How Can I Color My Hair Safely?

Are you itching to color your hair but afraid it’ll turn into a disaster? You’re not alone. It’s easy to damage your hair with color, especially if you’re a newbie. But, armed with the right information, you can color your hair safely, and we’ll tell you exactly how.

Hair Dye Ingredients to Avoid

Safe hair color starts at the beauty supply store. When choosing your hair color products, be sure to avoid the following ingredients:

• Paraphenylenediamine or PPD: You’ll find PPD in printer ink, temporary tattoos, and some commercial hair dyes. While this chemical doesn’t necessarily cause hair damage, it may cause an allergic reaction to the skin.

• Ammonia: Ammonia blasts through the hair shaft to deposit color pigment deep within. While the chemical makes for a long-lasting color result, the damage it leaves behind is irreversible in many cases. Using ammonia hair dye can take your hair from soft and shiny to dry and brittle.

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS): SLS is not only in hair color but also in some household cleaning products. Many use hair color kits with sulfate shampoos, but a chemical this strong will completely strip your hair’s natural oils, leading to dryness, damage, and breakage.

Safe Hair Coloring Tips

In this section, we’ll go over some safe hair coloring tips to help you get the color you want without sacrificing your hair’s health.

Do a Hair Evaluation

Before attempting to color your hair at home, double-check the health of your hair first. If your hair is chronically dry and you struggle with split ends and breakage, you should give your hair some love before coloring it.

Avoid Overlap

Applying bleach or hair color on top of pre-lightened hair is the quickest way to damage your hair beyond repair. If you’re doing a root touch-up, be careful to only apply the product to your virgin roots.

Follow the Package Instructions

 The directions on the hair color packaging are extremely important. If you don’t follow the coloring instructions, you could end up with damage and an unwanted color result. We also advise against leaving hair color on your hair for longer than instructed if you want to preserve the integrity of your hair.

Condition Immediately Afterward

Even when you do everything right, hair color can still take a toll on your hair. To minimize damage, give your locks some love after processing them. This is as simple as applying a deep conditioner to your hair and rinsing it out after a few minutes.

Safest Hair Coloring Products

Drug store hair color is usually formulated with unsafe ingredients. But many aren’t aware that there are natural alternatives on the market. In the below list, we will introduce you to a few safer options:

• Natural Hair Color Kits: Reach for a natural hair color kit free of ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PDD, phthalates, and gluten.

• Demi-Permanent Hair Color: Look for demi-permanent hair color kits which are ammonia-free. The manufacturers of these products try to cut out harsh chemicals and replace them with natural ingredients to leave your hair feeling soft and shiny.

• Plant-Based Hair Color: Plant-based color is mainly derived from plants and other gentle ingredients, leaving your hair feeling softer and healthier than it did before processing.

With the information from this article, there’s no need to spend a fortune on salon color treatments. We hope that the information in this article empowers you to color your hair at home with confidence.

Author: Andrea Reyes

Andrea is a mother, wife, writer, and natural hair enthusiast of 15 years. Currently on her natural hair journey, she’s been trying countless products and techniques to understand and embrace her natural hair. She is the creator of NaturallyTextured.com, a new website featuring informative articles that share tips, tricks, and techniques aimed to help others learn to love their hair through proper hair care. She writes with the hope of making hair care easier to understand and implement.