How To Prepare Your Hair For Color

Having your hair professionally colored at the salon is a major commitment — of time and coin. Instead of spending both in a pro'due south chair for a new hue, try an at-dwelling house pilus color kit in your ain bathroom. To ensure that you avoid a dye disaster, professional colorists offer their skillful advice for coloring your hair at dwelling.

Earlier you take hold of a box of dye, follow these at-home color commandments for a glossy, flawless shade that will look fresh from the salon.

Rule one: Ignore the Photos on the Box

"When shopping for at-home hair color, many women will only await at the moving picture on the box," says Jet Rhys, glory stylist and co-owner of the Jet Rhys Salons in San Diego. "The model on the box may have the perfect shade of brown, merely we don't know what her hair color was like before the dye." Instead, consult the numbers and letters on the packet to determine the level of color and desired tone, says Izabela Saboski, director of color for Salon Ziba in New York City. On a shade scale of ane to 10, 1 is the darkest, 10 the lightest. The letters, she explains, reveal the dye's undertones — a means ash, g gold, c copper, and n neutral.

Rule 2: Employ Your Own Coloring as a Guide

According to Kyle White, lead colorist at the Oscar Blandi Salon in New York City, light-skinned, light-eyed women look more natural with lighter shades, while women with darker pilus and skin expect ameliorate in darker shades. If yous have a lot of pink in your peel, avoid warmth in a hair colour considering information technology will make you expect flushed. Those who have olive skin tones should opt for gold tones, which bring warmth to the face and make skin look less green. If your skin tone is neutral, says White, with no pink or dark-green, y'all can wear either warm or absurd blond shades.

Rule iii: Stay Inside Two Shades of Your Natural Color

Colorists agree: When dyeing your hair at dwelling house, don't go more than than ii shades lighter or darker. This is especially important for brunettes who want to become blond. "If your hair is dark and you want to lighten it," says Saboski, "I advise you make an date at a salon, since at-dwelling house color will be ineffective in lightening your hair."

That'south because at-domicile color kits don't incorporate the strong chemicals needed to radically alter your color. "There's a reason pilus colorists have to get to schoolhouse, laissez passer a test, and get a license from the government," says White. "The reason is that the chemicals needed to perform complicated hair color changes tin can severely damage hair and scalp akin."

Dominion iv: Do a Exam Bulldoze Before Committing to a Permanent Color

"For safety coloring, I recommend demi-permanent hair colour, which will fade slightly each time you shampoo," says Saboski. "Demi-permanent color also minimizes damage and simply enhances the natural colour." Demi-permanent color is a mixture of permanent and semi-permanent dyes. Information technology doesn't have the power to lighten dark hair, but information technology can match or deepen your color.

You can also try semi-permanent dye, which, as with demi-permanent color, won't lighten your hair. Semi-permanent formulas don't penetrate the pilus securely and launder out in about 8 to 12 shampoos.

Rule 5: Don't Skip the Patch Test

It's important to exam a new color on a small area of your hair before you utilize information technology to your entire head — otherwise, you're asking for a mishap. "If the color you lot use is too ashy, say, your pare will look drab and one-time," says Saboski. Y'all also risk a scalp reaction if your skin doesn't tolerate the dye chemicals.

To do a patch test, apply the dye on a modest section of your hair, and run into if the color is besides lite, dark, or ashy.

Rule six: Practise Impairment Control Before You Dye

"A adept affair to do the twenty-four hour period before coloring is to use a clarifying shampoo to remove whatever product buildup, and to aid even the hair'south porosity and then color takes evenly," says White. "You should follow that with a deep conditioner to supplant whatsoever wet that may be lost during coloring."

But skip shampooing the day you lot dye your hair. "Shampoo doesn't make the color take better," says Rhys. Additionally, past non shampooing before you color, you're allowing the natural oils in your hair to protect your scalp from the irritation that can exist caused by the ammonia in many dyes.

Rule 7: Avoid Color Overkill

Skilful news: You don't accept to dye your whole head every time y'all detect your color fading. Doing so "volition cause color buildup, discolored ends, bands of lightness and darkness, and unnecessary harm," says White. "You only want to dye the new growth, and maybe, if absolutely needed, refresh faded ends during the terminal few minutes of the coloring process."