The Biggest Mistakes You're Making With Home Hair Color…and How to Fix Them

Remember that time you tried going golden blonde but ended up with brassy bronze instead?

You’re in dire need of a makeover, but let’s face it, emptying out your wallet for a hair coloring session at the salon isn’t in your budget right now.Of course, there are those home dyeing kits, except your efforts with those have often led to disastrous results.

Fortunately, those dreaded hair coloring mistakes are easy to fix.

Celebrity hairstylist and colorist Frank Galasso is no stranger to transforming tresses from bland to fab. He has worked with Gwyneth Paltrow, the Kardashian sisters, Sofia Vergara, and Vogue Magazine among others. We want to know how to deal with home hair dye disasters and he understands our frustrations completely.

“I love color, and think it can add amazing dimension and gloss to the hair,” he explains. “But at-home coloring can be tricky, and there are some common mistakes I see all the time.”

Got a home coloring emergency? Check out what Galasso has to say about the top mistakes you're making (someone had to tell you), along with some quick fixes if it’s already too late:

Trying Ombré

Don't try a do-it-yourself ombré kit if your hair is dark…it never turns out properly even if you follow directions! A proper ombré needs to be done by a professional, as it's way too difficult to try to blend dark to light on your own. Home kits only look good if your hair is naturally light. If you’ve already tried this to disastrous results, dye your hair back to its original color for a fix.

Covering Grays

If you want to cover grays, just remember that home color can make your hair look flat-almost muddy. To fix a bad gray-covering-job, choose a shade with gold in it, such as a golden brown. The gold on grey will help to not make your color look flat.

Highlighting

When highlighting hair, home color can look brassy. Fix by getting an add-on gloss color in an ash shade, and apply it over the highlights. Add-on glosses don’t have peroxide and will only change the color of the highlights without affecting your non-highlighted hair.

From Blonde to Brunette...and Back Again

Already dyed your hair dark and decided you now want to go lighter? Not the best idea. Lighter color won't lighten hair that has a dark tint on it, and only the new regrowth will be the lighter color without matching the ends. To make this work, buy a home color remover kit to chemically remove the darker color from your hair, and then dye with the desired lighter color.

Going Red

Don’t try and color gray hair red! Too late and feel like you’re channeling Ronald McDonald? To fix, re-color your hair with a non-peroxide color gloss in a natural brown for five minutes. This will tone an unnatural looking red to a more natural shade.