Tips for Coloring Your Hair

Online, May 31, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Coloring your hair
Don't wash your hair the day you are going to color your hair. Most experts suggest waiting 24 to 48 hours after washing your hair before applying hair color. Freshly washed hair is lacking the oils needed to absorb the hair color.

Apply Vaseline to your skin all around your hairline to protect your skin from the dye.

Mix the hair color according to the directions on the box. Use a comb to separate your dry hair into four major sections. Begin by taking a smaller subsection from one of the sections and applying hair color from the bottle. Don't use too big of a section - you want to make sure the color is thoroughly worked through your hair.

Start with the roots and work your way down and outward, piling your hair on the top of your head as you go. You can use a hair clip or multiple clips to pin your hair up.

Following the instructions included in the box, wait 25-45 minutes for the color to work. If you have a lot of gray hair, it's best to wait the maximum time limit. After your color has processed, rinse your hair with cool water.

Wait to wash
After rinsing out your color, apply the conditioner supplied with your kit but don't wash your hair. Wait at least a full day, preferably 48 hours, after coloring your hair before you wash it. This will also allow the hair color to completely penetrate your hair shaft.

Touch-up your roots
About four to six weeks after coloring your hair, you may need to touch-up your roots. When touching up the roots, don't over-color the ends. Apply conditioner to your ends and then just color the roots and top. Five minutes before it's time to rinse out the color, use a wide tooth comb to distribute the color down the hair shaft to the ends. Then rinse as usual.

Highlights at home
For natural looking highlights, buy a second box of hair color a shade or two lighter to create highlights around your face. You can use a paint brush to paint on the highlights as thin or as thick as you'd like them.