Hair color is the latest frontier when it comes to making a statement about your personality. Clothing, tattoos, jewelry, and hair cuts have all been used in the past as a personal style statement, but those methods have now taken a backseat to hair color and for a good reason.

Today’s hair color statements go beyond ink-black hair or bleached tips. You can now sport all the colors of the rainbow. If you wanted, you could even have them all at once. Advancements in hair dyes mean you’re only limited by your imagination.

How to get a bold hair color at home

With the right preparation and care, your new color will turn out exactly the way you want it, and it will last as long as you’d like it to. The key thing to note is that dying your hair an “unnatural” color does require more effort and upkeep than traditional hair colors. 

If you really want that bold impact, the following hair care tips are essential.

Pre-color moisturizing

Before you decide on coloring your hair, it would be a great idea to prep your hair. Coloring your hair can dry it out and make it brittle. To combat this, start taking vitamins that are designed to support hair health, and give your hair a blast of deep moisturizing with a mask or oil treatment. 

Bleach

Unless you have naturally white or blonde hair, you’re going to need to strip all of the color out of your hair. If you leave your hair its natural color and simply apply color to it, you’ll get a tint to your natural color but not the vibrant color that stops traffic. 

Many people opt to have their hair professionally colored for this one simple reason. That said, bleaching is possible on your own, and there are kits available to help you do it. 

If you go to a beauty supply store, the staff there can help you match your hair to the right product. It’s always a good idea to buy a little extra bleach to make sure you have enough.

It’s crucial that you buy bleach products designed specifically for hair. Hair bleach is not the same as the bleach you use on your clothing or for cleaning. It is diluted and contains other products to help your hair. 

Bleaching is the trickiest part of dyeing your hair a bold color because this is where the damage can happen. It zaps your hair of moisture and can make it dry and brittle. It requires some practice and a gentle touch, but it’s the most important step to achieve the color you want.

Toner

Most people find that bleaching alone didn’t give them platinum or white-colored hair, so instead, they end up with an unnatural shade of yellow. This isn’t optimal for getting the color you want. 

A purple toner will help the bleaching process, and it will turn that yellow into the “colorless” blonde hue you really want.

Wait

This can be the hard part for many because you really want to dive into that new color, but it’s best for your hair to let it recover a bit from the bleaching. A few days should do the trick. 

Don’t wash it during this time, but let it start to get some natural oil build-up to support the strength of individual hair follicles.

Dye your hair

Finally, it’s the day you’ve been waiting for. 

Remember to protect the area around you, use latex gloves, smear petroleum jelly on your skin around your hair to prevent staining, and separate your hair into sections. 

Work the dye from the scalp outward, and only one section at a time. Try to work quickly. Make sure you follow the specific directions for the hair color product you bought.

Rinse your hair

When the time is up, rinse your hair thoroughly with cool or warm water, not hot. Don’t wash your hair. If the product came with a conditioner, make sure to use that to reintroduce moisture to your hair. 

Keep coloring

Your hair will have a wonderfully vibrant color when you first dye it, but that color will fade quickly. To keep it looking bright and fun longer, use products designed for color-treated hair, and condition your hair every time you shower.

You might want to start skipping shampoos to hold color longer. Moisture is key to keeping your hair healthy.

Final thoughts

Let them see your wild side with hair color that expresses your personality. You can have that great color you’ve always wanted, and you can do it yourself. It takes some time, a few days, and it takes a lot of care, but it’s totally possible.

The healthier your hair is going into the process, the better your results will be. Give yourself a little extra time to ensure your hair is in great shape before coloring. When you do color, the bleach step will be crucial to getting a vibrant finish.

To keep your color bold, baby your hair with lots of moisture and products designed for dyed hair. You’re going to love the new you.