Dyeing Hair at Home: What to Know Before You Start
1. When You Should Leave It To Professionals
We’re all about the D.I.Y hair projects here at All Things Hair, but there are some dye jobs that are best left up to the professionals. For instance, if you’ve never had your hair bleached before, we wouldn’t risk it with an in-home kit. The process of bleaching hair is pretty complicated, and if done incorrectly can lead you to having incredibly damaged hair. Your hair can even become extremely breakage prone and give you a breakage haircut. You don’t want that, trust us. Other processes you should leave to a colorist are total color overhauls (e.g. dark brown to pastel pink), and balayage.
2. Find the Right Home Dye Kits
There are tones of box dye kits at your local drugstore. While it can be overwhelming as you look at all of the shades and their variations, you’ll want to make sure that you take your time in deciding on the right color for you. The color guide on the back of most dyes is a good indication of what the color should look on your natural hair color. You can also try henna hair dye at home as an alternative.
3. Hair Prep Before Dye
Most dyes do best when you start on dry hair. Always make sure to double check your dye box on it’s instructions for your hair prior to dying. When you get your dye, make sure to do the patch test so that you can better see what the color will look it. And don’t forget to use the attached gloves-you don’t want messy, dyed fingers and hands!
4. Accident-Proof Your Workspace
When you dye your hair at home you open up your house to dye accidents. It can be seriously tough to get hair dye out of pretty much every household surface, let us tell you! To limit any hair dyeing accidents, choose one space to dye your hair (probably your bathroom). Grab any entertainment you’ll need, a timer and wear old clothes that you won’t mind having some hair dye on.
5. Old Towels, You’ll Need Them
If you have any rugs or flooring that would be difficult to clean, go ahead and cover a space with an old towel. You’ll also need one for your hair after you rinse out the dye, as the water slipping off your hair may stain the towel. Just making sure you don’t totally ruin your textiles!
6. How it Washes Out
Dyes are going to wash out of your hair eventually. To keep your color vibrant for as long as possible, you’ll need to wash with a color-safe shampoo and conditioner as infrequently as you can. We like the Suave Keratin Infusion Color Care Shampoo and Suave Keratin Infusion Color Care Conditioner. They work to effectively clean your hair, help avoid color loss and strengthen your hair with keratin. Need more information about dyeing hair at home? Check out our feature on how to get dip dye hair at home.
