How to Go Back to Natural Hair Color After Highlights?

to return to natural hair color

Are you tired of all the maintenance having highlights requires? You don’t want to spend more and more time at the beauty salon?

Don’t stress! Getting back to your natural hair color if you have highlights is simple:

You just need to use a dye that’s the same color as your natural hair color.

Are you surprised? You must have thought that I would tell you about some long, arduous process.

But, no. Getting back to your natural color is actually pretty simple.

Highlights are a classic hair coloring technique.

They’re one of the most-requested treatments in salons since they hide gray hair, allow you to lighten your hair while maintaining a darker base, and fundamentally lighten your features.

But, highlights do require a fair bit of maintenance. You need to keep up by going to a salon religiously every 4-5 weeks.

So, if you’re tired of them, I’ll tell you how to go from highlights to your natural color without having to step foot in a salon.

The first step to leaving your highlights behind is to have a very clear idea of what your natural hair color is.

Why is that so important?

I’ll tell you that very soon.

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How to determine what your natural hair color is and why it is so important to do so

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A lot of women aren’t sure exactly what their natural hair color is.

If I asked you: What is your natural hair color?

The answer would probably be something very broad, like “Brown” or “Blonde.”

To be able to get back to your natural hair color from highlights, the first thing you need to do is let your natural hair color grow in a little at your roots.

Does that sound crazy to you?

It’s not. Imagine that you think your hair is brown.

You go to a haircare store and you buy brown dye.

You get home and you use the dye on your hair with complete and total confidence.

Then, when you dry your hair, there is a difference between the color at your roots and the dye you just used on it.

How could that have happened?

The thing is that you often remember your hair color a certain way that’s not 100% the reality or you’re not entirely sure of the exact right color.

In order to find out your exact hair color, all you need to do is follow these 3 steps:

Let your hair grow out for at least 6 weeks. That way your roots will be long enough for you to be able to recognize your natural hair color.
At the hair care store or the pharmacy, choose a dye based on what color your roots are. Ask for their swatch book (that has samples of each color) and compare your hair to each color until you find the best fit.
Once you’ve found your natural hair color, buy the dye in that color.

All done! You see how simple it is?

If you do all of this correctly, you’ll transition flawlessly to your natural hair color without needing to touch up your roots every 4 weeks as you do with highlights.

How to use dye the color of your natural hair color over your highlights

Using the dye on your hair is easy.

Like I said in the beginning, it’s very simple to go from highlights to your natural hair color.

But, make sure you have the right color because if you don’t, you won’t get the results you’re looking for.

Once you have the dye in your natural hair color, you can start to use it on your hair:

Brush through dry hair until there are no knots left
You’ll have everything you need in the color kit
Mix the tube of dye with the developer cream. Mix well until both ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
Start applying the mix from your roots to your ends.
Be very careful to cover the entire surface of your hair.
Let sit for 30-40 minutes, depending on what the instructions that come in your dye kit say
ALWAYS FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED WITH THE DYE
Once that time has gone by, rinse your hair with plenty of cool water and use the post-color treatment on your hair
Dry it and style it as you normally would

Now your hair should be your natural hair color.

Are you happy with the change?

Don’t worry if in the first few days, it’s a little bit weird to see yourself with this color.

That’s a normal feeling. Think about how after having highlights for so long, having one solid color is going to be strange.

Give yourself a few days to get used to your new look.

How to maintain your hair color now that you’ve gone back to your natural color

Now that you have your natural color again, you can forget about those annoying root touch-ups.

Your hair will grow in and if the dye you used is the same color as your natural color, you won’t have any issues.

It is possible that after some days (and washes) go by, you might notice that your hair is a little bit lighter in some areas.

This is because to get highlights, you had to bleach your hair and that hair lost its pigmentation.

When you used a dye in your natural color, those bits of bleached hair absorbed pigment again.

But, just like any dye, it only works for a certain amount of time.

When that time comes, you just need to touch up your color.

You can do that from roots to tips so your hair is an even color, or you can do it without touching your roots.

If you avoid your roots, then you should be very careful and be sure to completely cover the rest of your hair.
It’s very simple to do but be sure to pay close attention to what you’re doing.
Use the dye without touching your roots, leaving about 2-3 inches without dye, and making sure you cover all of the rest of your hair.

You’ll need to do this every 6-8 weeks.

As you can see, maintaining highlights is a very different thing from maintaining your natural color.

When you use your natural color, you can forget about having to go to the salon religiously every month.