Yes, You Can Dye Your Hair With Food Coloring. Here's How!

As a hair dye, food color can be used as a one-time, temporary color or a semi-permanent color, that can last for two-four weeks.

Forget costly hair dye products and lengthy salon sessions, hop quickly into your kitchen and search for some food color. Found some? Great! Now spare a few minutes and read this write-up. Also, finalize the color that you want on your hair.

This kind of hair-dyeing won't damage your hair and also won't cost you an arm and a leg. It can also turn out to be a super exciting washable hair coloring idea for kids. Be it Halloween, summer vacation outings, or a 'crazy-hair' day at their school, you can make sure that your kid enjoys it even more with his/her funky, colored hair.

Before you start, you have to make sure, that you keep all the rugs, carpets and hard-to-clean items out of your working area. Choose an area that is easy to clean or spread newspaper on the ground and stand on it. By doing this, you will avoid the floor from getting stained by the falling color droplets.

Gather all the basics before starting the procedure, so that you don't run around rummaging your house with colored fingers and color-dripping hair. Last thing to do before you start is to wear an old t-shirt and put on the gloves.

You will need:

» Petroleum Jelly or Baby Oil: 5-10 ml
» Gloves: 2-3 pairs
» Food Coloring: 1 bottle or tube
» Mixing Bowl: 1
» Hair-dyeing brush or comb: 1
» Hand Towel: 1
» Hair Conditioner: 1
» A Hair dryer

►Apply petroleum jelly in generous amounts along the hairline, on your forehead, on the neck, and on your ears. This will prevent the skin from staining due to dripping color.

►Put on the gloves. To remove the kinks, brush your hair thoroughly and separate them into 5-6 equal portions. You can secure the divided portions in place by rolling and pinning them, to prevent them from obstructing the colored sections.

►One thing to remember, before coloring, your hair should be completely dry.

►In the mixing bowl, take 2-3 tablespoons of conditioner. Gradually start pouring the food color and keep mixing, till you get the desired shade of color.

►If you want the color really fast, skip the 'mixing with conditioner' step and apply the color directly to the hair. You can pour a little color on your gloved palm and rub the palms together. Squeeze and rub the palms around a single portion of the hair and repeat it for all the sections.

►With the help of a brush, apply the colored mix one by one to all the portions of the hair. Just muss your hair a little with your fingers so that the color gets distributed evenly. Pin your hair under a shower cap.

►For low-intensity or lighter color, you will have to keep this mix on the hair for at least 30 minutes. Blonde hair will take up the color in a short span of time. If you have brunette to brown hair, then it may require 2-3 hours. If you have dark hair, the mix will have to be retained overnight for the hair to dye completely.

►Next step is to wash off the conditioner thoroughly. Keep a check on the color of the washed water, the intensity of color will go on reducing. You can use a mild shampoo, but you should know when to stop washing, because the more you wash, the more color you will lose.

►Lastly, you can either air-dry or blow-dry your hair and style them as usual.

►Using a conditioner as a carrier would play an additional role of nourishing your hair, as you will be leaving it in your hair for a long time.

►For a semi-permanent hair color also, you will need the same ingredients. You just have to replace the conditioner with a developer. A developer is one of the two bottles present in a pack of hair dye. You can use that developer or it is a very easily available over-the-counter. Using a developer will help the color stick to your hair.

►Rest of the procedure is same as above. When you use a developer as a carrier, you can be sure that the color will stay for at least 2-3 weeks.

I'm sure after reading this you are desperately waiting to try this simple trick on you hair. And the fact that, you don't have to break your bank for it, is an added advantage. You should also thank your kitchen, because before you could even realize, it has helped you save some bucks.