The Cons Of Coloring Your Hair At Home

If you’re going to color your hair, you have to do it right. It’s important to be careful, because certain hair dyes contain products that can cause irreversible damage to your hair if used incorrectly. Coloring your hair is a great form of self expression, and it’s perfect for changing up your whole look and feel. We’re all for experimenting with your hair color, but we want you to be educated about what you’re getting yourself into when you don’t plan of going to a trained professional.

We’re here to take you through some of the cons of coloring your own hair because we all need a little reality check sometimes:

Hair Texture

When you put chemicals in your hair they tend to strip it of its natural texture. If you forget about the hair dye you put on because you decided to watch a rerun of your favorite TV show (yes, this does happen), your hair can come out feeling brittle. There’s also no way of knowing how a certain product will interact with your hair – which is why we recommend going to a salon over the DIY route. Hair professionals are trained to take the history and current state of your locks into consideration before deciding how to properly give you your desired results. The price of going to a salon is worth the peace of mind you’ll have knowing that no irreparable damage has been done.

The Cost

It might seem like a cheaper solution to go with boxed dye that you found at your local Target, but in all honesty – it’s not. If you mess up, you’ll have to take a trip or two to the hair salon that’ll end up costing you at least triple the price. The raw products used at a salon (colorants, multiplying products like Olaplex, etc.) cost more than boxed products because they are higher quality. Many at-home dye kits include silicones which coat your hair, making removal and future color changes both difficult and expensive. When you go to a salon, your colorist can mix a fresh batch of color just for you. You’ll get unique, multidimensional color and shine.

Dye Stains

Dying your hair can get messy really quickly. You can lather yourself in vaseline, but inevitably, you can’t escape the patches of dye that will somehow manage to get on your skin. The great thing about going to a salon is that they have plenty of practice, and will make sure that they don’t get any dye stains on you. Of course they also have robes and smocks that will protect your clothes, so you don’t have to ruin another one of your favorite T-shirts.

Hair Upkeep

If you’re going to color your hair, you have to make sure that you are prepared to keep up with it. Healthy hair grows about half an inch every single month. If you decide to dye your roots, you should definitely be prepared to continue dying your roots every 6-8 weeks so that your hair isn’t composed of two different colors (unless that’s the look you’re going for). You will also need to invest in color-safe shampoo and conditioner, and we’d suggest a heat protectant because dyed hair is more sensitive to breakage from hot tools.

This information isn’t meant to stop you from dying your hair at home, but rather inform you of what could possibly go wrong. Perhaps you’ll consider going to a salon professional, or at least do more research to ensure that you maintain the health and longevity of your hair.