You're doing it wrong: Coloring your Hair

by Megan Sequra

When it comes to getting a new hair color, the hardest part is maintaining it. Having to schedule (and pay for) regular coloring treatments gets to be a little much. A top colorist at Chicago’s Maxine Salon, says women are actually coming in way too often for color.

“The most common mistakes I see women making with their hair color is over-processing or coming in too often, especially when they do a single process and want to go lighter or change the tone or color of it. I need as much of their natural [color] as I can get, so two weeks is not going to work. That’s not even half an inch of growth, so the color would get overlapped. The same thing with highlights.”

So how often should women be coming in? ”I have sent clients away and told them I need at least four weeks of out growth.” 

If you can’t stand the thought of having so much root showing, they recommend Balayage. With Balayage, clients can go eight weeks or longer without visiting the salon.

“Clients thinking they need color every four to six weeks is a dated mentality. It’s not good for their hair or wallet. I never tell clients to prebook or give them a time frame to come in. I tell them to wait as long as they possibly can in between visits. That way we can avoid overlapping, over processing, wasting their time and their money.”