Kelly Ripa is going through her blue period -- blue hair, that is

After debuting it on Instagram, Kelly Ripa took her new blue hair on the road Thursday — or more accurately, on the tube. But look fast, because it's not going to last long.

"What's sad is that I get two shampoos and then it's back to normal," she explained to "Live! With Kelly and Michael" cohost Michael Strahan.

Strahan admitted he'd been shocked by her electric-blue 'do. "I walked into the makeup room and then," he said, "I was like [insert sound of a dolphin on helium]."

Shady's back, tell a friend........ @ryantrygstadhair

A photo posted by Kelly Ripa (@kellyripa) on Jul 8, 2015 at 3:09pm PDT

The hue was suggested by her colorist, Ryan Trygstad, even though she had different plans after enjoying pink hair back in June.

"I think I might go red next," she told Strahan at the time. "When we first put it on it looked really red and I was like, 'I like it!’ I tried a red wig once and I was drunk with power."

But blue won out. During the five-hour process, however, there was a detour through the land of lime green. Seeing the results of her colorist's first pass, "I was like, 'That's not what I had in mind,'" Ripa said. Then her husband, Mark Consuelos, saw it, sighed and said, "Oh, my gosh, you look like the Lucky Charms guy."

Trygstad adjusted on the fly with a dark base color, she said, and the die (rather, the dye) was cast.

"It was really fun," she said. "The best part is that my sons love it. They think I look like a superhero."

Ripa had given Trygstad a shout-out in her Instagram post Wednesday, which was captioned, "Shady's back, tell a friend........."

One observation: The picture of her blue hair was a rear view. Perhaps she was inspired by recent shots of Justin Bieber and John Legend?

Heaven forbid those two trends ever truly mix and match ...

Follow Christie D'Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.