<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" BROWN FIND THE RIGHT HUE Go only one degree darker at a time. You can always go darker step by step, but if you go overboard, you&amp;#039;ll need a pro&amp;#039;s help to lighten a botched job. If you&amp;#039;re considering darkening your hair a few shades but aren&amp;#039;t quite sure the look will suit you, try a trick from New York City stylist Eva Scrivo, who says, &amp;quot;Hair becomes two to three shades darker when wet. Wet your hair, put on your daytime makeup, and comb the hair next to your face. You will instantly know if your complexion looks brighter, healthier, or clearer surrounded by the darker hue.&amp;quot; WATCH OUT FOR... Getting stuck in a rut. &amp;quot;Brown is one of the easiest haircolors to do at home,&amp;quot; says Kiyah Wright, a hair colorist at Warren Tricomi salon in Los Angeles. But that doesn&amp;#039;t mean you should reach for the same old box you&amp;#039;ve been using for years. Especially as your hair grays, your old standby isn&amp;#039;t likely to produce the same results. If you&amp;#039;re a natural brunette, stay within one or two shades of your own color. That will ensure that the outcome will still be flattering to your skin. Going too light might make your skin look sallow. Even if your usual color still looks good, consider giving hair a boost: John Frieda Precision Foam Colour Salon Blends Collection ($13, drugstores) is the first at-home color formula with three tones in one bottle, not the usual one or two \u2014 closer to a custom salon blend, which produces more vibrant color. Another way to keep brown dynamic, not drab: Use a light styler, like Pantene Aqua Light Weightless Conditioning Shake ($6, drugstores). Its conditioners will give hair an even sheen, so the color looks shiny. MAKE IT LAST The challenge with brown hair is usually not darker regrowth (as with blond or light red), but visible gray roots, which can show up every two weeks. Even if you get your color at a salon, fixing roots at home is a convenient time saver. Try Revlon Root Erase by ColorSilk ($4.50, drugstores). This mini hair dye is designed to go on your roots only, though in the last few minutes you can run it through the rest of your hair to boost its vibrancy. For especially resistant grays, try Clairol Professional Gray Busters ($6, Sally Beauty Supply), a pro line that can be used at home. Whatever you choose, don&amp;#039;t apply it all over your hair, warns celebrity hairstylist Sarah Potempa. If you continually re-dye your ends, they&amp;#039;ll turn out drab. If you don&amp;#039;t have time to color, there are also several quick, short-term fixes for gray roots: A spray, a hair mascara, or even dark brown powder eye shadow will provide easy coverage. LEAVE IT TO THE PROS Get help when you want to switch color families. When it comes to brown shades, &amp;quot;there are ashes, red-browns, and neutrals,&amp;quot; says Wright, and for at-home tweaks, it&amp;#039;s best to stay in the same color family as your existing hue. Otherwise, you&amp;#039;ll end up too red or too dark, and you&amp;#039;ll need a pro to correct the color. Next:   BLACK FIND THE RIGHT HUE Consider what image you want to project and for how long you want to project it. &amp;quot;Blue-based blacks are more funky,&amp;quot; says Potempa. &amp;quot;Most people want to go for a warmer red-black.&amp;quot; Once you&amp;#039;ve chosen your color, consider formulation. &amp;quot;I recommend using a demipermanent dye, which gives hair lots of shine but only lasts four weeks, in case you change your mind,&amp;quot; says Wright, because a permanent dye requires a full-on commitment: &amp;quot;If you&amp;#039;re not happy with the result, you&amp;#039;ll have to bleach your hair to change the color.&amp;quot; WATCH OUT FOR... &amp;quot;A muddy look,&amp;quot; says Potempa. Be sure to avoid clarifying shampoos. &amp;quot;People think they leave hair healthier because they strip away built-up product,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;But the shampoo will take your haircolor with it.&amp;quot; Instead, keep locks lustrous with L&amp;#039;Or\u00E9al Paris EverCr\u00E8me Intense Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner ($7 each, drugstores), which don&amp;#039;t have any harsh detergents. And don&amp;#039;t be fooled into thinking going from blond to black is a snap, Potempa warns: A colorist needs to accomplish this tricky feat by putting in red fillers and toners to compensate for your hair&amp;#039;s missing red tones. MAKE IT LAST You want to avoid fading no matter what your hair color, but especially if the defining trait of your hair is that it&amp;#039;s black and shiny. &amp;quot;If you&amp;#039;re feeling dull between treatments, use a clear glaze,&amp;quot; says Potempa. One to try: Fekkai Salon Glaze ($28, Ulta). Then style with a shine serum, like Matrix Biolage Colorcaretherapie Shine Shake Spray ($14, matrix.com for salons). LEAVE IT TO THE PROS Face-framing highlights. &amp;quot;If your hair is already dark, black&amp;#039;s one of the easiest at-home haircolors, because you&amp;#039;re usually not trying to create dimension. It&amp;#039;s flat,&amp;quot; says Potempa. But if a dramatic Cher look isn&amp;#039;t what you had in mind, &amp;quot;lighter black around your face will add warmth to the hair.&amp;quot; Leave this move to a colorist: Highlights are tricky no matter the hair color, and poorly done ones can undercut the intensity of a dark hue. Next:   BLOND FIND THE RIGHT HUE Don&amp;#039;t go to extremes. This is good advice for those with all hair colors, but especially for blonds, who usually hope to &amp;quot;lift&amp;quot; their natural hair color and go lighter. Choose an at-home dye that makes you only a couple of shades blonder than your starting color. And if you&amp;#039;re attempting to further lighten already-dyed hair whose virgin state is dark and textured (like, for example, that of Indians, Latinas, or African Americans \u2014 think Beyonc\u00E9), &amp;quot;choose an ashy blond. Otherwise, dark hair&amp;#039;s natural red tones will show when it&amp;#039;s lightened,&amp;quot; warns Wright. WATCH OUT FOR... Dryness. When you&amp;#039;ve lightened your hair, &amp;quot;you&amp;#039;ve just stripped your hair&amp;#039;s pigment and its lubricating outer layer of lipids,&amp;quot; says Potempa. So make sure your at-home kit comes with a good conditioner, advises New York City celebrity colorist Marie Robinson \u2014 that will help it keep the color longer. (Robinson likes Clairol Nice &amp;#039;n Easy Color Blend Foam, $9, drugstores.) Then replace your regular daily conditioner with a deep conditioner, which delivers a bigger punch of hydrators. Try Aussie Moist 3 Minute Miracle Deep Conditioner, with jojoba oil and aloe ($3.25, drugstores). And &amp;quot;avoid excessive chlorine and sun exposure,&amp;quot; adds Robinson; these also dry hair and contribute to fading. MAKE IT LAST If you stay closer to your own shade (and you aren&amp;#039;t graying yet), your color will last a little longer between dye jobs. This is especially true for light brunettes or dark blonds: &amp;quot;Their own color naturally lightens slightly in the sun, which softens the contrast,&amp;quot; says Robinson. If you just need to cover grays \u2014 not address brown or black roots \u2014 Potempa recommends Rita Hazan Root Concealer Spray in Blonde ($24, Sephora), which is very easy to use between colorings. LEAVE IT TO THE PROS If you&amp;#039;re thinking platinum, don&amp;#039;t try it at home. &amp;quot;Extreme blond is a challenge,&amp;quot; says Wright. The same goes for noticeable highlights. If you envision a multidimensional head of hair \u00E0 la Jennifer Aniston, get to a colorist. Because of the amount of bleaching and the number of shades involved, &amp;quot;highlighting is still too complicated for women to master themselves at home,&amp;quot; says Robinson. However, if you&amp;#039;re toying with the idea of highlights and want to test out the look before committing at the salon, you can try on streaks with Alterna Stylist 1 Night Highlights in Shimmering Blonde ($29, Sephora), which won&amp;#039;t bleach hair but will layer color on top \u2014 until your next shampoo (think of it as makeup for your hair). Next:   RED FIND THE RIGHT HUE &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s all about red right now,&amp;quot; says Wright, who is seeing more clients go for the hue, from strawberry blonds to red-based blacks. To find your perfect shade, &amp;quot;consider your skin tone,&amp;quot; Wright says. &amp;quot;The paler it is, the more flattering copper shades are (think Julianne Moore). If your skin is darker, I love violet reds, like Rihanna&amp;#039;s former &amp;#039;do.&amp;quot; WATCH OUT FOR... Uneven color buildup. &amp;quot;Of all the shades, red pigment has the most difficulty penetrating hair,&amp;quot; says Potempa. It&amp;#039;s key to have an even application, so you&amp;#039;re not piling too much color onto some areas of your head and too little onto others. She advises separating your hair into three sections \u2014 left, right, and back. Then, she says, &amp;quot;brush the dye on a two-inch-wide section at a time. Don&amp;#039;t just put on globs and wash it in!&amp;quot; MAKE IT LAST &amp;quot;Red tends to fade the fastest, so you constantly want to refresh it,&amp;quot; says Wright, who recommends that redheads fight fading with what she calls &amp;quot;a shampoo rinse&amp;quot;: After every shampoo, mix half a bottle of Clairol Professional Jazzing in Red Hot ($6, Sally Beauty Supply) with a dollop of shampoo and run it through your hair. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a semipermanent color, which only lasts six to eight shampoos. The mix just amps up the red a bit; it won&amp;#039;t lighten your hair,&amp;quot; says Wright. Another trick to keeping red vibrant: Cut down on fade-inducing washing and water exposure by freshening your hair with a dry shampoo every other day. Try Tresemm\u00E9 Fresh Start Strengthening Dry Shampoo ($5, drugstores). And use a styler with UV filters, like Bumble and Bumble Color Minded UV Protective Styling Balm ($28, Sephora), to protect hair from that other fading culprit, the sun. LEAVE IT TO THE PROS Save a big leap for the salon. If you&amp;#039;re going from darker hair to light red hair, you run the risk of that orangey shade most of us remember from youthful indiscretions with Sun-In spray. So &amp;quot;don&amp;#039;t disregard where you&amp;#039;re starting from,&amp;quot; warns Potempa. &amp;quot;Be sure to find the closest thing to your hair color on the package chart&amp;quot; and see where the chart says your hair will end up color-wise. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/hair/tips/a18987/home-hair-coloring-tips/>