Hair color is a great way to change up your look. With the choices of hair extension lengths, textures and colors available you can literally look like a new person after an afternoon with a stylist!
Coloring your hair is achieved in two ways either bleaching or staining.
Bleaching – If you have dark hair and you want it lighter then you have to remove the color already in your hair. Hydrogen peroxide is the agent used to react with the color producing molecule in your hair shaft (melanin) to make it colorless.
Staining – Using either permanent or semi permanent color you can stain your already lightened hair to a different shade. Semi permanent colors eventually wash of with a few shampooings while permanent colors remain (although permanent colors can sometimes lose their vibrancy over time).
Now that we know how it’s done, is it ever a good idea to change your own hair color to match hair extensions? Here are 3 reasons why not.
1. Matching Shade – Hair extensions come is many different shades and matching your own hair to the same shade as the extensions is very difficult if not impossible. The problem is that hair extensions come from a variety of donors, commonly Indian or Chinese. The amount of melanin naturally present in their hair differs very much from other hair types particularly African American hair.
If you have ever had your hair bleached, you were probably fascinated at the variety of colors your hair went through. Usually it goes like this: Black – Deep auburn – Red – brown – pale yellow. African American hair tends to go through the deep auburn to reddish tint for much longer than does Indian hair which goes to brown much faster.
2. Damage To Your Hair – If you have naturally black hair sometimes it will not get to that pale yellow stage with a single application (without going over the advised time) which means exposing your hair to another session of the bleach. It goes without saying that this can be very damaging to your own hair.
If your hair is chemically relaxed, you should never attempt to color your hair anyway as double processing is never a good idea and breakage will surely follow.
3. Keeping The Shade – Unfortunately even permanent colors fade. Any time you get your hair wet, some of the color will wash out and this is especially true if you have naturally curly/kinky hair which has high porosity. Even if you were lucky enough to match your hair color to the extensions initially, after a few shampoos you will find that your hair has become a decidedly different shade from the extensions.
Different hair types have different porosity and as such lose color vibrancy at different rates. You will find yourself having to recolor your hair every few weeks just to keep your install looking undetectable. This is very damaging to your strands over the long term.
With other methods of experimenting with color without damaging your own hair, it seems unwise at best to even go down this route. Use clip ins or try a full head weave to get a splash of color while keeping your natural strands strong and healthy.
