Dying Your Hair at Home without it Turning Green or Orange
Rainbows Might be Pretty, but Its Not What I Have in Mind!
This post is for the ladies, but if you’re a guy, send it to your friends, girlfriends or wife, they’ll thank you!
First off a note: Use this ‘advice’ at your own risk. I take absolutely no claims for your own use or misuse of hair dying products. This post is simply a few tips I’ve learned that have helped me save some money without compromising my style too much.
I have experimented with dying my own hair for years now, and I’m not going to lie, I have had some green and orange experiences.
For the dying products that I use, I like to go to Sally’s and get the professional grade products. They are very cheap, and if you know how to use them much much much more affordable than the boxed kind at the super market. Plus, the boxed kind often don’t work or leave you with the orange/green issue.
If you have golden toned hair, use products with gold in the title. If you have more grey or ash colored hair use products with ash in the title. I personally avoid all ash related products as they without a doubt can turn my hair green. I’d prefer orange to green anyway.
When things typically go wrong and leave you with orange or green hair is because you are trying to do something too drastic to your hair, your hair is over-dyed, or you aren’t using products that go well with your hair. If you get products at Sally’s ask them to help you find what goes with your hair type.
There are so many chemical factors that go into dying hair, this is why many people would prefer to go to a stylist, they don’t want to mess around with their hair and potential side effects. I forgo this to save money and take the risk. I have it down pretty well at this point.
My Most Recent Results. Not too Bad.
Using the Wella hair dye products with the developers at Sally’s has been consistent for me. Typically I use a 1:2 ratio. One part dye to 2 parts developer. For doing highlights, I can get away with using just 1/2 ounce and 1 ounce developer. So that ends up costing me about $2 or so per time for the dye and developer used. The developer works this way: 10% will do more deposit and less lift, so its good for dark colors. 40% will do more lift so its good for lightening hair. I typically use the 40% developer for adding golden highlights to my hair.
I use a cap for highlights and then cover my head with aluminum foil. I sometimes add heat with a hair dryer to speed up the process. It can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to get the results I want with lightening. I check often to see how its doing.
Its always good to do a sample on your hair before doing the full thing. This will prevent many many problems.
The typical rotation that I like to use to save money on hair expenses is this:
Month 1:
- Professional Hair Stylist: Color, 3/4 Highlights and Cut. Cost: About $145 + Tip
- Wash with slightly nicer than lower end Color Enhancing Shampoo / Conditioner. Deep Condition Once / Week. Cost: $15-25
Month 2:
- Semi-permanent hair shine or rinse wash to enhance the color. Cost: $5-10
Month 3 or 4:
- Do my own hair highlights with sally’s products. Cost $5 (Once you’ve purchased all the products needed, its very inexpensive to continue, but you will need to buy a brush, cap, plastic gloves and the color/developer at first)
Month 5 or 6:
- Semi-permanent hair shine or rinse to enhance color. Cost: $5-10
- Hair cut. $30-50
Month 7 or 8:
- Depending on how it looks, its back to the salon or I’ll do it myself again.
You get the gist. Again, this system isn’t perfect, but it helps me to save a lot of money without compromising on my style.
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