At some point in their lives most women have colored their hair. It may have been a slight change- a few streaks, a temporary hair color or maybe a few highlights. But many people know the fact that hair color styles can be the best way to change your overall appearance.
Understanding hair growth and structure can help keep you from making mistakes when it comes to coloring your hair. Hair is dead and is made from protein. It grows from hair follicles and new length is added at the top instead of the ends. This is how you can trim your hair and have it still grow. Your hair can look rough and damaged if the top layer is uneven. The more peroxide your hair dye contains the more permanent the dye job will be. Truly permanent hair color needs to grow out as no amount of washing can remove it. This is because the peroxide locks it inside the hair shaft. Some hair colors are longer lasting due to the size of the dye particles. Red hair dye has the smallest particles and is the hardest to keep looking fresh. But oddly, it is also the hardest color to remove or color over and may unexpectedly show up in future dye jobs.
The first choice to make is whether you will go with an overall change, or if you want to just alter the color of specific sections. Natural hair color is not all the same from strand to strand and there are variations. This is easily seen at the end of the summer when some strands will be much lighter from the sun. Base color can be changed to a variation on one of the following four options. You can choose to dye your hair red, black, blond or brown. Whether it is light or dark brown, light or dark red, or even a combination of the two such as reddish brown, your four basic choices are the same.
Remember that even if hair dye says it is temporary, if it is a very dark shade it may last much longer than you would expect. Hair dye that is more permanent will also result in roots since the color will need to grow out. If the new color is very different than your original color the roots will be very noticeable. Less permanent hair color contains less peroxide and less dye works its way into the hair shaft so the dye will wash out over time. This can be a good way to prevent roots from forming.
Are you looking for more radical color for your hair? You may want to consider some of the more unnatural shades of red, blue, green, orange, pink or purple that are on the market. These colors can be hard on your hair mainly because it is actually a two stage process. In the first step you use a color stripper to remove your natural color and then you dye over top of it with the radical color. It is important to use the stripper so that you can get accurate results that match the color in the jar.
If you don't want to change your overall color or if you want a more natural appearance, you should consider streaking your hair or putting high or low lights in it. These are sections of hair in different thicknesses which can be colored a lighter or darker shade than the hair around it. Thinner highlights often look more natural and it can be a good idea to get a professional to help you so you see where the highlights should go.
Whether it is a color found in nature or a more shocking shade, hair color can radically change your appearance. If you opt to lighten your hair it can make you look younger and can give a boost to your looks that you never expected.