Who doesn’t want to be beautiful in this world? Yes, everyone in this world wants to possess beauty. As part of this beauty consciousness, the concept of hair dyeing finds its history back in the ancient time. The dyeing of hair with red, black, golden, white and many other colours is a beautification process that style conscious people from the primeval time to the date go for to have attractive hair.

Dyes extracted from plants like henna, turmeric, indigo, and amla have been popular means of hair colouring since the ancient time. There are two kinds of dyes used for this purpose: plant-based dyes and synthetic dyes. In the book of Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art & Nature, written in 1661, different procedures of hair colouring were detailed. According to some, Eugène Schueller, founder of the world famous cosmetic producer L'Oréal, was the first to create synthetic hair dye in 1907. According to Wikipedia, German cosmetics firm Schwarzkopf first launched "Poly Colour", an easy hair colour solution that could be used at home.

Hair can be dyed in two ways- first one is off-scalp and other one is on-scalp. Off-scalp hair dyeing means colouring the hair only leaving the scalp untouched using two methods known as: highlighting and lowlighting.  Highlighting, a more advance hair dyeing technique, involves using more than one colours to create streaks or gradations. In the western world this technique is used usually to create blonde streaks. Lowlighting, on the other hand, means dyeing hair having divided it into sections. Often dark colours are used in this case.

The second type of hair dying is the on-scalp one for getting stronger shades. There are three different ways for colouring hair in this way: root touch-up, all-over colour, and block colouring. For root-touch-up means colouring hair from first inch of hair from the scalp. By covering all over hair someone can get strong hair dye. In block colouring, one, as Wikipedia puts it, ‘wants 100% coverage but desires two or more colours to be placed resulting in dimension and contrast’.

With the different process of hair dyeing, the time of this mode of hair care is very important. You can dye your hair with one certain colour either temporarily or permanently.  Temporary hair dye, as the name suggests, does not last long due to the presence of less amount of ammonia in the mixture of colour. With regular washing, temporary colour usually lasts for few weeks only, and after this time the hair comes back to its original colour.

By using oxidation dyes anyone can get permanent colour for their hair. Permanent hair colours survive long but it is must to take care properly to protect hair from damage by using different useful hair products for like- shampoo or hair cream.

Let’s see which colours are used by people usually. Sunflower Blonde, Pure-Diamond, Caramel, Hot-Toffee, Sparkling Amber, Copper Shimmer, French Roast, Espresso, Ruby Fusion, Crushed Garnet, Blowout Burgundy, Chocolate Cherry, Midnight Ruby, Leather Black, Leather Black, The light ash blonde, light golden brown, and medium reddish blonde are popular all the time.

Celebrities are often seen using hair colours like: Beachy Brown, Caramel Brown, Honey Brown, Golden Brown, Chestnut Brown, Mahogany, Medium Ash Brown, Dark Ash Brown, and Smoky Brown.

There are some popular hair colour brands all over the world: Garnier Nutrisse, L'Oreal Preference, Feria, John Frieda Precision Foam, Revlon Coloursilk, L'Oreal Excellence, Manic Panic, Garnier Nutrisse Colour Foam, Nice N' Easy, Herbashine, and Perfect 10.

As hair colour contains so many chemicals, it has some adverse effects also like- ‘temporary skin irritation and allergy, hair breakage, skin discoloration and unexpected hair colour results’. If any of these problems arises, it is recommended to stop using the product. However, these problems may not happen to everyone.

Hair dying is gaining its popularity day by day as people, both men and women, are becoming more and more aware of trend and style. It’s kind of responding to the demands of the age.

Tamanna Sultana is a bachelor student studying at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), 41 Batch, Jahangirnagar University.