Home Hair Color Advice from a Professional

While professional hairstylists and colorists hate to provide home hair color advice, we are all too aware of the fact that people do it, so with this thought in mind, a reader’s beauty question was answered, albeit, begrudgingly.

Danielle from Louisiana asked for a little home hair color advice.

Help! Cannot afford salon right now…had blonde highlights done months ago, have red in hair too…natural brown roots are about 5-6 inches with some ‘lovely’ gray!!!!! Should I strip it and just put color or color dark (knowing the highlights will still come through!!!!!)

Hi! lol don’t strip it on your own without going to the salon! If you cannot get to one, then just use a medium brown color to cover everything. Let me know how you make out!

Honestly, the best and only at home hair color advice this professional can give is to never do it, as readers of this beauty blog and my other columns can attest. Even though economic times are difficult, the result of poorly colored hair at home will cost more to correct in the long run than a trip to the salon. However, being that Daniel was about to strip her hair, a procedure that should never, ever be done outside of the salon, (see a few posts back) the safest alternative and best home hair color advice was to use a medium brown color to hold her over until she can find her way to the professionals.

Why NOT color the hair at home?

Well, I am a professional, with a full hair color line and a salon in my home and I do not apply my color by myself. Although, I am pretty adept at making sure the hair dye only lands on my regrowth and not my ends, I inevitably miss spots. I do not have eyes behind my head and cannot reach the entire back with out covering my highlighted ends, a fact that ends up happening on lay people dying the hair at home; they can’t cover the full area, so they end up mushing the color over the ends, which in turn deposits more and more and MORE color over time, drying out and damaging the hair and darkening the color each time the hair is dyed at home. In order to reverse this process, the hair color needs to be stripped, a costly procedure that oftentimes compromises the integrity of the hair.

My best home hair color advice is to just avoid it at all costs, however, in those times in between salon visits, ask a friend to apply it for you to avoid additional hair dye deposit and ensure all of your regrowth is covered.

Happy Styling!