A few weekends ago I colored my hair for the first time in…I dunno? Ten years?
It’s been a while.
For the record, it’s still not my most favorite ?? activity, and it isn’t remotely as relaxing or therapeutic as going to the salon, and it’s still preternaturally messy (even got some dye splatter on one of the bathroom walls, and of course it stained, yaaaay), but I’ve been looking for ways to save a little money, and doing my color at home again was an obvious choice.
In the benefits column, I don’t have to make an appointment anyplace because I can do it whenever I want ?, which is a huge, huge plus. I like the fact that I can do it when Connor’s taking a nap and just be done with it.
Also, my hair color routine right now isn’t particularly involved, so I think it should be manageable. I use a demi-permanent color, which fades gradually, so I feel like there’s less chance of me mucking things up and ending up with striped orange hair for three months. I’m only really trying to cover up my grays, and I’m sticking pretty close to my natural hair color, so nothing too extreme.
Now, if I were trying to lighten my hair or do some kind of cool highlights or an ombre effect, then I wouldn’t even attempt a DIY route without doing a lot more research and planning, because I can see something like that going very, very wrong. LOL.
Nonetheless, the color turned out OK — a little darker than I’m used to, but you know, it works for now. I’ll do it for a while and see how I feel in six months.
How about you? What was your most recent beauty DIY adventure, and how’d it turn out?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I dislike coloring my own hair for all of the negative reasons above that you mentioned. I only get it done 3-4 times a year so to me it’s not too spendy. The only beauty DIY I can think of is waxing my upper lip, and I pretty much have it down to a science! I just can’t believe it keeps growing back after all these years!
Hi Rachel,
Seriously it’s the least fun thing ever. 🙁 Which upper lip wax do you use? I use Bliss wax (the one in the blue cup) and it’s THE BEST!
I use Parissa, you just warm it up between your hands. It works pretty good and there’s no mess!
Oh, the ones in the strips, right?
Yes, that way there’s no trip to the microwave, said the laziest person in the world!
Oh, here’s a trick I used to do: use a hairdryer to warm up the wax strips!
I made my own lip scrub with brown sugar and avocado oil. It worked well except I had some excess sugar on my lips. Yum!
It’s snowing here today!
Well that sounds delicious! I’ve been seeing pics of East coast friends on my FB feed and I can’t believe it’s already snowing out there. It’s cold here too, and the smoke from the Camp Fire is still in the air. I’ve had headache for the last three days and it turns out that’s not uncommon.
When it comes to beauty I’d rather not DIY. I used to color my hair, but I found it to be more of a hassle than going to the salon. I didn’t like the idea of it running all over the place and into my eyes as I tried to rinse it out. And somehow I got it on the carpet in the master bedroom. Not anywhere in the bathroom, but in the next room. It was a pain to treat that stain. It took three go arounds with the homemade peroxide paste to get it out. And I had to be careful not to let it spread to the surrounding carpet because I didn’t want to bleach the color of the bedroom carpeting in that area.
Oh girl. I feel you. I hate rinsing out, that’s the worst part. I’ve found dye in the weirdest places in the bathroom too, but not the carpet… Yet. It’s only a matter of time. Did you just go cold turkey and stop?
For a while I went to the salon and had it done. But my scalp started reacting to the dyes. My colorist kept wanting to try all these different things but I was tired of the expense and the skin reactions. At that time the stylist I was using in the salon moved, so I followed her. I had short hair so grow out wasn’t too long. I know I’m unusual but I love my salt & pepper hair now.
UGH, that’s one of the issues I’m having. My scalp goes nuts after I color! It’s all itchy and uncomfortable. 🙁 It wasn’t an issue when I was going to the salon.
I think I might love my salt and pepper hair (and the low maintenance nature of it), but I wish I could just fast forward to have it be a full head of hair already, ya know?
Struggling with whether or not to color my hair or go naturally gray. (Who am I kidding—I’m too vain to go natural!) also struggling with whether to do it at home or salon. It’s not necessarily just the $ but the time spent driving there, waiting, etc. vs. making a mess at home.
Hi Kate,
I’m going through the same struggle. After the last round of at-home dye I was like EFF THIS CRAP and swore to myself that I would just grow the grays out cold turkey, but I don’t know if can do it. (Too vain as well.) If there was a way to immediately get to a full head of natural hair with the grays I would do it in a heartbeat, though. What percentage of gray are you at? I’m at about 40%.
This is going to sound terrible but I’ve been pulling out my white hairs so not really sure how much I have. 20%? That’s how I’ve gotten away with not coloring my hair. The problem is I’m 5 months postpartum and dealing with hair loss from that, so I feel like I can’t voluntarily lose anymore hair. It’s thin to begin with and I lose about 20 strands each time I touch my head. Ugh
I feel you girl about the postpartum hair loss… It’s super scary! Not to freak you out even more but it’s almost 3 years after I had my daughter and my hair still isn’t the same, and I’m afraid it never will be. I have thin patches at my temples that I never had before being pregnant. 🙁 Are you still taking prenatal vitamins? That for me seemed to help with recovery and regrowth.
I don’t dare try and color my hair, I would get distracted half way through. I’m lucky if I remember to do both eyebrows at the same time. I go to a cosmetology school, it’s about $40, much less than most salons here.
That’s a good idea, Lisa! I’m sure the students are extra careful, too!
I’m very lucky that my hubby dyes my hair for me, and trims the buzzed side for me, too. I’ve dyed friends’ hair and my son’s hair, but doing my own is just too hard. I miss spots.
It’s been a really long time since I DIYed something. I think it was trying to do acrylic nails on myself, but I couldn’t get the powder the right consistency. I read tons of “how-tos” and watched tons of videos, but not a one described what consistency the ball of acrylic on your brush should be. I gave up.
Good luck girl! I’ve gone down the demi-permanent rabbit hole trying to cover grays myself, and I’ve found it to be unsustainable. It doesn’t cover the grays for long – the roots tend to fade, and the lengths just get darker and darker. I have dark hair too, and I found myself coloring almost monthly until it was just too much to take and my hair was the color of shoe polish. I don’t color anymore and I now have silver streaks, free of charge! I mean, people are paying to get gray hair! I’ts a statement look for me now and I’ll never color again. I would strongly encourage anyone who is sick of covering gray to go for it. Yes, it sucks for a few months, but no one really cares (just you) and you will come out happier, stronger and more beautiful in the end!