DIY HAIR: COLORING YOUR OWN HAIR

As a professional colorist, I don’t recommend doing haircolor unless you’ve been trained. There are a lot of things that can go wrong when you color your own hair. It would take me about 1,500-2,000 hours to really explain (the number of hours required for cosmetology school, get it?), but I can tell you a couple of common mistakes that people make when they color their own hair, so maybe knowing those will help you if you’re going to do it anyway. Which again, I don’t recommend.

1. Just the Roots

Instead of just coloring the roots, many DIY colorists put color over all of the hair, every single time. This will make their ends way darker than their roots if it keeps happening. If you’ve been coloring your own hair and your ends are getting too dark, that’s most likely the problem. Only color the new hair that grew out. Don’t pull it all the way through to the ends.

Also important to note, overlapping color or pulling color through every time will make it time-consuming and more difficult for your professional colorist if you ever decide to change your hair color in the future. Another reason it’s important to stick with coloring just the new growth.

2. Equal Attention

The second problem I see a lot is that DIY hair colorists pile layer over layer of color on the front part of the hair – the area they can see, so usually the bangs and the front sides. Then the rest of the hair they miss areas or hardly put any color at all. This causes dark and light spots in the hair, and makes the front hairline way too dark (which is often where the grey is growing in too, so that’s not good). Have someone help you. They can reach the back of your hair that you probably can’t reach very well and you’ll most likely get a somewhat better application than just doing it yourself.

3. Stay Close

DIY color is not the time to make a big change. Pick a color that is close to your natural hair color and use the same color every time. The closer you stay to your own color, the better chance you have of not messing it up.

In the end, most DIY hair disasters can be fixed by a professional. But these mistakes can be costly. Often, if you have a limited budget for coloring your hair, you’re better to ask a professional what types of professionally done color could be low maintenance and less expensive for you over time.

4. Simple Solutions

If you’re trying to stretch your color longer, there are great root touch up sprays that cover grey at the root, but shampoo out, so you don’t mess with your color in between visits.

If you want to enhance your color or do something just for fun, there are great color enhancing shampoos and conditioners, hair makeups, and hair chalks. These are an easy way to add a pop of color and then shampoo it back out, without any long-lasting damage.

Finally, if clients don’t need color or can’t afford it, I usually recommend that they skip the color and allocate their hair budget to getting good haircuts, and then spend any extra money on quality products which will make their natural color look its best. I think well-maintained, natural hair color is better than poorly done artificial color any day.