Hair Color Guide 101

Coloring your hair can be exciting. If you’re like me, your hair would be a different color every month (if your hair would allow it). Unfortunately, our hair can’t handle that much punishment. Coloring our hair requires some restraint and some basic knowledge of hair colors as well as hair care. This guide is intended to help you get an understanding of hair color basics, such as the different types of coloring products, hair color application methods, how to pick the right color, and hair care tips to prevent damage due to coloring your hair. Let’s begin with the different hair dye products.

Types of Hair Color Products

Hair colors can be applied either by yourself at home or at a hair salon by a professional. Either way is fine, as long as you do your research on the proper method of application before trying to apply hair dye yourself. If you don’t, you can cause serious damage to your hair and your skin (no one wants to make a late night trip to the store with a hat or a hoodie on looking for burn cream and a new wig). There are several types of hair products we can use to dye our hair, the main difference between them is the lasting power they have.

Temporary Dyes

Are considered more of a hair color rather than a dye because they contain color molecules that are too big to penetrate the hair shaft. This means that they won’t alter the color of your natural hair, only temporarily deposit color on top of the hair. Temporary dyes will wash out after one shampoo, which allows you to test drive a color before taking the permanent plunge. A key thing to note is that if you have damaged or high porosity hair, the dye may stain your natural hair color. Temporary dyes do not contain ammonia or hydrogen peroxide, so they are a much safer way to color your hair. You can find them at your drugstore in an array of colors including bright, vibrant colors like red or violet.