How Long Should You Wait Before Dyeing Your Hair Again: Coloring Questions Answered (Instructions & Tips)

So, you just dyed your hair a specific color, but you are not particularly happy with it. If that is the case, how long should you wait before you dye your hair again?

If you are worried about doing irreparable damage to your hair but are sure you want to change the shade, this article will give you a quick guide.

When Is It Safe to Dye Your Hair Again

Typically, you will need to wait for at least two weeks before deciding to color your hair again. The reason is that your hair still needs some time to recover from the damage caused by the prior hair-dyeing process.

If you hate your hair color or have other hair color ideas to try, you should learn to live with it for a couple of weeks or otherwise, you will end up adding extensive damage to your hair. It is also essential to gauge the health of your hair first before re-dyeing it.

Check whether the ends of your hair split or if they are weak. It is also crucial to assess whether your hair is straw-like or extremely dry or if it becomes prone to breakage. Unfortunately, if your hair shows those signs of being unhealthy, you still have to wait before re-dyeing it.

Make sure that your strands are already healthy before dyeing them again. You can try restoring the health of your strands by moisturizing regularly and applying nourishing hair masks. You also have to hydrate and eat nutritious foods.

Risks of Dyeing Your Hair Too Soon

As much as possible, you should avoid making the mistake of coloring your hair too soon.

The reason is that it can put your hair at risk of the following:

Frizzy

Your hair will be extremely dehydrated, which makes a lot of the strands stand on end. This may result in them looking frizzy. This may worsen when the air gets even just a bit humid.

Brittle and Damaged

Hair dyeing dries up your hair quite often, especially if you want to color your hair with bright colors because you need to bleach it first before laying down the color.

If you dye your hair too soon, you will only be increasing the damage your hair has already received. It will also make your hair so brittle that even brushing will cause the strands to break.

Breakage

As mentioned earlier, dyeing your hair too soon will make your hair extremely brittle, which will lead to hair breakage. You will start seeing lots of short hairs standing up on your head, especially when there is a light behind your head.

It can get so serious that you may need to cut your hair short of making the breakages less noticeable.

Hair Loss

Hair strands are not the only thing that gets damaged by hair dyes. The scalp will get irritated, mainly if you use a strong developer. Your scalp may get irritated due to the previous dye job and you applied another color before the irritation healed.

Waxy and Dull

Dyeing your hair will open the cuticle of the hair. The cuticle is the surface of the hair strands and it is the thing that makes your hair look glossy. When the cuticle is stripped off, the hair will appear dull and almost lifeless.

If you did not wait the requisite amount of time, the cuticle will not be able to recover, permanently making your hair dull and waxy.

Dry Scalp

As mentioned earlier, the dye can also irritate your scalp. Most of the time, the irritation can cause dry scalp and dandruff, especially if you dyed your hair again too soon.

Oily and Limp Hair Shaft

Another thing that could happen when the hair dye irritates your scalp is that it may cause the oil glands to work on overdrive. This will make your hair look quite greasy and yet look lifeless.

Things to Consider Before Dyeing Your Hair

How long you need to wait to recolor your hair depends on several factors.

Among the things you should consider before you dye your hair are the following:

Do You Have Damaged Hair

If you already had damaged hair before you had it colored, then wait at least two weeks, but preferably you should let four weeks pass.

On the other hand, if your hair was healthy before coloring, you only need to wait at least two weeks before you attempt to color your hair again.

What Kind of Hair Dye You Used

If you used permanent hair dye to try partial balayage, you should wait at least two weeks or preferably longer. A permanent dye causes a lot of damage to the hair, so you should give your hair enough time to recuperate before you damage it again.

What Developer Did You Use

If you used a 20-volume developer, which lightens or darkens the hair by 1 or 2 shades, you might not need to wait too long as it did not damage your hair too much. Two weeks’ wait time should be enough.

However, if your developer is 30- to 40-volume, you should wait more than two weeks.

How to Protect Your Hair From Damage

Damage to your hair is almost inevitable when you dye it. However, there are ways that you can somehow minimize the amount of damage that your hair receives from the procedure.

Here are a few things that you can do to protect your hair from possible damage brought on by the dye:

Prepare Your Hair Well Beforehand

The healthier your hair is when you dye it, the better it will resist damage due to the coloring process. This means you need to shampoo less frequently, so your hair does not dry and use a hair mask at least once a week.

You can even use hair serum regularly to make your hair stronger.

Be Honest With Your Hairdresser

You will not gain anything beneficial when you lie to your hairdresser. Tell your hairdresser about your history with hair colors, like scalp irritation, hair dye not applying evenly, or your hair being extremely prone to chemical damage.

This is not the time to devise a lame excuse that removes any accountability from you. Be honest, so you can get the best help that you can.

Don’t Style Your Hair too Much

After getting your hair dyed, you should refrain from styling your hair at all for a week or so. If you need to, use styles that do not put too much stress on the already weakened hair strands, like a simple ponytail or a loose bun.

DIY Color Correction Tips

• Use clarifying shampoo – If you aim to lighten your hair a shade or two, washing after coloring and regularly using a clarifying shampoo usually works. It is also less damaging than bleaching it outright and reapplying a lighter shade of hair dye.
• Use crushed vitamin C tablets – Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid, so you can use it to break down the hair dye and lighten your hair without bleach. Just crush around 20 tablets using a mortar and pestle or place them under a kitchen towel and bash them using a rolling pin. Mix the powder with clarifying shampoo and use it like a hair mask. Leave it in for about an hour and rinse.
• Fix brassiness using purple shampoo – If you had your hair bleached blonde or silver, it would develop an ugly brassy tone after a week or so. Counteract this by using a purple shampoo (or blue shampoo if you are a brunette) every other day to neutralize the unwanted color.
• Have a professional do it for you – If you botched up your hair color because you thought you could DIY it, don’t risk messing up your hair even more by trying to fix your mistakes. Again, be honest with your hairdresser when you choose to have your hair dye mistakes fixed.

FAQ

Can I dye my hair again the next day?

Technically, you can, but the results will most likely be disastrous. It would be best for you to wait at least 2 weeks before you dye your hair again. This will give your hair enough time to recuperate so that it can be more resistant to chemical damage.

How should I take care of dyed hair?

Because the hair-coloring process has severely damaged your hair, you should be very careful when washing and styling it.

You should shampoo less frequently and use a deep moisturizing conditioner to replace the lost moisture from the dyeing process. The most important thing that you need to do is moisturize your hair as much as possible.

How can you make hair dye last longer?

If you want to keep your dyed hair looking good for longer, you should protect it from the sun. Overexposure to sunlight, particularly UV rays, will make the hair dyes fade. So, apply hair sunscreen spray when you go out on sunny days.

Also, you should apply heat-protectant products when you are using heat-styling methods.

What should I do if I don’t like how my hair color turns out?

First, you should wait a day or two. Sometimes, the hair dye would change shades after a couple of days. Your hair color might have grown on you by that time, or it could have lightened or darkened to the shade you originally wanted.

Second, if you are adamant about changing your hair color, set an appointment with your hairstylist.

Is it okay to dye previously bleached hair?

Yes, you can dye your hair immediately after getting it bleached if you want. You can consider dyeing wet hair if you want the color to be a bit muted, although it’s recommended to wait a bit before doing this. This is the process of giving hair bright and unnatural colors.

However, if a lot of time has passed after your hair bleached, it could affect the appearance of your new hair color.