You get home from the salon and go to the mirror to admire your freshly highlighted hair. It doesn’t look how you thought it did in the salon. You’re probably wondering how long you should wait to dye your hair after just getting highlights.
Well, you’d hardly be the first person to regret a dye job from a salon or do-it-yourself dye, and highlights aren’t any different. Luckily, you can dye over highlights to fix your hair to a color you like or restore it to its original color.
How Long to Wait Before Dyeing Your Hair a Darker Color After Getting Highlights?
You should wait at least 2 weeks before dyeing your hair a darker shade after getting highlights. This waiting period allows your hair to recover from the chemical process involved in highlighting. Also, your highlights will settle in this time, and your natural hair oils will replenish. This will give extra protection when you dye your hair darker. Then dye your hair at least two shades darker than your highlights to get even tones throughout your hair.
How Long to Wait Before Dyeing Your Hair a Lighter Color After Getting Highlights?
Highlighting hair means bleaching, which is terrible for hair health. You can seriously damage your hair if you bleach it again not long after the first time. You should wait at least 4 to 6 weeks before dyeing your hair a lighter color after getting highlights.
To prevent this, use nourishing shampoos and moisturizers to replenish your hair between bleaching, and allow your hair time to rest and recuperate. If you want your hair to be even with your highlights, at least 4 weeks is needed, though you should take more if you’re hair seems brittle or otherwise unhealthy.
How Long Should You Wait to Wash Your Hair After Highlighting It?
Like dyeing, bleaching in your hair needs time to settle, so you should wait at least three days before washing your hair after getting highlights. This gives them time to soak into the cores of the hair, so you won’t immediately wash the colors out.
By waiting three days, you’re lengthening the life of your color by leaps and bounds, with can help save you money by extending the time between bleachings.
You should wait for 2 to 6 weeks, depending on whether you plan to color your hair darker or lighter. This is to give your hair plenty of time to rest so it won’t be too damaged with treatments, and it will allow proper time for your highlights to settle in color, which is essential when selecting the shade you want to dye your hair too.
FAQs
Dyeing and bleaching hair are complex subjects; if you’re not a professional, you should go to one to get your hair done.
Yes, you just have to wait until the previous week to let the highlights settle into your hair and then pick a shade two times darker than the highlights. Otherwise, the highlights will bleed through and make parts of your hair look lighter.
Highlights only focus on parts of your hair, but require bleach and bleaching is much worse for your hair than coloring. Coloring is easier on hair but targets all of your hair, not just select strands.