How Often Should You Color Your Hair?

As the season changes and summer approaches (or winter, depending on what side of the world you're in), many people start thinking about changing their hair color.

Whether you're going lighter, darker, or fluorescent, new hair color is always a fun way to express your style and personality!

However, you know that you don't want style to come at the cost of your hair health. Different colors are fun, but you also don't want to damage your beautiful natural hair.

So how often should you color your hair?

The short answer is: it depends.

1Risks of Coloring Your Hair Too Often

You might be someone with an ever-changing sense of style, and perhaps you'd like to change your hair color every week.

However, there are some risks with dyeing your hair too frequently, especially if you're using a permanent color. These types of permanent dyes that "bleach" your hair usually have peroxide and ammonia in them. Though these ingredients might sound scary, in moderation, they're perfectly fine.

However, overusing these dyes can cause your hair to become dry and brittle. Too much hair dye should never affect your hair growth, but you may start to notice more split ends when you're overusing the dye.

Keep in mind that different hair types may react to dyes in different ways! Our hair literally varies according to our genetics, so something that works fine for one person might spell disaster for another person.

So, how often can you dye your hair to maintain the color that you want, while still avoiding damage?

2How Often Should You Color Your Hair?

You really shouldn't need to color your hair more often than once every 4-6 weeks, especially if you're using permanent hair color. In fact, permanent hair colors are designed to last for 6-8 weeks.

So how long should you wait to dye your hair again? If your root growth isn't too dramatic, it's a good idea to wait those full 8 weeks until re-coloring.

If you do find yourself needing to dye your hair every 4 weeks, that's okay too. Just be sure that you are following a good moisturizing and conditioning routine in between coloring. Nourishing your hair with high-quality conditioners will help to counteract any potential damage from the hair dye.

Semi-permanent hair colors are a bit different. These dyes don't contain ammonia or peroxide, so they are a bit gentler on your hair, but they also fade much faster. Depending on the brand, the color usually only lasts for 6-12 shampoos.

The good thing about semi-permanent hues is that you can use them more frequently than permanent colors, without having to worry about hair damage. In fact, semi-permanent hair color can be a great way to touch up your dye job in between applications of permanent color.

You can compare the differences between permanent, semi-permanent, and demi-permanent hair colors on this blog post over at Inscape Beauty Salon!

3Wrap-Up

Ultimately, the answer to "how often should you color your hair?" depends on many things -- your own style and tastes, what type of color you're using, etc. As a general rule of thumb, though, try to keep your coloring sessions about once a month.

So next time someone asks you, "How often can I dye my hair?" -- just send them here!