Going to a salon to get your hair dyed takes time and, more importantly, usually a lot of money. If you can skip the expense and dye your hair at home, why wouldn’t you? Especially if you can get salon quality results dyeing it yourself at home.
Here’s how you can do just that.
Pick your colour with care
Just because the model on the box has the hair colour you want, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the hair colour you will get with that dye. The chart on the side of the box, showing what the end colour will be – depending on your starting hair colour, is a much better guide.
Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that permanent dyes will usually come out a tad lighter, while semi-permanent dyes get darker the longer you leave them in. If you’re using permanent dyes, choose a colour a bit darker than the one you’re aiming for, and for semi-permanent, choose one that’s a bit lighter.
Focus on the roots
If you’re dyeing your hair just to touch up your roots, put a deep conditioning mask or coconut oil on the ends and mid-section of your hair to prevent the dye from changing the main colour as you’re rinsing the dye out.
What to do with dry ends
Dry hair sucks up dye a lot quicker than normal, undamaged hair, so if the ends of your hair are very dry, don’t put dye on them. Instead, save some of the dye in the bottle and three minutes before you’re due to rinse the dye out, put a couple of squirts of shampoo into the dye bottle and apply the mixture (after shaking it to mix) to the ends of your hair.
If the timing is a bit off and it comes out a bit lighter than the rest of your hair – no problem. You’ve just done an ombre effect!
Gone too far? You can tone it down
If, once your hair is a bit drier, you feel the colour is too strong or too dark, you can reduce the effect by applying a deep conditioner to your damp hair, then covering it with a plastic bath hat and a hot, damp towel. This should be left on your hair for twenty minutes. At the end of that time, shampoo and condition as normal and you should have a less intense colour.
