I dyed my hair and only my roots change color, what can I do?

 

When I received this question in my email, my first reaction was to say that the best course of action would be to even out your root color with the rest of your hair by using a dye.

But, considering the question a little deeper, I realized I wasn’t sure about one thing: What exactly did this person mean when they said that only their roots had changed color?

 

Since this is a pretty complex issue, we’ll take a look at each of these possibilities to decide what happened in each case and why.

 

Let’s start with the first option. If your roots turned out lighter than the rest of your hair, then developer, which is what you mix with the dye, lightened your hair.  And if that is the case, then the solution is easy. All you’ll need to do is use the dye again. 

 

Your roots could have turned out darker than the rest of your hair, not lighter,  and in that case, the solution will depend on your hair color. If you have dark hair, then your roots probably turned out darker because the dye you used was too dark. 

But, if you have light hair, your roots turned out darker because you didn’t bleach them before using the dye.

 

And it’s also possible that when you finished dyeing your hair, once it dried, you realized that only the roots changed color. How could that have happened?

Because damaged ends are much more porous and absorb more dye pigment.  And the solution to this would be to lightly bleach them.  

 

Since I know this is a lot of information and I want you to find the solution to your specific issue, let’s take a closer look at each problem and solution. That way, you’ll be able to have an even color throughout your hair, no matter what situation you’re in.

As such, I’m going to tell you:

 

How to even out your color when your roots turned out lighter than the rest of your hair

Like I said before, the origin of this problem is that the 20 volume developer that you probably used lightened your roots’ color. Why?

 

Because 20 volume developer lightens up hair to two shades. But, in addition to this, when you use the dye at the same time on your roots, the middle of your hair, and the ends, the dye will work differently on each part.

 Your roots are always warmer than your ends because of how close they are to your scalp. And the heat accelerates the dyeing process. 

Do you know how to prevent this?

 

You should always use the dye in the middle of your hair and the ends first, leaving about an inch of hair at your roots without dye.

After the dye has been in your hair for about 20 minutes, then you can use the rest of the mix on your roots and leave it all in 10 more minutes. Then, rinse it all out.

This way you’ll stop your roots from turning out lighter than the rest of your hair next time. But, now it’s time to solve the problem already in your hair. How?

 

 By using the dye on your hair again, but this time with a 10 volume developer, since it cannot lighten your hair. And of course, you should only use it on your roots. 

Once you have the 10 volume developer and the dye, you can start.

 

How to even out your color when your roots turned out darker than the rest of your hair

Like I told you at the beginning, there are two main reasons why this may have happened:

 

To do this, you need the same color dye you used before. And where should you start applying it to your hair?

 

That’s right! Good job listening closely.

You’ll start at the middle and ends of your hair, leaving the dye in for 20 minutes, and then using it on your roots.

How long should you leave it on your roots? About 10 minutes. Then, your roots and the rest of your hair will look even.

 

Because if you use the dye directly on your roots without bleaching them, the color will turn out darker.

 

 

Remember that it’s always important to bleach your roots when you’re using extra light dyes.

 

How to even out your color when only your roots absorbed the dye

If you noticed that only your roots changed color when you finished dyeing your hair, then you’re dealing with color saturation.

Every time you use a dye on your hair, your hair fiber absorbs it and changes color. But, when you’ve been dyeing your hair for a long time, your hair fiber can fill or get “saturated,” and it can’t absorb the new pigment.

But why did just your roots change color, if you always dye all of your hair?

 

 Because since the hair at your roots is the newest hair you have, it hasn’t been through any bleach or dye processing, while the ends of your hair must have absorbed dye at least 5-6 times. As such, the ends are saturated while your roots aren’t.  

 

The first thing you need to do to fix this problem is to get rid of some of the color in the rest of your hair with a bleach bath, which is a type of processing a little less harmful than bleaching it outright.

 

 Don’t freak out when you see your hair color after the bleach bath because you still need to use the dye, which should be the same one you used before. 

 

Now your hair color will be totally even without any dividing color lines.

 

Conclusions

It’s always important to start using dye on the middle and ends of your hair first to avoid your roots turning out a different color than the rest of your hair.

After 20 minutes have gone by, you can continue by using the dye on your roots and wait 10 minutes.

Then, your color will be even, and you won’t see any difference between your roots and the rest of your hair.

Now you know how to fix roots that turned out a different color this time and how to avoid it happening again in the future.