While frequently heading to the salon for root touch-ups is ideal for many of us, this isn’t always possible. With your busy schedule, you may often wish for a way to touch up your locks in-between salon visits. With that said, we checked in with professional hairstylists, colorists and hair experts for tips on how to take care of your roots at home. Read on for suggestions, advice and insight from Michelle Cleveland, hairstylist and owner of Hair Addict Salon, and Ghanima Abdullah, cosmetologist and hair expert at The Right Hairstyles.
Tip #1— Choose A Semi-Permanent Hair Color
While Cleveland stresses that having your roots done by a professional will deliver the best results, she acknowledges that this is not always a possible option. If you find yourself in this position, she says she recommends "avoiding permanent hair colors or DIY lightener/bleaching kits." These two types of color, she notes, will "always result in an expensive in salon fix if done incorrectly or worse, broken or damaged hair." She continues, "What I would recommend, if you are absolutely unable to get to a professional, is a semi-permanent hair color with little to no ammonia."
While this type of product won’t provide 100% grey coverage, Cleveland says it works best for DIY or at-home applications for several reasons. "First, it won’t require precision application." This is important, she adds, because "quite obviously, we can’t have eyes on the back of our heads to know where to apply and where to avoid overlapping or banding of color." Secondly, if you find that after you’ve applied the color you absolutely hate it, "it’s much easier (and less costly) for a professional stylist to remove than a permanent color."
#2— Go A Few Shades Lighter Than The Hair Sample
Touching up your roots at home can be very tricky. If you're convinced that you can do it with a box dye, Abdullah says to "go a few shades lighter than the hair sample on the box," and "don't apply it all the way to your scalp or it will color, as well." This, she warns, looks very unnatural, besides being unhealthy. It's not an easy process to use a box dye, Abdullah points out, so one of the easiest things to do if you can't get to a salon is to "smudge your roots instead."
What you really want to do, she says, is to "get rid of the demarcation line, as that's what makes undone roots look so unappetizing." As long as your natural color blends in with the length of your hair, she urges that "it should still look presentable, if not nice." She suggests trying "John Frieda's Root Blur, which is a light formula that works almost like a concealer and blends two colors together."
3. Use Color-Depositing Shampoo & Conditioner
An even "gentler, more gradual method to use," Abdullah says, is getting "color-depositing shampoos and conditioners." These will help your color stay "bright in the mid-lengths and tips," while also "giving a slight color to the roots," she explains, "that helps everything blend together."
4. Try Root Touchup Powder
"If you're a little more bold," Abdullah says, but you "still don't want to go with the box," you might find it beneficial to try a "root touchup powder like one from Color Wow." These can be applied to blend the demarcation line, as well. "But the amount of dye in these is more, so use a light hand," she advises. Abdullah concludes that "you'll have more control over where you use it, as opposed to using a spray."
