Looking for an easy way to keep your dyed ends looking healthy? Check out this awesome DIY hair tint Emily makes.
To keep my bleached hair in check, I normally use a purple shampoo every other day, a hair oil or essence when I wash my hair, a hair mask about once a week, and every two weeks, I make a DIY hair tint to hide the yellow-ish ends that I have. Bleached hair isn’t easy.
Don’t get me wrong, dyeing my hair is one of the most satisfying experiences, and while I love how silky-smooth my hair feels after a visit to the salon, it also happens to cost more than my little college-student self can honestly afford to fork out. The majority of my hair is bleached almost white, which means that any dye and it will eat up the color. I like how light my hair is, but I also want to test out colors that I could never try with my naturally jet black hair, which is why hair tints have become my new favorite thing.
My hair before my DIY tint:
Last week, Charlotte tried out 3CE’s Treatment Hair Tint, a temporary, non-damaging hair dye. The product aims to not only bring short-term, vibrant color to her bleached locks, but it also works to strengthen and soften hair after a single use. Charlotte said that her hair felt much healthier after the application. I came up with a way to get similar results.
To make a moisturizing hair tint, I use a hair mask as the base for application. I’m currently loving the Skinfood Argan Oil Repair Treatment Mask. It’s made with argan oil, which deeply penetrates and hydrates strands. It comes in a pretty sizable tub, and the thick formula lasts many washes, so it’s definitely not a one-time-use product. If you’re not familiar with hair packs or hair masks, they’re basically like a deep conditioner on steroids. Once you wash it off, your hair feels so soft it’s unreal.
I scoop enough of the hair pack into a container and then use a semi-permanent hair dye. The one I’ve been using pretty religiously is $7 and it’s from Adore. The formula is free of ammonia, peroxide, and alcohol, so your hair doesn’t come in contact with harmful ingredients. The dye is semi-permanent and watery, rather than thick, so it makes it easy to apply when mixed with a hair pack. I love the way I can control how intense I want the initial color to be. You could just apply the temporary dye by itself, but I prefer killing two birds with one stone and giving my hair the pampering it really needs.
Normally, I mix equal parts of each the mask and the hair dye in order to get a light steel blue color. The color that you mix in the container will be way darker than what it will look like applied, so don’t be discouraged if the initial color is darker than what you want! If you have darker hair and want to try this, the color may not show up as strongly or or may only show up slightly in the sun.
To get these colors to show up, you may need to either use more of the dye or you might need to bleach your hair. If you choose to bleach your hair, I’d recommend asking your hairstylist if they work with Olaplex, which works to minimize the damaging effects of bleach by rebuilding broken disulfide bonds before and during the bleach process. My hair stylist used this when bleaching my hair silver and it’s been super helpful with preventing further damage to my hair after four bleaches.
Using gloves, I apply this to the bleached parts of my hair. I typically use a hair treatment mask after I wash my hair, but when I make this DIY hair tint, I use this on damp hair before washing it. Once applied, I wrap it in a shower cap and allow the product to do its thing.
After about fifteen to twenty minutes, I wash out the mask and wash my hair like I normally do and then I’ve got a new do without the cost or the damage. Typically, the mask and dye duo last me five to six uses before I run out of the dye, so I would say that this is definitely worth the price.
My hair after using my DIY hair tint:
