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The difference between washable and (semi) permanent hair dye

The difference between washable and (semi) permanent hair dye

You're probably aware that there's a difference between washable and permanent hair dye. Besides permanent hair dye there's lots of ways to temporarily colour your hair. Think of a temporary hair rinse, for example. A hair rinse or demipermanent hair colouring does wash out of your hair, unlike permanent hair dye.

So what type of dye product is best for you? That depends on a couple of things. Do you plan on changing your hair colour more often? Do you want a creative colour or are you going for a natural look? Do you have grey hair? Do you care about your roots showing? 

Semi permanent hair dye

The mildest type of hair dye is semipermanent dye, also known as a hair rinse. A rinse will be gone after 3 to 6 times of washing your hair. It's nice if you want to try a darker colour (max. 1 colour level higher) or another tint (warmer or cooler)! Semipermanent hair dye is also often used for very bright or unnatural colours, such as pink, blue, yellow and green. It's also used to brighten up dyed hair after a while. It will give the hair a nice fresh shine.

A hair rinse or semipermanent hair dye doesn't contain hydrogen peroxide. The hair dye doesn't seep into the hair cuticles like it would with hydrogen peroxide. The pigment sticks to the outside of your hair. If you don't like the colour, it'll be gone pretty soon. Because the hair colour fades with washing, there won't be any outgrowth. Keep in mind that remains of a rinse will sometimes show for a very long time after dyeing, and you can't always wash those out that easy!

Do you often change your hair colour? Then semipermanent hair dye is the way to go. It hair dye does very minimal damage to your hair, partly due to the lack of hydrogen peroxide. It's a very mild hair dye product.

This does mean that you can't dye your hair any lighter with semipermanent hair dye. It also doesn't have any coverage on grey hair. Our No-yellow Mousse is an example of a semi permanent hair dye.

Demi permanent hair dye

Demi permanent hair colour, as the name suggests, is in between rinsing (semi-permanent) and permanent hair colour. Demi permanent hair colour stays in your hair for an average of 6-10 washes. The colour disappears gradually. Convenient, because you can enjoy your colour a bit longer but you don't have to deal with any roots showing. A demi permanent colouring is good to use when you dye your root out and want to freshen up the rest of your hair. Demi permanent colouring, like semi-permanent hair colouring, is not suitable for lightening your hair. However, you can colour your hair several colour levels darker. A demi permanent hair colour will camouflage rather than cover grey hair. Coverage on grey hair is about 50%.

Many toners are demi permanent. They contain a low percentage of hydrogen peroxide of 1 or 3%. WECOLOUR hair colour comes with 6% hydrogen peroxide as standard (and 9% with the 11.1). You can also make WECOLOUR hair colour into a rinse by mixing the colour cream not with the usual 6% activator, but with 3% activator. Then you get the same effect, but this does not cover grey hair. Would you prefer activator with a 3% hydrogen peroxide percentage? You can indicate this for our blonde colours before placing the hair dye in your shopping basket. Would you like to receive a different colour with another percentage of hydrogen peroxide? Place your order as usual and then contact our customer service immediately. The most convenient way to do this is by answering our order confirmation.

Permanent hair dye

Permanent hair dye is hair colour that you cannot wash out of your hair, but has to grow out of it. This is because the colour pigments penetrate deep into your hair shaft under the influence of (the higher percentage of) hydrogen peroxide. Usually, the percentage of hydrogen peroxide is 6%. This is because paint with this percentage usually covers well, even on grey hair, without damaging your hair. Although you don't wash dye out of your hair, the dyed colour does fade. The dyed colour will therefore lighten a bit over time. Even hair that has not been dyed lights up under the influence of sunlight, just look at the difference between (undyed) hair at the front around a face and the hair colour at the base of the neck.

You choose permanent dye when you want a long-lasting, permanent hair colour or if you have (partially) grey hair. Permanent hair dye also allows you to lighten undyed hair, unlike rinsing and demi-permanent dye. Permanent hair dye is not washable and really has to root out. This also means that you have to deal with a root out that you have to keep up with if you want to keep the same colour.

If you want to lighten dyed hair, this cannot be done with hair dye. You will have to decolourise/bleach your hair. As this is very stressful for your hair, you will not find this product in our shop. Another reason why we at WECOLOUR do not support this is because after decolouring/bleaching you do not know how your hair dye will turn out. Would you like to lighten your dyed hair anyway? Then use a professional product that is less stressful on your hair like the WECOLOUR bleach and highlight set

At WECOLOUR we sell permanent hair dye. This comes standard with 6% activator and also covers grey. With our blonde colours, you can choose the percentage of your activator yourself before adding the colour to your shopping basket. You have the choice of 3 or 6% activator. With our very light ash blonde (11.1), you can also choose 9% and 12%, for extra lift. Do you choose 3%? Then you get a non-permanent, non-greying colour that you can use as a toner, for example, to adjust the nuance of a blonde colour. For example, if you have a warm or grey glow to your hair.

The best coverage with hair dye

Besides how long the colour stays in your hair, the biggest difference between a rinse, demipermanent hair colour and permanent hair dye is the product's coverage. Permanent hair dye, as mentioned, also covers grey hair in almost all cases, while a rinse, on the other hand, does not cover grey hair at all. A demi-permanent hair colour camouflages the first grey hairs but does not completely cover grey hair. It usually covers up to 50% grey hair. Why is this? A permanent colouring, because of the hydrogen peroxide, penetrates deep into your hair shaft and therefore does not wash out. A semi-permanent or demipermanent colouring stays more on the surface of your hair and does not (almost) penetrate the hair.

Which type of hair colouring is right for me?

We hope we have now given you all the information you need to make a good choice. Still, a little summary. Do you want your hair slightly darker or in a different shade without root out or drastic change and you do not yet have grey hair? Then go for semi-permanent hair colouring, or rinsing. We also recommend this product if you would like to try a striking, non-natural hair colour.

demi-permanent colour products are used if you want to dye your hair more than one colour level darker or if your hair is already a bit grey, you want to enjoy your colour for longer but do not want root out.

Permanent hair colour should be chosen if your hair is more than 50% grey, if you want to dye undyed hair lighter or if you are reasonably sure of the colour you choose and don't mind getting root out. At WECOLOUR you will find grey-covering (permanent) hair dye (with 6%, 9, or 12% activator), in 44 colours. All colours can be mixed to achieve your ideal colour. Go through our hair colour consultation tool to see which permanent hair colours are possible for your specific needs and your current hair colour. In any case, now you will never again make a mistake in the difference between washable and permanent hair colour, right?

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