Hair Color Tips Part 2

Last Five Biggies That Are Simply Not the Least

Hair color tips part 2 consists of five more vital tips to help you get out of the box at home.

How vital? Well… Read and decide for yourself!

To summarize, it includes the social outlook, potential health hazards, your essential homework, handling a mess if ever and the color maintenance.

Next Chapter>> Using the Hair Color Wheel

#6: Consider the Aftermath

Hair Color Tips - Question to Ask Yourself "What will happen once I change it?"

Are you ready for the aftermath?

And I am not talking here just about the results of your coloring!

What I am concerned more about you is… whether or not you can live with your choice, once you made it.

Your color should help you feel good about yourself and not the other way around!

Your profession, your neighborhood, your friends and most important of all… your FAMILY are a scale to judge and forecast the aftermath of your change.

Now I am not telling you are born to please anybody and everybody. But, there are people in everybody's lives they cannot and should not confront with… for good or for bad.

More than that, I am talking about YOU, yourself not being comfortable when you are labeled as funky, punky, sassy, emoish, chic, blonde bombshell, simply extreme and so on…

Even more so, when you did not intend to and could not afford to!

  • You simply cannot explain something you just did by yourself and tell them you did not intend to… It's hard to digest for your family especially your mother.
  • How about your office telling you that they don't want a funky receptionist or a sassy math teacher.

End result being a funky, sassy, homeless, jobless math teacher. (Well that's extreme, I know!)

It's never wise to sacrifice things you cannot afford to sacrifice just for a color, adding to that are the tags that come along for free.

This brings us to another important decision you have to make before choosing hair color.

If you are doubtful even a bit about your choice of color (It will not be the case if you follow all the 10 hair color tips), then it's wise for you to start with a type of color that bugs you for lesser duration of time, if ever!

That means you have to narrow down your choice of color to one among the major categories of colors i.e.

So, before you single out a color, always consider the aftermath. Your color must be in sync with your own special circumstances, to feel good about it and enjoy it's bounties to the max!

#7: You Need to Be Healthy!

Hair Color Tips - Question to Ask Yourself "Am I all fit?"

Is there any need to explain how health or say life is bigger than any hair color? I think NO!

So, make sure to rule out a few potential health hazards of dyeing.

  • Are you pregnant or a breastfeeding mother? There's a whole lot of controversy over the safe use of dyes in pregnancy and lactation, but your best bet is to avoid the dyes when you are expecting or lactating.
  • Do you have many risk factors for the bladder cancer or are in a profession dealing with other dyes? Coloring your hair increases the risk many folds.
  • Do you have any problem related to kidneys? Avoid coloring at all unless you are sure, your kidneys are back to normal.
  • Is your scalp free from abrasions, open wounds or dermatitis of any sort? Coloring would be worse than smearing salt over it, because hair dyes are even harsh chemical salts.
  • Did you suffer from mild itching or urticaria when you last colored your hair? Coloring your hair may manifest this time with life threatening events!

Do not consider this list as exhaustive. Always take medical opinion before dyeing your hair in case you have any sort of organic disease, no matter what.

#8: Ensure Results by Preparing

Hair Color Tips - Question to Ask Yourself "Am I all ready to go color?"

Wait… before you go all the way with the color, you need to make sure that you pass this readiness checklist.

1) Patch test your color: Allergic reaction to a hair dye can prove to be life threatening (though very rare) and hence it's an emergency in the medical world. Read more

2) Strand Test your color: Helps to ensure the life of your color. How? It gives you an idea about the time it would require getting your desired color and whether at all you could get your color with one box. Also it shows how your hair reacts to a foreign chemical. Read more

These two tests as such are much more important than the process of dyeing itself! Because one is concerning your life and another concerning life of your hair color.

3) Don't duck the instructions manual: Reading the hair color tips here or elsewhere, does not mean that you should bail out the leaflet inside the color box itself.

Read the leaflet faithfully, for one reason if not others and that reason is…

The manual of instruction inside the color box does contain very specific instructions tailored to handle the specific color you are dealing with.

4) Keep all the required stuff ready and beside you: Bowl, towel, gloves, mirror, Vaseline gel, hair clips and of course your time watch must be readily available.

Keeping the tools ready is to make sure that you color just your hair and not the bathroom and the rest of your home, while searching for them!

It helps if you keep aside forever a set of the above stuff, just for coloring. At least a towel and a t-shirt! (You can't afford new every time you color because they are sure to be stained.)

#9: Anticipate Mess before It Pops

Hair Color Tips - Question to Ask Yourself "What if I mess up?"

Expect the unexpected and expect the worst! Why? Simply because it helps better than not!

Take a note of the telephone number of your chosen stylist and also the toll free number on the box.

However, be sure to make use of your "Mess up Helpline" as soon as you get a hint of something going wrong, or as soon as you are stuck up with a color query.

The more you delay the more you should expect the unexpected, i.e. The MESS! All you may hear from other end of the phone line would be…

"I am sorry! But you need to go see a professional for that…!"

#10: Maintain to Keep Feeling Lucky!

Hair Color Tips - Question to Ask Yourself "Am I ready to afford the after care?"

Color it and forget it? No way…even if you wish it was so!

Maintenance perhaps is the biggest reason many people who can afford it do not purchase a limousine! Color like anything good also requires maintenance… and more.

Drastic changes of color, (refer to tip #5 of Home hair coloring tips part 1) require more aftercare.

This is one more place you may need inputs from a stylist who knows your hair, its previous color and state of health.

You need color maintenance not just for the fading color but also to keep a check on the natural color of your hair re-growing from the roots.

So, maintenance of a color like all the above hair color tips should also be considered well before you choose the right hair color for you. Simply because it costs you time, efforts and money!

So, let's see how to maintain if you must…

  • Using shampoos that are colour-friendly.
  • Applying hair conditioner regularly.
  • Protecting your head of hair from direct and intense sunlight.
  • You may need a few products that revive the chemical structure of your colored hair, which is more or less abused by the harsh chemicals inside a few dyes.

This concludes the 2 chapters on home hair color tips. I guess it covers almost every major and considerable issue in coloring at home.

Well… as of today, HF's Coloring Guide For The Home Colorist consists of seven must read chapters. (The last two are optional yet highly recommended to read)

PS: The order of the chapters is in fact the order of priority for you while learning to color at home.

Chapter 1: Preface to the hair coloring tips

Chapter 2: Hair coloring tips part 1

Chapter 3: Hair coloring tips part 2

Chapter 3: Hair color wheel

Chapter 4: Hair color chart

Chapter 5: Guide to the process of coloring at home

Optional Chapters for the "fine tuning":

Chapter 6: Choosing hair color

Chapter 7: Finding the right hair color

You will reap maximum benefits, if you read all the chapters, exactly in the order they appear here. Do not feel overwhelmed by trying to read it all now. Bookmark this page and come back here to read a chapter whenever you have an hour or half free for yourself!


Am I missing something? You are encouraged to comment or submit your own tips here.

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