1. You coloured your hair too far from your natural shade. If your hair colour is naturally a light brown and you've dyed it to be an unnatural-looking, solid blue-black hue, it's going to be obvious. Not that you can't go darker, but choose the right shade (i.e. a deep chestnut brown over the blue-black, for example), so it doesn't look forced and fake. In general though, "the most important thing to do when colouring your hair is to emulate your natural shade as much as possible and only go one to two shades darker or lighter," Friedman says.
2. You went crazy with the highlights and they look fake rather than sun-induced.Highlights are meant to do just that: highlight, so your hair shines, has dimension, and makes your facial features and skin colour pop. They're also supposed to look like they were caused by the sun, so when you over-highlight your entire head or go too light, not only will they look fake as soon as you step out of the salon, but also the lines of demarcation near your roots as the highlighted pieces grow out will be more severe. "To get a natural look and seamless grow-out period, ask your stylist for a nice balance of highlights throughout your hair so it grows in softer," Friedman says. Or request balayage (when a colourist paints on highlights) instead of foils (where strands are folded up into aluminium foil sheets). "Balayage is a technique that has a more organic look overall because the closer the dye is to your roots, the softer the line is when your hair grows in," she says. "Plus, with foils, the bleach is only applied to the hair that goes into the foils, whereas balayage is more diffused, since it gets on adjacent hairs as it's painted on."
3. You asked for a few super-chunky highlights and now you have tiger stripes. If having prominent highlights is what you want, talk to your colourist first to make sure she uses the veining technique, which mixes up thicknesses and makes highlights thinner toward the root and thicker by the ends, Friedman says. "This creates a clear highlighting effect that still reads as natural-looking."
4. You dyed your roots yourself, went too dark, and now your hairline looks shoe polish-y. "The hairs along your hairline are finer than the rest of your strands, so they tend to absorb hair colour quicker and can look darker," she says. So, whether you're covering greys, just want to richen your natural colour, or altering your hue altogether and going a little darker, choose a second box colour that's about one shade lighter for the face-framing pieces, and match your natural colour as best as possible for the all-over shade.
5. You totally disregard your complexion when choosing your hair colour. Sure, you could just choose a hair colour and not base it off of anything, but if you consider your complexion, it will look more natural and suit your skin tone better. No one knows what look best on your colouring like a pro, so even before you pick a box shade, book a consultation with a colourist to get an idea of all your colour options based on your skin tone, eye colour, and brow colour.
6. You're using one colour to dye your entire head of hair. Applying one shade of, say, dark brown all over your head every time you dye it can cause your hair colour to look flat. It could even alter the ends of your hair to a darker shade, like black, without you intending on it (since they're so porous and absorb colour quickly). To make sure you create dimension, even if you're using one colour, Friedman suggests applying hair colour starting at the back of your head first, not the front. "If you apply the dye at your hairline first, it will sit on the thin face-framing pieces longer and over-absorb," she says. "Plus, the darkest part of your hair is supposed to be in the back, since the sun usually bleaches out and lightens your hairline, which naturally leaves the hair toward your crown darker." If your hairline has a few stray greys, don't touch them with colour until the last five minutes before you have to rinse out the dye, because they'll grab too dye much otherwise.
7. You dye your hair from roots to ends every single time you colour it. If you have regrowth, you're only supposed to coat the roots with colour, diffusing it slightly into the rest of your hair about about an inch or so past the regrowth. "If you apply dye from root to end every time, the result will be that your mid-shaft to ends will continue to get darker and darker, and over time will look too heavy," Friedman says. When it comes to highlights, be sure your colourist doesn't coat the entire length of strands with bleach every time you get a touch-up. Because eventually, the ends of hair will become not only super light but also more damaged, which will cause tips to look dull and fade faster than the rest of your hair.
8. You bleached your brown hair and now it's orange. When trying to go from super dark to really light, a pro is necessary. That's because box colour isn't able to fully lift dark pigment out of strands. Plus, when you're at the salon, a colourist will know the exact amount of peroxide needed (and how long to leave it on for) to get your natural hue past the orange phase. "A colourist can decide on the precise peroxide level to use to get the target colour and factor in how damaged your hair is, which you can't take into account when your doing it yourself," Friedman says.
