How to Save Money on Hair: At Home Tips + Low-Maintenance Color

It’s no secret that expenses are high, and many people are looking for ways to save money, including on hair services. With personal care costs rising significantly over the past few years, this post breaks down five practical ways to save money on your hair from home, along with low-maintenance hair color options and which colors are best to avoid if you’re trying to cut costs.

Learn why hair services have become so expensive.

5 Ways to Save Money on Hair

One of my main goals as a haircare blogger and YouTuber is to help you maintain your hair from home. I want to provide you with the knowledge necessary so that you can have great hair without spending a fortune at the salon.

I’m regularly creating fresh content and how-tos, so be sure you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel to see my latest tutorials as they come out.

***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***

1. Extend the time between salon visits

If money is tight, try extending the time between salon visits. If you usually come in for a cut once every 6 weeks, push it to 12 or 16 weeks instead.

You can do this without sacrificing the condition of your hair if you use deep conditioners regularly at home to keep your ends healthier for longer.

Now, if you have hair extensions or a high-maintenance hair color, be sure to talk to your hairstylist first to be sure this option will work for you. Some services cannot be extended (like extensions), and it could cost you way more if you push it too far out. Certain services become a “corrective service” instead of a “touch-up” when they’ve grown out too far.

But we’ll talk more about turning high-maintenance color into low-maintenance color in just a bit.

2. Trim your own split ends

I always say that an uneven haircut is better than no haircut. If your ends are split and you can’t afford to go to the salon, I recommend trimming them yourself. Order some hair cutting shears (that are ONLY used on hair) and cut it yourself. It’s better to get the ends cut off so that the breakage isn’t traveling up your hair and getting progessively shorter.

Here is a video tutorial I made on cutting my own hair:

And here is a video on how to clean up a man’s hairline if your hubby needs some help:

3. Use a color-depositing shampoo or conditioner

Color-depositing shampoo and conditioners can be helpful for ALL hair colors. They’re a super safe way for you to color your hair at home with the least amount of risk.

I don’t highly recommend using actual hair dye with developer yourself as a way to save money because if you mess it up, you could end up spending WAY more to have it fixed than if you had just gotten it done in a salon. Now I do make tutorials to try to reduce the risk of that happening. But ultimately, it is much safer to use semi-permanent color-depositing shampoo and conditioners.

I find them especially helpful for brunettes who have colored over their blonde. The color will fade quickly from the hair that was previously blonde, so to combat this, you’ll want to maintain it yourself at home safely.

Some brunetters also struggle with their dyed hair always turning red, or at least an unnatural warm brown. I love sending my clients home with a cool-toned brown conditioner to neutralize this right up! I can’t recommend it enough for this situation. Look for the Brown Tahitan Pearl in the conditioner below.

You can check out my blog post here on color toning shampoos and conditioners to learn more about these products and all of their different uses.

These products help maintain color at home and reduce salon visits:

• Celeb Luxury Colorwash: Shampoo that deposits color with a variety of shade options.
• Celeb Luxury Colorditioner: Strengthening conditioner that deposits color to hair in a variety of shade options.

Below you can see how I use these products to color my hair back to my natural shade:

4. Use less, higher-concentrated hair products

Now, a first thought to save money on your hair might be to use cheaper products, maybe something you would get at the drug store. But that’s actually not always the case.

Many hair products that you get from the drugstore are diluted, causing you to need more of it. I see hear this ALL the time with purple shampoo. Over time, you go through an 8-oz bottle much quicker than you would if you had a slightly higher-quality product. A liter of high-quality shampoo literally lasts me two years.

I’ve also found this to be true with other types of products, like dish soap from the dollar store; it’s incredibly watered down.

My recommendation is to shop the sales at Ulta. You can also look in places like Ross and T.J. Maxx, but I have seen counterfeit products come from there, so just be careful. Ulta is ultimately a safer bet, and you CAN find great deals there.

So you’ll want to make sure you’re only using what’s necessary. Get out of the habit of using too much product and start small, and add more as needed. Add water to your hair to emulsify the shampoo instead of adding more shampoo.

5. Wash your hair less

One of the reasons why I’m able to make a liter of shampoo last me two years is because I don’t wash my hair very often. If you can reduce it to washing your hair once or twice a week, that’s only 50-100 shampoos a year in comparison to 365 shampoos if you washed every day!

I typically wash my hair twice a week, and I have oily hair and scalp. If you’re interested in learning how often you should wash your hair based on your hair type as well as learn some extra tips to help you extend that time, see this post here.

Go back to your natural brunette shade

“Recession Brunette” is a social media term where someone colors their hair back to their natural brunette shade because being blonde is just too expensive (and damaging) to maintain. You can do this with highlights to maintain some dimension, or opt for your full, natural color.

Brown hair is considered one of the lowest-maintenance hair color options because it minimizes regrowth, damage, and salon frequency.

Brunette hair typically:

• Requires less lifting
• Appointments can be more spaced out
• Appointments cost less
• Is less damaging
• Minimal roots

Now, keep in mind that this is not necessarily just “going dark”. It’s returning to your natural shade. So if you have natural blonde, red, or gray hair, it wouldn’t be less maintenance to go dark brunette because you’d still have aggressive roots. You would instead go with whatever your natural color is. I’ll give some tips later on for what to do if you have gray hair.

Low-Maintenance Blonde Hair: Why Lived-In Blonde Saves Money

Not everyone is willing to go back to their natural color instantly, especially if you’re used to being bright blonde.

To counter this, opt for a grow-out-friendly blonde look. The secret is that a root smudge is applied to marry the blonde into your natural color seamlessly. This reduces harsh regrowth lines as your roots grow, and allows you to push your appointments further out. I’ve seen some clients go 6 months to a year without touching up their blonde!

Now, these low-maintenance blonde hair color services can sometimes cost a little more right off the bat because the root smudge is an extra step. But they will last you much longer than traditional blonding services. This totals out to costing less in the long run.

For my favorite method for creating lived-in highlights without using a root smudge, see this post here on DIY Air Touch Highlights. Some other low-maintenance highlighting methods are teasylights and balayage.

Below are two different lived-in blonde options. The first is best if you’re starting from a solid root-to-ends blonde. And the second is if you have highlights, or want to transition your root-to-ends blonde to highlights.

Low-Maintenance Gray Hair: Blending vs Full Coverage

If you have gray hair, things may look a little different for you. If you’ve been doing full coverage, then you’re likely sick and tired of having to be in the salon every 3 weeks to cover those roots. They can start showing up in as little as 1 week from having your color done. This is expensive and exhausting.

And while one option is to just grow your color out entirely to rock gray hair during the recession, that’s not the only option.

Instead, I suggest opting for gray blending instead of gray coverage. The difference is that your grays will become a part of your final look, rather than trying to mask every single one. Not only does this grow out more naturally, but it will save you from those every 3-week root touch-up appointments.

Some choose to do highlights and lowlights long-term, and others choose to grow their gray out entirely. I have seen many clients grow their gray out, only to want to add something back to it. In that case, we usually do a combination of highlights or lowlights depending on how white vs. silver or charcoal they are.

High-Maintenance Hair Colors to Avoid (And What to Do Instead)

In this section, we’ll cover what hair colors are going to cost you the most and require the most amount of maintenance. I’ll also give you an alternative option for each!

For a deeper dive on high-maintenance hair colors, see this post here.

1. Platinum Blonde

With platinum blonde or any root-to-ends blonde, not only do you need to visit the salon frequently, but your visits cost more, and there is a lot more at-home maintenance that is required in order to maintain this color and the health of your hair.

Alternative option: An alternative option is to go with a lived-in platinum blonde. This color will have a root shadow that blends your natural with the platinum. You will still need to use quality hair products at home to maintain the condition and tone. But you will be able to push your appointments out a little further with the root smudge.

These products help maintain color at home and reduce salon visits:

• Olaplex Purple Shampoo & Conditioner: Keeps brassiness at bay from home without the need for a toner.
• Olaplex No. 3 Bond Strengthener: At-home deep conditioner that strengthens hair.

2. Red hair

Red dye molecules are much larger than other pigments, so it’s harder for them to stick into the cortex of the hair. Because of this, red hair fades quickly, and the color will fade a little with every wash. That said, there are ways to maintain reds easily from home:

Alternative option: Using color-depositing shampoos and conditioners, you actually intensify the color each time you wash it, instead of fading it. These are great for use in between salon visits, or for adding a new color to your hair from home.

These products help maintain color at home and reduce salon visits:

• Celeb Luxury Colorwash: Shampoo that deposits color with a variety of shade options.
• Celeb Luxury Colorditioner: Strengthening conditioner that deposits color to hair in a variety of shade options.

3. Fantasy/Vivid Colors

Similar to red hair, fantasy and vivid hair colors also fade very quickly. And because the hair usually needs to be prelightened, they’re also rather expensive to get done. So they aren’t the most cost effective option during a recession. And typically the lighter the shade, the faster the color will fade.

Alternative option: Rather than coloring your entire head a fantasy color, opt for just a few peek-a-boos. Bonus points if you use pre-colored extensions that won’t fade! This will cut down your cost immensely, as well as your maintenance. Alternatively, you can also use the color depositing shampoos and conditioners like I mentinoed for reds above to slow the fading process.

These products help maintain color at home and reduce salon visits:

• Colorful Clip-In Extensions: Colorful clip-ins that come in a variety of different shades.
• Celeb Luxury Colorwash: Shampoo that deposits color with a variety of shade options.
• Celeb Luxury Colorditioner: Strengthening conditioner that deposits color to hair in a variety of shade options.

How To Save Money On Hair: Conclusion

Hair services have become increasingly expensive, which has led many people to look for alternative ways to cut back without giving up healthy, stylish hair. Saving money on your hair doesn’t mean neglecting it; it means being more intentional about the services you choose and how you maintain your hair at home.

Choosing lower-maintenance hair color options, avoiding high-maintenance colors, and spacing out salon visits can significantly reduce long-term costs. In addition, maintaining your hair at home with the right products and techniques can help your color last longer and prevent unnecessary damage.

Ultimately, the best way to save money on your hair is to find a routine that fits your hair type, lifestyle, and budget. With a few strategic changes, it’s possible to spend less while still keeping your hair healthy and looking good.

For a deeper dive on low-maintenance hair color, see this post here for a full breakdown.

If you have any further questions for me on this topic, leave them for me in the comments. And as always, Have A Good Hair Day!