Can You Dye Your Hair Twice In One Day?
Published by Aida Turner
Fact checked by Annie
It has happened to all of us. You were excited to color your hair only to be heartbroken when you realize the color is a mess.
The next natural instinct is to recolor it again so that you get a color that looks much better.
Can I Dye Your Hair Twice In One Day?
Dyeing your hair twice in one day is generally not recommended due to the potential for significant hair damage. Hair dye contains chemicals like ammonia and peroxide, which can weaken the hair shaft and strip away natural oils. Applying these chemicals twice in a short period can lead to excessive dryness, breakage, and even scalp irritation.
If you’re unhappy with the initial dye job, it’s best to wait at least a few weeks before attempting another round. This gives your hair time to recover and minimizes the risk of damage. In the meantime, use deep conditioning treatments and hydrating hair masks to restore moisture and strength to your hair.
For urgent color corrections, consult a professional stylist. They can provide safer alternatives and techniques to achieve the desired result without compromising your hair’s health. Prioritizing hair health ensures long-term beauty and resilience.
What are the risks of dyeing hair twice in one day?
Dyeing your hair twice in one day can pose several risks to your hair health. Firstly, subjecting your hair to multiple dyeing sessions in a short period can lead to severe damage, including dryness, breakage, and brittleness. The chemicals in hair dye can strip the hair of its natural oils and protein, leaving it vulnerable and prone to damage.
Repeated exposure to hair dye chemicals within a short timeframe can also cause scalp irritation and sensitivity. The scalp may become red, itchy, or inflamed, leading to discomfort and potential allergic reactions.
Moreover, double dyeing increases the risk of over-processing, where the hair becomes overly porous and unable to retain moisture. This can result in uneven color absorption and a lackluster appearance.
Additionally, if the first dyeing session did not achieve the desired color, rushing into a second application can lead to color correction issues, including unexpected hues or shades that are difficult to fix.
To minimize these risks, it’s advisable to wait at least a few weeks between dyeing sessions to allow your hair time to recover and regain its strength. Consulting a professional hairstylist is also recommended to assess the condition of your hair and provide appropriate guidance for safe and effective dyeing practices.
Precautions to Take Before Dyeing Your Hair Twice?
Dyeing your hair twice in one day can significantly impact its health and appearance. To minimize damage and achieve desired results, consider the following precautions:
1. Assess Hair Health:
Before proceeding with a second dye application, assess the current health of your hair. If your hair is already damaged or excessively dry, it’s advisable to postpone the second dyeing session to prevent further harm.
2. Conduct a Strand Test:
Perform a strand test with the second dye to ensure it will produce the desired color and that your hair can handle another round of processing. This step helps you avoid unexpected color outcomes or excessive damage.
3. Deep Conditioning Treatment:
Prior to the second dye application, treat your hair to a deep conditioning treatment to replenish moisture and strengthen the hair strands. This will help minimize damage and improve the overall condition of your hair.
4. Avoid Overlapping:
During the second dyeing process, avoid overlapping the dye onto previously colored areas as much as possible. Overlapping can lead to uneven color distribution and increased damage to your hair.
5. Use a Lower Volume Developer:
Opt for a lower volume developer, especially if you’re dyeing your hair twice in quick succession. Using a lower volume developer reduces the risk of over-processing and minimizes damage to the hair cuticle.
Again, how long must you wait in between dyes?
To be brutally honest, you should never dye hair twice in a single day. Not if you are using a permanent hair dye. If you do, you will damage your hair beyond repair.
The best thing is to wait 3-4 days before dying your hair again. Still, you should expect to deal with the damage that comes with it.
See also:
- How long do I have to wait to bleach my hair again?
- How long to wait to dye hair after bleaching?
- How long does it take to dye hair?
To ensure you don’t damage your hair, here are a few useful tips for dyeing your hair.
FAQ about dyeing hair twice in one day
Can you dye your hair twice a day using semi-permanent dye?
While you shouldn’t dye your hair twice a day, you can dye your hair twice a day using a semi-permanent hair dye.
It will still cause slight damage to your hair but not as much as the permanent hair dye would.
That’s because semi-permanent hair dye doesn’t contain the harmful chemicals that permanent hair dye has. For this reason, you can get away with less damage when you use semi-permanent hair dye.
However, you must avoid using low-quality treatments between the two coloring jobs. Before you decide to color all your hair twice a day, experiment with a small section of your hair to see how it goes.
Can you dye your hair again the day after?
Again, experts recommend that you should avoid dyeing your hair the next day at all costs. This is especially crucial if you are using permanent hair dye.
To reduce the hair damage any further, consider using semi-permanent hair dye as an alternative.
Some hair dyes can be used on freshly dyes hair with minimal damage, which means that you may need to buy multiple hair treatment products to ensure that the hair’s damage is minimized as much as possible.
You can also visit a hair salon to get the right advice if you really have to dye your hair the next day.
The hair professionals will know exactly what to do so that you don’t end up with strange hair color from coloring and recoloring it again yourself.
Plus, less invasive alternative is using a hair mouse to alter your hair color a little bit the next day.
Can grey hair be colored twice the same day?
No! Coloring grey hair twice on the same day is still not acceptable. After all, grey hair is generally dry, and it can cause even further damage to the already fragile hair.
If you feel like you need to recolor grey hair again before at least 28 days, you must take very strict precautions.
The best alternative is to go to a salon if you want grey coverage. This is because the normal hair dyes are not as efficient on grey hairs as people would like them to be.
If the hair color isn’t right, how do you fix it?
If the hair color didn’t come out as planned the first time, you cannot do much about it.
If you used permanent hair dye, you will have to wait for at least four days to recolor it. A color shampoo or color mouse can hide the color you don’t like for some time before you recolor it.
Another alternative is to use semi-permanent hair color to repair the hair color temporarily.
Semi-permanent hair color has no harmful ingredients. It is safer to use frequently, like after a day or on the same day.
However, semi-permanent hair dye is more expensive in the long run because it is the same price as permanent hair dye.
See also:
- How to fix over toned hair?
- How to tone down hair color that is too light?
- How to remove toner from hair?
The reason why you should wait before re-coloring your hair
Whenever a chemical reaction takes place on your hair, it takes a toll on it. Dyeing the hair is not an exception. This is the main reason why you should avoid re-dyeing your hair in one day.
Harsh chemicals weaken your hair, and you should avoid exposing your hair to them frequently.
Of course, there is a difference in hair types.
People with healthy hair can be a little bit less careful than people with weak hair. Still, healthy hair is not immune to the negative effects of the chemicals found in hair processing products.
If your hair is prone to damage, you must wait before re-dyeing it.
The most common and disturbing consequences of frequent coloring are split ends and hair breakage. With every hair coloring job, you strip your hair of its outer layer.
This causes damage to the hair shaft, which then results in loss of hair shine and smoothness. As a result, your hair becomes thin, brittle, dry, and weak.
See also:
- How to Bleach Hair Blonde Without Damage?
- Best Drugstore Shampoos and Conditioners for Dry Damaged Hair
- Best Keratin Shampoos and Conditioners for Damaged Hair
- Best Organic Shampoo for Hair Loss
What to do when you must dye hair twice in one day?
If it is really necessary to dye your hair twice in one day, there are things you should do to minimize the hair damage as soon as possible.
- Use semi-permanent hair color to correct the hair coloring mistake until you can finally recolor it again. Semi-permanent hair color has no chemicals, so you will never have to worry about damage control in the first place.
- To prevent more damage, use hair-treatment that is specifically meant for color-treated hair.
You should treat your hair prior to and after coloring your hair. Make sure you are using the best hair treatment in the market.
Talk to a hair expert to get ideas on the best alternative for your hair type and the degree of damage done to your hair.
(Check out: The 25 Best Shampoos and Conditioners for Color-Treated Hair and The 22 Best Deep Conditioners for Bleached Hair) - Note that the longer the hair color stays in your hair, the more damaging your hair becomes. To recolor your hair shortly after coloring it the first time, remove the hair color as soon as you can.
See also:
- Can You Mix Hair Dye With Conditioner & Shampoo?
- How to dye blonde hair brown without it going green?
Aida
Founder & Hair Beauty Specialist
I’m Aida and this is my blog where I write mostly about beauty and make up related stuff, but I like to spice it up a bit with lifestyle and photography posts. Or with whatever that comes to my mind. Hope you will enjoy the reading enough that we will ‘see’ each other more often!