How to Color Your Dark Hair at Home

D o you want to dye your hair but fear your hair is too dark, so you don’t know where to start? Here is a quick, simple, and easy guide on how to color your dark hair at home.

Know What You Are Signing Up For

Are you sure you want to dye your hair, or is it an impulsive decision? Think of your motivations to color your hair.

Does your school or institution allow colored hair? Make sure you won't be reprimanded for your artistic expression.

Does your workplace mind extravagant and unnatural hair colors? You may want to keep that in mind when selecting a color.

Also, coloring your hair yourself is a long and tedious process, so make sure you know you have plenty of time, and if you have darker hair, you may need even more time if you factor in the length of bleaching your hair.

Decide if You Will Use Bleach

Going from dark hair color to a lighter one gives you a wide array of choices if you use bleach on your hair separately, preferably at least twice. If you want an unnatural color, you will most likely have to use bleach.

However, you can dye your dark hair without a separate bleaching process too. High lift dyes are dyes that ease the concerns of those who fear they will burn their scalp if they use bleach (this actually only happens if you don't know how to use bleach).

However, high lift dyes have more ammonia, which is not good for hair. They also contain more pigment and a double ratio of 40 volume developer, both of which contribute to dark hair picking up lighter shades without the use of bleach.

Using Bleach

This is the trickiest part. Color application is not difficult, but bleach application is so complicated that if you don't follow the measurements and rules properly, you can end up with a blotchy dye job.

Make sure you follow the instructions on the bleach packet, prepare the mixture correctly, apply it evenly, and don't leave it on too long or wash it off too fast.

Also, roots process faster, so bleach your roots after you bleach the rest of your hair. Use an abundant amount, do not brush through the bleach, and do not try to lather it.

Decide a Brand and a Color

Both of these go hand in hand with one another. The colors available to you will depend on the brand you select, and you must make sure that the brand you select is not box dye.

You May Need to Tone

If you try using a blue marker on a yellow chart paper, it will result in green lettering. The same will happen if you slap blue dye on yellow hair, so if you want to dye a colder color like pastel blue or navy, you must tone your hair from yellow/orange to blond/white. However, if you're dying a warmer color like red, you don't need to tone. The underlying yellow will enrich your color.

Go Ahead and Do It!

Once you've figured out all technicalities – bleach or no, tone or no, color, and brand – just go for it! Apply in small sections and apply a lot of products evenly.

You can ask for help from your parents, siblings, or friends to do the backside of your head, or you can use a mirror to do it yourself.

Viola! A wash and a blow dry later, you'll have beautiful and vibrant hair as compared to your previous dull and dark hair.

Don’t Be Afraid

At the end of the day, hair always grows back. If you follow all the right steps you should be able to pull off a phenomenal dye job at home, but if something goes a bit wrong do not panic. You can fix it, or you can see a hairdresser who will charge a minimal amount to fix it.

Trying new and fun hair colors is part of the fun of being an adult (or a young adult) so don’t let anxiety and fear of judgment snatch away the opportunity from you. Besides, coloring your own hair is an intimate experience with yourself, so it’s definitely something you should try at least once in your life.

And if you didn’t know where to start before, well, now you do. Mentioned above are all the crucial points to think about before you start dyeing, so we hope you know how to color your dark hair at home now and will have fun doing so!

• This post is tagged in:

• health
• hair
• hair dye
• color
• salon
• beauty