Know the Cost of Hair Dye: Professional Salon vs. Home Dyeing in 2023

You want to color your hair in the shade of your favorite Instagram celebrity but don’t know about the process and the cost of coloring. Whether you want to go to a salon or want to invest in a home kit, we have covered the cost of everything for you in the blog post.

Hair dying is so much in trend and adds shine and rejuvenation to the hair, but the process can be overwhelming at the same time. From choosing permanent, semi-permanent, bleaching, or henna coloring, plenty of options are available; each comes at a different price tag. Your hair stylist can recommend the best hair shade and other hair treatments to protect your hair locks from any severe damage. Everything is covered under different prices, from choosing an entirely new color to improving the current hair shade. Before going to a colorist, it is important to have a breakdown of the expenses, but obviously, these prices differ based on salon location, the services covered, and the type of color you want to go for.

However, before choosing a salon for coloring your hair, ensure that your hair will be treated with high-quality products. Let’s look at the different types of hair coloring treatments and how much does these cost on average.

Cost to Dye Your Hair at the Salon

There is no exact answer to how much you have to pay at a salon to dye your hair as it depends largely on various factors such as hair type, hair length, location of the salon, highlights/lowlights, highlighting method, root touch-up, etc. If you want to dye your hair into pastel tones, the process takes long hours, and the salon charges more for the process. Some salons also charge for a hair consultation, which adds extra money to the bill. Generally, you can pay about $100 to $400 at a salon, depending on your hair length and color type. At the high-end salons, the prices of hair dye start from $700 and go up to $1000.

Let’s look into the factors on which the cost is generally based.

Location of the Salon

It is a general fact that a salon located in a Porsche area will charge more money for its services than a neighborhood salon. Similarly, if you have decided to color your hair at a premium salon, be ready to spend a lot of pennies. A few of these salons may provide complementary hair or facial services with an expensive hair dye which you may ask about before. Premium salons usually house qualified and experienced hair stylists, which is why these services are charged expensively. Also, the cheaper salons do not use high-end products for hair coloring, which might damage the hair afterward. In premium salons, high-quality hair products and color dyes are used by professionals who produce less damage to the hair.

Hair Length

Your hair type and hair length play a vital role in determining the cost of hair dye at a salon. If you have darker hair color, you will require more hair color and bleaching agent than those with naturally lighter hair shade. Similarly, less amount of hair color is required by shorter-length hair, while more product is required by longer hair. Coloring shorter hair may cost almost $100, while for longer hair, the cost is around $200. Most salons recommend extra hair care treatments to those with frizzy or damaged hair, which increases the cost of the coloring process.

Type of Hair Dye

Hair coloring is not only about dying the full head into a shade of your choice. There are a lot of hair dye processes that you may apply as compared to one color dye, such as highlights, balayage, ombre, root-touch up, etc. For highlights, you may have to pay somewhere between $80 to $150, while a high-end salon charges $350 to $400 for the service. The premium highlights, such as cherry brown or ash blonde, are more expensive, depending on what you need. Similarly, the prices of balayage and ombre premium salons start from $250 to $300 for medium to long hair, while at some cheaper salons, the prices of these services start from $50 to $120.

Look into the table given below to get a clear insight into the average cost of the hair color process based on your preferences.

How Long Does It Take to Spend in the Salon for Hair Color?

Since each hair color treatment differs from the other, the time slot required by each treatment also differs based on the product application and the time required for the results to be shown. If you have decided to color your hair by a professional colorist, be ready to spend 45 minutes to 2 or 3 hours depending upon your hair type and the type of hair dye. For a single hair application to change your natural hair color, you will have to spend at most 60 minutes in the salon as the process only requires the color application and the time to let the color set completely. After 45 minutes, the hair is washed, and you are ready to style your new hair shade.

Contrary to simple, no-bleach hair coloring, hair dye that involves bleaching requires more time in the salon. After applying the bleaching agent, the hairs are rinsed off repeatedly to get the desired look. You may expect to spend almost three hours in the salon for the process. You may have to spend several hours in the salon to color your hair in the perfect pastel shades, as these shades require extra time to penetrate deeply into the hair strands. In some cases, the longer you leave ammonia-based colors in your hair, the darker results they produce on the hair. The root touchups require 45 minutes for the application and an extra 45 minutes for it to show results.

Cost to Dye Your Hair at Home

If you are brave enough to dye your hair at home, the process costs less than the hair coloring treatments provided by the salon. Although the chances of mistakes are comparatively higher, with proper techniques, you may get the desired results at a much lesser price. DIY hair coloring is so much more common these days, and females enjoy playing with their hair until the results are up to their satisfaction. It is extremely easy to get the hair color of your choice from any retail store, as hair care brands have made it accessible for everyone to stock their favorite hair colors at home.

A DIY hair dye kit is available at every retail store and is hands down the most affordable alternative to the hefty salon hair coloring services. People who are not willing to spend too many dollars on getting their hair colored by a salon are more likely to invest in a hair dye kit which ranges somewhere between $5 to $30, which is pretty much affordable. However, coloring your hair at home depends significantly on various other important factors before going for a DIY hair color project.

More Mess

If you are trying a DIY hair dye kit for the first time, there is a high chance that you will end up coloring your hair, clothes, floor, and skin. The splotches of colors are difficult to resist and even tough to eliminate. Moreover, inexpensive hair dye products leave unpleasant stains that can cause sensitive skin allergies. To save yourself from the mess DIY hair coloring creates, you must take extra measures and cover yourself in a rough fabric.

Not Getting the Desired Results

For first-timers, there are high chances that the resultant hair shade wouldn’t be satisfying, and you obtain a color that either does not suit your skin color or does not go well with your natural hair pigments. In case of an unpleasantly-looking hair color, you will need to dye your hair again, which might add up to the overall hair dye expenses. Treating your hair with too much hair product damages its roots and starts looking brassy after washing it. Taking care of the product application and the process is important to save your hair from chemical exposure and its effects.

Bleaching or No Bleaching

If you want to apply bleach on your hair before applying color or want to proceed without bleach application, you need to invest in the right bleaching product, especially if you are trying it for the first time. If you do not want to bleach your hair to change your hair color, you only have to invest in the color tube that costs $20 maximum for a single tube. You may need to purchase two, three, or more color tubes for medium or long hair length. On the other hand, the cost of coloring your hair with bleaching is slightly higher and goes up to $50. Remember that bleaching does a lot of damage to the hair, which is impossible to reverse. The modern hair dye kits come with both a cream developer and a bleaching powder, so you may also look for these professional kits in the market.

Purchase Hair Toners, Hair Glosses

If you are unfortunate enough to develop unpleasantly looking orange tresses into your hair after an unsuccessful DIY hair coloring project, you would want to rush out to a salon to overcome this disaster. However, if you want to combat the brassiness of orange locks, you might invest in a suitable hair toner from a trusted haircare brand, as a toner helps to light the orange tones and neutralize them through darker tones. Also, hair glosses or glazes add shine to your hair, which enhances the look of your freshly dyed hair, so if you have developed an orange stain after DIY hair coloring, a hair gloss can help significantly reduce it.

Picking the Right Hair Shade

The most important thing to consider during a DIY hair coloring project is to pick the right hair color shade. It is always suggested by professional colorists to choose a hair shade that is at least 2 to 3 shades darker than your present hair color. For blonde hair color, you may choose a hair shade that is 4 to 6 shades lighter.

The Right Equipment

You must have complete hair dye equipment available at home, including hair clippers, a bowl, a brush, a hair cap, gloves, hair color protectant shampoo, and hair toner. With this equipment on the shelves, you will feel comfortable with the color application, making the process smoother and less messy.

Look at the breakdown of the expenses of hair coloring procedures at home and see how different it is from the hair coloring treatments offered at a salon.

Bottom Line

You may dye your hair at home with the help of a box dye if you want to save money or don’t have time to visit a salon. If necessary, purchase the appropriate hair dye and bleach to give your hair the desired shade. Spending more money on hair dye is unnecessary when you are comfortable doing it through a DIY project. However, to obtain perfect and accurate hair color results, consider taking the help of a professional hair stylist to save your hair from any possible disaster.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is more effective – hair coloring at a salon or hair coloring with a home DIY hair color kit?

If you want to invest less money in hair coloring, you may do the process at home with the help of a DIY hair dye kit. However, for more accurate and less damaging results, you may look for the services of a professional colorist at a salon.

How often should I dye my hair?

You should dye your hair after 4 to 6 months. Keeping the gap between each color application is important to keep hair healthy and prevent them from getting dry and brittle.

How much does bleaching cost at a salon?

A professional bleaching costs around $150 to $400 at the salon, depending upon your hair length, hair type, and the hair’s original color.

How often should I bleach my hair?

Bleaching does irreversible damage to the hair. The bleached hair does not return to its original color, and you must wait for it to grow naturally to get the natural hair color again. Due to the damage produced by bleaching, you should not bleach your hair more than once in 2 to 3 months.

Which color is called pastel?

Any hair color mixed with white to create soft, subtle, and pale hues while enhancing its originality in the hair tresses is called pastel.

What happens if I leave the hair color for too long in my hairs?

If the hair color is left for too long in the hair, it results in depositing an extra layer of color pigments, which may either result in lightening your hair too much or darkening it more than expected.

What are the types of hair dye?

There are multiple types of hair dye, including temporary hair dye, permanent, semi-permanent, demi-permanent, henna, and hair bleaching.

John Davis

John Davis is a passionate content writer with a knack for crafting engaging narratives across various subjects. With a keen eye for detail and a love for storytelling, John brings ideas to life through the power of words. His dedication to delivering high-quality and informative content has made him a trusted voice in the digital realm. When he’s not at his desk, you’ll find John exploring new hobbies and seeking inspiration in the world around him.