Change up your hair colour at home
Bored of your natural hair colour? Dreaming of cotton candy-coloured locks?
If you’ve ever contemplated dyeing your hair a rainbow shade, but haven’t had the know-how to pull it off, try these tips for doing it yourself at home. Make sure to recruit a friend if you can — an extra pair of hands always helps!
I am in no way a professional hair stylist, so I can only offer what I’ve learned from my personal experiences. I’ve dyed my own hair from blue to pastel pink to dark red and most colours in between, so these are the tricks I’ve picked up.
1. Lighten your hair. First off, your hair needs to be lightened to an appropriate level for your desired shade, level 1 being dark black and level 10 being platinum blond. Only lighten your hair as much as you need, because lightening is extremely damaging to your hair. However, if you don’t lighten it enough, the colour might not turn out the way you wanted. This is the step that I most highly recommend that you get done by a professional hair stylist if you can. All of your hair falling out and the risk of chemical bleach burn is real.
2. Protect yourself. Use petroleum jelly to protect your scalp, neck, and ears from being stained by the hair dye, and always use gloves to protect your hands. Additionally, use an old towel to prevent your clothes from getting stained, and newspaper the floor in case of dripping dye.
3. Mix and match. Feel free to get creative with your hair colour. Most semi-permanent rainbow colours don’t require peroxide so you can customize colours to your liking by mixing them together in a bowl as-is. To make pastel colours, just add colour-safe conditioner to a tiny drop of colour and mix until you’re satisfied.
4. Section your hair. If you don’t do this, you risk running out of dye or missing some parts of your hair. Have a handheld mirror handy, and use it to look at the reflection of the back of your head on a mounted mirror.
5. Use tools. Depending on your level of comfort, you can use a tint brush to blend two or more colours into your hair if that’s the look you’re going for. Otherwise, don’t complicate things and just use gloved hands to apply the colour, massaging the dye into each strand of hair.
6. Turn up the heat. Use a shower cap or plastic wrap to cover your head while you wait for the colour to set. The warmth from your scalp will help your hair take in the dye. You can even use a hair dryer to increase the intensity of heat and move the process along quicker.
7. Have reasonable expectations. It’s altogether completely possible that your hair colour will not turn out the way you thought it would. Too many times, I’ve heard people complain that pastel dye did not work on their dark brown hair. Think of it like this: when you use crayons to draw on plain white paper, the outcome of the colour is usually exactly how it’s advertised, but when you try to draw on black paper, it will be hard to see the colour coming through. Darker shades of red, green, and purple usually work best on dark hair, so those are great colours to try if you’re hesitant to bleach your hair too much. The colours will be most visible in your hair’s undertones when viewed in natural light, but your natural hair colour will still be most prominent.
8. Preserve your colour. If you want your hard-earned hair colour to last, you’ll have to commit to a strict hair care regimen. Use colour-safe shampoos and conditioners; you can also add a bit of dye to your conditioner to strengthen the colour. Wash only in cold water, and be sparse with your shampoo. If you can make it an entire week without your hair getting too greasy, do it. Dry shampoo is your friend when it comes to skipping regular washing. Avoiding heat styling tools like flat irons and curlers will prevent the colour from fading fast, as well as prevent your hair from getting even more damaged. It’s inevitable that rainbow colours won’t last the same way that conventional colours do. Embrace this — rock your faded locks, or use it to work with your next colour. Darker colours usually dye over lighter colours well. If your roots grow out, try an ombré look.
Here’s an approximate guide to how light your hair needs to be to dye it certain colours:
Feature photo by Karen K. Tran/The Ontarion