Did you know leaving hair dye in for a long period of time can alter the desired colour and even damage your hair?
Many people think that they need to leave in hair dye until it dries on the hair which is absolutely wrong. If you think leaving in hair dye for long will give you more of the colour, that’s not gonna happen anyway, rather it will give you an entirely different colour than desired.
So, if you are sitting with a packet of hair dye and intend to colour your hair, this post will help you know the exact proportion of all the ingredients that should be used and tell you the exact time duration that the hair dye should be left in your hair.
Nevertheless, different brands have different proportions of ingredients and so following the instruction manual is the best advice on how to apply and how long to leave the hair dye in for.
Table of Contents
Deciding factors that tell you how long to keep the hair dye in for
Not all hair types are the same neither are all types of hair dyes. Depending on both, the hair dye will give a different colour, hue and tint. Let’s find out:
Types of hair dyes
1. Temporary hair dye: has to stay on till you want the dye to show on your hair and then needs to be washed off.
2. Permanent hair dye: these dyes need to penetrate into the cuticles of the hair shaft and require a longer time to complete the process.
3. Ammonia free hair dye: these hair dyes also lift the hair cuticles but through a different alkaline medium. They need considerably less time to develop the colour in your hair.
4. Demi permanent hair dye: these dyes also use the oxidation process to develop the colour but with a different oxidation agent and need almost the same time as a permanent dye to produce the colour.
5. Semi permanent hair dye: here the colour molecules directly attach to the hair cuticles that is they coat the hair with the dye and no oxidation agent is involved in the process and hence these dyes require considerably less time than the rest.
See also: Can I Put Bleach Over Hair Dye that is Semi-permanent?
The porosity of the hair:
The lesser the porosity of the hair, the less will be the cuticles raised and the less will be the gap in between the cuticles for the dyes to enter and colour the hair and the longer will be the time needed by the hair dye to produce its colour in the hair.
The thickness of the hair:
The thicker your hair, the more will be the time needed by the hair dye to produce the colour.
The virginity of your hair:
If you are just a beginner and are colouring your hair for the very first time, the hair dye will show results quickly. But if you are someone who has coloured hair for n numbers of times, the hair dye will definitely take some time to dye the hair in its colour.
The condition of your hair:
If your hair and scalp are oily, the dye will take longer to settle in your hair and if your hair is dry and frizzy, the colour will show more in less time.
How to know in how much time the hair dye will give the desired colour?
In order to know the exact time in which the hair dye will show the colour you want you need to perform a strand test the day before.
How to do the strand test for hair dye?
Take a thick strand of your hair and colour the lower half section of the strand. Wait for 20 minutes and take out a thin strand of hair and take off the dye using water. Then wait for another 10 minutes and take out another strand of hair and wash with water.
Then wait for another 15 minutes and take the rest of the strand and wash off with water. Wait for the entire night and check the next day which strand of hair has produced your desired colour.
You can take 3 separate strands instead of a single thick strand as well.
The next day leave in the hair dye for the time that has produced your required colour on the strand.
How long do you leave colour hair dye in?
In general, the time taken by a hair dye to show its colour in your hair is 30 to 45 minutes.
That being said, it’s the standard time taken for permanent dyes. Semi permanent dyes will take much less time to colour your hair.
What happens if you leave hair dye in for too long?
If you leave a hair dye in for too long it will colour your hair darker than required. But in case you are trying to make your hair blonde, leaving the hair dye in for too long won’t lighten the hair colour anyway but can damage the hair making it brittle and frizzy.
So, leaving hair dye in for too long is never a solution to make the colour pay off more but will pave the way for hair damage instead.
Does hair dye get darker the longer you leave it in?
Yes, leaving the hair dye in for longer than required can darken your hair colour. The results will be darker with semi permanent dyes than permanent ones.
See you soon!
If in doubt, 30 to 40 minutes with the hair dye is the standard and the safest time span for colouring your hair. Anything beyond and less than that will work adversely.
That’s all my beauties for today. Grab your hair dye and change your hair. You are sure to steal the show I assure you!
Stay tuned for more hair care, skin care, and fashion tips. Till then……
Keep it simple, keep it fashionable!
