Love to color your hair or cover the gray but hate the price, especially if you have short, chin-length, or thinning hair and find yourself throwing out half the color afterwards? Ever wonder how to get more value out of a bottle? I did too. And I've figured out a system that works very nicely for me. Here is the exact step-by-step process I use to get two or more rounds of coloring out of each single coloring kit.

1) Pick a coloring system that has re-closable containers. If possible, make sure that the proportion in which the ingredients have to be mixed are either 1:1 (best) or something similarly easy to replicate.

2) Go to a good drug store or a medical supply store and buy a 2 oz plastic syringe or two. You may also want to get a 1 oz syringe for touch-ups.

3) If you need extra gloves, any drug store will gladly sell them to you. They come in boxes of a hundred gloves per box, which should last you for quite a while. Even better, they come in several sizes, so if you find the gloves in the coloring packages a bit tight, you'll be able to get a much more comfortable fit if you buy the ones in the drug store.

4) For coloring your hair all over, use the big syringe. If your hair is short or no longer than about chin length, half the "normal" amount of coloring ingredients should work perfectly. Fill in ingredient #1 to ¾ fl oz, and then add ¾ fl oz of ingredient #2, for a total of 1 ½ fl ounces, while holding the bottom hole of the syringe closed. Make adjustments to accommodate your particular brand of hair coloring (the amounts I use work for Natural Instinct Semi-Permanent Hair Color). Carefully insert the plunger, and shake the syringe to mix the ingredients.

Be careful with the syringe when you apply the mix to your hair. Be sure to aim it towards the center of your head, and watch out for stray drips. You don't want any of the stuff to go in your eyes, or anywhere else for that matter, other than your hair.

5) For touch-up jobs (roots) use the smaller syringe. It lets you use as much or as little as you'll need for your particular touch-up preferences, and it's easier to maneuver too.

6) Bonus tip: I like the semi-permanent color because it fades, which blends in with the regrowth rather than leaving an obvious line. Until it's faded too far, I just do touch-ups every now and then, and a few minutes before the end, I rub a bit of color (the rest) all over my hair to make it look more even.

7) To prevent color splotches on my skin near the hairline, I put some thick moisturizer along the hairline, which prevents the color from settling in. If I find color anyway, I use the little color removing tissues made for that exact purpose and sold at Sally's.