Kasuba of Rockin Naturals
Dear ZedHair,
Which dye works best for natural hair?
The short, shaggy natural hair with some colour to make it a little more interesting is all the rage at the moment. We get many questions about which are the best hair dyes to use. We can’t recommend a particular brand but there are a few principles that you can follow to get the results you want and still retain healthy hair.
Before
- Do your research.
There are two types of hair dye, permanent and semi permanent. In simple terms permanent hair colour strips your natural colour in order to work while semi permanent colour simply coats the hair strand. Permanent colour tends to have bleach or ammonia and has to break down the hairs natural protein in order to work. Semi permanent colour will fade over time, these are sometimes called rinses.
Check the ingredients list of any dye that you wish to use. As a rule, permanent colour should only be used by trained professionals.
- Ensure your hair is healthy.
It’s a good idea to get to grips with the particular characteristics of your hair before you decide to dye it. Many people will feel nervous about suddenly having short natural hair and rush to dye it.
Get into a routine, understand how to moisturise and condition natural hair before you dye, you will need these skills afterwards. Deep condition your hair regularly in the weeks or months leading up to dyeing your hair and try to dye it during summer when there is more humidity rather than in the drier months.
Kay of kayheartsthings a blog and fb page
During
- Take precautions.
Read the directions carefully and follow them. Do a strand test, always do a strand test. Do NOT bleach your own hair, go to a professional.
- Remember you hair type.
This is why it’s best to wait till you understand your hair to dye it. The results you achieve will depend on your particular hair type. Does your hair absorb moisture and product easily? If it does, then it will probably change colour quite easily. Hair that absorbs moisture at a slower rate may need more than one application of dye.
Monde4u Instagram and YouTube
After
- Deep condition.
Your hair has been chemically altered. It will be less able to retain moisture. Get into the habit of deep conditioning and moisturising, be stringent about your protein treatments; dyed hair is essentially damaged hair.
- Go sulphate free.
Use a sulphate free shampoo to reduce the rate at which your hair colour will fade.
You can have healthy natural, dyed hair but you have to work that little bit more at keep it moisturised. There are natural dyes that are less damaging but we will discuss those in subsequent posts.
Do you have a question you’d like answered in this column? Please ask in the comments section below or send a message to mwanabibi@zedhair.com
ZedHair 
Nice blog page! Thank you for keeping it up to date and always posting interesting blog posts. I enjoy reading some of the tips.
I have natural hair and I found this particular blog about how to dye natural hair very unhelpful. Natural hair is hard to tint as one struggles to get the desired results due to many factors, and as such I expected your blog to have some proper advise about what works and what doesn’t. For one, there is absolutely no depth in that column. What you have written here is exactly what you find on the dye packaging box instructions.
What would have been nice would have been a step-by-step process on how to go about dying natural hair. Should one use bleach? What are the effects? Etc…. What should one do to get desired results?
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Thank you for following the blog so closely. We really appreciate the support. Sorry that you didn’t find this particular post helpful. The object of this post was not necessarily to give a tutorial on how to dye your hair, it was more about giving an overview of what dyeing natural hair entails and how to do it and still keep your hair healthy. Every dye works according to manufacturer specification and the best place to get more detailed information on the specific application process is to read the instructions as we have suggested.You will notice from most of our posts that we do not tend to prescribe black and white answers to questions like, “Should I bleach my hair?”. Instead, as we have done in this column, we will tell you what bleaching your hair will do to it and we have clearly stated that it is best to consult a professional for that particular procedure. Dyeing some natural hair may be difficult and we have alluded to why that may be the case. It is more difficult with natural hair because of the porosity level. Relaxed hair is more porous because the protein in the hair has been broken down. There are ways to increase porosity such as using baking soda to wash and these may aid dyeing but they may also cause more harm than good. We choose to focus on healthy hair growth and wanted to write an easy to read column with some simple tips.
Again, we can only apologise for not meeting your expectations as we honed in on how to dye your hair and keep it healthy instead of focusing on how to achieve the best colour results. Last month we published a more detailed post by one of our contributers about her experience with colour. It is called, “Colour Me Natural”. We hope you find that more useful.
Lastly we try very hard to cater to all our readers but its not always easy to get it right. In the past, Dear ZedHair columns were extremely detailed, too much for many of our readers. We will endeavour to strike the right balance and may address your concerns in subsequent blog posts.
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