Looking for a simple way to change up your look in the new year? It might be time to dye your hair!

Changing your hair color is a simple way to give yourself a quick makeover and can help boost self confidence; unfortunately, getting this done at a salon can be both pricey and time consuming. While some expert hair stylists might advise against coloring your hair at home, the truth is that it can be done successfully with the right preparation and precautions in place.

Ready to color your own hair at home? Read these tips and tricks to ensure that your hair will turn out correctly and safely, so that you can avoid an emergency trip to the salon or to a medical clinic like ThriveMD.

Always Test a Strand

While many people ignore the “test strand” part of hair dye instructions, this is actually one of the most important steps in ensuring that your DIY hair color will turn out the right shade, and to avoid negative or even allergic reactions of the skin. Testing a strand of hair before dyeing your full head might be an extra step that adds a little time to the overall coloring process, but it will be worth it when you get the exact shade you wanted with no difficulty the first time you apply dye.

Don’t Mix Shades

While some beauty influencers in online tutorials might recommend mixing different colors of hair dye in order to get your perfect shade, this is not recommended! Hair dyes can interact with one another in a way that creates a completely different shade than you anticipate once applied to your hair, and can quickly result in a disaster. Instead, ask an employee at your local beauty store to help you find the closest available shade to the color you want.

Use Vaseline to Protect Skin

If you’re worried about getting dye on your skin, applying Vaseline to your face, ears, and other exposed areas can help prevent dye from staining your skin. Additionally, you can apply this product to countertops, sinks, and other parts of your home to keep dye from staining as much as possible.

Apply Coconut Oil

To keep your hair feeling soft and healthy even while being colored with harmful dye, apply coconut oil before applying color! This will create a barrier between your hair and the harmful chemicals in the dye, to reduce the amount of damage being done to your strands while keeping them feeling soft and silky.