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Hair Color Tutorials

How to Touch Up Roots at Home

A root touch up is a hair color application focused on refreshing the roots. It is typically done 6-8 weeks after a hair color application to the entire head of hair, when regrowth is visible. A root touch up is beneficial for covering grays, keeping hair color bright, and maintaining a seamless hair color application. It’s also cost-effective and time-saving (especially if you do your root touch up at home) because it doesn’t involve recoloring your entire head of hair. In this article, learn what a root touch up is and how to do one at home.

A smiling woman with curly brown hair looks over her shoulder, gently touching her hair with one hand. She wears a white top against a bright, softly blurred background

What Is a Root Touch Up?

A root touch up focuses on coloring new growth rather than a full head of hair. Below are different kinds of root touch ups. 

  • Hair color root touch up: uses just hair dye
  • Bleach root touch up: uses bleach to lighten roots
  • Highlights root touch up: adds highlights to deliver dimension 
  • Full-head root touch up: touches up all the roots on the head

 

A root touch up is usually needed every 4-6 weeks depending on hair growth. Regular root touch ups help refresh a new hair color.

Root Touch Up at Home: 7 Simple Steps

Doing a root touch up at home is easy. Just follow these steps, from prep to maintenance. 

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1. Prep Hair

Wash your hair 24-48 hours before you color your hair to get rid of any buildup. Hair shouldn’t be squeaky clean; your scalp needs time post-wash to secrete natural oils that’ll protect your scalp when you color your hair. Additionally, make sure your hair is dry, then comb it and part it as you normally would before moving to the next step. At this stage, you can also divide your hair into four sections for easier, more controlled application, especially if you have thick or curly hair.
An overhead view of hair care tools, including a bowl with a white mixture, applicators, and swatches of brown and blonde hair, laid out on a clean surface.

2. Mix Hair Color

Choose a root touch up hair color that’s close to your existing shade and use a high-quality hair color kit. Be sure to thoroughly read the package instructions, wear gloves, and mix according to the directions for consistent coverage. SoftSheen-Carson’s Dark & Lovely collection offers plenty of vibrant shades formulated for dark, textured hair.
Close-up of gloved hands meticulously applying hair dye to the roots of dark, textured hair, sectioned with a large clip

3. Apply Hair Color to Roots

Use a brush or an applicator bottle for precise coverage and less mess during your hair root touch up. Touch up hair color starting at the crown and hairline but leave out previously colored lengths to avoid overlapping color.

For Highlights

When doing a root color touch up for highlights, focus on select strands or sections. This is where foils or a highlighting cap comes in handy. Skip previously lightened areas unless a touch up is needed to maintain dimension. For subtle blending, feather the dye upwards with a brush for a more natural grow-out. 

For Full Color

Apply root color evenly across all sections, working from front to back. Ensure each section processes for the full time advised in the instructions to avoid uneven results. Do not apply root color to previously colored sections.
A smiling woman with dark, curly hair applies a product to her hair outdoors, wearing gloves and a protective blue bib.

4. Process for 10 Minutes

Coloring hair always involves waiting for the hair dye to process. With a root touch up using Dark & Lovely, you’ll need to process your hair for 10 minutes as per kit instructions. For the best results, do not stray away from the suggested timing; if you do, you might end up with uneven tone, irregular lift, or even damaged hair.
A woman with long, dark, wet hair stands under a shower stream, her eyes closed in serene enjoyment as water cascades over her.

5. Rinse Your Hair

Use cool to lukewarm water for the rinse as these temperatures are ideal for sealing the cuticles and prolonging color vibrancy. Keep rinsing until the water runs clear.
A woman with glowing skin and closed eyes relaxes, bathed in sunlight, with a white towel wrapped around her.

6. Apply Color-Safe Shampoo & Conditioner

Shampooing should be kept to a minimum to preserve the results of your root touch up. Wait 24-48 hours before washing your hair for the first time. Be sure to use a sulfate-free, color-protecting shampoo and follow it up with a color-protecting conditioner. When applying conditioner, focus application from the mid-lengths to the ends to nourish your strands without weighing down your roots.
A woman with voluminous curly hair holds up a dropper bottle, appearing to be applying a serum, with a gentle expression

7. Apply Hair Mask

Use a deep conditioning hair mask weekly to restore moisture, prolong the finish of your hair, and promote lasting shine and strength. Typically, hair masks should be left on for 5-10 minutes.

Root Touch Up Recap

From reading our guide, you might have realized that touching up your roots and the prep and care involved are not all that different from coloring your hair at home, which is a good thing. Here’s a recap of all the steps for doing a root touch up at home:

1.  Prep hair
2.  Mix hair color
3.  Apply hair color to roots
4.  Process for 10 minutes
5.  Rinse your hair
6.  Apply color-safe shampoo & conditioner
7.  Apply hair mask

Root Touch Up at Home FAQs

  • You should touch up your roots every 4-6 weeks if you have non-graying growth. If your hair is graying, you may need to touch up your roots every 3-4 weeks to maintain consistent coverage. Adjust the timeframe based on noticeable contrast. To help your root touch up last, use a color-safe shampoo, limit heat styling, and wash your hair less.
  • A root touch up usually takes 30-45 minutes, including prep, application, processing, and rinse. Using a brush to apply hair color can save you time, and enlisting mess-prevention strategies can help your root touch up at home go more smoothly. For example, to catch stains, you can apply petroleum jelly around your hairline before hair color application.
  • A root touch up typically lasts for 4-6 weeks before new growth appears. If you have grays, expect to do a gray root touch up more often — every 3-4 weeks to keep your hair color looking fresh and vibrant. To extend the results of your root touch up, you can do things like using a color-safe shampoo and conditioner.

  • Make root hair color last longer with these practices:

    ●  Use color-safe shampoos and conditioners. 
    ●  Rinse your hair with lukewarm or cool water to seal cuticles and lock in color. 
    ●  Avoid washing hair with hot water, which can speed up color fade. 
    ●  Limit heat styling, which can also cause hair color to fade faster. 
    ●  Wear a hat or cover your hair in a scarf on sunny days.
  • Hair should be lightly oily for a root touch up but free of heavy buildup, styling products, or silicone-heavy product residue. Avoid washing your hair any sooner than 24-48 hours before a root touch up: this is done to give your scalp time to produce natural oils that will protect your scalp during the root touch up.
  • You should touch up roots on dry hair for even results, more intense color, and precise application. When you do a hair root touch up on wet hair, there is a greater chance for the dye to apply unevenly and become diluted, producing less intense color. Dark & Lovely hair color is formulated for application on dry hair.

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