Categories: Beauty

Tips for Great at Home Hair Coloring

Choosing to color your hair at home, especially for the first time, can be quite intimidating, and the color not turning out right has sent many a woman in tears to the hair dresser or salon, where she will pay twice as much to repair the damage caused. However, it doesn’t have to be this way!

Coloring your hair at home, using over the counter products, can be successful and save you a lot of money in the long run as long as you follow the instructions on the kit you purchase, and pay attention to these ten tips for making the most of your at home hair coloring process.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #1

When you first decide to color your hair, you need to pick a hair color that works for you, and therefore, in the beginning, you want to buy several different hair coloring kits to determine which one is the best for you and your hair.

You want to purchase one kit that represents the color you are hoping your hair color will be when finished, and then buy two more kits, one that is one shade darker than you would like and one that is one shade lighter than you would like.

Unless you are planning to process your hair much lighter (such as ‘going blonde’ from brunette or red), this should be sufficient.

Using a pair of scissors, cut three small strips of hair from behind your neck, where hair is usually the thickest. The strands don’t have to be large, but just enough to be able to see how the hair coloring kit will shade the strands. Follow the instructions for each kit, and when finished, dry the hair strands, and this way you can see exactly how the kit will color your hair.

Pick the kit you like the best, and you’re good to go. From this point forward, you can choose the same shade and do not have to repeat this process each time. It should be known, if you’re hair is very dark or very red, at home blonding kits usually require more than one step, and may not give desired results by using the box kits – the at home hair coloring for blondes really works best on hair that is already light.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #2

DO NOT shampoo your hair on the day you plan to color it. The best bet is to use a clarifying shampoo the day before you plan to color your hair, to remove excess product and shampoo build up. However, shampooing your hair on the day you color it will make your hair too soft and slick, and the color may not absorb as evenly.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #3

Apply hair coloring treatment to you DRY hair. Be sure to blow your hair dry or air dry your hair completely before you apply color of any type. As far as I know, there are no hair coloring kits on the market that are applied to wet hair, because this makes it more difficult for the hair coloring product to absorb into the hair shaft.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #4

After coloring your hair with the hair color product, do NOT use a shampoo on your hair to remove the hair coloring product. Warm (not hot) water should be enough to remove the excess hair color, and harsh soaps or shampoo can actually dim or diminish the color or vibrancy of the color if you wash your hair with shampoo immediately after a color. It’s best if at all possible to wait 48 hours before shampooing your hair after you have colored it.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #5

If you find that the color you used on your hair is a bit too dark, which is pretty common using brunette or black hair coloring kits, you can head to your kitchen sink to correct the problem – my article Dawn Dishwashing Detergent: It’s Not Just for Dishes Anymore! talks about the various uses of Dawn other than washing dishes, and this is just one more way Dawn Dishwashing liquid can help you!

Shampoo your hair thoroughly with Dawn Dishwashing liquid, and the muddy darkness left by a dark hair coloring will brighten up and not be quite so muddy. The detergent will dilute the pigment slightly and make your hair look a bit more natural and not so ‘freshly colored.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #6

Hair coloring stains not only your hair, but clothes, furniture, and most of all, skin. If you are coloring your hair at home, you can place a thin layer of petroleum jelly around the hair line where your hair meets your skin. This will help keep the coloring from bleeding into the skin or staining your face, ears, and neck.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #7

If you do manage to get hair coloring on your skin, lemon juice or Seabreeze Skin Toner when applied immediately upon noticing the skin stain will help remove the stain or greatly lighten it if the stain is older. Some websites have also indicated white toothpaste scrubbed on the skin stain will remove the color as well. Bleach can usually remove hair coloring stains from most other surfaces once the color has dried.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #8

Wear gloves when applying hair coloring to your hair. Most hair coloring kits come with plastic gloves attached to the instructions of the kit, but for many women, these are too small for average sized hands. A beauty supply store usually sells varying sizes of the disposable gloves you can use to color your hair, but be careful not to tear them at the thumb and forefinger section, or you can stain your skin while applying.

Medical gloves that fit snugger than the plastic disposable gloves also work well and have a lesser chance of tearing and thus resulting in stains on the skin, but they are a bit more expensive.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #9

Designate on towel that is your ‘hair coloring towel’ and drape it around your shoulders to protect your clothing and skin from being stained by the color. Even experts can occasionally drip. If you plan to color your hair regularly, investing a few bucks in a plastic smock might be a wise move.

At Home Hair Coloring Tip #10

If the color does not come out as expected, a word of warning – do NOT recolor your hair again for at least two weeks. While coloring your hair occasionally can actually help improve the health of your hair, doing so too frequently can burn and damage your hair beyond repair. If you simply cannot live with the color you have chosen, your best bet is to visit the salon to repair the color, because they have products that are more effective but less harsh on your hair.

Living for two weeks with a bad hair color is better than living 6 months or longer with damaged and fried hair.

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Lastly, it is best to have your hair trimmed or cut before you choose to color and not after if you are due for a cut or trim. Hair coloring will appear darker in the areas where hair is damaged, split ends, cracked, broken or weak. If your hair is damaged, the hair color application may not be even or look natural.

For more at home hair care tips that are usually less expensive than the salon products but just as effective, you can read my article Natural Hair Care Products From Your Own Kitchen.