As someone who liked to dye my hair a lot, I currently have a fading-out pink colour I don’t plan to redo. I’m no professional, but I know a few things from my days of wearing different hair colours that have driven my mum crazy. 

Please o, I’m writing this from my experiences and shouldn’t be taken as professional hair advice.

1. Don’t dye your hair after you relax it

I dyed my hair right after relaxing and it thinned out and broke and fell off like raw spaghetti. There was no redemption for the hair and I had to chop it all off. To make matters worse, I didn’t only dye it after relaxing, I also bleached it. What was I expecting?

2. The dye can skip your hair and go to your scalp

Like my friend Kunle whose hair decided to ignore the dye and let his scalp take all the colour. He can now be found walking around Lekki with a purple scalp. Sometimes your hair can just decide to not take in any dye if it wasn’t bleached first. Some hair dyes work without bleach, while others don’t. Get a professional to tell you the difference. 

It's dye I went to dye my hair oh.

But the barber didn't bleach my hair first, he just applied dye to it straight. Now I'm out here with a dyed scalp. https://t.co/Osx4qvqbpi pic.twitter.com/RuSziRAmOy

— Olakunle Ologunro (@KunleOlogunro) March 9, 2022

3. The dye can change colour on your hair 

My colleague Itohan went to get a blue dye job and ended up with pink hair. I don’t know the chemistry of it, but you never know how your hair and the dye can choose to work together against you. 

4. Your hair gets really coarse

If you have type 4 hair, I’ll advise you to think long and hard about the decision to dye your hair. Your hair is going to get quite coarse and need a lot more product to maintain it. The coarseness of your hair is going to work for arm work out sha when you need to comb and detangle it.

RELATED: 8 Most Annoying Natural Hair Struggles

5. Dyed hair isn’t low maintenance

I always have my hair in braids or protective style because I don’t like to do so much work when it comes to my hair. The pink braiding hair that went well with my hair has been unavailable in the market and this has left me with no other option but to settle for other colours. That’s just one disadvantage of having dyed here. 

6. People are going to stare at you

Nigerians like to stare on a normal day, but they stare times two when they see someone with what they consider to be an unusual hair colour. If you’re an eccentric person who loves to experiment, be ready to be starred at and complimented by strangers. 

7. Your hair may fall off in huge chunks

I said earlier that my hair thinned out and fell off when I dyed it after relaxing it. Well, it also happened when I had natural hair. Consult a professional, research the ingredients in the products, watch and read reviews before going off to dye your hair before you lose large chunks of it

8. Don’t dye your hair yourself if you’ve never done it before

There’s a first time for everything and that’s why your first hair dye attempt should be done on a mannequin or an abandoned wig. Don’t go and dye your hair or your favourite wig yourself because you’ve watched a few Brad Mondo videos.  It will end in tears

Yeah, it’s just hair and that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be well taken care of.

QUIZ: What Colour Should You Dye Your Hair?