Room protection: hair dye everywhere 🙂

[intothemist1999]

For those of you who color your hair at home without benefit of a deep bathtub or laundry basin, how do you stop hair dye getting everywhere?

I'm standing in my bathroom when I apply the color and because since I first noticed a couple of splatters, I've been very careful. Somehow that just doesn't help!

The weird thing is when I'm done I've now trained myself to look over the whole room and try to see if there's any spots that have ended up on the walls that I didn't notice during the process. Almost always, I find none.. but then the next day they will be there! I'm not sure how that happens!! Comes off fine from tile or the countertop, but that room is in desperate need of painting at this point.

Obviously being super careful isn't enough. I thought of putting my camping "privacy tent" in the bathroom and doing it inside that.. but it would be too dark and then I'll wreck that thing! The only other thing I can think to do is line the walls with a sheet of plastic, but I'm not sure I can face doing that every time (and I'm not sure how much that size and quantity of plastic would cost).

Looking forward to some ideas I haven't thought of! Thanks!

[Shorty89]

I'm always messy with hair dye. Fortunately, my henna doesn't really stain but the Manic Panic I've used sure does. I've taken to putting a towel on the floor and literally saran wrapping all the walls and counters near me. :lol: Even then, I have to have a clean-up rag and stuff handy. What kind of dye are you using? I"m wondering if there's a less messy alternative.

[intothemist1999]

I'm always messy with hair dye. Fortunately, my henna doesn't really stain but the Manic Panic I've used sure does. I've taken to putting a towel on the floor and literally saran wrapping all the walls and counters near me. :lol: Even then, I have to have a clean-up rag and stuff handy. What kind of dye are you using? I"m wondering if there's a less messy alternative.


Thanks for the reply! Yes, I think it will come to that LOL


I'm using Herbatint.

[maborosi]

I used indigo a couple of times (Talk about permanent, hahaha) and I found that laying a couple layers of newspaper on things that I absolutely loved and didn't want indigo splotches on was helpful.

[shelomit]

I'm not certain how the dye you're using works or what amenities you would need, but I usually put on henna in the kitchen, which is my largest room and has hard flooring instead of rugs. I have a couple of ratty old bath towels that I spread on the floor as a kind of dropcloth. I sit cross-legged in the center of the towels and I usually manage not to get henna on anything other than them and myself ( ; At my grandmother's house, we always dyed our hair outside.

[lapushka]

I put garbage bags down. Snip one in 2 and you have one giant sheet of plastic. I put down a couple, and also put one in my sink, covered the tap, covered the countertop, then put my bowl into the garbage bagged sink. Awesome, and so much less work afterwards!

Glad I stopped dyeing! LOL

[AryaStark]

Like Shorty89 found out with Manic Panic, I found that Arctic Fox would definitely stain the whole bathroom too. Also I recently tried Garnier Nutrisse permanent hair dye which was more liquid in texture, and it got all over the floor and cabinets regardless of the trash bags I placed on the floor and counter. This time, my BF was on standby already to help spot me on the back of my head and also with paper towels to wipe down drips.

I like Shelomit and Lapushka's ideas of sitting on the floor, and either finding old towels or cut up plastic trash bags to sit on. My feet are definitely sore after standing bare foot for the process.

[Ashtaroth]

My trick isn’t an option for everyone, but for many years I regularly brought my box of hair dye on work trips. Saved having to worry about staining at home, hotel bathrooms are designed for easy cleaning, plus unlimited hot water for rinsing the dye out.

[lapushka]

My trick isn’t an option for everyone, but for many years I regularly brought my box of hair dye on work trips. Saved having to worry about staining at home, hotel bathrooms are designed for easy cleaning, plus unlimited hot water for rinsing the dye out.

They never charged more because of how you left their bathroom? :shocked:

[lapushka]

Like Shorty89 found out with Manic Panic, I found that Arctic Fox would definitely stain the whole bathroom too. Also I recently tried Garnier Nutrisse permanent hair dye which was more liquid in texture, and it got all over the floor and cabinets regardless of the trash bags I placed on the floor and counter. This time, my BF was on standby already to help spot me on the back of my head and also with paper towels to wipe down drips.

I like Shelomit and Lapushka's ideas of sitting on the floor, and either finding old towels or cut up plastic trash bags to sit on. My feet are definitely sore after standing bare foot for the process.

No sitting on the floor here. For sure! Don't know where you got that from?

[Ashtaroth]

They never charged more because of how you left their bathroom? :shocked:

I always tried to keep things as neat as I could and unlimited water supply made cleaning up easier than at home. I’m sure the odd splatter got missed, but I tried to clean up as much as I would at home. The white towels often ended up with some red dye, but I’m sure that would have been much less gross than many other things hotel cleaners deal with on the regular. I made sure to leave a good tip and never heard anything from the hotel afterwards.

[AryaStark]

No sitting on the floor here. For sure! Don't know where you got that from?

Oops, grammatically I should have added 'respectively' in there somewhere or been more clear on giving credit to whom credit is due. The ideas I thought were helpful were Shelomit's idea with sitting on the floor, and your idea for cutting up the trash bags or using old towels. Sorry for the confusion.

[lapushka]

Oops, grammatically I should have added 'respectively' in there somewhere or been more clear on giving credit to whom credit is due. The ideas I thought were helpful were Shelomit's idea with sitting on the floor, and your idea for cutting up the trash bags or using old towels. Sorry for the confusion.

Ah, now I see where the confusion lies! No problem! :)