to think home dye kits are just as good as going to the hairdressers?

[papayasareyum]

I've always spent about £90 for a cut and colour and been happy with the results. The last time I came out and was chatting to a school mum who said she always dyes her own hair at home. Not highlights, just a mid reddish brown semi permanent dye kit. Her hair does always look lovely.
Can home dye jobs look as good and if so, can you recommend a nice mid brown colour?! When I think how much I'm spending at the hairdresser, it makes me cringe!

Try Garnier Olia 4.35 dark chocolate brown? The whole range is really good, I think.

I agree op I use loreal root touch up, so easy and under a fiver often on offer. I dont like block colour much prefer to do strands of grey myself....

Thanks babooshka

I think a good (usually expensive) salon colour is better. I sometimes do my own and the big difference for me is how long it lasts. It definitely seems to go more "brassy" after about 3-4 weeks with home dyes, whereas when my current hairdresser does it really doesn't go brassy at all but stays shiny and "true" until I need to get the roots done. With previous (cheaper) hairdressers it really made no difference whether they dyed it or I did it at home (i.e. the hair salon colour went brassy too). Now the issue is the speed at which my roots are showing through. I would ideally need to go every 4-5 weeks to get it done but just try to style it so I can hide it as it's mostly at my temples and underneath the top layers. I have a box of semi-permanent at home and am soo tempted to use it as I am due to go on holidays in about a month and don't want to get my hair cut until just before we go...but my hair is really grey and looks dreadful at the mo. Hairdresser will give out to me but I figure it'll be easy for them to fix...won't it?

I have always done my own and get compliments on my hair (and its quite a bright colour so is noticeable) My tip is to make sure you put moisturiser all over your hair line so it makes any accidental drips/smudges easier to wipe off

I'd say L'Oreal Excellence 4.54 dark copper mahogany (or there is poss a lighter version).

Another one here who couldn't afford the time or the money to get hairdressers to keep up with my grey - my hair grows fast.

However, all home dye kits do not seem to be the same. I have no idea if there is any science to this, but not all seem to penetrate the hair equally, so I've found some brands grow out quicker. For this reason, I usually stick with the L'Oreal Excellence range.

If I were in a money pinch, I'd do allover colour at home.

I don't think it's as good as the salon, it's hard to synchronise the root and older hair colour and inevitably you miss bits.

The days I get my hair coloured are seemingly the best ones of the year, except for Christmas.

I have had some dreadful salon dyes at places of various perceived quality. The worst was a whole head of highlights that came out brassy and massively chunky. The owner threw a hissy when I asked him to fix it. I've also ended up with sludgy greeny-brown from three desperate salons, one the most expensive in the area.

I bought a l'oreal kit and did it on May bank holiday to cover outgrowing highlights. It's fine.

What I'd really like is a rich plum colour but I don't know if I dare.

Def try Country Colours by Scwarzkopf - the Copper one. It only costs a couple of quid from Savers. I get people stopping me in the street asking me who does my colour, which never happened when I spunked £90 on getting it done at the hairdressers. I think the trick to avoiding disasters is to go semi-perm. Give it a go!!

Sallys Beauty Supply on New Oxford St. has all this stuff for professionals in the basement if anyone's London-based, and really nice staff

I was going to recommend there Globetrotter. It's brilliant.

I used to be able to get the perfect combination by mixing two L'Oreal colours sold as home dye kits - mid brown and red brown. Then they discontinued the red brown and later discontinued the bright red one I used as a replacement with a bit of adjustment of the other shades. My next replacement was too golden.

Sally's has been my saviour. I love colouring my own hair. It's cheap and it works.

I haven’t been to the hairdressers for over 3 years and cut and colour my own hair. Well, OH cuts it for me and I dye it myself - £2.99 from Home Bargains, whichever colour is there on the day, reddy / browny. I dye it once every 6 weeks but TBH it probably needs doing every 5 weeks these days. Why would I pay to go to the hairdressers, chat to someone I don’t know and pay for them to cut and colour my hair? I know going to the hairdressers is a treat for some people but I cannot think of anything worse.

And Pinkheart5915 My sister uses home dye kits and hair always looks just as good as my £190 hairdresser dye And did I actually read this? £190???

As long as you don't plan on changing your hair at any point....

If you continually box dye your hair and then decide you want to change it up, you'll either fuck up your hair doing it yourself or have to pay a decent hairdresser a decent amount of money to get what you want.

Salons/hairdressers will also custom colour your hair, mixing several shades to get something as close to what you're after as is possible. Understanding that pointing at the hair swatch/colour on the side of a box and saying "I want that one" isn't how it works is important.

So far I haven't found a decent home kit!

To go blonder: I have tried various colours, but always end up with orange tones. I quite like dark red hair, but that does not work with my skin colour at all. It seems impossible to find a lighter colour. I don't know how professionals do it.

To go darker: it kind of works, but the colour is never great, and doesn't last that long. Home kit seem to destroy my hair as well. My hair is beautiful when I exclusively go to hairdressers as beautiful as it can be it's not THAT great and I did that for years, but gets dry and brittle after a couple of months when I use home kits!

I used to spend around £200 at a salon, and it was completely worth it. Nowadays any spare cash is spent on the kids.

I think it depends on how you apply it.
Using a home one a certain way you can get a ring of colour where you are continuously putting dye on top of dye.
I always used to do my own, and highlights.
Now i have to go to the hairdressers.
I would never use a home dye if i was going from light to dark though, as that's how you can end up khaki.

Maybe the formulations are the same but I have full highlights - 3 different colours in the foils and a highlift tint round my hairline where I'm very grey.

I have lots of grey and highlights makes it merge in. I go every 10-12 weeks - so 4 times a year at £80 a time including cut/style. I have longer hair and it doesn't need cut apart from then.

So I spend £320 on my hair for the year. I think that's quite good. Even people who use home dyes still get there's cut - which is probably 20-50 a time anyway. I'd rather have colour and cut less.

I always use a John freida mousse dye and get fab results. I'm brunette (with a natural red tinge) and always found a dye to suit.

Can't be doing too badly as got really lovely compliments last time I done it. Conditioner with it lasts ages too

I used to use Loreal Casting Creme Gloss in a mahogany shade and it always looked good and I got compliments on it (it was a semi permanent but my hair holds onto the colour really well). Then when I returned to work after years of being a SAHM I started having it done at the hairdressers. I still have a semi permanent in a very similar shade and it costs a fortune every 12 weeks BUT I no longer splash colour around the bath or get a headache from hanging over the bath with all the rinsing, instead I get a nice relax at the salon with a scalp massage, refreshments and my book with no one banging on the door asking for the loo!

I home dyed mine red for years but now spend around £90 every 8 weeks getting it bronded - it's still got a fair amount of red (faded and over dyed) but with brown and 2 different foils of blonde - I really love it and no way could I do it at home

It's not the kit, it's the application. My dh does my roots and highlights for me, both £5 kits from Sainsbury and I have people asking me frequently where I get my hair done as they would like to go there. Dh in an engineer, not a hairdresser.

I have been using Garnier Nutrisse for years now. If I buy it on offer it is less than five pounds a go. I get a lot of compliments on my hair and worm with hairdressers everyday.

Live colour is the only thing that comes close to the colour I want. But it made me lose my hair. A load of it fell out and broke off. So I have to go to the hairdresser now, it doesn't give me the same problems.

I think salon is better but is v v expensive for anyone with lots of grey hair - different if no greys and just after a colour change or brighten up in which case yes if I had the cash would probably always go salon

A product I have found works v well is Nice N Easy Age Defy - I tend to mix two shades one lighter and one darker or one a neutral tone and one with a warmer tone to stop it looking flat. I do get someone else to do the applying and we use a proper bowl and brush (bought from the High street) - I think it's a good product regardless of your age though obv is targeted at older women or those with more greys

I don't think the density of the colour is different but if you are unfortunate to have a lot of grey inevitably it will need touching up frequently and this is why I think most people with significant greys just cannit justify spending £40 every 3-4 weeks

I do mine at home, but it's important to use a proper salon brush to apply it and work through the hair (same as they do at the hairdressers) and to make sure when you are redoing it that you do the roots properly, allow it to take, then do the rest, don't just slap it all over your hair.

I'd love to get mine done by the hairdresser, but I'm prematurely grey and on a teacher's salary, so I'd rather do it at home and spend the difference in cash elsewhere. My hair is one of the few things about me that gets compliments (long, thick and red!).

That place sounds interesting globetrotter !
How do you know want to buy and how to mix it all, does it come in pre-measured amounts like home dye, as in the tube and bottle?