To think dying hair at a salon is a rip off?

[Noodlebugs1981]

I've been dying my hair in a salon for the past few years. I look forward to it and love pampering. My grey bits are getting pronounced I need it done every 6 weeks or so - and at £60-£100 a go, it's an expense I'd rather not have! Also, with two small kids it's time out I don't really have. My hairdresser/s have always said shop brought dyes are much more damaging/drying/"you can tell a shop brought product by the state of their hair" than the ones you get in hairdressers. Am I being gullible? Or should I get jump into shop brought dyes. I understand this is a small problem in today's world, but just interested in views of (non-biased) hairdressers!

I can't afford such. I use Naturtint dyes every month. Far cheaper.

I work in a place that sells a lot of hair dye. Very few people can do a good job themselves, as a one off between salon visits its ok but regular users don't do near as good job as a trained hairdresser.
I use a root touch up in between salon visits to stretch it out a couple of more weeks, literally only doing the roots.

Not a hairdresser but could you get a root touch up kit and just do your roots at home in between regular dyes? I think you can tell the difference between salon and shop, but I touch my roots up in between 10-weekly highlights. I am blonde and use L'Oreal Age Perfect which is actually for more mature hair, but works fine on mine. I also used clairol root touch up but didn't like it.

I'm interested in this too. I pay a fortune every 5/6 weeks when all the colourist is doing us slapping on some dye which takes her ten minutes at a push

I've been colouring my hair myself for about 6 years. Ain't nobody got time for 6 weekly visits to the hairdressers that take 2-3 hours a time.

I'm the same but I enjoy being pampered-in between there is now a L'Oréal spray called Magic Retouch that u can just spray on grey bits of hair,parting line,sides etc. It is a spray dye that washes off next shampoo -I'm now going 8 wks before going bk to hairdresser.
Superdrug are doing there own make of spray as well.
Worth a try I'm chuffed there's sumthing like this at last-

I've always dyed my hair at home - never had a problem. I can't justify the expense of a salon.

Imo shop bought dye never gives me the same awesome red coulor that the salon does and they DO dry my hair out so for me the salon is worth every penny!

Not a hairdresser but I have been using shop bought dyes for the past 15 years and my hair is neither dry nor damaged. The bonus of a salon is they do a thorough job without dying your forehead/neck, which takes a bit of practise, I spent a lot of my teens applying foundation over streaks of dyed skin

One of the joys of the internet is you can buy salon products online, so don't just have a choice of going to the salon or cheap supermarket stuff. If you are doing it every 6 weeks anyway I would just try at home and if you don't like it go back to the salon next time.

I do my own, it looks fine and my hairdresser often compliments me on the colour and the range of tones. I have mousy brown greying hair and I colour it medium blonde with Clairol Living Colour, alternating with their root touch up. If I put colour on all over every 6 weeks it affects the condition but if I only do the roots on alternate times it's fine. Also the conditioner that comes with it is great and lasts for 6 shampoos.
I wouldn't want to spend the time or money going to a salon for colour, it's just too much and not worth it, I would feel like a mug.

From experience, having had hair dyed there for some years and more recently trying it out at home over the past 9 months, the salon stuff is better quality and the colour sticks (as it were) better to your hair. Obviously they can also create colours that you can't get out of a box. No harm in giving it a try yourself with a box dye and see what you think. Just keep an eye on the state of your hair though, mine got very broken all the way down the hair shaft but that may have been a result of the frequency with which I was applying the dye, hard to say.

It is exactly the same chemicals. If you ask nicely they may even tell you the shade: I am 6a.
I do my roots myself and get a salon job twice a year now.
It is harder to do roots myself but it saves a small fortune and so much dead dead time in a salon.

If I had short hair I'd do it myself but with longer hair it's hard to get it even all over your head without help. If you have a willing friend though...

I think 'salon colour' is much better than 'box dye' however if you do a bit of research you can use salon colour yourself

pink google L'Oréal majicontrast red. That's Salon red. I do my own with that as I work for a salon wholesalers....

I've been dying my hair for about 20 years. I've had it done once in the salon when I went from dark to blond, but apart from that I buy a box and do it myself. I can't afford the cost or the time to do it any other way. My hair is in good condition and although it's not perfectly even (my hair is quite long), it's fine for the £6 it costs.

I find it too expensive too, I don't dye my hair anymore but when I did I just picked up the supplies from sallies and used their colour charts.

sally's*

I do mine in between visits and it's fine but it never feel as great as after a proper salon job. They get every hair and the colour is much more even. Sadly, my silver roots show through after just 2 weeks - sob.

My salon charges £40 for roots and a rough dry. I think that's ok given the time it takes.

I actually found mine looked better with Olia than from the salon ( but it can depend on the salon). I want to try the local college next time as it's really cheap & Ivhave been more than happy with my £5 beauty treatments there

You get what you pay for.

Your choice.

Thanks for the recommendation proudbadmum I have tried many home dye reds and never had any success with the red colour. Will have to investigate

@Greebolsacutepusspuss Any tips for keeping the dye off forehead etc? I use black, so it's particularly noticeable, and I am not very good at it!

pink use 6% peroxide and no higher. It's very bright and lasts months. I use a quarter of a tube each root touch up

resswoods Sun 11-Jun-17 22:35:14
I've been colouring my hair myself for about 6 years. Ain't nobody got time for 6 weekly visits to the hairdressers that take 2-3 hours a time.

I do - I absolutely make time to have my hair done every 6-8 weeks or so. I've short hair that's bleached with a grey/silver toner on top - no way could I do that home and I absolutely love my hairdresser - worth her weight in gold