How To Colour Your Natural Hair Safely

       

When I went natural, one of the main plans I had for my hair was to definitely colour it red or purple (I've done both now). Before I got started, I decided to search for reviews on colouring natural hair, but all the stories I read about began to discourage me because they were mostly talking about how colouring or dyeing your natural will cause breakage, damage and all sorts!

I almost gave up but my love for dark red natural hair kept me going, so I decided to do some research of my own on how to safely colour natural without doing damage to my luscious curls.

So, here are some tips for first-time colour newbies, to ensure your colouring experience is a pleasant one.

> Before you choose the colour to use, check out some colour inspirations; research or google natural hair ladies with the same skin tone as you and the colours they used, to see how it looks on them and know if it will suit you. This is actually very important, so you don't end up looking...

> Start small. Before you colour your whole hair (and regret it), you can try colouring little bits of your hair, maybe colour just the tips, or sides, or get some highlights. If you like how it looks on you then you can colour the whole hair.

> Decide if you want to colour your hair in a natural hair salon (if you love your hair, it has to be a natural hair salon and not any generic salon), or you want to do it yourself at home. If you want to DIY, then stick around and I'll show you how.

> This is the most important tip. Make sure your hair is healthy and protected before embarking on the colouring quest. As a colouring treatment can weaken your hair strands, you need to fully protect your hair before colouring. They are many products to protect your hair before colouring but I personally do a protein treatment to strengthen my hair strands before each colouring.

Colouring process:

All the times I have coloured my hair, I've always used Dark & Lovely Color Intensity Anti-Dryness Permanent Color.

The pack usually comes with a colour developer, colourant cream, instructions leaflet and a pair of gloves.

To begin -

* Section your dry protein-treated hair into 4 parts.

* Get a small plastic bowl (a glass bowl might interfere with the colourant) and a small plastic spoon or something else to stir with.

* Pour the colourant cream and the colour developer into the plastic bowl and mix together.

* Wear the gloves and apply the mixture to each section of your hair one by one. Go through it again to make sure the product covers every inch of your hair (If your hair is very long and full, you can use 2 packs).

* Cover with a plastic cap and leave on for about an hour.

* Wash off and do a deep conditioning treatment.

* Style as usual.

Tip: I've noticed that this product drys out my hair a lot, so I follow up with constant deep conditioning and daily moisturising until it goes back to normal. But it's worth it in the end.

Happy colouring!