How to Make Your Hair Dye Stable

If you dye your hair at home, you are saving money. However, you may find that you have to dye your hair more often if you darken your hair rather than lighten it, because your color will become unstable and fade over time. A color stabilizer basically prevents this change in color over time. While you may still experience some fading, particularly if you are covering bleached hair or graying hair, it will be much less significant, and your bright, luxurious color will last much longer.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Distilled water Hair dye that does not need a developer White vinegar Hat or hair sunscreen

1. Avoid products containing lauryl sulfate and laureth sulfate. These are products in many shampoos that cause the shampoo to foam. They will strip your hair and make the color much less stable. If you already use a shampoo with either of these ingredients, stop using it, and deep condition your hair before you dye it to make your hair more receptive to the color.

2. Rinse your hair with distilled water for three days after you color it. Do not return to your shampoo and conditioning regimen until the three-day period is complete. This gives the hair dye extra time to adhere to your hair and will help the color remain stable, rather than getting streaky or orange.

3. Make your own tinting shampoo. Mix a bottle of hair dye with your regular shampoo. The hair dye must be the kind that does not have a developer as part of the process so that you can just leave it in the shampoo indefinitely. Whenever you wash your hair with the shampoo, the dye will refresh your color and restabilize the color that is already on your hair. The more dye you put in your shampoo, the darker your color will be, so experiment to get the look that you like best.

4. Rinse your hair with half a cup of white vinegar after you have rinsed all the dye out of your hair. The white vinegar will set the dye. If you are lightening instead of darkening, you should use lemon juice; but bleaching effects are not generally as affected by destabilization, because they do not coat the hair with color but rather strip it.

5. Use sun protection. Exposure to the sun, especially within the first three to five days after you dye your hair, can undermine the entire dyeing process. Cover your head with a hat, and if you cannot do this, spray on some sun protection (often referred to as sun milk in salons) to help protect your newly colored coif.

Tips & Warnings

• Even if you love dyeing your hair at home, having it done professionally even once a year can make a major difference in your look, because salon-quality dyes simply look better and are better for your hair. They can go a long way to restoring your hair and making it more receptive to color. Pampering yourself once in a blue moon can mean a better look for you all year long.