Other than price, is there a reason?
I’m trying to decide whether I go down the road of salon hair coloring, or just do it at home.
Your home hair-coloring experiences, please (good and bad)!
I’ve always done it myself. The trick is, though, not to buy the cheap kits you find at the grocery store. If you can find a beauty supply store and mix your own, you’ll get much better results. I prefer doing it this way, so I know exactly what result I’m going to get. I do my own highlights too. It costs maybe $10 for supplies, and an hour of my time. I can’t imagine paying someone else upwards of $40 (on the low end!) to do the exact same thing. Plus, I just really enjoy it. I’ve always prefered to do things myself when I can.
If you’re not comfortable with wearing your mistakes, or taking awhile to learn to do it right, though, you should probably pay to let someone else do it. It took me awhile of experimenting before I got it the way I wanted it, but now that I can do it I’d never go to a salon.
I’ve been doing mine myself at home for years - I’ve never been to a salon for coloring. I just can’t justify (to myself) spending $50+ for something I can do as well myself.
My wife does her own. I reckon the reasons to be…
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Though not in the field for more than 20 years, she has kept a cosmetology license current. So, she knows what she’s doing and she can get the good stuff from the store that requires a license.
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She’s terminally thrifty, despite our having the resources for her to go to the salon whenever she wants.
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She likes to be in control.
That’s apparently enough reason for her.
Jammer
Going to a salon is costly and (for me) miserable. Some people find it a pampering experience. Not me. It is more like a medical procedure, whether I do it myself or have someone else do it. With long hair, getting color and highlights, I was spending solidly over $100, getting the hard sell for the salon shampoo and conditioner, and spending close to 2 hours at the salon, which I don’t enjoy. And my hair grows fast, so it’s not like it would be a long time between visits. I like Loreal Colour Experte. It includes highlights and IMHO my results with this $20 kit have been as good as with a salon visit. I have not yet had any mistakes I felt the need to hide or repair.
Oh yes! I forgot to add my one bad hair-coloring experience. I didn’t have my glasses on when I was mixing the color with the developer on one occasion - my hair turned out brown instead of red. I was not amused. Someone in Wally World had gone through the haircolor packages and switched the color bottles between packages - staying within the brand so you wouldn’t be thrown off by an unfamiliar bottle. I got my money and a free box of color from Wal-Mart, and they checked their shelves to remove the switched packages. I also contacted L’Oreal, and they now seal the packages.
I’ve coloured my hair at home since I was 14, because I always thought my natural colour was a bit boring. The first time turned out nicely, it became lighter and looked quite natural in that it progressed to darker underneath. But since I was using a really strong shampoo and swimming in the school pool regularly, I quickly became what I like to recall fondly as a fiery redhead. I was bright orange like >> :o. I had a great picture of me at a friend’s property, holding a pot of goulash. My hair is caught back in a bun but there is a fine frizzy halo and since the sun is setting beyond the trees behind me, I look like I’m on fire.
I ended up cutting my hair short and having orange tips for a while…I then vowed never to go lighter again. More recently, I did a purple red wash that I adored and it faded out well. I then dyed it black for giggles and it lasted about two weeks…Schwartzkopf did not stay despite the permanent label. I did it black again a few months later and that was fine, and then I stripped it out a few weeks ago to dye it purple again, but because I’d stripped it, it turned out much darker than I had intended. I’ve recently stripped it again and have decided that my natural chestnut/chocolate is preferable!
I’ve never had it done at a salon, but my mum has hers done every few weeks to hide the greys in her hair. I think also, if you’re just looking for a change of scenery, go for streaks first. They’ll add some sparkle without having an all over colour that’s fairly boring. That said, there are heaps of kits out there with multi-tones and the option of adding streaks of a lighter tone in there. Check with your local salon about how much it would cost to do streaks (that is, of course, if you’re dying for a change of scenery) and compare to DIY.
For all over coverage, ask a friend who you know dyes their hair and has experience in doing it. I had a friend do mine the first few times and it made all the difference to the outcome.
I don’t have time to go to a salon, but I can sometimes find an hour or so to color my hair at home. I usually use Feria, because it has enough for long, thick hair, but I once tried that Loreal Colour Expert, with excellent results. (To be honest, I had my sister do it that time, because I didn’t know how to do the highlighting part.)
As a bonus, I use the time that the hair-color is setting to paint my nails, so I can multi-task. I’m a cheapskate, and I have very little free time.
It wouldn’t occur to me to go to a salon for anything. I think I’ve been twice in my life, and both of those had to do with a friend of my mother’s wanting to turn me into a glamour girl for my senior prom.
Also, I don’t use standard commercial colorant stuff – I dye my hair with henna. I imagine there may exist somewhere a commercial place that would have such a thing available, but I don’t want to go to the effort of trying to chase one down when I can just buy the henna and do it myself.
I use a semi-permanent colour to cover a big grey patch in the front of my dark brown hair. The results are just fine, as far as I can tell. Takes me about half an hour about once a month.
One thing I’ve found - dark brown hair takes purple dye very well. I looked like an eggplant for a month when I tried the dark purple semi-permanent colour - I thought that colour would never fade. I just stick with cocoa brown now, and it looks fine.
As I get older and greyer, I will probably go to a salon to have my hair lightened and coloured. I tried lightening it with a formula for dark brown hair at home, and my hair just laughed at it. I don’t want to risk ending up with pumpkin-coloured hair, so that one I’ll leave to the experts.
Right now, my gray is evenly dispersed around my head, so I use a shade about 2 shades lighter (medium reddish brown) than my natural color (dark brown) to turn the gray strands into red highlights. I make sure only to color the new growth and I don’t style or blow dry my hair excessively. I suppose if I wanted to be blonde, I’d go to a salon but I’ve got ruddy skin that would look strange with light golden hair.
I’ve always used the store kits; I never learned how to mix my own color. For those of you who are able to go to a beauty supply store and mix your own color, how do you do it? Does it make a difference in using 20 volume, 40 volume or whatever volume of peroxide? Can you mix colors from different manufacturers? Can you add conditioner to the mixture? What are your tips?
I love going to the salon to get my hair colored, it’s relaxing and I enjoy the whole process. At the same time, it’s somewhat difficult for me to always fit it into my schedule – you can’t go to the salon at 11:30 PM if the mood strikes. So I’ve gotten into the habit of going to the salon once, and then maybe the next two times, coloring my hair at home. Then back to the salon. I try to coordinate my color schedule so that if I have something going on where I really care about my hair, like say going to a wedding, that the salon visit will coincide with that. I also always keep a box of dye at home in case of emergency.
My main motive for coloring is to cover my gray, and after all that, I have noticed in maybe the past six months or so that the gray has gained some more territory, and I feel like the home jobs are not doing quite as well as they used to on this front. So I may be going back to the salon more often. I had a good run with my alternating system, though.
A couple reasons.
For one, I don’t like salons. i don’t like making hair appointments or going and waiting and then having a stranger play with my hair and make small talk.
Two, when I colored my hair it was pretty much an impulsive thing. like, “maybe I should go brunette. you think that would look okay with my skin?” “sure!” “okay, let’s go to Walgreens!”
Three, there’s always something fun about the friend-assisted makeover. It’s a teenage girl thing, I guess. It’s fun to make someone look totally different, it’s fun sitting there in the bathroom gossipping with your pals while you wait… plus there’s that element of trusting someone with your appearance. There are certain friends I would not trust to brush my hair, much less dye it.
Four, when you do it with your friends, if it turns out badly, it’s not solely your problem. I mean, it ends up being your problem, but there’s an element of a group mistake rather than just an unfortunate move on your part. You end up with the consequences either way, but it’s different when here are three of you telling the oh-so-interesting story of how the box said it would turn out medium brown if your hair was originally blonde and it turned out orange and we probably should have left it in longer but Katie was in charge of time and Ally was the one who actually put it in, so the splotchiness is her fault and they’re soo sorry and maybe the three of you plus Ashley and Jenny can try again on Wednesday (everyone: ooh, yeah! fun!)
(teenagers are weird. and kind of dumb. but we’re fun!)
I just can’t justify the cost of the salon. I’d love to have it done professionally, I think they do it better and use better stuff than the boxed kits, but it costs too damn much.
I have substantially thirsty hair that’s medium long but very full. (I’ve been saying ‘thick’ all my life but have had numerous hair pros correct me, my hair is extremely plentiful but actually thin hair, go figure.) So salons charge me for super extra long hair, since mine requires more goop than average. Even when I only want the roots done, they want to freshen the rest to match, so I either get aggressively upsold or I have to argue and risk getting an uneven root match.
I’m also way too grey for my age (80% and 36) with quick growing hair, so I need to touch up every three weeks or so.
I can’t do proper root coverage by myself so I have a friend do it for me, that way I’m not constantly coloring all/u] the hair and frying it outright. We get to visit or whatever during the process, so it’s just fun and cheaper than salon stuff.
Why? Because when I first started coloring my hair, I couldn’t afford regular salon visits. Now? Because it’s easy and I get excellent results (especially since I’ve gone to red). I use the Coleur Experte (I think that’s the swanky name they give it) by L’Oreal. Color & a highlighter. Never had a problem.
VCNJ~
Well, I can’t very well drop trou in a salon, now can I!
I dye my hair at home mostly because I get hair dye on a whim when I’m doing the grocery shopping, and then dunk my head in the chemicals a few weeks later.
I really should start going to the salon, however. The last 2 times I’ve dyed my hair I’ve either missed a patch, or there’s a certain patch of my hair that doesn’t take up the colour properly. Plus I love having someone doing my hair.
I went to a salon a couple of times to get an all-over colour and then highlights done. It’s not such a bad experience (apart from the phenomenal cost) but not something I can justify doing very often.
Mostly I do mine at home using a block of colour stuff from Lush. It’s time-consuming and involves a lot of faffing about, but the results are worth it and the colour’s much better than I’d get from a box of store-bought colourant.
I’ve never had any particularly bad experiences with hair colour apart from the one time I dyed my hair blonde and it faded very quickly into a sort of brassy yellow colour. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Out came the black dye very quickly!
I tend to have very bad results at salons. I think I have weenie who won’t complain tattooed on my head. So, now my husband does it for me. He can see the back of my better, and I know he’ll do a good job. He wouldn’t hang out with me if it turned out too badly.
If I colour my hair, I colour it - ie not my natural brunette to hide the grey (can never find a close enough shade) I keep telling myself “I’m not doing that again” as I’ve destroyed numerous towels/t-shirts/bathroom mats/spectacles, not to mention “redecorated” the bathroom several different colours, and it always takes about 30 minutes of constant rinsing under a shower head to get all the ‘excess’ dye out of my hair…