home hair colour or salon???

[rattie77]

I usually have my hair coloured at a salon, just going from diacolour to a more permanent one as grey is on the increase. Problem is it is expensive and times are hard, so am considering doing a home colour, but don't know where to start or if indeed it will look awful, can anyone with experience advise?My hair is naturally dark brown, but I usually have a auburn colur.

Salon. Especially with grey or greying hair. You want to get this right!

Home. Costs less than a tenner. Millions of people do it successfully every day. Personally I recommend the L'Oreal Excellence one - best range of colours and you get plenty in the bottle, and very very creamy and easy to use.

And if you really don't like it you can go back to the salon and they can cover it up for you.

i do mine at home, funnily enough, i use l'oreal ecellence too, ash blonde, pic is on profile, looks very natural, good colours in their range.

There is no reason why you can't do it at home. You say your hair is naturally dark brown and you have an auburn colour. This could be achieved at home.

I suggest before you make a decision you experiment a bit. You could do a strand test, but really what you want to do is "test" some colour out on your roots (because you are going from brown to a warm shade AND covering grey - you need to see how the colour will behave on your natural har)

Wait till you have some roots. Choose a spot on your scalp that's at the side/under layers somewhere above your ear, and paint on a bit of the colour you choose, leave it for the development time then wash out (do it when you are about to wash your hair anyway)

Then when you dry your hair, observe the bit where you painted the colour on. If you have got a really good match you will barely be able to find it, it will just look like a section of hair that hasn't grown or doesn't have roots. If its obvious, it will be too bright or too dark or too red or whatever and you haven't got a good match. If its only slightly different, you could use it on your roots and run it through the ends for a uniform colour.

But once you have found your correct colour, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it at home. You need to be careful of getting the wrong colour in the first place, and then of colour build up, so you don't want to run it through every time you colour your hair or it will build up brighter and darker on the ends and start to look very unnatural. This is the number one error with home colouring, and the reason a lot of home colour jobs don't look as good as a salon - basically a hairdresser has the skill to just apply colour to the roots, to know when and when not to run it through, etc etc. But you too can develop this skill - sometimes just buying a tinting brush (or a foundation brush is what I use) gives you a much more precise application and that's all it takes for a nice natural colour.

Can you look at This colour chart and tell me which shade most represents your natural colour and which shade most represents the colour you are dyed to and want to be, and I'll suggest a colour for you to try on your roots if you are interested.

Seems like home colour is worth a try after all. Tatty, thanks for your in depth advice - great!, my natural colour would probably be natural dark brown or natural dark chestnut brown and I am now most like natural light chestnut brown. I deally I would like to me a rich mid brown with lots of depth ( long shot).

Right. I keep recommending the same shade and I'm not sure if its because I am biased and have it myself, but you genuinely do sound like a good candidate for 117 Natural Medium Golden Brown. This is because you are naturally dark with a warm cast (red/chestnut) and you are currently a light warm and you want a rich result. Medium is bang in the middle and the correct "cast" or "hue". The medium golden isn't red as such but golden, giving a rich warm result.

I suggest you buy it - Clairol Nice n Easy Natural Medium Golden Brown 117 - and do a strand test. Snip some hair off (an under-layer, somewhere above your ear that represents the basic overall colour of your hair - about 10 strands - secure it with a sticky label or sticky tape if you don't have one (label is better) - mix 1 teaspoon from each of the bottles in the box together, and paint it on the stickered strands which you have placed on top of some kitchen foil. Fold the foil up like a little parcel and put it somewhere warm (airing cupboard, under your laptop, etc - bear in mind body temperature is 36 or 37 degrees so you want to get close to that so the developing time is indicative)

After 30 minutes or whatever it says on the box (Clairol is 30 minutes) rinse it off, dry it (or let it dry) and observe it in natural light. Place it against your hair now. Is it darker, lighter, nicer, worse, etc - too warm, too cool...or just right!

If that is too dark or heavy for you, you could go their light golden brown. But I think that will be right for your first dye, and then for your roots. You could run it through occasionally but you have to be careful about build up with anything "medium" or darker. Its great at covering grey, its a lovely lovely colour.

There is a pic on my profile of me with the colour - The top picture.

Thanks Tatty, I will rush out and buy that tmw - sounds ideal. Your hair is lovely, how do you get the soft waves? I like the colour in the bottom picture too, they are both really good shades. Do you use the foam nice and easy or the older style one?.

I use the older one, "Original". I wouldn't be able to do just roots with foam, I don't think, though to be fair both those shots were a full head of colour not just a root touch up.

I do my soft waves with GHD's. Thanks for the compliment x

I am (and have been sadly) going grey since my early 20s. I'd say I was 40-50 percent grey now (39).

I have over the years tried many dyes and regularly had salon dyes but now I have a toddler and another baby about to come I do not have the time to go and have my roots done every 4 weeks.

I used to do this and recently asked my hairdresser for a refresher, as I'd lived abroad and had a hairdresser do this for me.

Basically home kits won't be sufficiently strong to last more than 3 weeks. With proper salon dyes you will be able to go even with dark hair to 5, maybe 6 weeks.

I am dark chocolate brown so my colours refer to this and my percentage of grey. You can buy the products on the internet, or visit a Sallys (the staff will help). I buy my dye and developer on eBay as I find it hard getting to Sallys.

But I recommend you either consult a hairdresser -- go in for a dye job but say you want to recreate it for roots at home as you can't make a hairdressers every 6 weeks or so, they'll tell you what to use.

Majirel -- the best permament to colour grey (in my hairdresser's opinion). I use 50 percent 4 (base brown) and 50 percent 4.35 (that's a warm golden brown). I then use 6 percent developer. I measure it out with a tablespoon measure (one each of dye, then I think 1-1/2 of developer, although the leaflet will say the ratio). Mix in hair dye bowl with tinting brush (available for pennies from a Sallys)

Use proper latex gloves.

Apply to roots only (if roots is what you are doing) and no further up the hair shaft. Use the thin end of the brush to separate and apply, paying attention mainly to the areas you see and temples etc. If not that dextrous you could put the mixture in an old hair dye home kit bottle which has a nozzle.

Try not to overlay the colour on old colour as you will just build up and build up and get either too dark or too ashy/one toney.

Once done, take this as your timing start. Again, the leaflet will give the time - I think it's 35 mins. Then add a little water and take the colour through the rest of the hair to even the tone.

This is roots, virgin whole head you just apply all over. If ends have lost colour take the rest through sooner.

Basically a home dye doesn't penetrate as far (they need to be weaker otherwise unhappy punters would sue them for mistakes!) into the hair shaft as the developer is usually weak. A professional hair dye/developer gets the molecules right in there.

Go once and get it done and watch how they do it, and ask them what they used is the best way.

Where I am a root dye costs 40-60 pounds and grews out in 5 weeks (dark hair, high grey percentage) whereas this costs me 4 quid a go.

Just to add, I think it's a ratio of 50:75 dye to developer.

A tube of Majirel (indeed most professional hair dyes) costs 7-8 pounds -- you'll probably need the 'base' (maybe ask about 5?) and a 'warm' shade 5.4 or 5.35 - again, ask a hairdresser.

All over head you may need to use half a tube of each, but roots I usually find it's a little under a quarter. So lots of bang for buck.

Developer costs about 3-6 pounds for a big bottle (and is often available in black hair salon shops -- there are loads where I live)

The mixing bowl and tinting brush cost 2-3 pounds

Box of latex gloves, again, 3 quid from a chemist or salon supply shop.

Tatty, you are brilliant!! Thank you, I finally plucked up the courage to apply the colour you suggested and I am soooo happy. It looks brilliant - in fact better than when I go to the salon as they never quite get it right. You are a star. Can I ask how I keep this up?, how often to do roots etc and do you buy the same shade just for a touch up or buy "root touch up"?. I imagine that I don't run the full colour through each time?