A Girl with a View

A Guide to Dying your Hair at Home

I’ve always been the type of person who gets their hair coloured at a hairdresser as I don’t quite trust myself (or anyone else) to do it. But during lockdown, my hair has grown a lot in the past few months meaning that I have incredibly dark roots and therefore my hair is resorting back to its greasy ways after washing so I was getting towards the stages of desperation. I asked my hairdresser what sort of colour would match and off I went to buy a hair-dye during the weekly food shop!

three hairdresser chairs alongside mirrors
Photo by Guilherme Petri on Unsplash

My Hair

For context, I’ve had my hair coloured since I was about 13 due to how greasy it was. I used to have hair that dried greasy after washing it so I was in a constant cycle of washing and it still looking awful though I have managed to find some ways to deal with the grease as I’ve gotten older. The bleach was a method to help dry my hair out and make it last longer and it helped. Since then, I haven’t been back to my natural colour in years and I prefer life as a blonde. Naturally, I have quite mousey-brown hair and given how pale I am, I find it often makes me look quite lifeless as the contrast between skin-colour and hair-colour could be quite different especially in winter months.

The Kit

I used the Garnier Nutrisse Creme Permanent Hair Colour 10.01. The actual kit itself is pretty self-explanatory to use and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. Essentially you squeeze the colour into (what I assume) is some kind of bleach and then squeeze into the hair and massage it in with the provided gloves. You then need to wait 15-25 mins depending on how resistant your hair is. There’s also a conditioner provided to moisturise the hair and stop it from drying out. It’s a relatively pain-free and simple process that doesn’t take too long so I was quite impressed.

 

The Process

I started off by colouring a small patch of hair on the underneath segment of my head so that if it went horrendously wrong or the colour didn’t match you wouldn’t be able to tell and I could wait till after lockdown to get my hairdresser to remedy it. Thankfully, the colour seemed to match really well so later that day I set about covering the rest of my roots! To apply, I just squirted a somewhat generous amount into a dark patch of hair and then massaged it in with the gloves. It was easy and straightforward to do and only took about 10 minutes. I waited about 20-25 mins before washing off which seemed to be the right amount of time. If you keep monitoring how well how your hair is doing every 5-10 mins then you should be able to judge pretty easily when it’s ready to come off.

The Results

I was actually very impressed with the results! I’d seen a few things that said that this colour could be quite warm toned and ginger-looking which would not match my normal colour so I was slightly concerned about that. When washing, I used the Bleach London Silver Shampoo and left that on for about 5 mins when shampooing the colour off which I think helped to ward off any warmer toned blonde. The colour actually matches pretty well to my regular one and my dark roots are well and truly gone so I’m happy with how it turned out!

Home hair dying turned out to be a lot less faff than I thought it would be and it turned out relatively well for a first attempt. I’d even consider doing it more often to touch up my roots in between trips to the hairdresser and to save money on colouring it as the match was pretty good and it was simple and easy to do. I just need to get a haircut now once hairdressers reopen as I’m not quite brave enough to do that myself!

Are you brave enough to dye your own hair? Have you dyed your hair during lockdown – how did it go?

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Comments

  4. M. says

    I love your results! I used to get highlights so I'm terrified of messing my color up. I'm rocking a grown out balayage until I can get to the salon again!

    bossbabechroniclesblog.com

    Reply

  5. Kelly says

    The end result looks lovely, I'm really impressed by how the box dye worked! I've actually never dyed my hair before!

    Kelly x until-another-day.com

    Reply

  7. jennyinneverland says

    The results are fab! That colour is a really good match! I've never tried a box dye because my hair is auburn, most colours don't stick to it. I've only had my hair professionally stripped which I'd NEVER do again because it turned my hair into straw. Even though I loved being blonde!

    Jenny
    http://www.jennyinneverland.com

    Reply

  13. Sarah Mark says

    This is a great post and from looking at your pictures you would never be able to tell that you had dyed your roots it matches your hair perfectly!

    Reply

  34. Lisa's Notebook says

    I use Garnier Nutrisse all the time! Well, I say "I" but in fact I take it to my hairdresser who just puts it on the roots rather than all over. But I need to use a dark shade so we have to use Vaseline all around my hairline to minimise the staining. Your hair looks fab though, congrats! Lisa xx

    Reply

  42. Meebs1 says

    Ahhh your hair looks so good! Have always wanted to dye my hair but never had the courage. This looks super simple though, might have to try it out!

    Reply

  44. Eleanor Jones says

    This is a very helpful post- thank you! I think dying your hair can be scary- especially to someone like me who has never tried it before. Thank you for the helpful guide, those images are gorgeous and I’m glad you had positive results x

    Reply

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