Rule of Thumb for Waiting to Dye Hair

Hi Krys,

I was a manager of a hair salon for 4 years, and while I didn't do hair, I learned a heck of a lot of 'basic rules' :) I'll share with you what I know:

You can dye it again if you were using color (not bleach) with pretty much no problem right away. However, if you're wanting to go lighter - you cannot (successfully) lighten color with color (this is a #1 rule in the world of hair coloring - it should never be up for debate - don't let someone tell you that you can 'pop the cuticle open by using a higher volume developer'). It will usually go brassy and yucky. You will have to lighten it with bleach. If this is what you want to do, it is best to do foils, not your whole head. This is when you should be going to the hair salon - this type of thing is best not done at home, but best done by a professional.

If you used bleach last night, and you want to go even lighter, it can potentially be done (I've bleached mine 5 times in one day - although that is NEVER recommended - you will have stringy wet spaghetti hair if you have any hair left at all), however, it is best to give your hair time to get re-conditioned and recover from the last bleaching session. You can help it along by putting a really great conditioning masque/oil/conditioner, etc on your hair and leaving it on for as long as you can possibly stand it (i.e. all day & night) and then go ahead and bleach it again. No need to wash the conditioner out - just bleach right over it, it will eat through it all.

If you used bleach and want to go darker with color - go for it. You will be imparting color (pigment) back into your hair shaft which will actually make it seem more healthy.

Hope this helps. Best,
S.

In any of these scenarios be sure to give your hair a good conditioning afterward.

I have dyed the next day, and never had a problem.

If you are just adding color you can do it right away. If you are bleaching, nope, your hair will suffer greatly.

if you are adding colour - not subtracting (going blonde) - you can do it immediately but its best to follow up with a moisture treatment within a week or so ... i have made countless errors ... good luck!
-c

That happened to me once. The picture on the box was a soft muted copper but when I finished dyeing my head was covered in bright bozo the clown red hair.
This was on a Friday and I called the help line number on the box.
They instructed me to get a brown that was close to my original color and I could use it on Sunday - so it was about a 48 hour wait between dyeing.
The darker color over the red toned down the brightness by quite a bit, but my hair was pretty brittle for a long time and needed lots of conditioning.

If you didn't bleach it (ie highlight) you can dye till your heart's content. Dyeing adds to your hair, bleaching takes away and damages it. Dye away.

Never had a problem with dyeing it immediately after. In fact, I used to often do multiple colorings/applications even in the same day.

BLEACHING and stripping it, otoh, I seriously fried my hair and needed to cut off quite a bit.