Do you dye your hair? if so i have a couple of questions for you..
By fruitcakeliz
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
United States
July 23, 2009 3:48pm CST
I dye my hair on a regular basis, not to cover grays, but just because i like to play around with the color. Playing around with different hairstyles and colors is kind of a hobby for me.
If you dye your hair, i have a couple of questions for you.
Do you color your hair yourself? Or do you prefer to go to a salon and get it done? I used to be a salon go-er, but it was getting fr to expensive for my budget, and now do it myself. I have found that with a little time, patience and know-how you can get just as good of a look by spending $10 at a store, as opposed to spending $60 or more at a salon.
Do you have any suggestions for prolonging the life of your color? I know there are all kinds of products on the market these days that promise to help slow down or prevent your hair color from fading, but do any of them really work? I find that this is the hardest part about coloring my hair, especially as i tend to dye my hair with various shades of red, which are notorious for being the fastest to fade. I would really like to find products or practices that would allow me to extend the life of my hair color.
And last but not least, any other little tips or tricks when it comes to having your hair colord or doing it yourself...here's a couple i'll share.
~When it comes time to dye your hair, particularly if you are going darker, here's a good tip to keep from having those tell-tale dark spots on your forehead aruond your hairline, or on your ears etc. where you accidently get the hair dye on your skin and it won't wash all the way off right away. Before you start applying the dye, take a little vaseline and rub a thin layer on your skin around your hair line and over the tops of your ears. This will prevent the dye from staining your skin and it will all just wash right off.
~If you have roots that are starting to show, but either not bad enough that you need to dye again right away, or you can't re-dye your hair right now, stay away form straight parts. A straight part will just kind of accentuate the fact that your hair at the roots is a differnt shade than the rest of your hair. If you do a messy, or zig-zag part the roots kind of blend in with your hair a little more and can give you an extra week or so before needing to dye again.
Any tips tricks or info you can add would be greatly appreciated!
9 responses
@LovingLife139 (1504)
• United States
23 Jul 09
Wow, I just commented on a hair discussion where I mentioned I dye my hair a new color every time I dye it. We think alike, Liz! :)
My mother always urged me to go to the salon to get it done, but it's two trips worth of gas and $70. Why in the world would I do that when I get the same result for $6.99? Plus, I used to get fed up with them always telling me I couldn't get away with going dark. I listened to that for years, went to a really dark reddish-black, and absolutely adored it.
I'll try the tips with the vaseline and the zig-zag parts. That actually makes a lot of sense. I haven't found anything that really works for keeping the color in for very long. I've heard of shampoos and conditioners specifically made for certain colors and bringing out the best in them, but I've never tried them. But that near blackish red color I had only lasted maybe four days. Now it's a medium brown with red tints. Ugh. :)
1 person likes this
@LovingLife139 (1504)
• United States
24 Jul 09
Haha, I should've known. :) If that's the color you dye your hair in your profile picture, it looks good on you! I love the dark color best, and if it weren't troubling to dye different colors after black, I'd do black.
Dark hair with pale skin is comparable to red lipstick and light skin. It can be pulled off, and when it is, it looks stunning! You just have to take that first leap and trust your instincts and not other people's when they say, "You're too pale to pull that off!"
1 person likes this
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
24 Jul 09
I think the hardest part about going dark with your hair color is when you decide to go back to blond! It takes soo long to grow it out, trying to dye it or bleach it myself usually winds up with undesirable results, and a salon is too expensive..*l*...so it is always a big descision when i decide to go dark again, as i know i will be stuck with it for a year at least until i grow it out/it fades enough that i can get it cut and be just blond again.
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
23 Jul 09
I will admit, i commented in the same thread after you, and it is what prompted me to start this discussion *lol*
I know what you mean about being told that you shouldn't go dark, i tend to have very pale skin (forget about ever tanning for me) and blond hair, and was always told that dark hair would look "funny" on me, but the color i dye my hair a deep, dark burgandy color, and when it is that color, that is when i get the most compliments on in. Customers at work will actually go out of their way to come up to me and tell me how beautiful my hair color is on me.
But yes, when i dye my hair, i am lucky to keep it looking deep and rich for about a week before it slowly starts fading, Luckily when it fades it tends to just start losing the purply undertones that give it the deep burgandy color, and starts just looking like a deep red, which is ok with me. but after about 3 or 4 weeks my roots really strt showing, especially in the front, and i can't stand it. Others tell me it isn't noticible until i point it out. Guess i just need to learn to keep my mouth shut and not complain.
@wyvern501 (166)
• Philippines
23 Jul 09
My mother usually dye her her almost every 3 months... sometimes she skips 3 months... When she is dying her hair, she leave the dye to dry on her hair for 1 hour or two, to ensure that the dye would stick to her hair effectively before washing it and put conditioners to bring back the nutrients that her hair has lost.... When she is going to dye her hair, she usually mix 2 or 3 color to experiment a new color, making her hair a little to unique than others.... She always dye my hair to after she dyes her hair... sometimes it annoys me because the dye will stick to my skin and hard to erase... it will take 2-3 days before the dye on my skin fades....
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
24 Jul 09
Wow, unless your mother is buying her dying supplies from a beauty supply store, some of her practices just sound a litte odd to me. Most commercial hair dyes that you can buy only instruct you to leave them on your hir for maybe half an hour max. The only exceptions to this that i have ever seen are extreme bleach blonding kits, that sometimes say to go for as much as an hour if your hair is really dark in color. I i certainly would never mix dyes myself. You never know what chemicals are in these dyes and how they might react when mixed together. Some dyes contain bleach and others contain ammonia and such,and the fumes form mixing those two chemicals creates a vapor that can kill you!
The closest i come to mixing hair dyes is to dye my hair the dark shade, like the burgandy color i use now, then after rinsing and drying it, using a bleaching kit to add in chunks of very light blond, for an edgy neat look.
@wyvern501 (166)
• Philippines
24 Jul 09
Ohhh... Sorry.. My mistake... it only took 30 minutes to 1 hour... but she really mixed 2 or 3 colors but of the same product... She was doing it for almost 8 years now...
1 person likes this
@hotsummer (13837)
• Philippines
24 Jul 09
i have dyed my hair before with color brown for a change cause i get tired of my black hair. i have done it twice. i will not do it again soon. i am just happy with my black hair now.
1 person likes this
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
24 Jul 09
It is always nice to be satisfied with what nature has given you....i go through phases with mine as well and will often go back to my natural blond shade after having it dark for a while. It is quite a hassle though. It takes so long to go back naturally, and trying to strip the color out is harsh on tha hair!
@mermaidivy (15395)
• United States
23 Jul 09
I used to dye my hair a lot years ago but since it has killed lots of my hair and made the hair condition really bad, I stopped dying it... I have heard of my friend said you can try to put on some hair oil before dying, it helps reducing the damges of the hair. And my friend tried to use egg white to do hair mask after dying and all the way washed, it make it stronger. I don't know if it is true, I never tried but they said it worked.
1 person likes this
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
23 Jul 09
Interesting idea...i'll have to do ome research on it and see if it would actually work.
when i started dying my hair, my father used to get after me all the time telling me that it was going to make my hair weak and make it fall out if i did it all the time. He had an older sister who used to dye her hair all the time, and her hair wound up being very thin and brittle (whether that was from dying her hair, or from something else, i don't know) But i do know that the science of hair color has changed dramaticly with the times, and they use different chemicals and what not that are much less harsh on your hair than what they used to use. The only time i ever had problems with my hair becoming damaged due to hair dye was the one time i used one of the really cheap (generally bottom shelf) hair dye to go lighter. If you are going to dye your hair at home, i highly reccomend spending a little extra and going for the more expensive, bigger brand names, as spending $10 on a good quality hair dye is still saving a ton of money that you would spend at the salon, and the end results are definately worth it.
@jgbe4245 (56)
• United States
24 Jul 09
I dye my hair every couple of months. I use different types of shampoos that are for keeping the color usually I go for suave but it just depends on what is on the shelf that catches my eye. I buy the hair color at the store and save money that way as well...
Sorry no tips or tricks though mine just seems to last for a while
1 person likes this
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
24 Jul 09
I suppose a lot of it just depends on what color you are using, what your natural hair color is, and how far you are varying from your natural shade. If you read the boxes, they never suggest going more than one or two shades lighter or darker than your natural color for the best results....but i tend to go to opposite ends of the spectrum *lol*
janebeth.@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
24 Jul 09
Yes, acheiving that sun kissed look to ones hair can be hard to do, but it looks so nice and natural and pretty once you get it! Many people think at home kits are difficult to use or easy to mess up, but really they are not. I think the biggest mistake i see is people who have long hair, or even medium length hair that is just super think, only using one kit. If you do not have enough hair color to totally saturate all of your hair, you are going to wind up with streaks or spots that don't get colored the same as the rest. And if you really like the sun kissed highlights look, many companies now sell kits that have the over all color and highlighting kit all in one This way you know the colors are attuned to go with eachother, and also that the products are made to be used with eachother and won't fry the heck outta your hair.
@megumiart (3771)
• United States
23 Jul 09
I dye my hair every couple months or so, and I have a lot of friends that love changing their color.
I dye my hair at home always. And to keep the color longer, it helps if you do not wash with shampoo everyday. And to avoid drying out a damaging hair, always use conditioner- rub it in thouroughly especially at the ends of your hair.
1 person likes this
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
23 Jul 09
Thanks for the tips!
I try that, but unfortunately i have an excessivly oily scalp, and the only way to not have my hair be stringy or greasy looking is to wash it. I can get away with only using shampoo every other day when i wash my hair. And i try always to condition, but only on the ends to keep them form feeling dry or rough. If i use condition near my roots in only makes the oiliness of my hair worse, AND weighs it down so i can't get any volume to it whatsoever.
@lauralee11 (1)
• United States
7 Aug 09
Okay, so i actually just dyed my hair today....i naturally have dark brown hair. it's really dark. i was trying to go for a golden blonde, and i got a light brown. i've dyed my hair twice before. it's turned out okay. i want to make it actually blonde, i'm gonna dye it again in a week to make it lighter. but i'm not sure which dye i should go for.....do you have any tips?
@fruitcakeliz (2639)
• United States
8 Aug 09
If what you did already lightened your hair, i would give it more than a week before going lighter again, as you don't want to overly dry out your hair nd damage it. Just a tip.
But as a reccomendation, well, first off, when you are lightening your hair, i would suggest staying away from any of the cheaper hair dyes, (you know like the revlon color silks, or the clairol balsom colors) as they do not contain mainy of the conditioning and nourishing agents that the more expensive types you, as this really makes a difference. Everytime i have known someone to do these for a blond shade, they hair winds up feeling and having the consistancy of straw! I really like the Herbal Essences colors. Or Feria. The experience i have had with these has always been good. The colors take well and i've never had a problem with them drying my hair out and such.
@cosmogal (1)
• United States
28 Aug 09
Are any of you licenses cosmetologist because first off using box color on your hair is damaging enough. if you dye your hair black with box color it is nearly impossible to get off without damaging your hair because of the metals in the hair dye that stick to your hair. But if using good quality professional hair dye you can simply use a color remover. to be honest I feel like liz has some good all around knowledge from experience but as a professional I think she doesn't have the licenses to give advice on dying hair unless you don't care to use crappy products that will damage your hair. I've had my hair dyed for 6 years now and I don't go to the salon I do it at home but with professional color, bleaching and depositing color and my hair feels like virgin hair!
