Hair Colors & Touch Ups

This collection sits within the Hair Products group under Hair, and is scoped to one thing only: hair colour and root touch-up products. If you're here, you're most likely dealing with one of a handful of specific situations — and the right product depends on which one it is.

Top Brands Available in Hair Colour & Touch Ups

The range here is currently led by two brands. Directions makes up the vast majority of the assortment — semi-permanent colour across a wide shade range, generally the go-to if you're after a bold or fashion colour rather than a natural shade. Creme Of Nature covers permanent colour, including shades formulated with argan oil, for a more conventional root-to-tip colour change. Between the two, the collection currently leans heavily toward semi-permanent, fashion-forward colour rather than a wide range of natural permanent shades — worth knowing if you're specifically after the latter.

Common Problems Customers Face

A few situations come up again and again for anyone shopping this collection:

• Greying roots between salon visits — a full salon appointment isn't always practical every few weeks, and roots tend to show faster than the rest of the colour fades.
• Wanting to change colour at home rather than book a salon visit, whether that's trying a bold fashion shade for the first time or simply avoiding the cost and time of a professional appointment.
• Colour fading between washes — semi-permanent colour in particular is designed to fade gradually, but how quickly it fades can still catch people out if they weren't expecting it.
• Matching an existing colour after regrowth — lighting and previous treatments can shift how a shade reads compared to when it was first applied, and a colour that looked right in the bathroom mirror doesn't always look the same outdoors.
• Uncertainty about committing to a shade — this stops some people from colouring at home at all, particularly with brighter or more fashion-forward colours where the result is harder to predict from a box alone.

How This Collection Addresses Those Problems

Here's how the two brands in this collection map to those situations:

• Root touch-ups — a targeted product used little and often bridges the gap without a full re-dye, and both brands here support that kind of top-up approach rather than only full-head application.
• A full colour change at home — Directions' semi-permanent range lets you test a bold or fashion shade without the same commitment as permanent colour, since it washes out gradually over several weeks rather than needing to be grown out or stripped. This also softens the uncertainty problem, since a lower-commitment product is generally a more forgiving way to try a shade you're not fully sure about.
• A longer-lasting, natural result — Creme Of Nature's permanent range suits anyone who already knows the shade they want and isn't looking to experiment.
• Managing fade — choosing a semi-permanent shade in the first place means fading is expected and gradual rather than sudden, a different problem to manage than permanent colour loss, which tends to fade unevenly rather than uniformly.
• Matching regrowth to existing colour — sticking with the same brand and shade name for touch-ups, rather than switching between brands, generally gives a more consistent result than trying to match by eye alone.

How to Choose the Right Product

A few starting points depending on which situation applies to you:

1. For root touch-ups only, a targeted root spray or powder is generally faster and less committal than a full box colour, and washes out rather than needing to grow out.
2. For a full colour change, permanent colour lasts through washing but requires more commitment; semi-permanent fades gradually and suits testing a colour before committing further.
3. For matching existing colour, checking undertone as well as depth matters — two products can look identical on the box but read differently once applied, depending on your hair's current condition and any previous colour history.
4. For colour-treated hair generally, a patch test 48 hours before full application is standard advice for any new colour product, regardless of how many times you've coloured your hair before.

None of this replaces reading a specific product's own instructions, but it narrows the range down before you start comparing individual boxes.

Usage and Care Tips

Colour generally holds better on clean, product-free hair, so washing (but not deep-conditioning immediately beforehand) is often recommended ahead of application. Once coloured, sulphate-free shampoo and cooler water temperatures both tend to help colour fade more slowly than hot water and stripping cleansers. Touch-up timing varies by how fast your natural colour grows through, rather than a fixed schedule that applies to everyone.

Shop Colour and More

For general haircare to support colour-treated hair — masks, oils, sulphate-free shampoo — the wider Hair department covers those product types alongside this one.

Common Questions

How often should I do a root touch-up?

 It depends on how fast your natural colour grows through and how visible the contrast is — there's no fixed schedule that suits everyone.

Do I need a patch test before using a new hair colour?

 Yes, generally — a patch test 48 hours before full application is standard advice, even if you've used hair colour many times before.

Does this collection have permanent as well as semi-permanent colour?

 Yes — Directions covers semi-permanent shades and Creme Of Nature covers permanent colour, though the range currently leans toward semi-permanent.