Pre-pigmenting or pre-soften grey hair
Sometimes you can't manage to dye some of your stubborn grey strands with a good coverage. Then the best option for you is to pre-pigment or pre-soften your hair. This kind of hair is usually difficult to dye and in those stubborn locks the colour might fade too quickly. The hairdresser usually pre-pigments this hair. You can use this technique at home too. Another technique is to pre-soften the hair with hydrogenperoxide. You can also combine both methods.
Pre-pigmenting grey hair
Pre-pigmenting is done by mixing the colourcream with an even bit of warm water, and applying this to the grey strands of your hair. So you don't mix the colourcream from the tube with the developer as you would when dyeing your hair. If you want you can use a kitchen scale to weigh the exact same amount of colourcream and warm water.
Apply this mixture to the stuborn strands, such as at your front hairline or natural part. You can use a brush or comb it through your hair. Make sure the hair is fully saturated. Let it absorb for twenty minutes. Then in stead of rinsing it out apply the tint as you usually would, with the developer. You could possibly make the waiting time 10 minutes longer, so letting the dye sit for 45 minutes in stead of 35 minutes. This way the grey hair has a little more time to absorb the pigment. By pre-pigmenting, you apply a little bit of extra pigment so the colour stays good-looking for a longer time.
Pre-pigmenting bleached hair
Pre-pigmenting isn't just for grey hair. If you have blonde hair, and want a darker colour, that's usually also impossible without pre-pigmenting it first. Is your hair bleached or really damaged? Then there will be barely any (red) pigment be left in the hair. When applying a natural colour to bleached hair, it can turn out green. By bleaching, the red pigment that neutralises the green has been removed from your hair.
If you want to dye your bleached hair darker, it's best to pre-pigment it first with a warm colour. Then, dye as you normally would with the darker colour. Watch out though, because you'll need to pick a lighter colour to pre-pigment than the colour you want. Your damaged hair absorbs the dye better and makes it look darker. So if you want a 6.0, go for the red toner 7.4 or the 7.0, a lighter colour level.
Pre-soften
If pre-pigmenting doesn't work well enough on grey strands, you can also try to pre-soften your hair. When you have very harsh, stiff grey hair, the dye is absorbed way less and therefore has a weak coverage on your grey hair. By pre-softening the hair with hydrogen peroxide (we call it the developer) your hair cuticles open so the pigment can be absorbed well.
For this, apply the pure developer (hydrogen peroxide) to the grey strands. Use a comb to comb the developer through the areas that need pre-softening. Let this sit for twenty minutes. After this you can apply the dye as you normally would (so mixing the colourcream with the developer) and let this sit for 35-45 mintutes.
Tip: You will need extra developer for the pre-softening. You can order an extra bottle when you're ordering the hair dye. You'll see the option while ordering.
Pre-pigmenting and pre-softening
Did both pre-pigmenting and pre-softening not work? Then use both these methods to the stubborn strands before dyeing. Pickle your hair first to open up the hair cuticles. You can make the grey hair wet with the developer with a brush or a comb.
After ten minutes, apply the tint mixed with water to these areas. Let this sit for ten minutes as well and then apply the dye as you're used to. You can let the dye sit for ten minutes longer, so 45 minutes in stead of 35. Now your perky greys will be gone and finally have a beautiful natural colour.
More tips for good grey coverage
Do you want to know more about good grey coverage? Then read our blog 'How do you get a good coverage on grey hair'.
If you have very coarse grey hair, it is sometimes difficult to dye your hair with hair dye without ammonia. Hair dye without ammonia does give a nicer, more natural and more transparent coverage. But some coarse grey hair still needs ammonia. It may also be that the hair with WECOLOUR hair dye without ammonia needs more pigment. Then you need a hair colour that is one shade darker.
The colours that best cover grey hair are natural tones and gold tones. Natural tones are all colours that end in .0 and gold tones that end in .3, for example golden dark blonde 7.3 or golden blonde 8.3. With these tips and now that you know everything about pre-pigmenting and pre-softening your hair, you will be able to get those stubborn grey tufts well-dyed, good luck!
