Ten Things Every Home Colourer Should Know

By BR Tabatha

Winter’s a great time to change up your hair colour. The sun’s rays are going to do less damage, unless you’re swimming as your form of exercise you probably won’t be in contact with the evil that is chlorine. Also, there’s something about a fresh colour during winter that can lift a case of the SADS. We’ve been eyeing up Schwarkopf’s Live Salon Permanent range recently (I mean, seriously, how gorgeous is the Deep Burgundy shade? And that Dark Ruby Red would look amaze on the First Lady…) and it got us talking about what lesons we’ve learnt as home dyers… so we thought we’d share some of our wee wisdoms with you.

1. Vaseline is your best friend. It really really is. Like. REALLY. Take it and apply all around your hairline and on your ears and the chances of ending up with dye stains reduce greatly. 

2. Plastic wrap is your second best friend. You know that point where you have to sit and wait while your dye does its thing? Wrap your hair up in plastic wrap, that way if you find yourself needing to move about the house you won’t splatter your furnishings or un-Vaselined parts of your skin.

3. Old towels will be your saviour. You know those grotty towels that you can’t bear to throw away, but don’t use on your bod anymore because they’re scratchy and probably have some icky stains on them? Use those to cover your bathroom floor before dying. Tuck them up around where the sink meets the wall. Basically they’ll stop you having to go on a stain scouring mission where if a policeman came in he’d think you were cleaning up after committing some horrific crime.

4. Always use gloves. If not the ones supplied, then some other ones. Otherwise your hands will look a ridiculous shade of whatever hair colour your choose until the dye wears off.

5. Rinse. Rinse. Then rinse again. I’m not saying shampoo here, because we all know what shampoo does to dyed hair, but when it says to rinse until the water runs clear, do that. And make sure it’s super clear, otherwise you could find your favourite top or your pillow case ends up with some colourific streaks on it.

6. Always do a patch/strand test. The last thing you want is to feel the burn.

7. Consider your eyebrows when choosing a colour. In fact, when you’re dying your own hair it pays to consider your natural colour full stop. If you’re keen to have blonde brows with black hair, cool. Vice versa? Cool too. But if you like things matchy matchy try to stick within a few shades of your natural colour when you’re getting your home dye on.

8. Sometimes you’re going to need another box. If you’ve long and thick locks chances are that one box of dye won’t cut the complete mustard. Get two just in case. You’re better to have too much than not enough and a half dyed head.

9. Even after the best preparation you will find colour in unusual spots. That stuff has magical flying abilities, I’m sure of it. I’ve been known to cover every inch of the immediate area and yet it still gets into nooks and crannies. If you happen across one and have a ‘how the heck am I going to get that out’ moment, hit up the Interwebs. Top suggestions include bleach, nail polish remover, and melamine foam (which I’ve tried and while it got rid of a good chunk of the stain on the paint it also got rid of some of the paint… use with caution.)

10. Nudie up, kids! So by now you’ve figured or already know that colouring your hair at home can be a bit of a messy job. Our top tip? Do it in the nude. Or use a really scody button up shirt. Dye fades from skin, but not from your favourite top. 

So there you have it, ten of our top tips for giving your hair a makeover at home. Do you already follow some? Do you have others we need to know about? Sharing is caring!