Coloring & Highlighting Tools

FAQs on professional hair coloring tools

What tools do you need to dye hair?

Beyond the simple bowl, gloves and towel, there are lots of hair coloring tools out there which will make the process easier, less messy, and with better results. For example, applying color with a professional brush rather than your fingers ensures better distribution, reducing the risk of a patchy dye job. Protective clothing such as aprons are a must-have to avoid ruining your clothing, while color remover pads are really helpful to get stains out of skin. No one wants dyed ears! A couple of other helpful hair color tools you may want to keep handy are clips to separate the hair and a timer to keep track of when it’s time to rinse treatments out.

Can you use developer as a hair lightener?

Using developer alone will permanently lighten your hair, but you have to be careful - if you use too strong a volume, or leave it on for too long, it could seriously damage your hair. If you’re not completely sure what you’re doing, leave hair lightening to the professionals, or use a lower strength product designed for at-home use such as Sun Bum Blonde Hair Lightener (which contains the same color-reducing hydrogen peroxide as developer). 

What's the ratio of hair color to developer?

Each brand will have its own recommendations, so always check the instructions that come with the hair color tools and formulas you buy. However, as a general guide the ratio of hair color to developer is usually between 1:1 and 1:1.5, and possibly up to 1:2 if you need to significantly lighten the hair.