DAILY ANALYTICAL REASONING:

1) In a group of five persons A,B,C,D,and E
a)A and C are intelligent in English and Reasoning.
b)B and C are intelligent in English and General Awareness.
c)E and D are intelligent in Arithmatic and Inteview.
d)E is intelligent in Interview,reasoning and Arithe matic.
c)E and D are intelligent in Arithmatic and Inteview.
d)E is intelligent in Interview,reasoning and Arithe matic.
e)B and D are intelligent in Arithematic and General Awareness.

1) Who is intelligent in English,arithematic,and general
awareness?
2) Who is intelligent in english and reasoning but not in
general awareness ?
3) Who is intelligent in Arithematic,General Awareness and
Interview (ans:?)
4) Who is intelligent in English General Awareness and Reasoning
(ans:?)
5) Who is intelligent in Arithematic,Reasoning and Interview(ans:?)

2) Five persons A,B,C,D and E were travelling in a car.They were
two ladies in the group. Of them who knew the car driving one
was a lady.A is brother of D.B wifeof D,drove at the begining.

? Help M Main Menu P PrevMsg two ladies in the group.
Of them who knew the car driving one was a lady.A is brother of D.
B wifeof D,drve at the begining.E drive at the end.

a) Which of the following is a pair of brothers.(ans:?,?)
b) Who was the other lady in the group.(ans:?)
c) In the case of which the following pairs,no relationship
can be established with one else in the group (ans:?,?)
d) How was E related to A.(ans:?)

3) A man said to woman " your only brother's son is my wife's brother".
How is the woman related to the man's wife...(ans:?)
Data Sufficiency : a) only statement A is sufficent , B is not
b) only statemnet B
c) both are necessary
d) both are not sufficient.

4) X is an integer. Is X dvisible by 5?
A) 2X is divisible by 5.
B) 10X is divisible by 5. Ans : (?)

5) (A) Anna is the tallest girl
(B) Anna is taller than all boys.
(Q) Is Anna the tallest in the class. Ans : ?

6) Zulus always speak truth and Hutus always speak lies. There are
three persons A,B&C. A met B and says " I am a Zulu or I am Hutu".
We don't know what exactly he said. then B meets C and says to c
that " A is a Zulu ". Then C replied " No, A is a Hutu ".
How many Zulus are there ? Ans 2( check)
Who must be a Zulu ? Ans B (check)

7) A father F has 5 sons, p,q,r,s,t. Not necessarly in this order.
Two are of same age. The eldest and youngest cannot be twins.
T is elder to r and younger to q and s has three older brothers.

8) There are 7 people who take a test among which M is the worst,
R is disqualified, P and S obtain same marks, T scores less than
S and Q scores less than P, N scores higher than every one.
Ans : ?

9) In a total of 36 vehicles after one car there is one scooter.
After 2nd car there will be two scooters and after 3ed car there
will be 3 scooters so on . then find the number of scooters in
the right half of arrangement. ans. ?


10) Find the statement which gives correct explanation to
the contradictory statements.
i) doctor told that "Drug adicts can not have their habit
ii)some surveys indicate that all the drug addicts left their
drug habit.
a) Doctor do not know about drug addicts.
b) servays does not include every drug addict .
c) Drug addiction is a bad habit.
d) will power make peo

intresting facts abt veega land............

Veegaland Park

Situated at Pallikkara, this state of art Amusement Park is just 14kms away from Kochi/Cochin.Spread over a whooping 24 acres of land, its 7 storey high Vintage Castle and Caterpillar Village give a Fairy Tale atmosphere. The musical Fountains, flower gardens, water pool and water slides add to the attraction of the Veegaland Amusement Park.


Fast Facts
» Location : Kakanad, Cochin
»Accessibility : Bus Services, Cabs - Easily reachable by road and by train.
» Best time : Round the Year
» Visit Timings : 10:30 am to 6:30pm. *Timings are subject to vary.
» Amusement Park Fee : Upto Rs 500 per person (Adults). Fee of children are on consession basis. Fee of the park is subject to change.

Famous Sites:

Musical Dancing Fountain First of its kind, this fountain attracts children and people of all ages. Sit around it for few momemts and you are in a new world filled with colors.

The Vintage Castle This Fairy land Castle makes for the very best things inside Veegaland. One of the major attractions for children an eye-catcher for the adults, the Vintage Castle is a major attraction here.

Visit Veegaland!

The Park
Its a beautiful park and the amazing architecture of the park speaks of nothing else than the beautiful and ethnic Kerala and South India. Sitting at a height of 300ft above the sea level, it has the flashes of the oriental village architecture. It has excellent assortment of rides, sparkling blue water pools, thrilling shows, and six restaurants to sway you off. And there is round - the - clock assistance to assist you in each and every step so that you are at ease while in Veegaland.

And then there is the seven story Castle, which is the wonder of the Veegaland. The sprawling lawns here add to the beauty of the Veegaland Park. In the Veegaland there is a 40-foot high and 1,150-foot long roller-coaster ride inside the fairy castle, a 35-foot fall from the revolving cave in a water splash boat, a 14,000-sq foot wave pool which produces giant waves from 10 lakh litres of water. Another major attraction is the 500-seater theatre with a modern musical fountain that leaps in rhythm with popular film songs The Veegaland Park has a capacity for around 400 people at a time.

Funs and Rides

» Balarama Cave : Computer controlled ride, takes you through the dark and erring cave. Experience the encounter with witches and wizards and ghosts in this Balarama Cave.

» Wonder Splash : Sit in this log boat and sneek into the mysteries of water. Have the goose bumps flow inside your skin.

» Vintage Tornado : Set in a 40ft high magical castle, this fantastic roller coaster is one of the myriads of the Veegaland Park. Zooming up and down in swirls as exciting as anything.

» Cine Magic : Imagine traveling in an old train in a dark, spooky mine or gliding in the outer space. Its another world here. Maybe you feel like being in Venus!

» Wave Pool : That the ultimate entertainment for the entire family. This water pool is there for everyone - the kids, young ones and the oldies. It just the time when you jump in!

» Wavy and Vertical Fall : Enjoy the thrill of fast falling down in a gush of water. And that's a thrilling experience!

Food Court and Bars

There are six of them , the food courts in Veegaland Theme Park:

• Valley View Restaurant - Its for the nature lovers. People who love to eat in the midst of nature - here we have a feast for them!
• Vintage Kitchen Restaurant - Mystery looms over here. Just by the side of Vintage Castle and the Balrama Cave, this restaurant serves North Indian, Continental and Chinese; non-vegetarian as well as vegetarian dishes.
• Vintage Chimney Restaurant - The Yummy Chinese Dishes are served out here in this restaurant which lies inside the Vintage Castle.
• Spice Garden Restaurant - A night around the musical fountain, food served with the candle - if this is your idea for the dinner, this one is for you. Special Biriyanis and traditional Kerala snacks are the favourites here.
• Wood House Restaurant - Wood Craft Ambiance and the tree house - now that s the perfect setting for a cool food. Delicious Kerala dishes with North Indian combination are the speciality of this restaurant.
• Waves Restaurant - If you are missing the sea side restaurant, then be here to experience the same atmosphere. Spicy Biriyanis, yummy continental foods and fresh juices by the side of the wave pool are the idea of this restaurant.

Our Suggestions

• Majority of the rides are water based. In the Veegaland there are seperate showers and places for people to change.
• There are six restaurants which serve ethnic South Indian and Vegetarian and Non Vegetarian Food. Drinks in the category of Soft drinks are also served.
• Cochin is a nice place to stay. On the other hand Kerala makes for one of the best tourist destinations in India.
• There are a number of things you can see in Kerala - the Kettuvalums, the tree houses, the backwaters and the Ayurveda.
• South Indian Cuisine is one of the best things to savour, try out the various South Indian delicacies instead of Continental Cuisine.You sure are going to like it.
• Keep your baggage light as in this city everything is easily avialable, so there is no need to keep anything extra! Its mostly a pleasent weather throughout the year, so there isin't much of a need of warm clothes to add in your clothes - the winters are usually pleasent.!
• For any further clarifications we are there to resolve them. Contact us anytime, anywhere

Top 10 Interesting Facts About Pyramids

Think you know all there is to know about these goliaths of the ancient world? Heritage Key picks out ten key facts about pyramids.
1. There are actually 118 pyramids in Egypt. Sure, you might have heard of Khufu's, or Khafre's – or even Djoser's incredible Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first known pyramid ever built. But what about the ones which don't grab the headlines: Amenemhat III's Black Pyramid of Dashur looks more like Ayer's Rock than an Egyptian tomb, and Sahure's fine mausoleum in Abusir once stood 47m high.
2. The 118th pyramid was unearthed by Egypt's most famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass, as he and his team uncovered the 4,300-year-old tomb of the 6th Dynasty queen Sesheshet in November last year. The team had been searching for the impressive Old Kingdom pyramid for over two years, and it's the third known 'subsidiary' tomb of Sesheshet's husband, Pharaoh Teti.
3. Millions of people know about the Giza necropolis, but have you ever heard of the Pyramid of Djedefre? This largely ruined pyramid Egypt's northernmost, and was commissioned by the son of Khufu, the pharaoh who constructed the largest pyramid in the world. Some have speculated that it was once as tall as Menkaure's pyramid, the third largest of the great triumvirate at Giza.
4. Khufu's Great Pyramid may be, well, great - but it's also the only surviving ancient wonder of the world, and the oldest at around 4,600 years old. Other staggering numbers for the monument are that it includes 2.3 million limestone blocks and weighs 5.9 million tonnes. Oh, and it held the title of tallest man-made structure for around 4,000 years at 146m, until Lincoln Cathedral (160m) surpassed it in 1311.

According to Herodotus, 100,000 people built Khufu's Great Pyramid - more than the population of any city at the time

VIDEO: Exploring the Step Pyramid, Ancient Egypt's "Stairway to Heaven" - Dr. Zahi Hawass

5. Staying on Khufu's masterpiece, up to 100,000 labourers built the behemoth according to Greek historian Herodotus. This is more than the entire population of the world's biggest cities at the time, and many think Herodotus may have been a bit overexcited - he was going on the words of friends; and lived almost 2,000 years after the pyramid was built. Modern experts place the number nearer 20,000 – still a large enough number of builders in one place.
6. Even the builders had tombs: When an American tourist was thrown from her horse in Giza in 1990, a stone the horse stumbled on turned out to be the tip of an enormous builders' necropolis. Zahi Hawass' team would subsequently unearth over 600 tombs. One of them, the 'egg dome' tomb, is now an attraction in its own right.
7. One of King Sneferu's three pyramids, at the royal necropolis of Dashur, is significantly bent from around halfway up at a shallower angle. It creates a unique shape for the empire, and experts think it may have been done simply because the existing angle began to weaken the building. Other think it may have been hurried, as Sneferu's death was approaching. Its name today? The Bent Pyramid, of course.
8. Pyramid building spread southwards in the later years of Egypt's cultural zenith: just look at the Nile-based Kushite capital of Meroe, located some hundred miles north-east of Khartoum, Sudan. Its own beautiful network of small, steep pyramids was created between the 4th century BC and 3rd century AD. Kushite kings ruled Egypt throughout its 25th Dynasty.

9. Pyramids don't stop at the Sahara. The step pyramids of the Mayas in Central America are some of the world's most recognisable and breath-taking mad-made monuments, and recent years have seen the alleged 'discovery' of an alternative Valley of the Pyramids in Bosnia. If deemed to be a pyramid, the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun would become the largest such structure of the ancient world, eclipsing Khufu's opus by some way.
10. The excavation of pyramids doesn't stop with dusty shirts and beaten trowels – robots are making some of the biggest strides in Egypt today. A Japanese model has been searching inside the Osiris shaft below Khafre's pyramid, whereas a University of Leeds-developed 'RoboScarab' (copyright Ann) is making its way through the mysterious shafts of Khufu's Great Pyramid.

Top 10 Tips and Tricks to Train, Exercise, and Better Your Brain

While we're always using our brains, we're not necessarily doing much to keep them in good shape. Here are the top ten sites and tools to train your brain and exercise your mental muscles.

10. Sudoku

By now you're probably familiar with Sudoku, but just in case it's a number puzzle game with the objective of filling up a grid of numbers. Check out these instructions to learn how to play. Most people find Sudoku a fun and addictive game, plus it can help improve your problem-solving skills (just not your overall brain health). You can play online, on your iOS device, on Facebook, Android, and pretty much any other platform you can think of.

9. Wikipedia:Random

Wikipedia:Random is simply a means of randomly stumbling on a Wikipedia article. Why is this good for your brain? You can use it to find a new topic to learn about every day. Qwiki, a visually rich, mini Wikipedia that reads to you, is another good starting point. Learning something new every day can keep your brain healthy, so grab a random article and make it a new way to start your morning.

Wikpedia:Random

8. Practice Simple Math Every Day

Perhaps you remember the Mad Math Minute from grade school, where you'd need to solve as many math problems as possible in 60 seconds. While it may have seemed annoying then, it was excellent practice that you can still make use of now. While it's easy enough to create your own Mad Math Minute worksheets, since you're basically just writing out a bunch of simple math problems on a piece of paper, I found a Mad Math Minute generator for Mrs. Boguski's 5th grade class. It probably wasn't intended for mass consumption on the web, so here are some alternative printable worksheets. The bottom line is this: a minute of simple math can help get your brain in shape and make you far less reliant on a calculator.

7. Write Instead of Type (More Often)

We love our keyboards. They're much more efficient at getting words on the page than your hand, a pencil, and a notebook. Nonetheless, you can learn more effectively by writing longhand and so you may want to ditch the laptop when you're acquiring new knowledge. This happens because your brain's filtering system (the reticular activating system, or RAS) processes what you're actively focusing on at the moment. Writing triggers the RAS and lets your brain know it's time to pay attention.

6. Act Like You're Teaching

You can utilize the skills you already have more effectively by acting like you're teaching. Rather than just recalling the steps needing to complete the task at hand, pretend as though you're teaching yourself how to do it. This will help you recall the necessary information better and avoid making stupid mistakes.

5. Tell Yourself Stories

Storytelling cane be a good way to exercise your brain. First of all, it makes things easier to remember because it puts what you want to remember in a more compelling framework. It gives you a chance to focus on important details and associate emotion with what you're trying to remember. Even if you're not telling yourself a story to help retain the information, you'll still improve your memory just by telling stories in general. Storytelling has been used as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. If storytelling can help an Alzeheimer's patient improve their memory, chances are it can help you

4. Lumosity

Lumosity is a webapp that provides specialized brain-training activities. You can use it for free, but premium accounts (which you can try free for five days) have a wider range of training options. All the exercises are pretty simple to understand and are fun to play. All of my initial exercises had to do with memory, likely because I selected better memory as one of my goals when I signed up. That's to say that Lumosity's exercises may vary for you based on the information you provide. When you're done, you get a rating and your goal is simply to improve with each day you practice.

Lumosity

3. Meditate

Nothing kills your ability to use your brain effectively, as well as your brain's overall health, like too much stress. What's a great way to reduce your stress levels? Meditation—and you don't need to do it with incense and yoga pants. Check out our guide on meditation for the rest of us for some simple ways to get started.

2. Learn About Your Brain's Faults and Account for Them

In a previous top ten we've taken a look at ways your brain is sabotaging you and how to beat it. We've also looked at how to avoid burnout from addictive technology, how you can become a lot smarter by realizing you're not that great, how to use your natural inclination towards quitting to your advantage, how imagining eating more can lead to eating less, why it's okay that you and everyone else is an asshole, and many more. Basically, your brain does a lot of things very, very well but sucks at plenty of others. You may not be able to fix the things your brain is bad at in all cases, but at least being aware of your inherent faults can make sure you're taking advantage of your brain's full potential.

1. Exercise and Eat Well

While probably a little obvious (and something we've previously noted), I'd bet that the number of people who believe this is common knowledge is very close to the number of people who don't follow that common knowledge. If you're not exercising and eating right simply because you don't know how, well, check out this 15-minute daily workout from 1904 and structure your daily diet like a pyramid. If you're worried about spending too much money to eat healthy, there are plenty of great reader suggestions for eating health on the cheap. Anything you do to keep your brain sharp can be easily thwarted if you don't keep your body healthy. A little physical activity and a smart diet will make it much easier for you to your brain in top shape.

top 10 Fitness Tips and Tools

You can do a lot with your mind and a computer, but a healthy and honed body will get you even more out of life (if only more of it). Here are our favorite tips and tools for staying in shape.

10. Stay Fit Despite the Summer Heat

Even if you're motivated enough to actually get out the door when it's hot out, you might not be doing your body any favors by treating a scorcher like any other day. Try drinking a slushie (a great excuse if we've ever heard one), avoid falling for hydration myths, and stay in shape despite the heat. Photo by avlxyz.

9. Stay Working Out in Winter

If there's anything worse for workout willpower than the summer heat, it's the deep cold of winter. But take heart: the average blast of cold air can't hurt your lungs, and if you take the right precautions, slippery roads and even bronchial symptoms can be overcome in a cold run. If you're the biking type, but find the passing wind and conditions far too cold, take seriously avid cyclist (and MetaFilter founder) Matt Haughey's advice on tips and equipment for winter cycling.

8. Try a New Fitness Plan

Ever heard of shovelgloving? The Couch to 5K plan? Maybe you've heard some more gym-rat friends discuss interval training? Switching up your routine, using new tools, and picking up a different fitness plan can stretch your body and skills in helpful ways that don't require a whole new set of gym equipment to get started.

7. Use the Marine Corps Test to Gauge Your Fitness

Can you pull off 20 pull-ups, 100 crunches, and a three-mile run in under 18 minutes, within the same two-hour span? Congratulations, you just scored 100 on the Marine Corps Fitness Test. If not, you're in good company, and you can use the points of the armed forces to keep track of your fitness. (Note: The crunches scoring conflicts with other advice to avoid them, but you can swap in push-ups for a similar upper-and-mid-body test).

6. Go Barefoot, or Just Skip Expensive Running Shoes

You might just think of shoes as a fancy cover for your foot, but people run very differently in shoes than barefoot. What's more, running barefoot isn't just a natural kick—it's usually better than wearing expensive, engineered running shoes. There's more to it than just kicking off your shoes, of course. Leo Babuta of the Zen Habits blog has a wealth of advice on barefoot running, as do the experts interviewed by Science Daily. One halfway solution is a barely-there shoe like the Vibram FiveFingers, but our readers are definitely divided on it. In any case, consider that it's the foot, not the shoe, that does the running.

5. Get in Shape with Little or No Equipment

You think that if you drop $1,500 on that elliptical machine, you'll be honor-bound to spend some serious hours on it. But it doesn't work that way. Instead, try some of the no-equipment roster of fitness moves explained by the Zen Habits blog, or a similar set of no-stuff-needed workouts

4. Track and Train with Great Mobile Apps

If you don't mind bringing your smartphone with you while you're working out, you can do a lot more with it than just listen to music. Apps like RunKeeper, CardioTrainer, and other great mobile fitness apps can serve as great motivators, as they show you exactly how much further you're going, how long it's taking, and how far you're covering every time you head out. (RunKeeper, by the way, is our readers' favorite.)

3. Create the Ultimate Workout Playlist

Creating the right soundtrack for your run, bike, or other exercise is part art, part science. You can read up what the New York Times' interview experts have to say, but you can also use some tools and techniques to pick out the right pace. Having great, high-energy music won't make you a marathon runner, but it can keep you moving toward the finish line with determination. Our readers also offered up their own takes on the best workout music.

2. Trade Static Stretching for Dynamic Warm-Ups

Forget what your gym teacher told you—touching your toes, bending at the waist, and other exercises that stretch your muscles don't help much, if at all, according to a study of thousands of runners of all ages. Instead, try gradually moving up from a fast walk to a run, swinging your arms and legs a bit, and other dynamic stretches before you head out. Photo by lululemon athletica.

1. Stick with Push Ups for Overall Fitness

How can something as old-school as a push up—hands on the ground, knees off the floor, and push—still be in use, and even be growing in acceptance? Because it works out your whole body, it's better on your back than crunches, and you can use your raw push up count as a graduated curve toward fitness, as with the Hundred Push Ups program. Some things about getting in shape never get tired

Ten Interesting Facts About Women In Honor of Women’s

Interesting Fact # 1- Women assuming new professional roles during World War II: While thousands of American soldiers were fighting for their country, women started adopting several professional roles that were previously unavailable to them, serving as engineers, manufacturers, nurses and members of the armed forces, eventually becoming professional baseball players, journalists and secret military communications agents.
Interesting Fact #2 –Women as Nobel Prize winners: Elizabeth Blackwell, one of the most influential women in medicine during the modern era, set a trend for notable achievements among women in the fields of science, politics and the arts. Blackwell, who established a hospital and medical school before she died at age 90, encouraged more than 7,000 women to become doctors in the U.S. alone. Other notable women of the era include Nobel Prize winners Marie Curie (Physics, 1903), Pearl Buck (Literature, 1938), Barbara McClintock (Medicine, 1983) and Aung San Suu Kyi (Peace, 1991).

Interesting Fact #3 – The role of women in the modern workforce: According to an educational series on The History Channel, more and more women are realizing their professional potential. Statistics on women’s income, profession, military service and businesses have dramatically improved since 2002, where the number of women-owned businesses climbed to nearly 6.5 million, up 20 percent from 1997.

Interesting Fact #4 – Famous firsts: Mary Katherine Goddard was the first woman publisher in America (printing the Providence Gazette newspaper and the annual West’s Almanack) in 1766. She also became the first woman postmaster in the country in 1775, the first printer to offer copies of the Declaration of Independence(including the signer’s names) in 1777, and the first woman in America to open a Baltimore bookstore in 1789.

Interesting Fact #5 – Women in sports: Because there wasn’t a women’s figure skating competition at the time, Madge Syers of Britain entered the men’s world championship in 1902 and placed second. She then went on to win the first women’s Olympic gold medal in 1908.

Interesting Fact #6 – Women in war: Harriet Tubman risked her life for over a decade to lead hundreds of enslaved people out of the South towards freedom in the North during the Civil War, where she worked as a nurse and scout. Her last major project was her Home for the Aged, which is now a museum honoring her life and work.

Interesting Fact #7 –Working women: In 1992, two-thirds (66 percent) of all part-time workers were women. In addition, of the 54 million women employed in the U.S. during that year, 40 million worked full-time (35 hours or more per week) and nearly 14 million held part-time jobs.

Interesting Fact #8 – Women in Congress: Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, was the first woman elected to serve in Congress on November 9, 1916, to the House of Representatives as Montana’s Representative –at-Large to the 65^th Congress. She served from 1917 until 1919.

Interesting Fact #9 – Women inventors: On May 15, 1809, Mary Dixon Kies received the first U.S. patent issued to a woman for inventing a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. Before then, most women inventors didn’t bother to patent their new inventions because they couldn’t legally own property independent of their husbands.

Interesting Fact #10 – Women and college – Graduating first in her class from Oberlin College in 1847, Lucy Stone (1818-1893) was one of the first women in the United States to earn a college degree. Stone later went on to organize the first national women’s rights convention.

Top 10 home hair colour tips

Top 10 home hair colour tips

You just can't beat the convenience and budget advantages of home hair colouring—unless you somehow give yourself green or orange hair and have to run screeching to a salon for a rescue-911. Happily, that's unlikely to happen. Home-colour formulas have improved and the companies who make them have expert online step-by-step and video tips as well as toll-free help lines in place for consumers. To get you started on the road to perfect home hair colour, here's our list of top tips.

1. Think quality and quantity

If you have super-thick or super-long hair, pick up two boxes of hair colour so you have the extra on hand in case you discover halfway through that you don't have enough.

2. Take precautions if you're expecting

"Despite the cautioning, there are expectant mothers out there who just don't want to give up their hair colour," says Christopher Martin, colourist and co-owner at Shagg Salon in Toronto and consultant for Clairol Canada. He advises using an ammonia-free formula, or going with highlights, because highlighting colour doesn't touch the scalp.

3. Know your limits

Want to make a big change? Note that you can't go from brunette to blonde in one step. "A box colour won't significantly lighten previously dyed hair," says Nicole Dupuis, technical manager for L'Oréal Canada. If you do want to make such a change, she adds, "you need a specific lightening kit designed to bleach colour out."

4. Assemble your backup team

If you're uncertain how to proceed, you're starting with very dry or damaged hair, or you're trying something new, call your chosen brand's toll-free help line or hit the related website for tips before you begin. They can help with a myriad of issues, from choosing a hair colour formula to counteracting brassy blond tones.

5. Do your homework

Related Features

• Home hair colour tips: Choosing the right colour and formula
• Common hair problems, solved!
• Best Health: Forum - Great Living

"Read the instructions very carefully," insists Eric Del Monaco, official hair artist and colourist for L'Oréal Paris Canada and stylist at O Sole Salon & Spa in Toronto. Hey, read them twice (they're important!), and follow them faithfully. The package insert will tell you everything you need to know, such as how to do a proper strand test (using the hair at the nape of your neck, Del Monaco emphasizes)—and why you shouldn't skip it!

6. Wash your hair a day or two before

"You need the natural oils on your scalp to protect it," says Dupuis—so let your hair get a little dirty before you dye. "Don't comb or brush vigorously before colouring either," she adds. "You don't want to start with an irritated scalp." If you're a swimmer, use a lot of styling products in your hair or have been colouring for a long time and your hair lacks shine, consider using a clarifying shampoo a couple of times leading up to the week you want to colour.

7. Hydrate extra-dry hair

Dry, brittle hair is more porous than healthy hair and absorbs colour more readily. A strand test is a big must so you know how long it'll take to develop the shade you want, but also consider deep-conditioning hair beforehand. (Yes, you still have to do the strand test on your hair afterward, ideally 48 hours before you plan to colour.)

8. Let your inner neat-freak take control

"Be as tidy as possible," says Del Monaco. "The neater and more orderly you are, the less likely you are to make mistakes, and the better your results will be." Del Monaco also suggests being methodical about the process. For example, make a sketch on paper of the pattern you want for highlights before getting started.

9. Maximize new colour with the right hair care products

Start by not shampooing within 24 hours of colouring; washing immediately will wash out some of the colour, too. Instead, notes Martin, "A lot of my clients like to use the enclosed deep conditioner as a treatment post colour." For the best results, he says, instead of immediately rinsing out the conditioner, wrap your hair in plastic, use your blow-dryer for about five minutes to heat it up (from a safe distance!), then leave your hair wrapped, with the conditioner still on, for another 20 minutes.
And when it comes to daily products, adds Del Monaco, "Take care of your new colour with the right shampoo and conditioner." Use colour-friendly shampoo and conditioner and deep-condition weekly to help lock colour in. To boost fading colour, try colour-enhancing shampoo/conditioner or a rinse-out colour treatment.

10. Know when to think outside the box—that is, hit the salon instead

Although it's possible to handle almost any colour situation at home, sometimes it's more efficient—and effective—to let salon experts take control. Such situations include drastic colour changes, such as going from dark brunette to pale blonde as well as going from pale blonde to brunette (you don't want green hair!); starting with already overprocessed, damaged hair; and fixing dye disasters. Sometimes, peace of mind equals piece of wallet.
If you do go ahead with a DIY dye, after all that effort don't forget to tip your fabulous home colourist—that's you—for a job well done. And yes, let all those compliments go to your head.