Getting a patchy colour at the salon or spending hours dyeing your hair at home, and feeling the blow of an uneven result can be disheartening. Be it a hair colour gone wrong because of a dye job gone wrong, exposure to the sun, or an uneven application, a smooth and evenly spread-out solutions is the way to go for that polished and beautified persona! If you are struggling with uneven hair colour, then stop worrying! There are solutions to the problem and they don’t have to be extreme. In this guide, we’ll offer helpful tips and tricks on how to fix uneven hair colour, whether you’d rather go down the DIY route or the salon route.
Reverse Uneven Hair Colour Causes
So, without jumping to any solutions, let’s first understand the reasons behind uneven hair colour. Some of the most common reasons for uneven hair colour are:
Uneven Application: If dye is applied unevenly, or not at all in some regions, you can end up with patches of lighter or darker color.
Multiple Layers of Dye: If you have coloured your hair multiple times, the colour may create an uneven build up in certain areas.
Hair Texture and Porosity: Various sections of your hair can slurp up color unevenly. So if you have porous hair (which, as I mentioned, tends to be at the ends of your hair), this can soak up more colour than the rest of your hair.
Previous colour treatments: If you’ve recently been from dark to light hair or the other way around, the colour isn’t guaranteed to lift or deposit evenly.
Tone Your Hair
The simplest solution to remedying uneven hair colour — particularly for those of you who find yourselves struggling with brassiness or yellow notes — is a toner. Toners neutralize unwanted shades in hair, be that orange, yellow or greenish tones.
Purple toner: For neutralising yellow or brassy blonde undertones.
Blue Toner: Best for balancing orange or red tones, particularly for brunettes.
Green Toner – Helps neutralize red or pink undertones.
A dye that you can buy at a beauty supply shop, or the more exact approach would be to go to a salon.
Paint the Uneven Parts
If there are certain areas of your hair that have absorbed more dye than others, you’ll need to apply colour to the patchy areas. (Its often known as a color correction.)
Use a Semi-Permanent Hair Colour: If the touch up is a little on the war side, a semi-permanent hair colour can mix the unequal patches without noticing the colour shift too much.
Get in There with a Brush: Use the tint brush to apply the dye on targeted areas that are needing more coverage.
Do following the processing time instructions on the dye package to ensure you are not processing it too long and damaging your locks.
Try a Colour Gloss or Glaze
If the issue with yourcolour is more uneven shine than it is hue, a colour gloss or glaze could be the answer. These treatments also give shine and can subtly rectify uneven tones by smoothing over the colour imperfections.
Colour glosses are usually found in a salon, but there are at-home formulas to give you an instant refresh. They can give a more uniform, generally polished look without too much colour alteration.
Apply a Deep Conditioning Treatment
Another thing to consider is whether or not your hair is damaged from too many colour treatments — and repairing it before correcting the colour. Deep conditioning treatments can also help, improving the texture and overall appearance of your hair, and making colour discrepancies less prominent.
Also, regular conditioning will help restore your hair’s ability to soak colour up evenly when you do apply colour (avoiding uneven patches in future colourings).
Seek Professional Help
If after one too many oven mitts you are still trying to remedy an uneven hair colour or simply want a more permanent result, it’s time to seek out a hair pro. Hair colour correction experts are specifically trained to rectify bad colour jobs, whether that’s removing, toning or adjusting shades that are too deep, too light or the wrong hue. They can evaluate the condition of your hair and devise a remedial strategy to repair the damage without exacerbating the problem.
Using techniques like balayage, highlights, or lowlights, a colourist can mix various tones of colour to achieve a natural, seamless transition.
How to avoid uneven colour in future
Once you have corrected the uneven tone, you want to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Here’s how to ensure a flawless colour application next time:
Start With Sections: To help distribute the dye evenly, sections your hair.
Read the Instructions: Make sure to read the directions for the specific dye you’re using.
Seek Professional Help: You might want to consider looking for a professional stylist that can do the colouring for you just in case you are not sure if you are doing it correctly.
Regular use of color touch-ups: To preserve an even look, regular use of hair color touch-up is recommended.
Many people are faced with the issue of uneven hair colour, but using the right tools and techniques, you can fix this mess and return your hair to its full glory. Whether you decide to tone, touch up or get professional assistance, the main thing to keep in mind is to be patient, and gentle, with your hair as you go. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to a solid, even hair colour you love.
If you’ve tried these remedies to no avail and are still dealing with splotchy hair colour, don’t be afraid to reach out to a pro stylist. This is also when the professionals can help you by correcting any damaged colour left over from the previous days and restoring your hair to its best, most luscious state!