Don't Be Afraid to Color Your Hair It's Easy!

Many years ago when I was 19, I started seeing gray hairs showing up and I couldn't stand it. Gray hair was for old women and being a brunet you could see them very well. I wanted to color my hair but I was scared to death that it would come out some weird color like orange, then what would I do! So I just let it go for a while until my grandmother was visiting one summer. She said she colors her own hair and it was very safe and easy. She talked me into it so I let her do it and it turned out just fine. I have been coloring my hair ever since. If I let my hair go back to its original color I would probably be totally gray. I blame my father for the gray; all of my dad's family's hair grayed at an early age so I lucked out and took after him.

If you have gray hair and would like to color it I can help you. You don't have to go to the beauty shop or salon as they call it today and spend a fortune just for hair color. If I can color my own hair then you can too. Don't be scared, hair color is safer and gentler than the old days when your hair could be fried and you had to walk around with a hat on.

The first thing you need to do is say "okay, I can do this." The next time you go to the store spend some time in the hair color isle. There are a lot of different brands and several different hair treatments that you can purchase.

I know you are scared so the best way to start is to pick-up one that isn't a permanent color these are called semi-permanent. Semi-permanent hair color will wash out in 8 to 12 washes. After my grandmother color my hair I started out using the semi-permanent until I felt like I new what I was doing and doing it right. Once I had the knack down pat then I started using the permanent color treatments. I will elaborate on permanent color later.

Now you are probably thinking what color do you need to pick-up. The best advices I can give you is to pick-up the color that best matches your own. Once you have found the color you want then go down one shade. Home hair color always turns out darker than what is showing on the box.

Once you are home and are ready to start, make sure you have allotted yourself time to color. You don't want to be talking on the phone (you'll get color all over the ear piece) or start a project that you can't stop when the coloring time is up.

Now I will walk you threw the steps that I do when I color my hair. Some of my steps are not a professional way but these are what works for me.

The first thing you need to do is to get the items you will need together. They are:

An old towel
The box of hair color
A couple of paper towels and a hand mirror

There is one other item that I use to use but don't any more and that is another towel that I would put around my shoulders but it would always fall off. Now I just put on an old t-shirt that I don't care what get on it.

Now I will put these in steps for you so it is easier to follow

1. I place my towel over the bathroom counter in case I drip or spill the bottles while I'm preparing the color. Open the box of hair color and take out the contents. You will find instructions, a pair of plastic gloves, a clear bottle that is the activating cream with a plastic tip that has a tab on it, the seal color formula and color seal conditioner.

2. Put on the plastic gloves, then pull the tab off the clear bottle of activating cream, discard. Unscrew the top of the activating cream bottle and remove the top. Now take the seal color formula and open it and pour into the clear bottle of activating cream, replace the lid on the clear bottle.

3. Put your finger over the little hole of the clear bottle that you will see it now has color in it, Don't be alarmed if the color in the bottle doesn't match the color of your hair. This is perfectly normal. Now shake the bottle up. This is to mix the activating cream and the seal color formula. Shake it real good, probably for a good minute.

4. Now you are ready to color. Take a deep breath and lets start.

5. First you want to make a part in the center of the top of your head, and then squeeze a little; you don't need much, of the color on the hair that is parted. You can work from the center to the right or the left it doesn't matter. The tip of the bottle is good for making the parts.

6. After you have applied the color on the part then part again and apply more hair color to that part. Once you do this several times you will get the hang of it. I do the center to right then come back and go from center to left.

7. This is a little harder. How to get the back of your head, I start at the back crown that I can still see and make a part with bringing the hair straight forward then I use my thumb as a guide to where the color should go. I squeeze color right above my thumb then work into my hair. I do this all the way down and also on the sides, behind my ears.

8. After I get this all done then I put more on the hairline from the top to my ears. This is where I have the cores gray hair and it doesn't want to color to well so I make sure I add more. Then I squeeze some of the hair color in the palm of my hand and work it all over my hair. The reason I do this is it makes me think I'm getting hair that I might have missed. You can also consider this like a massage. When you know you are done then pile your hair on the very top of your head, it will stay put.

9. Hears where the paper towels and mirror comes in. I take off the plastic gloves and put them in the box then I wet a paper towel. Take the paper towel and wipe close to your hairline and around your ears. Then I take the mirror and look at the back of my head. I can see the back of my ears and my neck, check for any color that is on your skin and wipe off.

That's it for coloring, now you have to wait. Depending on the color treatment that you bought the waiting time is different. The permanent color that I use to buy, I have to wait 45 minutes but now they have come out with hair color made for cores gray hair and I only have to wait for 25 minutes.

The next step is the rinsing. When the time is up I go to the kitchen sink and get the right water temperature I want. What you do is to palm your hand for some water and put on your hair to work it into lather like. You will notice that your hair is kind of dry but when the water is applied it will fell normal again. Once you have done this then you can put your head under the faucet and rinse. Once the water runs clear, you know you have got all the color out of your hair.

Then take the color seal conditioner and work this into your hair and wait 2 minutes then rinse. Congratulations, you have colored your hair! You can style as usual.

There are some things that you need to know about this job.

1. The hair color can stain but if you get it off ASAP then it wont.
2. Don't shampoo your hair on the day you color. The color won't last as long and you'll be coloring again before you know it. I have done this and it's true!
3. Always apply hair color to dry hair, if you try it on wet you are just wasting your money; it won't take.
4. In the box of hair color you purchase they say to do a test strand by cutting a small piece of your hair and apply color to it. To be honest with you, I have never done this and I have never had any problems.
5. Never keep any of the color that is left over. If you try to store the bottle they say it could burst and that would be a mess.

Well, that's it. This is my way of coloring my hair and I hope it has helped put some of your fears about coloring your hair under the table. Remember its not hard and go with a lighter shade than you think you should use and it will come out beautiful!