I need advice on hair color dyed. I want and need to dyed my hair because of some gray hairs. I dyed my hair before and something went wrong so had myself a mess and had to go to the salon and get them to fix it. Anyway I let my hair grow out for maybe 3 years. I don't have a lot of money due with Christmas and time,so I want to do it myself. I have light/medium Brown hair that has some reddish tint. I got Clairol 21 medium Brown Natural instincts creme. That should be ok? TIA. And happy New year!!! :)
Edit: I did it last night and it came out good, little darker Brown, but I like it anyway. You can see a bit reddish tint in the light but it's good!! Thanks for the feedback.
who knows?
miss clairol worked great for me. some people have horror stories about it.
test it as it directs in the instructions. if all goes well, you've got a reasonably good shot of having it work out. if you don't want to risk it, save up and go to a salon.
khairete
S.
Go to a local vocational high school to have it done. The one near us charges $15+tip.
There are people that can dye their own hair and people that cannot. You may be a cannot.
I get the money savings, I have long thick curly hair and salons see me and quote a price around 180 before tip, that was 10 years ago, to dye my hair. I do my own and I do a very good job, I am a can.
My suggestion is suck it up for now, get your hair done professionally. While there watch, learn, ask questions if you need to like why are you?? what is that?? why do you use that?? I would not mention you are trying to learn to do it yourself. I would tip well because you are getting a lesson along with a dye job. If you like the color ask what color they used or colors. You can go to places like Sally's Beauty, give them that color number or numbers and they can match the products used.
Whatever you do don't try to do it yourself again until you know what you are doing. It is far more expensive to fix an epic fail than it is to get a "lesson".
I find that it's pretty easy to do myself. I do tend to find that the color is darker than I expect based on the box description. I'll never forget the time I used "dark brown" and my hair came out jet black! So, with the color you picked, I would expect your color to be darker than your natural color - you say your hair is light to medium brown, and you chose medium brown color. If you are ok with going darker, then you picked the right color. If you want to match your hair color, you probably should have picked one shade lighter (a light brown, and if you want to keep your reddish tint, then a light warm brown (warm means a reddish tint, cool means no red tint)).
Two tips: Don't try to make up for picking too dark of a color by shortening the time you put the color on. 1) it won't work, because most of your hair will pick up the color quickly and 2) it won't cover your grays if you don't leave it on long enough, which defeats the entire purpose of your coloring. With this in mind, I usually pick a shade lighter than I think I need, then leave it on for the longest "cover your grays" time listed on the box.
The second tip is to avoid getting dye on your skin at your hairline, on your ears, etc, is to put a coating of your conditioner all along your hairline and all over your ears. It acts as a barrier to minimize the amount of color that touches your skin, but still easily washes off in the shower when you are done.
It would be easier to give advice if you say what went wrong the first time, so we can help you avoid that again. Update if you have a chance.
If you can't go to a salon so it is done properly, at least find a beauty school where you can go and the students are training with professionals.
I would never tackle this on my own. The risk of damaging my healthy hair is too great.
Best wishes to you!
It's hard to say.
If your hair grows at the average of 6 inches per year, then you've had about 18 inches hair growth since your last experiment - so unless your hair is really long, none of your current hair has been dyed before.
If you only have a few grey hairs to cover, you want a dye that matches your color pretty closely so you won't have major roots issues as it grows out.
I started doing that but it quickly got to a point where I was dyeing monthly - and THAT was frying my hair.
After several years of this, my hair was very damaged and felt like straw.
I eventually gave up using dye and started using henna and my hair likes that a lot better.
Not everyone likes henna but it covers my grey and I get a nice auburn using it.
I like getting a great hair color with henna and I mix it up with vinegar - so no ammonia smell, no para-phenyelenediamine, no allergic reactions - it makes me and my hair very happy.
Hi Kay,
I am loathe to tell you my age but suffice it to say I've been dying my hair for well on 20 years now...I found my first gray hair at 17 years old....you do the math and no, I'm not exaggerating. I am a natural brunette but always wanted that red hair of my Irish heritage so that's been my color for years. At the risk of sounding like a product placement, I swear by Preference by Loreal because, in my experience, it covers grey most effectively and doesn't fade as quickly. I did use Garnier once as a substitute and found the product to be excellent as well, but the color wasn't to my liking. Their auburn looked more like an eggplant on me. The only time I've had trouble is if I wanted to do my own highlights...that's a job for the professionals.
You say something went wrong but you weren't specific, so I can't address that previous experience. What I can tell you is that if you're simply applying box dye, as long as you follow the instructions, you should be fine. If you have a ton of hair, really thick and/or long, you might need two boxes. Make sure you glove up and make sure you hit all those little baby hairs at the hair line. Lastly, be sure to use color preservation shampoo and conditioner, as anything that doesn't preserve the color will fade and strip the color twice as fast.
Let us know how it turns out!! :-) S.
I have messed up by choosing too dark for myself. My college ID photo at one university! WOW! It was really harsh!
I can't understand why people pay someone to color their hair when it's so easy to do at home, yourself.
Ash takes out the red and is a gray based color. Warm/golden means it adds redish/orangish tints.
I always use an ash color on my hair. BUT! I like my hair frosted or highlighted more than anything. So I use the frosting kits and pull small amounts of hair though every other hole. Now, I "do" have to have help with this due to me not being able to see the back of my head. But I pull 90% of my hair to color specifically from the crown forward and behind my ears forward. I don't stop there but I do have more hair from the parts I can see coming through.
This also helps hide the gray because it just looks like you highlighted it when you add more. As you get grayer hair it isn't noticeable due to so much blonde.
I don't like it when my hair is weird. But in a couple of weeks you can dye it again and try something new if you like.
My sister kept the same color on her hair for a decade or so and then Clairol changed their color bases and it was awful. Awful! She had to try a couple of other colors to find another one she liked.
I too am broke. (Money goes to kids and bills) I have to do my own hair. Never ever been in a salon. Anyways. Yes sounds good. Always test your hair tho. Way before time is up put water on it and see if it's the color u want. Good luck.
I do my own and use Naturtint.. it's not quite as strong as Clairol... I have a lot of white hair and it covers it.. I use 6N (which has a little bit of a red tint in the sun) but is mostly a darker blonder, lighter brown... or 7N if you want a shade lighter.. I keep it in for about 45 min... mind you, I have white hair to over, if yours isn't that much, not sure you need to do it for as long.. Whole Foods will have it on sale for about 14 bucks... when it's not it's 17.. I wait for the sale.. OR buy online since I know what I color I like..
good luck
