Home Hair Color 101

Feb 4, 2013

Stephanie D.

There are a ton of questions about how to color your own hair. Lots of people suggest going to a salon. Do you really need to? Maybe, maybe not.

Truth is I've had my hair messed up by a stylist vs. messing it up myself at about a 4:1 ratio. Considering the length of my hair, it's just not worth it for me to pay for a color service that doesn't turn out the way I want it (and I say this across many salons, various states and even different countries). It's not necessarily because the stylist is lacking in education or skill - it's just that I know my own hair better than anyone else does and that helps me get a better result.

That being said, there are times when even *I* wouldn't attempt to do it myself, mainly when I'm concerned about the evenness of the application or because I don't have a particular product available to me because I don't have a cosmetology license.

Anyway.

Here are a few of my tips for getting an even, predictable result at home with box color (not Sally's color that you formulate yourself...that's a whole different ballgame).

1. KNOW THE TEXTURE OF YOUR HAIR. Some hair is easier to color or harder to color because you have coarse hair, or fine hair, or your hair is more porous or less porous. It WILL affect the end result and how much pigment/what pigment grabs on. Fine, long, dryer hair will suck up color like a vacuum and you will likely end up with at least one, if not 2 or 3 shades darker than what's on the box. The more you color your hair, the more porous it will be. Keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that it will be more porous at the end than at the scalp, and you may have to be careful how you apply color in order to get an even result.

2. COLOR WILL NOT LIGHTEN PREVIOUSLY COLORED HAIR. At least, it won't and get you the result you really want. I'm probably going to make a separate post on this because there are some other factors that go into it. Some people (including myself) have had success gradually lightening within a limited range, but there are reasons behind that. Just picking up a blonde box dye when you've already colored your hair a medium brunette won't get you anywhere. Period.

3. STAY WITHIN 2 LEVELS. Levels refers to how light your hair is - 1 is black hair. I am naturally a level 7 to 8 (it's in the middle leaning more towards 8) blonde and I generally color my hair at around a level 7, maybe leaning towards 6, maybe toward 8, depending on my mood. I sometimes buy high level blondes but ONLY to deposit tone. I don't expect my level 7 colored hair to turn into 9 hair with a box dye (using no lightener or remover prior to coloring). See above, and I'll explain more below.

4. DO NOT BUY THE COLOR YOU WANT. If you have virgin hair, you might be able to just buy a box and get more or less the same color on the cover. If you have previously colored hair, it doesn't work that way. You have to figure out what you WANT vs. what you HAVE and use color to CORRECT what you don't want so you can achieve a certain color. If you want a champagne blonde a level darker than what you have, you don't buy a champagne blonde when you already have a cool, level 9 ash blonde to begin with. It will turn positively dull. You need a neutral color that has gold tones to slightly counteract the ashiness, not intensify it.

5. NEVER BUY ANYTHING THAT SAYS "GOLD" (unless you accidentally dyed your hair some shade of purple). Box hair color is pre-formulated, not custom made to correct your tone (see #4) to the tone you want. Almost all of them, even the ones that say "ash" have some gold in them already, because what box dyes are trying to do is appeal to a mass market. The formulas are adjusted so that you get the widest target possible, and believe me when I tell you, that includes gold. If you buy something that says "gold" that's swahili for "do not pass go, go directly to brass." Believe me. Stay away from gold. If you need golds to correct for ashiness, use a neutral/natural tone.

I will post more on this topic soon. Questions, comments welcome. No offense to the stylists on here...reality is that lots of people color their hair at home. I'd rather they do it and get the results they want, and this is strictly for them.

Feb 4, 2013

Brianna M.

My boyfriend does my hair he doesnt even like beauty or stuff like I do he doesnt understand it lol but he does my hair with the box color and he does it really good and hes only done it once in his entire life because of me lol and it saves me money lol

Feb 7, 2013

Mette B.

I have naturally red hair, but I want to dye it a really red color.. Like Ariana Grandes previously red hair color, what color should I go for?