Hair color at a salon is expensive, and the longer your hair is, the more expensive it gets. A box of color at the department store is dirt cheap, but is it worth it? Is it really the bargain you're looking for? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The results you'll get from boxed color, especially a highlighting kit, varies widely. You may end up with one of many undesirable results that you'll want fixed right away. And if you've ever priced corrective color at the salon, you know that it's much more expensive than just going and getting your hair colored right the first time. Following are three common problems with home highlight jobs. 

Brassiness

The lightener that your colorist uses is very potent, but you can't get your hands on that stuff. It's only sold to cosmetologists who have a license to use it. The stuff you get at the department store is a weak version of the good stuff. It will lighten your hair, but it will take a long time to do it. What's more, if you have dark hair, it may never lighten completely without the stronger stuff. When you're hair doesn't lighten well enough, you end up with hair color that is very brassy. 

Banding

It takes months of study and practice for colorists to perfect their color application technique. If you don't know what you're doing, you're bound to end up with color variations, such as banding, which is caused by poor technique. Banding occurs when color bleeds into an area where it's not supposed to be. It can also occur if a section of hair gets dried out prematurely. The color variations caused by these things is called banding because it literally looks like you have bands of different colors throughout your hair. 

Disintegration

Even though it's weaker than professional products, store bought color can still damage your hair beyond repair if you leave it on too long. Damage can result in  dried, frizzy looking hair, if you're lucky. Damage can also make your hair so gummy that it's impossible to get a comb through it when it's wet. Complete disintegration is also possible. When damage is this bad, it simply falls off the head in globs of mushy stuff that doesn't resemble hair in the least. 

As you can see, there are very good reasons why you should trust your hair color to the professionals. You may think you're going to save money by doing it yourself, but you will likely end up ruining your hair and having to pay even more to have it fixed. To avoid these problems, try the professionals at Texture Salon & Spa of Madison Inc.