Hair color can be a great way to let your personality shine through. After all, your hair is your best accessory.
Prepare Your Hair
Dye works best with healthy hair, so lay off the heat styling as much as possible, switch to sulphate-free shampoo if you haven’t already, and deep condition once a week. Prepare, prepare, prepare. If your hair isn’t healthy, the coloring may underwhelm you, too.
Color for You
While pops of color are all the rage, unless you’re going for the punk princess look, it’s best stick with colors that look natural with your skin tone. Cool or neutral skin tones can get away with ash blonde or platinum blonde, but most others will need to go with more honey tones. Likewise, not every shade of red or brown is a good idea, either. Scan some photos of celebs with similar coloring to yours and see what tones you like. You can even bring in these photos for a chat with your stylist. The words “Chestnut brown with a little bit of red” can mean anything from mahogany to russet so it’s best to provide photographs so you and your stylist are on the same page.
If you’re looking at the popular ombre or reverse-ombre styles, remember that not every type of coloring will work with how you like to style your hair. Ombre, for instance, works best with curls or waves. If your hair is straight and you don’t have time to style it every morning, it might be best to choose another style. Again, chatting with your stylist will clear these issues up.
After-Care
The coloring process is time-consuming and expensive, so don’t throw it all away by not taking care to keep the color looking its best. In addition to your sulphate-free shampoo and your weekly deep conditioning (right?) you’ll likely want to add an at-home glaze to your hair-care ritual. This will help keep your color shiny and bright between touch-ups.
There you have it: all you need to color in a new you!