How to Colour and Dye Men’s Hair

Long thought the bastion of women, hair dyeing for men has a long history dating back hundreds of years. In the early parts of the 20th-century men who dyed their hair were frowned upon and viewed with suspicion, it was only acceptable when rock stars such as David Bowie dyed their hair and even then it was treated as a novelty.

In the early parts of the 20th-century men who dyed their hair were frowned upon and viewed with suspicion, it was only acceptable when rock stars such as David Bowie dyed their hair and even then it was treated as a novelty.

Step forward to 1976 and the explosion of Punk Rock created a new wave of teens and adults who took hair colouring to the extreme. As with any fashion, style, or cult, it generally dissipates into a weaker form of the former. In this case, the road went from Punk Rock to New Wave, New Romantics – to Electro, and the styles changed – gone were the ragged jeans, Anarchy t-shirts, safety pins, and white or black spiky hair. In were baggy trousers, make-up and slick black dyed hair. Even this phase did not last long before the pop culture raised its head again and pop icons such as George Michael et al were displaying a neatly tinted bouffant. It’s been a while since those times and now hair colouring and dyeing for men has become part of the mainstream with gents all over the world seeking colours from subtle tints and shades to full heads of multi-coloured hair.

Tips for Dyeing Your Hair at Home 

It is always recommended that you seek the help of a professional stylist or colourist. It is easier to mess up your hair than get it right, and can be costly not just to repair the damage but to the health of your scalp especially when using bleach.

For those few who want to go it alone either out of economic restraints or time constraints, here are a few tips to get you going.

Choose carefully the colour you want, just because it looks great on the guy in the GQ ad, it won’t necessarily look good on you. Choose a colour that will subtly enhance your hair rather than an all out deep colour. Elements of surprise rarely work in the world of hair colour and subtlety is the key here. If you must go from your natural black hair to being a full blonde do it in stages.

Seek advice from a hair professional

Purchase your hair colour from a reliable seller; seek advice from your hair stylist first on what brand you should buy and the tools needed. While most pharmacies, supermarkets, and drugstores will sell hair dyes very few of the staff can advise appropriately what is right for your hair and most will be only interested in selling you the most expensive product they have in stock or just by brand name. Seek the advice of an expert first.

Ensure you wash your hair thoroughly before you begin, the best results are to cleanse with a shampoo that will remove build up of chemicals, sprays, and pollutants.

Follow the manufactures mixing instructions on the box or insert. Test an area of your hair first usually either as a strand test or behind the ear. Wait for a couple of days to see how it looks and if happy then start the full process.

There are of course other factors to be taken into consideration such as choosing the right colour for your hair type which we will cover in another article.