Hair Colour & Dyes at Home

Colouring your hair at home is a good way to refresh your look, cover greys or try a new shade without a salon visit. The trick is matching the right product to what you want and following a few simple steps. Get those two things right, and at-home hair colour gives reliable, salon-like results. 

This collection brings together colour built for home use, from professional permanent and demi shades to gentle direct dyes and colour-depositing creams.

What to Consider Before You Start

Before picking a product, work out what you are after. Your natural or current shade decides the final result, so a box or tube colour usually shows a before-and-after guide to help you see how a shade lands on your base. From there, the main decision is how long you want it to last, which determines the colour type.

• Temporary and colour-depositing products, like the Goldwell Color Revive conditioners and Milk Shake Colour Whipped Cream, coat the surface and wash out over a few shampoos, conditioning as they go. Good for a refresh or a low-commitment try. 

• Semi-permanent direct dyes, like Adore and Matrix SoColor Cult, add tone without a developer and fade gradually across a wide spectrum of vivid and fashion shades, with the Matrix Cult shades lasting up to 20 washes when cared for. 

• Demi-permanent, like the Matrix SoColor Sync range, lasts longer than semi and blends grey without a hard line.

• Permanent, like Matrix SoColor and L'Oréal Professionnel Majirel, becomes part of the hair and fully covers grey, growing out rather than washing out, with the widest shade ranges for close matching.

Your skin tone. A simple starting point is to match the colour to your undertone. Cool undertones tend to suit ashy or icy shades; warm undertones suit golden or copper tones.

For full grey coverage, permanent colour is the surest route, while a demi or semi shade softens or blends grey with less commitment. It also helps to match the colour to your skin's undertone; cool undertones tend to suit ashy or icy shades, and warm undertones suit golden or copper tones. If you are new to colouring at home, start easy with a semi permanent hair colour at home shade that needs no mixing, step up to permanent hair colour when you want full coverage, and use a hair toner to refine the final result.

A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

A clear process makes all the difference. This is a general guide for permanent or semi-permanent colour at home. Always follow the instructions with your chosen product.

• Step 1. Prepare. Gather the colour, gloves, sectioning clips, a tint brush and an old towel. Smooth a thin layer of barrier cream along your hairline and ears to stop staining.

• Step 2. Patch and strand test. Even if you have used the product before, do a skin allergy test 48 hours ahead. Dab a little mixed colour behind an ear or on your inner elbow. For the strand test, colour a hidden section to check the timing and final shade.

• Step 3. Section. Divide dry hair into four sections with clips so you can work evenly and miss nothing.

• Step 4. Apply. For permanent colour, start about half an inch off the roots and work to the ends, then go back over the roots for the second half of the processing time, since scalp heat develops root colour faster. Colouring all over, work section by section and saturate each strand.

• Step 5. Process. Set a timer for the product instructions. Do not leave colour on longer than directed, or the result can go dark or flat.

• Step 6. Rinse and condition. Rinse with cool water until it runs clear, since hot water fades colour faster. Use the conditioner from the kit, leave it for the recommended time, then rinse.

Why Professional Colour Works Well at Home?

Professional colour lines like Matrix and L'Oréal Professionnel are made with precise pigment and consistent formulas, so you get the shade you expect more often than with a supermarket box. Many use conditioning or pre-bonded technology to look after the hair throughout the colour process, and the wider shade ranges make matching and blending easier. The catch is that permanent and demi-permanent tube colour needs mixing with a developer, and it takes a little practice, so keep hair developers in the volume your formula calls for and a few hair colouring tools on hand for a clean application. If you are new to it, start with a direct dye and work up.

Colour also opens the cuticle, so hair can feel dry afterwards; that is normal. A deep colour treatment or mask restores moisture, smooths the cuticle and helps lock the shade in. This page is one part of the wider colour range, so browse the full hair colour collection to see every shade in one place. If your plan involves going lighter first, the hair bleach range covers the lightening step before you tone or colour. You can shop the full range online or in store, with delivery Australia-wide.