Everything You Need To Know About Coloring Your Hair At Home
Coloring your hair can be both an exciting and scary thing. Just something about switching up your style by way of a new color is enough to add a little spunk to anyone’s life. But if you are someone who wants to try the at home dyeing route you might want to take some things in consideration before you grab that box!
1. Research.
It is vital to do a lot of research before dyeing your own hair. To start there are different kits out there from a variety of brands. For women of color there are Dark n’ Lovely, Clairol, Shea Moisture*, and Creme of Nature just to name a few. Within all of these there are numerous amounts of different colors. One may come with treatments, one may have a lifter ingredient to boost color and the list goes on.
There are a lot of things to take into consideration before coloring your hair. Make sure you do adequate research and check out reviews on products.
2. Decide on a color.
You also want to find out which color you are going for. Do you want to transform with a dark auburn or a honey* blonde? Are you wanting a semi-permanent hair color that will wash out after a couple of rinses or something permanent where the color molecules actually penetrate the cortex within your hair shaft thus permanently altering it?
Keep in mind it requires more work to maintain lighter colored hair because it tends to be more prone to drying. Are you up for the required maintenance?
3. Hair preparation is mandatory.
Prior to coloring your hair you want to make sure the quality and state of your hair is in impeccable condition. Because coloring consists of adding a chemical to your hair, the healthier your strands are prior to the process can set the tone for the outcome and continuation of your color.
Added steps to do include a protein treatment and a deep condition about 3 days before coloring. This ensures that your strands are at their strongest and can hold up to the treatment.
4. Skin allergy test.
Although extremely rare, allergic reactions to chemical hair dye products are real. The last thing you want is to apply an entire bottle of hair dye to your head and have a major reaction. Whatever product you decide to go with will instruct you to do a skin allergy test prior to use.
This is completed typically about 48hrs before hand and the manufacture will give you step by step instructions for what to do. It generally consists of adding a little of the product to your forearm and seeing if you have an adverse reaction to it.
It can be tempting to watch how someone else dyes their hair by altering the steps of an at home hair dye kit, and thinking the instructions can be altered since the person got bomb results.
For example, it is common for people when going lighter to exceed the recommended setting time in hopes of getting a brighter color.
While this may be tempting, when you’re not sure how your hair may react to a color you want to make sure you follow the directions.
After you’ve been coloring your hair for a while you may learn how your hair functions and can adjust accordingly with care.
As for a tip for ensuring that your hair lightens as optimally as possible, most kits recommend covering your hair with a plastic cap during the setting time. The heat speeds up the chemical reaction and leads to better results.
6. Anticipate an imperfect outcome.
The risk of dyeing your hair at home is that you’re not sure what exact shade you will end up with. Although there are suggested results on the side of the box for every hair shade, you will find that often your hair will not come out looking exactly like the girl on the box.
There are often worse situations of coloring your hair such as absolutely hating it! This is why I recommend starting with a semi-permanent dye.
If the color is too dark you can use a clarifying shampoo* which will allow it to rinse out quicker.
If you start to miss your old color you can use a color lifter which will help your hair color transition back to its normal state.
If your hair ends up coming out too light, you can use a purple shampoo to correct and it will help you hair come back from the overly light color.
3 Things to remember
- It’s okay to experiment. Have fun and take baby steps. Start with a simple color, nothing to drastic and then go from there.
- Research. Research. Research. Don’t just dive in. Watch tutorials and gather tips.
- Still scared? Either grab a friend for moral support or head to a nearby trusted salon and leave it to the professionals!
