Do you get annoyed when you've just slathered your head in hair color and half the bottle is still left over? There's nothing useful you can do with that color and it'll just go down the drain. What a waste!

Could there be a better way? Read on for the answer.

While thinning hair really benefits greatly from hair coloring since it'll look much thicker afterwards, it simply doesn't take as much color to do the job as it does for thicker hair. And yet, it's all the more important to do frequent root refreshers, where there's even more waste. Or is there?

Here's what I came up with to avoid all that waste and save some money to boot:

Save one of the mixing or applicator bottles, clean it, and reuse it to mix your hair color in smaller batches. For the brand I use, the two ingredients are added in equal portions. So it's really easy to use just half. And that's when I do my entire head of hair.

For touch-up jobs, I can use even smaller amounts, so one bottle can be good for one full coloring as well as 2-3 touch-ups. You'll mostly put color on the roots and then just smear the stuff all over the head for a few minutes towards the end to keep the colors even. You won't really need much to do that. Money saved: you do the math.

A second trick: If you're about due for a haircut, get your hair cut before you color your hair. You'll need less color.

And last but not least: Are you getting annoyed at getting color splotches all over your towels?

I've figured out a solution for that one too:

I use several sheets of paper towel and pin them to the edge of the shower curtain with clothes pins. Then, when I have my eyes squeezed shut for fear of getting color in them, I can just blindly grab one and dry my eyes. And if there's color on the paper towels, I know I'll need to rinse some more. Meanwhile, my towels stay clean.

Savings: your towels last a lot longer. How much that's in actual money savings depends on your tolerance for ratty-looking towels and/or the price of your towels.

So between getting 2-3 extra color treatments out of a bottle and no longer ruining your towels, you may well save enough to pay for some of your haircuts. And, by the way, if and when your hair gets thicker again, you can still save almost as much.

Author's Bio: 

Want to feel better about more than "just" your hair? Elisabeth Kuhn would like to give you a free ebook with seven feel-good strategies.

Then again, maybe you'd rather get the full-sized version right away.

And don't forget to visit Elisabeth's eclectic blog with even more resources for body, mind, spirit, and prosperity.