How to Use Koleston

Koleston is a brand of hair dyes manufactured by Wella Professionals. Each box of Koleston comes with four closely related shades of dye to allow the user to blend the shades to create a more realistic hair color. The final look is prismatic and multihued. Application of Koleston hair dye will require a steady hand and some experience with at-home dyes, as the process is rather complicated. You may want your first use of the product to be under the guidance of a professional colorist.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Rat tail comb
• Foil
• Shower cap

1. Create a four-paneled diamond pattern on the crown of your head with a rat tail comb. You will be dyeing each of the four panels separately. For example, the front part of the diamond pattern corresponds with the right and left front sides of your hair, while the back of the diamond represents the right and left back sides of your hair. To help you understand better, make a diamond pattern by placing your right and left thumbs and your right and left forefingers together. Hold the shape and place it over the crown of your head. See the illustrated instructions in the Resources section to get a better idea.

2. Take a chunk of hair from the right side of the diamond panel, about 3 inches in width. The chunk of hair will be divided into thinner strips that you will be dyeing and wrapping in foil in order to get uniform color throughout your hair. Thus, each chunk may ultimately contain three or four foils, depending on the thickness of your hair.

3. Separate a strip of hair about 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick from the rest of the hair in the chunk. Using the brush, apply color A in a single line from the roots down to the ends; apply color B in a single line right next to color A and apply color C in a similar fashion next to color B. When finished, you will have all three colors side by side on that wide strip of hair. Carefully blend the edges of the colors together.

4. Clip the colored strip of hair containing all three colors with foil. Continue to apply colors in lines as described in Step 3 until you've dyed all of the hair in the entire panel. Remember, there are four panels total and you're still working on the first one at this point. Make sure to clip all strands with foil.

5. Continue steps 3 and 4 on the remaining three panels of the diamond.

6. Apply color D between the foils, at the crown and throughout the remaining hair.

7. Put on a shower cap and allow the dye to process for 30 to 40 minutes.

8. Rinse out the dye and apply hair conditioner. Style your hair as usual.

Tips & Warnings

• Follow the directions on the box carefully.
• Do not allow the dye to process for more than 40 minutes.

References

• Koleston Usage Instructions

Resources

• Wella Koleston Official Site
• Guide with Pictures