At-home hair dyes… Yay or Nay?
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Category
Fashion & Style
Truthfully, I have a very love-hate relationship with dying my hair. On one hand, I love my blonde color and think that blonde hair fits my personality.
But, oh my gosh... the ups and downs of maintaining that color sometimes make me crazy.
I've had a back-and-forth relationship with dying my hair since midway through college, when I discovered the hair dye aisle of CVS and didn't look back for about two years. In those two years, my hair went from purple-black to bright orange, depending on the month.
And if you're currently thinking, "Hmm, this story sounds fishy. 'Purple-black' and 'bright orange' don't actually sound like particularly attractive hair colors."
Well, you would be right. They were not.
But, hey, how was I supposed to know? I'd grab a kit off she shelf, pay for it, and go home and slather it on my entire head, like it was a bottle of shampoo -- and, not surprising, when I'd rinse the color out, my hair would be flat and one-dimensional.
Eventually, I got sick of it: my hair never quite looked right, so I dyed my hair back to what I best remembered as my natural color and left it alone for a while, until all the dyed parts eventually naturally grew out.
And for about two more years, I was back to my natural brunette. No at-home color kits, no trips to the salon.
And then... I started itching to dye again.
I started thinking... about going blonde.
And you see that photo above?
That photo, right there, is my first shot as a blonde on Sugarlaws.
Looks pretty good, right? See, this time, I had my hair color done by a professional. And, not surprisingly, it made a huge difference. The shade of blonde in the photo above was completely different from anything I'd had before -- natural and full of depth and tone.
And now, apparently, I know why.
The answer is below (that's me, the first time I highlighted my hair):
See, in that picture, you can see clearly that the colorist is using a different treatment for the roots and the lengths of my hair, which is how salons color hair. But those at-home kits? They just use a single treatment for your whole head, which is why your color ends up flat and wig-like.
It makes sense, right? Your roots (which are new, undyed hair) take in color completely differently from the lengths of your hair, which have probably been colored dozens of times. So when you're coloring your hair, you have to treat them differently.
But one thing I don't love about salon-colored hair? It's pricey and time-consuming. It can't be done at 9pm when the baby is finally asleep, which is pretty much my only free time these days. On the other hand, when I think about that head of orange hair from my college days, I'm still nervous to try at-home kits again.
So that's where I am now: I'd like to try an at-home kit, but I'm nervous about the results. I wish I could get salon techniques at home, particularly being able to treat the roots and lengths separately, when I color my hair at home.
I want to hear from you guys: Do you color your hair yourself, or do it at the salon? Any at-home coloring tips for me?