HOME HAIRCOLOR How to Choose the Right Product for Your Hair
With so many kinds of home hair color in the stores, choosing the right one can be a daunting task. Liquid or cream? Temporary, semi, demi or permanent? Do you want a natural product or a chemical color? Or a chemical with added botanicals? After you figure all this out, you’ve still got to decide on a shade! Here are a few tips to make it easier.
Natural or Chemical
Start with your skin. How sensitive is it? Are you allergic to any make-up or shampoo ingredients? If so, you may want to go with the natural coloring agents, or at least try them first, and see if they give you acceptable results. I’ll list the natural options.
Lemon Juice: Apply it to your hair and go sit in the sun for a while. This will give sunny highlights to blond or light brown hair. Some women use this as a gray blending technique when they first start to go gray. It’s very subtle and natural looking.
Sage & Rosemary: This takes a little time to prepare. Fill a quart jar with sage and rosemary sprigs—about half a cup of each. Fill the jar with boiling water and let it steep overnight. Strain out the herbs and use the tea as a rinse. It will darken the hair gradually if used daily and should blend any gray in within two weeks. Once you get the shade you want, you can cut back to twice a week.
Henna: This has a long history of safe use. It comes in several colors, as well as translucent which is used to add body and shine. You can purchase it on-line or at most beauty supply stores. Some health food stores also carry it. If you choose this option, what you will probably end up with is a packet of dried plant material. You mix this with boiling water prior to applying it. If you are trying to go very dark or blend your grays, you might want to substitute coffee for the water.
Henna is messy; and you have to keep it on your hair longer than most of the chemical dyes if you want a very dark color. Also, if your hair is thick, it may be difficult to rinse all the little plant bits out when you’re done. I found tiny brown specks all over my pillowcase the morning after using it. This marked the end of my involvement with henna. I know women who use henna and have never had this happen, but their hair is not as thick as mine.
Color Matching Shampoo & Conditioner: O.K., this isn’t exactly natural, but it’s gentle. If you are not looking to achieve a dramatic color change, give the shampoo and conditioner sets marketed for specific hair colors a try. It may take a few weeks of continuous use to achieve the shade you desire (especially if you’re aiming to cover those stubborn grays), but the effect is very natural.
The Chemical Options
Temporary: This is just what it professes to be, temporary. It will wash out after a few shampoos. It’s also the gentlest of the chemical coloring products. I have sensitive skin and I use it without hesitation. Nevertheless, if you’ve never colored before, do the patch test. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Temporary color is also an excellent choice if you want to try a new shade without committing to it.
Semi-permanent: The pigment doesn’t actually chemically interact with your hair’s natural color but only enters the cuticle. Because it fades gradually, over 6-12 shampoos, you don’t get noticeable “roots”. This type of hair color contains no ammonia or peroxide and so cannot lighten your hair.
Demi-permanent: This lasts roughly twice as long as semi-permanent hair color. Because it contains a small amount of peroxide, you can achieve greater color enhancement with it. There is no ammonia in it so it cannot give you a lighter color.
Permanent: This too is just what it says it is, permanent. It will not wear or wash off. This is good if you’ve chosen the correct shade, bad if you haven’t. Because permanent color contains both ammonia and peroxide, it tends to be harder on your hair and scalp. That said, all permanent color products are not created equal. Surprisingly, the products sold for use by professionals (at the beauty supply) are usually gentler than the kits marketed for home use that you find on your grocer’s shelf. The people who work in the beauty supply will also be able to give you lots of tips that the cashier at your local Publix will not. You will get telltale “roots” as your hair grows with this type of color.
Choosing a Color
Stick with nature. If your hair naturally has red or golden tones in it, choose a “natural” color. If your hair has no warm highlights in it naturally, the “ash” tones will work best for you. The folks at Sally Beauty Supply told me that the words “natural or warm” in the description indicate that the color inside has a red base. The word “ash” indicates a gray base. The Sally people know what they’re talking about. Before I spoke to them, I once, unwittingly, applied a dark ash brown, permanent color to my hair. My hair is brown with red undertones. Believe me, ash brown was the wrong way to go.
To cover gray, use a semi-permanent hair color that matches your natural color, or is one shade lighter. The ash tones sometimes do a better job of gray blending on blonds regardless of their natural undertones.
When to Go to a Salon
Home hair color is best used for subtle changes. Radical change and dramatic effects are best left to the professionals. Alternatively, if you use a permanent color and don’t like the results, make an appointment. Applying one permanent color on top of another is not a game for amateurs. If you try to do this yourself, you risk permanent damage to you hair.
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