Safe to color roots alone?

[LadyGoddess]

My natural so-dark-brown-almost-black hair makes me look ghastly, so I dye my hair a mahogany brown color. However, I don't want to stress out the length of my hair, so I'm interested in dyeing only the roots.

I have not dyed my hair since March-ish, so my roots are nearly 5" in length (no one around to ask for help). Can I go ahead and color the roots alone without redying the length? I know that the newly dyed portion will be ridiculously bright for a couple of weeks.

Also, just because no one IRL would appreciate this photo, here's how I styled my hair a couple weeks ago!

[Angeletti]

I don't see why you couldn't, as long as you use the same hair dye and just put it on your roots then it should turn out the same color, unless your current hair color is extremely faded. I have been coloring just my roots for quite some time now because I find it unnecessary to color my entire head of hair every month and so far I haven't noticed any parts of my hair being different than the rest.

[CrisDee]

For nearly 20 years, I colored my roots every 4 weeks, pulling it down the length for 5-6 minutes at the end to freshen the color (I colored red, and chemical reds fade like crazy!). I also used sulfates, and washed, blow-dryed and ironed my hair every day - looking back, it's a wonder I had hair at all! But yes, you definitely can do roots only. The only thing I'd be concerned about is coverage, with the roots being so long at this point - maybe you can get a friend to help to make sure you don't miss any spots?

[LadyGoddess]

Thanks!

I'm hoping to talk my BF into coloring my hair since he did a fab job last time.

[Macaroni]

In my personal opinion, you should only color the roots on long hair. Pulling color through the length just puts multiple applications of creme developer on fragile, old strands which is not good.

As someone said, there should be little color differential between your newly colored roots and hair shaft after touching up only your roots.

[longlockenvy]

Whew, I was wondering this same thing! Thanks for asking LadyGoddess!!

[Quixotica]

I do only my roots and it works pretty well for me. I even color my hair black, and you can't tell any differences from fading ( I don't pull through the length ).