The Blog

A couple of weeks ago, Lorissa posted some tips on hair care for swimmers, which was extremely helpful. This week, I’m expanding on that, by sharing some things I’ve learned about color-treated hair. This advice applies whether you’re coloring to hide The Color That Shall Not Be Named or if you’re more into Technicolor tresses, like me.

1. Wash your hair in cool water. Tepid, lukewarm, or even cold is the way to go if you want to keep your color looking fresh. Hot water will make it fade faster. I’ve found that if I jump in and wash my hair during the time when the water is still getting hot, by the time I’m done, the water is the perfect temperature for the rest of my shower.
2. Wash your hair less frequently. The longer you can go between washes, the longer your color will last. I’m not advocating poor hygiene, or anything, but shower caps are your friends.
3. Wash the roots; condition the ends. Unless your hair is very short, chances are it’s only the top few inches that really get dirty anyway. Use shampoo on your scalp, where you need it, but don’t scrub the ends, just rinse the shampoo through. When it comes to conditioning (which you must do), focus on the ends, and only work a tiny bit of conditioner , if any, into the roots of your hair.
4. Use products designated for color treated hair. All shampoo strips color, but brands that are designed for color-treated hair are milder, and strip less than “normal” shampoo. Also, avoid products made with mint, as mint will strip both color, and the natural oils you need in order to have healthy hair.
5. Use tinted shampoo and conditioner. Several brands of shampoo and conditioner come in special formulas for blonde, brown, or red hair, and using these will help keep your color bright and glossy, but you can also have your salon add a little bit of your exact shade to your shampoo and conditioner. If you use funky hair dye, you can do this yourself, at home. Leave the conditioner on a little while longer to let the color soak in. Doing this will NOT recolor your hair, especially if it’s naturally dark, but it will help soften the line between new growth and colored hair.
6. Never go to bed with wet hair. If you use rainbow colors, the dye will bleed very obviously onto your pillow, but even natural dye will fade more when you sleep on wet hair.
7. Air dry whenever possible. Heat makes color fade (see point one), so unless you’re going out, step away from the blow dryer, and let your hair dry naturally.

Taking care of color-treated hair isn’t all that difficult. Following my simple guidelines will make your color stay bright and fresh, and might even allow you to go longer between touch-ups.

Posted by Melissa in Sound Advice |

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Sound Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.