How often should you colour your hair?

With the Covid-19 lock down fixing your hair may seem both trivial and yet important.

Keeping ourselves mentally well and in good shape is vital. Colouring your hair at home may be the norm for you but then again it may not.

So just how often is it safe to colour your hair?

Originally written before the current crisis here are some tips.

You should colour your hair as often as you need to; need being the important word. Certainly sometimes you, and others, may want to be a brunette one day, a blonde the next and back again by the end of the week, but this is not realistic.

Colouring your hair too often can be a disaster even with 21st Century gentler products available. You must always exercise caution when colouring your hair.

Over the years skin tones change and you may suddenly want to colour your hair, though you may never have done so before. Graying hair can be flattering but it can also be cold steel gray almost resembling fuse wire in texture, while others are luckier and have soft snow white fluffy hair.

If you simply want to cover a few stray gray hairs use a semi-permanent hair dye. These are much less harmful to your hair and gradually wash out.

If you are naturally gray and want to stop dyeing your hair ask a professional about removing the dye. It can be done, but does take time and will not happen overnight.

It is easier, and should be safer, to have your hair coloured at the hairdressers. A reputable hair salon will always do skin patch pests to check for potential allergic reactions to the dye. If you want to make sure different coloured roots are not showing you may need a colour touch up in as short a time as five weeks.

Blonde or a similar light shade is advised when you are getting older but ultimately the colour will be your choice. You may choose to ignore even sensible advice. It is up to you.

Once your hair is permanently dyed the hair salon will simply cover the roots and do a comb through rather than applying a full head of hair colour. This should help minimise damage to your hair and give the colour a better overall look. You will still need a full head hair colour from time to time.

The obvious answer to the question ‘how often should you colour your hair’ really should be never. However, if you must colour your hair, aim for the gentler dyes, have it done professionally if you can afford to, and only have it done when you really must.

As we have already said though once you are on the hair colouring road it will be hard to get off.  Your natural colour will show on your roots in between five and six weeks, depending on how fast your hair grows and its style. If you have a hair parting the true colour will show through more quickly. to edit.

If you are older and going grey the current #StayHome advice, unless you really need to go out, could be a perfect time to embrace the grey. By the time we are all the flip side you will be transformed.

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