One of the most common haircolor hurdles we run into at Headbetter Salon In Sherman Oaks is when we are faced with fixing a home-brew haircolor. Celebrity stylist Tianna Donyes explains the pitfalls of drugstore bought "at-home haircolor kits" commonly referred to as "Box-Dye"

Why shouldn't you use “box dye” on your hair? What counts as “box dye?” Why all the online box dye hate?

My name is Tianna Donyes, and I am a colorist at Headbetter Salon in Sherman Oaks Village, Los Angeles on iconic Ventura Blvd. I am going to clear up the mystery surrounding the use of box dye on your hair.

Freshly bleached hair, the first six inches are how bleach works on virgin uncolored hair, the remainder had previously been dyed with black box color and you can see how hard it is to remove the old box color, even with strong bleach it stays and haunts the hair. 

What counts as “box dye?”

Box dye refers to any and all hair color you can buy without a professional license. Yes you read that correctly. Everything from grocery store hair dye kits to beauty supply chain tubes of color are considered box dye. If you can buy it yourself, you really shouldn’t use it on yourself. If you ever plan on going lighter, or keeping your hair’s natural shine, strength, or health I recommend avoiding it completely. 

Why should I avoid "Box Dye" haircolor?

Box color can be tempting to reach for. An hour in the bathroom for all over color for a small fraction of the cost of a salon visit sounds too good to be true! Believe me, it is!

A box of hair color doesn’t know what shade you are starting with. It uses super harsh ingredients that will work on as many people as possible. The extra strength ingredients are way more harsh, drying, and metallic than at all necessary for most hair types. So sure, your hair will be a different color but at the cost of the health of your hair. It may look shiny for a couple days after application, but after that you can expect dull, limp strands. A lot of non-professionals also may not realize that overlapping permanent color like this will further damage your already damaged hair, and further stain the hair that's previously been colored creating porous, dry hair that tangles easily. 

Color cannot lift out color. It's the golden rule of hair color. Once you've darkened your hair with permanent box hair dye, lightener (bleach) is the only thing that can make it lighter again. Even with a seasoned salon stylist in your corner, the color may never come all the way out. Your hair has already been through so much coloring and processing by now, the extent of how much lightener it can take depends on each person’s situation and hair type. 

What if I box dyed my hair YEARS ago?

If the hair hasn't been cut off, it's still colored, and the process to go lighter does not become easier.  

In the amount of time it takes virgin hair or new growth to lighten to a pale blonde, the area colored with box dye may only reach a medium brunette shade with orange and red tones in it. 

Even color depositing conditioners like Overtone can stain your hair extensively to the point where we can’t remove it even with lightener. If you’re hoping for a vivid color that fades over time, you may not realize it has stained deep into the cuticle of your hair. Pictured below is my client who had put Overtone in her brunette hair. It wasn’t even visible until I lifted her hair to find green in her foils while she was lightening. So even when you think your color is gone it can still cause problems when you try to change your look. 

No one wants your blonde/hilight/balayage dreams to come true more than your stylist, but the health and limitations of your hair are our first priority. 

When we use color in the salon, we can gauge the type of color and strength of developer needed to achieve your desired result and will be evenly applied with no overlap. This means, although it still wont lift the way virgin hair will, we can lift it lighter and much more safely than a box color since we understand what we are working with, and have virtually no damage to start with when applying stressful lightener to the hair. 

Correcting box color or any at home hair mishap can be exponentially more expensive than the box of color used in the first place. Color corrections at any reputable salon start at $100 per hour typically, and I have spent 10+ hours and multiple appointments blending, lightening, and toning hair that has been through a box color session. 

Next time you feel the need to reach for a box of color from the beauty aisle at the same grocery store where you buy your salmon filets and breakfast cereal; stop and  consider calling us to book a color service that fits your timing and budget needs.