If you’ve had a poor hair dye job- – you may want to know how much color correction costs. In this article, we’ll explain just how much you can expect to pay for all the different types of color correction.
Color correction treatments are more expensive than regular color treatments, and prices range between $200-$300 (roughly $100/hour). Depending on how long and intensive the color correction is, costs will inevitably vary.
How Much Does Color Correction Cost?
There are different types of color correction treatments designed to fix different issues that arise from the use of hair bleach and hair dye.
On average, the cost of color correction services is based on an hourly rate – usually starting at $100 per hour.
But this hourly rate can increase or decrease based on your location and the demand for the service at salons near you.
Considering the fact that most color correction services take between 2-3 hours to complete, this means that prices can typically run between $200-$300.
However, there are other costs to consider, like the possibility of having multiple color correction appointments over time to minimize hair damage.
The cost is also different whether you are getting light to dark color correction, root touch-up, or toning treatment.
Some color correction jobs are so delicate that they can even take upwards of 6 hours, resulting in you paying nearly $600 or more for the service.
Cost of Light to Dark Color Correction
On average, light to dark color correction costs about $300-$400 because of the time involved in the service.
A light to dark color correction is a bit more complicated than it might seem, as you can’t simply apply dark hair dye to a blonde or bleached head of hair.
Technically, you could try, but the dark hair dye wouldn’t stick very well, as the hair will be lacking in pigment (especially if it has been platinum bleached).
When hair is lacking in pigment, it’s difficult for hair dye to grab onto the shaft and stick there permanently.
This is why a light to dark color correction can be so expensive – there are multiple steps involved, starting with a filler color, a rinse, and continuing with a new dark hair dye.
Basically, this takes a long time to complete and is why the hourly rate adds up.
Cost of Dark to Light Color Correction
The average cost of a dark to light color correction – such as brunette-dyed hair to blonde – is about $300-$500.
A dark to light color correction treatment is likely going to take longer to complete.
It’s a lot harder to get color out of the hair because it involves intense chemical stripping of the hair strands.
This results in damage and is why these treatments sometimes get spread over multiple appointments, to give the hair time to recover before damaging it again.
This correction requires more than just bleach and also involves toners of different colors so that the bleached hair doesn’t appear orange or some other off-color.
Because of all of these steps involved, it’s going to be pricey.
Cost of Touch-Up Color Correction
A touch-up or root touch-up is another form of color correction, but it’s not as intensive or expensive as full-color correction services.
If you have gotten highlights or regularly dye your hair, your roots will start growing in with their natural color. To correct this issue, you’d get a touch-up, which doesn’t require as much time or dye as a full head correction.
This is why you’re more likely to pay $50-$100/hour for a touch-up, which usually takes about an hour or two (maximum) to complete. This means that you could be paying anywhere between $50-$200 for a root touch-up.
You should also factor in the cost of getting touch-ups on a regular basis, which is about once a month or once every 6 weeks.
Cost of Toning Color Correction
Toning is one other form of color correction that you might want to get done, as it smooths and blends out brassiness in darker hair colors.
The cost breakdown varies by salon. For instance, some salons charge an hourly rate of about $50-$100/hour, and then they charge a standard cost per toner dye used on top.
The good news is that toners are usually pretty affordable – around $10-$25 per toner used. And toner treatments usually don’t take very long – less than an hour in most cases.
This means that the cost of a toner service to the full head would usually be about $75 if it took 30 minutes to complete.
Cost of Color Correction Consultation
You should also consider the possibility that a salon will require you to do a consultation before they color-correct your hair.
A consultation is essential so that the hairdresser can know what steps they’ll have to take to remedy your hair color situation.
It also allows the hairdresser to give you a fair and accurate estimate for the cost of the color correction specific to you.
Consultations are sometimes free, but at in-demand salons, you may be charged a rate since the hairdressers’ time is highly valued.
This can cost around $30 at some salons but will vary based on whether you’re in a small town or a big city.
How Much Does Purple Shampoo Cost (DIY)?
If you want to achieve a color correction at home because you can’t afford the salon, you could always buy a purple shampoo.
Purple shampoos are designed to neutralize certain unwanted hair colors.
For example, if you dyed your hair with a box dye and ended up with yellowish tones, you may want to wash with purple shampoo to cancel out those tones and get your color looking more natural.
Purple shampoos cost anywhere between under $10 to nearly $40 for a bottle.
Here are some example price points:
- Biolage Colorcast Purple Shampoo – $34.00
- Aussie Beat the Brass Purple Shampoo – about $5.00
- L’ange Violet Purple Toning Shampoo – $25.00
- OGX Shampoo, Blonde Enhance + Purple Toning – $11.99
Final Thoughts – How much does color correction cost?
Color correction treatments generally cost about $100/hour, which makes hours-long appointments range between a couple of hundred dollars and up to $600 in some cases.
Toners and root touch-ups are less expensive than full-head color corrections.
You can also color-correct brassiness and yellow tones at home using purple shampoo ($5-$40).
Because these appointments take so long and are so difficult to complete, they are more expensive than regular hair coloring jobs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Part of why color correction is so expensive is that it’s an in-demand treatment that hair stylists are able to do, but clients aren’t able to do at home. It’s also expensive due to the amount of time it takes to achieve and the large amount of hair color products needed to get the job done.
If you don’t like your dye job, you can’t immediately go to the salon the next day to get a color correction. You should wait a minimum of two weeks before you get a correction treatment so that you don’t do extreme damage to your hair.
Although it’s difficult, takes multiple salon appointments, and is expensive, hairdressers can fix a botched box-dye job. This kind of color correction requires multiple sessions of stripping the hair of the dye slowly to reduce damage to the hair in the process.
It’s difficult to completely remove and correct permanent hair dye issues because of the damage to the hair cuticle. However, you can use baking soda and lemon juice (which is acidic) to naturally remove hair dye over time, as opposed to using harsher color-correct chemicals.
References
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