So You Want To Change Your Hair Color – Now What?

So You Want To Change Your Hair Color


We all need a change from time to time, a way to freshen up our hair and change our look just a bit to keep it updated and interesting. Not only does this involve changing up your haircut, but it can also easily involve changing up the entire color of your hair. Whether you are a natural blond, brunette, or have jet black hair naturally, there will undoubtedly come a time when you want to change up your hair color.

Below are some of the most common ways that women and men both want to change up their hair color to give themselves a whole new look, as well as the considerations you should take to heart prior to making these decisions.

How to Lighten your Hair

A lot of people associate lightening your hair with bleach, and bleach is associated with being bad for our hair. Bleach in itself is not bad for our hair; it’s the frequency and the potency in which it is used that causes damage to our hair. Bleach is not the enemy here, but you may be to your own hair.

If you have just had your hair dyed recently, as in within the past 8 weeks and you are unsatisfied with the color, you can perhaps have your hair dresser use a color reducer on your hair to help remove the color.

If your hair color is too dark and it was dyed over 8 weeks ago, there are still some options available to you. One would be to simply have lighter colored streaks placed in your hair to help lighten up your entire color. You may also opt to have a chemical treatment that will strip away the hair color, but this is extremely damaging to the hair and is not appropriate for all hair types.

If you dyed your hair with a semi-permanent hair color and want to lighten it up, the quickest and easiest way to do so is to continuously shampoo your hair over and over until you reach your desired shade. Your hair will feel a bit dried out, so make sure you use a deep conditioner and perhaps a hot oil treatment to try and help restore your hair’s moisture.

How to Darken your Hair

This is obviously far more easily achieved than trying to lighten your hair. Some ways on how you can darken your ‘do is:

Use a semi permanent hair color to help darken up your color. This is particularly great for anyone who wants their hair to gradually fade back to its lighter state. Women who prefer to have darker hair in the winter months and lighter hair in the summer months often use this method.

Red hair can be a real challenge. If you do have naturally red hair, or had permanently dyed your hair red before, then the color you apply may have a red tinge to it, regardless of what color you apply over top. The best thing to do is to go to a professional hair dresser to have your color changed.

If you are blonde and you want to dye your hair red, take particular are while dying it. Otherwise you may end up with a pink head of hair!