde and cut it. I asked for more blonde in my bangs, so she bleached them, then added the red dye. When I went into the shower, the water ran purple. The result was purple hair with a big white chunk of white. I went to get it fixed by a professional. She’s family but never again.” – @Michaelak08

“A new client watched a YouTube video and thought it made her an instant pro. When she came in, she had bright red roots and a dark, reddish brown on the rest of her waist-length hair. She also had a shoulder injury, so she wasn’t able to apply any of the color evenly. Four hours later, I sent her home with a nice, even, deep red.” – @bgodfrey24

“One of my clients did an at-home henna treatment on her hair. It turned her hair black with spots. She came in and requested color correction and an ombré! I Olaplexed it, bleached it, prayed, slapped a demi-permanent red brown at the roots and a dark copper at the ends. It turned out pretty great!” – @zdonsalon

“When I was 11, I wanted to bleach my hair like my cool older cousin. So I dipped a huge chunk of my hair into Clorox Bleach. It burnt my hair right off. I had a hardcore combover for many months.” – @robinabonita

In beauty school, our color teacher wasn’t really the best. So the first time I gave someone highlights, I combed her hair, and the highlights all fell onto the floor.” – @castlecoiffure

“My teenaged client wanted a few pink strands in her platinum hair. Her mom would not allow it because of school rules. So she went the DIY route with a neon pink SHARPIE. Her mom brought her in to have it removed. We tried everything we could think of including bleach. But nothing worked, so the only choice was to color over it with a darker color. You could still see a hint of pink in the dark brown pieces.” – @hairteazr