It was on a hot Tuesday afternoon right in the middle of June when I said: “You know what? I might just dye my hair.” At first, it felt like something far fetched. The color I would be going for was not the usual caramel balayage or blonde highlights type of look people tend to submit themselves to. I was potentially going to dye my hair cherry red. Which, considering my pretty “conservative” and “traditional” style, was a big jump.
I’ll admit, at first, I was second guessing it. There was the fear that I would look like a walking stop sign, but also the uncertainty of whether it was going to turn out the way I wanted it to. I mean, I was going to dye it myself, with no professional guidance (just a Brad Mondo video playing in the background), after all.
Nonetheless, the more I saw “inspo” pics on Pinterest and the hair color seemed to follow me everywhere I went (which I took as a sign), the more I convinced myself that it was the right choice. And then, there I was, scanning through aisles of over the counter hair dyes at a “Sally’s Beauty Supply,” partially questioning my sanity, but also trying to decipher the difference between a “Deep Burgundy” and a “Rich Auburn.” Which still look the same to me, if you’re wondering. I ended up settling for a semi-permanent hair dye from the brand “Manic Panic.” Eventually, after watching a couple of videos of people dying their own hair at home, I decided to start the process.
Surprisingly, dying your hair at home is not as difficult as you would think. At least not if you don’t use bleach or any other hair treatments, except the one that comes in the hair dye box, or in my case, the jar. I personally did not use any bleach to acquire the color I wanted so the process was very straightforward. Notice how I said straightforward and not easy.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of benefits to dying your hair at home, one of them being that you are indeed… dying your hair at, you guessed it, the comfort of your own house. You also get to do it at a quarter of the price of a hair salon visit. But we also have to point out the negatives here. Being a “newbie” at dying my own hair, I’m pretty sure I committed all the mistakes one can while completing the task. First things first, in the process I sacrificed a shirt, a towel, and my desk chair. Which I think would have probably been salvaged if covered with a protective plastic. Guess the videos I saw didn’t come that in handy. Second error I made was not applying vaseline around my hairline, which would have avoided the possibility of semi-dying my skin.
Side note: Dye does in fact stick to the skin and is very hard to remove with just water.
On top of that, something that is not exactly an error, but is in fact a messy aspect of dying your hair at home, is the fact that your bathtub can get stained easily while trying to wash off the dye from your hair. Luckily, by using a semi-permanent dye, it wasn’t that intense or unremovable, but it is something one should always keep in mind.
The act of applying the dye onto the hair per sé is not hard at all. In fact, I found it fun. There is a method to it though. I personally started from the tips of my hair and made my way up to my roots. It is said that dye is absorbed the most the closer one gets to the roots, so making sure that these spots are the ones exposed to the dye for the least amount of time compared to the rest of the hair strands ensures that all the sections of hair are equally saturated with dye. One thing I want to point out though is that one should always trust the process. The color you see on your hair right when you apply the dye, is not the color you’re going to end up with. So, before your hair is rinsed and dried, do not make any assumptions.
I personally liked how my hair turned out, even though most of the dye is washed out by now. It really was a fun learning experience. So, even though it was kind of a mess, I would definitely do it again, with better precautions and preparation.
Dying your hair at home can be a fun DIY activity. And you can even use semi-permanent dye like I did, so the problem of a long term commitment to a hair color won’t be an issue. If you inform yourself as much as possible on the right way to go about the process, you’ll be fine. You might even be obsessed with your new look! So go out there, and if you’re thinking about dying your hair, this is the sign to do so. Live a little!