Dying your hair a completely different color is one of those things that can either be incredibly satisfying or incredibly disastrous, an act you will look back on and think either “Wow, why didn’t I do that earlier?” or “Remember when I couldn’t look at a reflective service for six weeks without crying?” You probably get it by now: dying your hair is risky. This is why you should consider these five things before getting anywhere near the hair salon or your local CVS:
1. Current hair
There are two things to think about here: your current hair color and its “state.” Going with a color lighter than your current one is riskier because it is harder to dye over it if you make a mistake. Also, has your hair been through this song and dance before? If so, how many times? Doing a lot of “unnatural” things to your hair undoubtedly will damage it permanently, making it resemble straw more than actual hair (yeesh!).
2. Skin tone
Now for the fun stuff: will this color truly make you look your best, or is there another, better color for you out there? Contrary to what you might think, your skin tone doesn’t necessarily exclude you from dying your hair a certain color; the key is to pick the right shade of that color. It really has to do with common sense: the lighter your hair, the lighter the shade of color you should pick, and vice versa. When in doubt, hold a swatch of the color you’re considering up to your face and be honest with yourself: does it brighten up your face or wash it out? Obviously, the color that brightens your face will be the most flattering. Of course, all of this logic goes out the window if the color is not found on human beings in nature, such as black with no brown in it whatsoever (and I am talking the kind of black hair you see on witches in movies, which really does look different from your friend with naturally black hair), completely red hair, blue, purple, pink, etc.
3. Permanency
How long do you want this color on your head anyway? Semi-permanent hair dye washes out with anywhere from six to 26 shampoos, depending if its truly semi-permanent (six to 12 shampoos) or demi-permanent (12 to 26 shampoos). Permanent dye never washes out and instead has to grow out, requiring the wearer to touch up the roots every six to eight weeks. Common sense crops up again here: do you love this color you want it your head for the next year, or does that very thought make you have a panic attack?
4. Maintenance
Even if you dye your hair permanently, you still have to re-dye the roots every couple of months or so. Also, to people considering dying their hair red: red is widely known as the hardest color to maintain, as it more prone to fading. And, of course, money is another consideration, as dying your hair is usually not free (sadly).
5. Method
I cannot stress this enough: only dye your hair yourself if you are seriously confident in your hair-dying abilities. I made this mistake just last month when I tried to dye my hair into what would have been a lovely shade of auburn, but only ended up dying the top and bottom of my hair, with random, horizontal streaks of color in the middle. I still don’t know what exactly happened there, but thankfully, my hair is now totally auburn thanks to some professional intervention. If you are like me and will likely treat hair dye like it’s finger paint, go to a professional.