Color is definitely something you have be careful with. It also takes some degree of confidence and risk, but once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder how you made it any other way. One box will run you about $12 and the whole process from base color to highlights will take about 2 hours. Here are a few tips.
- Make sure you choose a mild color combination for your first attempt. This way, the worst that could happen would be a few misplaced highlights. Start slow.
- Get all your materials together BEFORE you start. A dark-colored bath towel will help keep your skin and clothes from getting dyed (always wear clothes that you don't care if you ruin). A hair claw will be very helpful (as will a comb with a pick at the end for selecting strands of hair, but it's not necessary). Remove anything from your bathroom that you're afraid of getting dye on.
- When applying the all-over color, take the top half of your hair and twist it up in the hair claw. Make sure you get your roots and saturate all your hair when dyeing. Then, do the same to the top half. If you have a lot of hair, like me, this will make the process more manageable and will make sure you get an even distribution of color.
- Don't bother drying your hair before moving on to the highlights, as suggested in the directions. I find it unnecessary and time consuming. Just be sure to towel dry your hair thoroughly and detangle completely. Also, when applying the highlights, be sure to part your hair the way you normally style it.
- You will only really need to highlight maybe the top 1/4, if not less. Take your hair claw and gently pull back a section of hair, about 2 inches on either side of your part, and twist it up and out of your way. Use the mascara-wand-looking applicator's back end to pick up small sections of hair for highlighting. Be sure your sections are no bigger than the width of your pinky (unless you want more dramatic highlights). Also, take sections that are close together at the root. This means, when you imagine the area where all the roots of that section are, this area should be close together rather than long or wide (up and down the scalp, or across left to right).
- When highlighting, I don't bother using either applicator included in the box. Use the back end of the mascara-wand-looking applicator to grab sections (use your pinkies to separate unwanted hair), and use the mixing paddle to apply the dye. Make sure not to pick up too much or you will drop it on unwanted areas. Start close to the root and make your way down. Once you've applied the dye, take the strand of hair in your fingers and massage the dye in all the way down with your fingers (except the pinky!). Try your best to get close to the root. You know you're using enough dye when your section looks a bit white, but it doesn't need to be completely covered. Focus on evenness. When you're done with that section, gently lay it down.
- Highlight sections about an inch apart on either side of the hair you've twisted up. Once you're done, continue to release half of the that hair and repeat. I try to highlight sections alternating positions with the previous (don't highlight sections on top of ones you've just done).
- KEY SECTIONS TO HIGHLIGHT are the very front sections that frame your face.
Many dyes these days can actually improve the look of your hair. They have good moisturizers and scents that are much different from what we had to use even just 5 years ago. I say try it out. The WORST that can happen is that you have random splotches of highlights that don't run along the length of your hair. In this case, you can always wait a week and use another all-over color to undo the highlights.
Rarely have I been overjoyed at the quality of a dye job I got in a salon enough to justify paying more than $200 (and that doesn't even include a cut!). I think I've mastered the art of home hair color... at least for my own hair. Hope you try it out!
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