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Want to color your hair with that blue, purple, pink, or various vibrant colors but don’t know how much dye do you need? Here clear your all doubts and confusions about different factors you should consider while coloring your hair.
Your hair dye can range from just simple highlights to coloring your hair with all bold and bright colors, it depends on what you want to express and there is no limit to expressing yourself. But again that needs a perfect hair color quality and quantity if you want to make your look outstanding. We are going to focus on the quantity aspect here, let’s look at various factors that are based on your needs for hair dye at home.
Factors Determining How Much Dye Do You Need?
Imagine you have an important meeting tomorrow morning and you are dyeing your hair at night but you run out of hair color while you have just applied it to half of your hair and now you are half black and half red-headed. What a bummer! So now you know why purchasing the right amount of hair color is important.
Let’s now straight dive into the factors –
Hair Length
There are three types of hair length: short, medium and long hair that is one of the prominent factors for determining the amount of dye you need.
There are three types of hair length: short, medium, and long hair that is one of the prominent factors for determining the amount of dye you need.
Short Hair
Usually, short hair is considered to be that falls past your shoulder but in the case of hair dye perspective, short hair is that just falls past your ears. For short-length hair, you need 2 to 3oz of hair color depending on your hair thickness. So for that, you need a single color kit of 2.5 to 3oz. As it is advised to not reuse hair dye, you need to buy an exact amount bottle be it permanent or semi-permanent hair color. That is about the quantity but you need to also consider quality and buy ammonia and peroxide-free hair dye for better results.
Medium Hair
Here again, the definition of medium hair is slightly different than the usual one. Medium hair when you are selecting a hair dye is that which passes through your shoulder. For medium hair, you’ll need up to 3 to 4oz of hair color including a developer that is 50/50 developer/ dye ratio depending on your hair color. Again keep quality in mind as well as ammonia if entered into your bloodstream through the scalp can result in severe damage.
Long Hair
Now, this is tricky as there is no properly defined length for long hair. Long hair is considered to be that goes beyond a few inches below your shoulder while extra-long are those that are till your waist or back. So here you have to calculate properly to determine how much dye do you need. When hair length is long enough to fall 2 to 3 inches past your shoulders, 4oz of hair color is sufficient and if it falls beyond 4 inches below your shoulders, 8oz of dye is that you need.
How to Measure Your Hair?
There are a lot of different ways to check your hair length that ranges from measuring it with measuring tape or ruler and then there is a comparison shot to know your hair growth over a period of time. Though the above measuring techniques can be hectic no worries there is an easier trick as well to measure your hair length that is with the help of your body. Below given is a hair length chart, you can compare it with your hair to define your hair length.
Hair Thickness
Hair length and Hair thickness, these two factors are correlated to each other when determining the amount of hair color you need to dye your hair. There are three sections of hair thickness: fine, medium, and thick.
Fine Hair
This is the thinnest hair type and easiest to process hair color. The amount of dye you used for fine hair should be pretty less, as it is prone to over-processing that can cause a lot of hair damage. So if you have short hair and as we recommended earlier the dye amount should be between 2oz to 3oz but then if you have fine hair you should stick to 2oz only.
You may also like: Best Blue Hair Dye for Dark Hair
Medium Hair
This is the normal hair type and there is no standard dye amount for it as it is low maintenance and needs no particular treatment. So you can use the dye recommended according to your hair length.
Thick Hair
Thick hairs are the most resistant hair type when it comes to hair coloring. They are difficult to control because they are large in volume and that is why you need more hair dye compared to fine or medium hair. Also, purchase extra hair dye just in case as thick hair is unpredictable. So for example, if you have short thick hair 2.5 to 3oz of the product will do.
How to Measure Your Hair Thickness?
Measuring hair thickness is quite easy, you can just pluck a hair strand from the middle of your head because there is more chance of it being fully developed, and then simply compare that hair strand with sewing thread. If your hair strand is just as wide as a thread you have thick hair but if it is narrower than that you have thin hair.
If you don’t want to pluck your hair, just take a hair strand while it is attached to your head and roll it between your fingers. If you don’t feel anything you have thin hair and if you do you have thicker hair.
Basic Preparation Tips Prior to Hair Dyeing
Now that you know How Much Dye Do You Need to Cover Your Hair, let’s quickly look at the basic preparation you need to do before dyeing your hair –
1. Wash Your Hair A Day or Two Prior
By doing this it gives time for natural oils to develop so that dye can naturally blend with hair and chances of it living longer is high
2. Protect Your Hair and Home from Stains
Hair Dye stains are really hard to wash off so you should be well prepared. Simply wear your old t-shirt so if stained you can just throw it away and then also cover any surface nearby with newspaper be it a table or floor anything and everything
3. Brush Your Hair Properly
Before starting to dye your hair make sure there are no tangles so that the hair coloring process can be smooth also it will be helpful to dye your hair evenly.
4. Coat Your Skin
This is the last and most important thing you need to do before putting on those gloves and diving into hair color that is cover your skin on your head, near your ears and neck with petroleum jelly, lip balm, or if conditioner is provided so that it can be easy to rinse off and the color won’t stick to your skin
FAQ’s:
How Much Dye Do I Need For My Hair?
In between, 3oz to 4oz is enough for any type of hair for an ideal result but again it totally depends on your hair length and thickness however it’ll be between 2oz to 8oz.
Is 1 Box of Hair Color Enough?
Yet again it depends on hair length and thickness. For short hair 1 box of color, the kit is enough while you need two boxes for medium hair and two to three boxes of color kit for thick hair.
How many boxes of hair dye do you need for waist-length hair?
If your hair goes beyond your waist you need at least 3 boxes of hair dye to cover it all. You may need more or less hair dye, again before that take hair thickness as well in consideration
Final Thoughts
The amount of ounces you need to dye your hair totally depends on two factors: hair length and hair thickness. Simply you need to find out your hair type and select the hair color box according to it. I hope reading this has cleared all your doubts about how much dye do you need to cover your hair.