If you’ve ever waded into the perilous depths of dyeing your hair at home, you’ll know that major mistakes are easily made. From staining your hairline to getting the colour completely wrong, there are so many ways that you can mess things up.
RELATED: Affordable at-home hair treatments for damaged hair
RELATED: What you need to know about sulphate-free shampoo
But when you get it right, dyeing your hair at home can save you wads of cash and time. Luckily for you, we’re sharing our best dyed hair tips so that you’ll never fall victim to these common hair dye mistakes. Watch the video above to see how, or read all about it below.
Tip #1: Protect your hairline from stains
Avoid oh-so-awkward hair dye staining on your head by protecting your hairline. An easy way to do this is to use petroleum jelly to create a protective wall just outside of your hairline, around the entirety of your head. Be careful not to get the protectant in your hair, and don’t forget the tops and undersides of your ears!
bh loves:Vaseline Intensive Care Petroleum Jelly
Tip #2: Wash out any old colour
Make sure you’re preventing colour build up by washing away any unwanted colour before you dye your hair. Colourless Max Effect removes black, brown and red colour build up, which allows you to be the colour you desire without any of that old colour showing through. The process is super easy, safe and doesn’t damage the hair, leaving it in excellent condition. You can also safely re-colour immediately after use, so it won’t take up any extra time.
Tip #3: Match your hair colour to your roots
You’ve always got to match the colour to your roots, not your ends! Having a hair colour that differs at the roots is one of the most common at-home hair dye mistakes, but it can easily be avoided by choosing a shade that closely matches the roots, rather than the ends of your hair.
bh loves:John Frieda Precision Foam Colour
Tip #4: Buy two packets of hair dye
Who hasn’t been there – you got all excited, bought a new packet of hair dye, applied it to part of your hair and then you realise that you’re fresh out of hair dye halfway through. I had this exact problem when I was 15 and my high school bestie was dyeing my hair at my house – we ran out and my poor mum had to run out to grab more! bh’s Nadine had a similar problem when she decided to packet dye her hair while working at a camp in the USA. She soon realised that she had no access to running water and had to desperately drive to find the nearest hose in order to get the dye out! So if you have thick, long hair always make sure you buy two (or even three!) packets of hair dye – it’s far better to be safe than sorry!
bh loves:Garnier Olia
Tip #5: Set a timer
Make sure you set a timer while you wait for your hair colour to develop, or you’ll risk the hair dye over-processing! Never a good look. Use a simple egg timer or the timer app on your phone so that an alarm goes off and alerts you when it’s time to rinse out the hair dye.
Have you ever made a major hair dye mistake?
Years ago, I bought a cheapie timer just to use when colouring my hair. Now, I use Google Home to set the timer.