DIY Ombre Hair In 4 Easy Steps

The author, before and after.

(Ed. Note: We were pretty leery of this whole ombre hair thing, until our sales intern waltzed in the office one day looking fantastic with her own DIY job. We demanded that she write down her method for our beloved readers/us mostly)

I’m someone who rarely gets her hair cut and almost never dyes it. The last and only time I did anything was in 10th grade when I dyed the underside of my hair fire-engine red to accompany my totally rad side bangs and sweet Saves the Day hoodie. Besides those years, I have always had very dark brown, wavy, boring hair (Ed. Note: Preposterous. Her hair is beautiful). Fast forward 5 years, and although my style and taste in music has improved a bit, I still have the same exact haircut and color as I did when I was 18.

The other day, I realized this and knew I had to do something. Like right away, not the next day, but at that moment. No salons are open at 9:30pm and I didn’t want to spend $400 on my hair anyway…

But…who needs professionals when we have the internet?

After browsing hairstyles, I decided to go with the ombre, two-toned look, and knew that the only reasonable option was to do it myself, so I did. And so can you.

Let’s begin:

Step 1: Find the type of ombre hair you like the most

Being a naturally dark brunette, I thought I might look completely ridiculous with blonde in my hair. After seeing tons of dark haired ladies with ombre hair online, I realized this could actually turn out okay. Some girls have only a tiny portion of blonde at their ends, and others have opted to lighten almost all over. I knew I wanted something in the middle so I felt Lily Aldridge and Rachel Bilson were the closest to the image in my head. Next, I pulled up a bunch of photos to have as references during the dying process.

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Fabel

After having my hair all sorts of darkened/lightened/highlighted during a terrible phase in high school, I spent years (as it grew out) trying to match my ends to my roots. So I’d probably never do this myself, but I think it’s a cool look & definitely looks great on your already gorgeous (not boring) hair!
Jill

You’re hair looks awesome, and you are very brave but I would never be able to attempt this. Did the dye job damage your hair at all? It seems like a lot of processing time, if I did it to my hair it would be straw/possibly falling out after all of this
- Jill
  
  Sorry, ‘Your’ hair, I don’t know what ‘s wrong with my brain today
- Vanessa Vieira
  
  Thanks Jill! It actually wasn’t damaging at all to my hair. It kind of sounds like a lot of processing time, but it really wasn’t. It was the washing and drying in between that made the process feel longer. Yea, some hair can handle lightening cremes and heavy dyes, some can’t, but I bet your hair wouldn’t feel like straw or fall out!
flacita

I am a hair dresser and this scares the shit out of me!! GOOD JOB choosing a demi-permanant color for the brown…. much less damaging…

ps. “who needs professionals when we have the internet”… :-( i hope girls out there need me!! lol ;-)
- Kara
  
  Agreed and seriously no need to double dye n if yal r gonna do it yourself at least go to a sallys near you!!!
Jamie Peck

You did NOT just trash talk Saves The Day. Years and years later, I still feel zero shame when busting out Shoulder To The Wheel. ZERO.
- Vanessa Vieira
  
  Haha I was not trash talking! I feel zero shame when listening to jessie and my whetstone while i sleep, I just hate those stupid emo hoodies where you wash them once and the sleeves shrink half way up your arm.
Elizabeth

I was able to get this look by being too lazy to get my highlights re done. But it doesn’t look as cute when it’s not purposeful!
Chelsea

1. You are gorgeous.

2. I was really wanting to try this so hopefully this weird dark dye in my hair stops messing things up lol
M.E.

Vanessa’s hair looks great, but overall this is not good advice; without a little more knowledge of the process, at least a percentage of the people who try it this way are going to end up with green hair.

When you lighten hair to almost platinum, one thing is that you can’t use an ash-tone dye on its own to re-darken it; you have to balance the green in that dye with a red filler. (Better left to a salon if you’re not extremely experienced with home color.) This is a major caveat that readers of this article need to understand before they try to follow the same procedure.

Also, it’s better not to follow up bleaching immediately with dyeing if you can help it. Some of the bleach particles can hang out in your hair cuticle and interfere with new color (also, if you leave the bleach on too long, you will strip the cuticle and your hair won’t actually take the dye, so lightening as little as possible to get the look you want is best). There are some other considerations, too (like, some dyes are best used on dirty hair, some are best used on clean hair).

If I were going to follow this set of instructions, I’d plan a weekend at home, do the bleaching on Friday night, and wait until Sunday for the dyeing. :)
- M.E.
  
  PS — I realize you’re not recommending an ash-tone dye per se! Mostly it’s just that other readers need to know that it’s probably not a good idea to use one if they try to do this.
- Kattis
  
  I would not follow this advice also for the following reason:
  why dye your entire hair twice, it’s really unnecessery damage to the hair.
  Also: the prossedure freaks me out, it not easy to dye only your roots by yourself and it’s really admirable for the article-writer to have manage that without experience of dying her own hair. Which I have.
  i would recomend, having done the dipdye/ombre thing to first put a non permanent colour of choise, like brown in the example. then ask a friend to bleach the ends of your hair. Protect your clothes with a towel (you can put foil under you hair also) and let your hair be out on the towel if possible, that makes it easy to apply for your friend. To get the gradual look start off with the ends and then move up to where you want the ombre to begin. So you can let the bleaching reach different amount of time on the different levels so there will be a sharp start of the lighter ends. so since you are starting with ends they will be lighter. Depending of your hair colour and how sharp colour difference you desire you can buy a strong or less strong bleaching.
  (sorry for misspelling)
Jess

It looks great! It’s been over a year since I last dyed my hair, and before that it had been about a year (I like to go dark in the winter), does anyone know if I need to strip my hair first before attempting this? I was going to go buy a box of blonde, just to do the ends, but I don’t want orange… ya know?
R.F.

Your editor sucks. Ironically, that was shown with the editorial note. If an entire stand-alone sentence is in parentheses, the period (or whatever the closing punctuation is) goes inside the parentheses, too.

The worst part was the sentence that started with the coordinating conjunction offset from the rest of the sentence by a comma FOR NO REASON AT ALL! “But” does not work the same way as “however”!

“Dark haired ladies” would be dark women with hair! The compound adjective is a closed one: “dark-haired,” dammit.

Pure garbage, your proofreading. I won’t even look at page 2.
- Katie
  
  That’ll show them.
- Becky
  
  You don’t have to be an English major to have a blog. Keep that in mind.
- Jenna
  
  You clearly left the bleach on your scalp for far too long…
- GINA
  
  S.T.F. UP!!!!!
- GINA
  
  By the way…that SHUT THE F… UP was for that R.F person with regard to editing….who cares!!!!
- Suck Me off GIRLFRIEND
  
  You should consider removing some of the “be” verbs in this comment to make it more active and entertaining.
  
  Additionally, contractions are not acceptable in formal writing so you may want to consider removing most of what you wrote, or removing that cactus from your vagina.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1140187220 Gabrielle Michaela
  
  you must be a fun , sweet, lady-troll at parties. I mean really, the amount of butt hurt you’re piling out ON A BEAUTY BLOG is pure genius. Good job you fine, kindly, carbon based life form.
Kimberly

I’ve never dyed my hair before, and this might sound like a silly question, but if I left the dye in for longer on the bottom and less and less time toward the top of my head, would this help with the ombre effect?
W. Thell

How to get ombre hair: Dye hair. Decide to go back to natural color. Use color stripper that works slowly while your hair grows out. Pretend to be stylish when people say you have lovely hair. Worked for me.
Crystal

Wow.. Just read this article while working today, came home after buying the box of clairol (i chose the light brown instead of medium because my hair is a little lighter naturally) and I love the results!~

Thanks for the tips! :)

My hair had turned lighter and started getting very blondy/brassy from the sun, so i just did the brown part, as my hair was already fully the color it needed to be for the bottom.. Didnt turn out as drastic as I would have liked but definitely better than being TOO drastic! Theres always next time..
Atur

I am clearly late, ahem.

You look beautiful.

I just wanted to ask, is there anyway to leave the darker half of your hair it’s natural (dark) colour? Or will it look to stark in comparison to the colour bottom half?
Katie

Just putting this out there… Ombre can also be done naturally by bleaching your whole head and letting your hair grow out. This is how the trend came to be in the first place — celebrities decided they wanted their natural colors back and instead of re-dying their whole head, they just let it grow out. Sarah Jessica Parker has been doing this for years. And besides, boxed hair dye is TERRIBLE for your hair! Especially going blonde when you have dark hair. Believe me, I did my own hair for about 10 years and now I’m paying for it (literally and figuratively) just to get my hair back to a healthy shade of natural.
Michelle

Bleaching hair out, and re dying it darker, faces the risk of looking green, if you choose a brown without a warm(red) undertone. A must. I also noticed that this article is posted on the blog of a wedding website. Do it yourself hair color and a wedding dont go. See a professional.
Echo

If you’re going to use the Born Blonde- it will absolutely work… *as long as you do not have previously dyed hair*! It works like a charm on virgin hair, but it will not lift out dye. My hair was perfectly yellow-blonde whereever I had virgin hair. My dyed areas? Well, my hair is now brown, red, blonde *and green*. It’s going to cost me about $200 and 2 sessions with my colorist to fix it.
Citlali Talina

After seeing your lovely results and reading the comments, I decided to go for the trend but leave it to the pros.

BAD idea

the tips of my hair were supposed to be golden, and the color was supposed to degrade from chocolate brown to golden.Instead I ended up with near black roots, a weird orange-y for the tips and a VERY blunt line from one color to the next.

I looked at myself in the mirror (after asking my brother, father and husband to stop laughing, please),whipped out a box of hair dye and followed your instructions. 10 of the 35 minutes have passed and already I’m loving it so much more than the pro’s hideous results. if it turns out all right I’ll post some photos. NO WAY I’m letting you see the freak I looked before!!!
- Citlali Talina
  
  ok just washed my hair…. it looks amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
sixela

‘But, who needs professionals when we have the internet? ‘

you should really stick to writing and not hair, from one professional hairstylist to a non professional as yourself.
- Audrey
  
  AGREED!!! leave fucking up your hair to yourself and stop giving out shitty advice on how to permanently damage your hair at home!!!
- Hollywood22
  
  MEOW lol! Catty catty. Why are you so bitter? Speaking as a professional hairstylist myself, I think she did a great job! I understand it could take potential business away from us if everyone went around doing their own hair, but they don’t. And it just allows us to be the heros when those people who do fuck up their hair come in and want us to fix it.
  
  I have no idea why you’re so upset.
- dulce
  
  she was making a joke.
  note she ends the article with the fact that you’re tasking the risk of totally fucking up your hair.
AARAN

That is really nice way you have explain how to make this hair style. I have had some good hair styling products from http://sfrbeauty.com/. I think they will be very useful here.
karina

hi love the style on ur hairr really love it, i have a question, im not sure if mi hair its going to end like yours because y just bought a darker blonde for the roots, but i just want to ask if i dont choose to aply any dy on mi roots its going to be nice?, mi hair its virgin
emily

I see it and all I think is, someone’s dye job is growing out. I just can’t imagine someone wanting their hair to look like they are growing it out. To me it is kinda like the Emperor’s New Clothes. It is not a good look on anyone, imho. It just appears unkempt and overlooked and I want to hand each girl my stylist’s biz card. Sorry, but I can’t see the diff between “ombre” and outgrown dye job.
christine

Im a huge fan of this look, and have done it to many people and do it to my own hair as well, and btw you look beautiful! I am a pro hairdresser, i went to toni and guy academy, and this look was hard for me to learn, it can be tricky, i would reccomend instead of lightnening all over choose a haircolor (you used the clairol level 5 brown, im not sure if that lifts I know pro color best) that will lift your roots, as long as you have virgin hair if you use a high developer and patience to allow the color to fully develop according to the manufactuer(20 or 30 volume, if your hair is extremely dark and healthy maybe a 40, and go to a beauty supply and try to find a creme color line like Satin[I love that brand]) and apply it root to mid shaft, which goes about an inch away from your scalp to about an inch from your ends, so anywhere in the midshaft you would like to see the lighter pieces, then apply the lighter in small sections from where the color is (midshaft) thru the ends and be patient! lightner turns hair orange because you have to get it past a certain level because hair has natural undertones the darker the warmer(red, orange, yellow) your hair is. that is a great diy look, but I HIGHLY recommened leaving it to the pros!
- Heather
  
  Hi there. Just read your DIY for ombre coloring. I’m a little confused though. I have dark brown hair, with a few grays here and there. I bought 2 colors to try & “ombre” dye my hair (from Sally’s Beauty Supply)…. I want brown on the top to get rid of my grays and so it is more solid coloring, and red for the ends. I was told to FIRST bleach the ends so the red would come thru better. SO I guess my question is: SHOULD I DYE THE BOTTOM PART FIRST (bleach then red) and top part (the brown color) last???? OR vise versa???? I REALLY CAN’T afford to go to a salon so I’m trying it myself. I just don’t want my hair to end up looking terrible or having a noticable line between colors in the middle… ANY help would be just WONDERFUL!!!!! Thanks, Heather
  my email is: heatherglaesner@gmail.com
  (if u cant get me back on here!)
Kimberly Peak

I am coloring my clients hair to cover gray level 7 which is a very nice med maybe med light brown her mid shaft down to ends is blonde from highlites so I was trying to do ombre letting the root grow and blend to ends so I pulled level 7 in different lengths only to the bone check and it ended up leaving a line of demarcation how to I fix that? The top is light brown and th
e ends are blonde! Need your help soon as possiable !! Thanks Kim
Rebecca

I give you credit for trying this on your own and.. you’re hilarious! I actually laughed out loud while reading this. Thanks!
lois

OMG!!! I love your hair!! This is exactly how I want mine! Might have to give it a try!! :)
koolchicken

I have ombre hair, but not exactly by choice. When you live in Hawaii and get lazy about hair care it’s just what happens. Fortunately I like the look and it’s in. Otherwise I’m pretty sure I’d be screwed because my personal motto is “I’ll get to it tomorrow”, lol.
- Sara
  
  Oh to live in Hawaii…….When on vacation forin Mexico for a week or more, I can’t see how I could live somewhere so beautiful and get anything done. Good thing beach sexy is hot
Crissie Dabelle

I love the ombre look. You need the right product which i gained from http://www.dipdye.co.uk great colors and only semi permanent
- Jamie L
  
  thanks for the link http://www.dipdye.co.uk great products for sale there – lotsa choice too
- Riha Johnston
  
  +1 http://www.dipdye.co.uk hairchalk was ace for dipdye ombre effect. ta babez
Rita

This article has been plagiarized here http://girlsguideto.com/article/beauty-how-ombre-hair-4-easy-steps with no mention to Vanessa or The gloss.

I had the courage to dye my hair thanks to this article and it worked! Thanks for sharing,
Rita

http://MissAntique.etsy.com
Hair Care

Hey dear i was really upset due to my hair but after reading these tips i am feeling well and will apply these tips on my daily life, thanks
rat attack

Step 1: get your hair highlighted or dyed.
Step 2: run out of money and don’t get it re-done for about a year.
voila! Ombre hotness.
- karenne
  
  You just posted what I was thinking: this trend looks just like a dye job growing out, nothing special. I bet it makes the ones with dye growing out feel so much better about that.
- Haf
  
  Duh. Everybody knows this already. But just like every other hairstyle, this is a trend and sometimes people like to join in the the trend. So for the people who don’t want to wait a year for their dye job to grow out, they can do this.
lut2490

You just posted what I think it makes people grow up with the dye was feeling much better about it. I tried to follow what is in your video. thank you.
please visit http://www.hairstylemodels.com

Your suggestions are we expected.
Georgi Omella

Thanks for the headss upp (http://www.dipdye.co.uk) gr8 site – good prices too – not many places in uk sel dis xx
katrina

its funny cuz my hair ombred itself…havent dyed it in like 7months and below my roots is where it faded…and then the hair that stayed the color..lol
Carrie

You are killing your hair dying it twice!!!! If you all want your hair to fall out from bleaching it to dying it again, go ahead. This is why stylists go to school…so they can learn how to fix dumb people’s DIY jobs. If you want it done right, go to a stylist. It won’t cost a ridiculous $400 to do it.
- Eleanor
  
  I have tried this and it worked great! My hair was fine, the same texture as before and none of it fell out. I didn’t need to see a stylist to fix it because it didn’t look bad. All of my friends and co-workers asked where I had gotten my hair done and they all thought that it looked great. I asked at a nearby stylist and she said to get a good dye job it would have cost at least $150, not as much as $400 but still a pretty penny.
- Allyssa
  
  Actually, what she did isn’t that bad since her hair hasn’t been touched before.
- Tobi
  
  I sort of get the idea that you didn’t actually read the entire thing.
Heather

I don’t know what’s up with all the crappy shitty comments. Her hair looks gorgeous! You snarky attitudes don’t attract buisness. My best friend and I got our hair done like this a couple months ago. My hair is dark blonde so I got tips bleach blonde and it looks so cute curled. Unfortunately they didn’t do a great job on my friends hair. Her hair is very dark and they bleached the ends and it barely shows. She kept going back to get it fixed and they barely managed to do anything to it and still charged her full price. Case and point sometimes you go into a salon with good money and pay for a service you don’t get. I never trust a stylist to cut my hair because they always do what they want in the style instead of what I want because they think they know best and it looks stupid EVERY TIME. I remember I went to a stylist and asked for straight across bangs and she refused to do it because she didnt like them and spent like 20 minutes doing a hairstyle she wanted. I went home and cut them myself and months later the style is everywhere to be found on the magazines and everyone tells me how cute it is even if I actually go to a salon they compliment my bangs.

Enough with the rude comments! They overcharge at hair salons anyways. 150 bucks for a freaking dye job? Get real it lasts like 4 weeks and then they want to charge 40 to fix the roots. Sometimes its worth it and sometimes its not.
- Shelah
  
  If you ever sit in a stylist’s chair and she refuses to do what you want because “she doesn’t like them” leave immediately. Before I became a hair stylist I had no idea how hard it was for people to find a good hair stylist that listens to you and does what you want. Sorry you had bad experiences! Not every stylist does whatever they feel like!
- Rachael Hinkle
  
  I completely agree with you, Shelah! If anyone ever has an experience with a stylist like the one Heather notes, leave immediately and find someone who will listen (it’s YOUR hair, afterall). I am a stylist as well and while I obviously don’t recommend that my clients go home and try DIY color jobs or bang/fringe trims, I know that sometimes they work out, too. I can tell you that almost half of my client base is built up from women coming to me for color corrections/botched hair cuts…and I listened to them, did what they asked and we both end up happy :) As far as the at-home ombre, all that chemical processing is completely unnecessary; if anything, go to your local beauty supply store, get some creme or powder bleach and have a friend help you lighten the midlengths/ends of your hair (even doing two steps of lightening a few days apart to get varying levels of blonde is way better for your hair than bleaching then depositing darker color all in the same day…seems to me that it could be a very dangerous method for anyone who is even slightly accident-prone…one from of darker brown on that lighten hair and you’re instantly blotchy). Either way, good luck!
- sherrie
  
  Not all salons overcharge, and not all stylists do what they want instead of what you ask them to do. It sucks that that is what you have come in contact with, but your generalizations are just as rude as these snarky comments.
Annie

Your hair turned out AMAZING. I just ombre-d my own hair and I’m leaving it alone for now since I just did the dye process and HOPEFULLY it turns out as gorgeous as yours! If I messed up….well tomorrow is only the FIRST day of school, no pressure right?
Natasha

If you read this, what if you don’t want to the lightening process. I am pretty happy with my hair color (which is a golden-ish brown color) I want to do this. Only thing I have EVER done with my hair is a highlights in like 7th or 8th grade.. I WANT CHANGE!!!! lol.
Chrissy

Looks pretty good however I am a little paranoid about accidentally touching the lighter section when applying the darker hair dye? How do you handle your hair without getting messy is my main concern.
Thanks
Uncle Paul

Man! You’re one sexy lady. You single by chance? Hit me up on email!
TSmall

I actually like her hair. But I can’t say I’m a fan of the brown on top with the platiumn blonde on the bottom.. It looks like you have nasty roots.
Kylie

I have tried this twice now and it does not freaking work !!!!! What am I doing wrong ?
Ash

I NEED HELP! My hair is dyed burgundy and I want to do ombre but I just don’t know what color I’m going to need so it can look good. blonde isn’t going to look that great I was thinking almost like an orangish color, but I don’t know? Can anyone please help me! It would be really much appreciated!
If you have any recommendations, anything that would help!
kitty

This is the worst hair advice ever! Why bleach your entire head and then dye the top brown when you could simply do minimal damage by bleaching the ends? I hope no one take this article seriously.