“If budget is preventing a client from coming into the salon every 4 weeks to touch up their base and highlights, I advise women to color the re-growth area at home and then come to the salon only for their highlights and cuts,” explains Chan. “While it’s possible to easily do the re-growth area at home, the highlights are complicated because they require more skill, as their placement is so important.”

Chan offers these tips for at-home coloring:

• Don’t overlap the hair color, only apply it to the re-growth area
• Use ammonia-free hair color to refresh this area, as ammonia damages hair
• Or use semi-permanent colors
• Color re-growth every four weeks (this may save $50 – $100 per month)
• Always follow color with a moisturizing treatment: after shampooing, towel dry hair, then apply moisturizer on ends, letting it sit for 5 minutes before rinsing it out.

“For highlights, you can generally wait up to 2-3 months before coming to the salon if your haircolor and highlights are generally dark. But if your haircolor is light, or if your highlights contrast greatly from your natural haircolor, I recommend coming in every 6 weeks,” states Chan.

He also suggests reducing your visit frequency to save some money on hair cuts, and he says to get creative in styling your hair between visits.