Emerson Salon – Capitol Hill Seattle

Have you colored your own hair in order to try to save yourself some money? Have you had your hair colored by your best friend and it didn’t turn out anything like you wanted? As a matter of fact it looked absolutely ugly? So you took yourself to a salon and you sat down in the styling chair for a consultation with the stylist and you were instantly the victim of “sticker shock?”

During the consultation your stylist probably let you know that in order to correct your hair catastrophe it was going to take a considerable amount of time and color expertise, not to mention money, to get your hair to a better color and condition. Often times, depending on on how extremely damaged your hair may be, it may take more than one visit to your stylist in order to get your hair to the place you intended it to be.

Color Corrective services can be expensive. That self-color you tried to save some money with is now going to cost you exponentially more dough than it would have cost to have had your hair professionally colored. Don’t feel alone. I can’t tell you how many corrective colors I have done in years past. The lure of cheap box color overwhelms many a bargain hunter. There are so many things that the directions on those nare-do-well box colors are never quite specific about. Nor do they tell you that most box colors are only designed to lift your hair only a little. They also don’t tell you that that ultimate platinum blonde box color won’t quite lift your dark brown hair to a buxom blonde. They also don’t tell you that putting that sassy red box color on blonde hair may just turn your hair pink or another atrocious shade. Box color companies prey on your willingness to believe that the color in the box is miraculously going to make your locks look beautiful. When in fact you just might turn out with bright orange roots and burnt orange brown ends.

Cosmetologists are trained in the art and science of color and color correction. Removing over-the-counter box color can be a challenging process, entailing hours of color removal, re-pigmentation and then re-coloring to your desired tint. Many box colors use mineral dyes rather that vegetable dyes, causing each of these processes takes a considerable amount of time and expertise. I once did a color rescue on a client who used an OTC box color that took me nearly 6 hours, and $285.00 to correct. Trying to save money on color, cost her much more than she ever anticipated. Generally I charge $85 per hour for color corrective services. I will usually try to keep my clients costs down as much as possible. As you can tell 6 x 85 does not equal 285 rather $510. So consumer beware when you go to purchase your next over-the- counter box color, you just may be paying more than you bargained for.

For this reason alone you should be very wary when you decide to do your own color. It just may cost you much more money than you planned, or months of ugly hair while it grows out.