Make Your Hair Color Last As Long As Your Relationships. Well, Almost!

by Riya Roy · March 23, 2017

Walking out of the salon with perfectly-colored and set hair makes you feel like a celeb. But after a week and 7 shampoos (that’s all it takes?!), you are left with remorse! Well, that is where we come in, to help you not be sad, but be awesome instead!

Here are the expert-approved dos and don’ts of colored hair care.

Dos of colored hair care:

1. Treat your strands by working out!

According to Ian McCabe, celebrity hair colorist from Washington DC,

“The more moisturized your hair is, the better it holds color.”

As a result, if you apply coconut oil to your tresses before exercising, the heat from the work out will enhance the moisture-locking quality of your hair roots.

2. Apply a filter

We are not talking about Snapchat filters, people! We are suggesting that you install a filter in your shower. This will help get rid of the mineral deposits in the water that make your hair look dull and luster-less.

3. Go nuts with apple cider vinegar

Once every month, prepare a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water in the ratio 1:3, and use it to wash your hair after your shampoo and conditioner routine. Rinse your tresses with diluted apple cider vinegar helps freshen your highlights and enhance your hair color.

4. Turn down the heat

According to Amelia Trammell, hair colorist from New York City,

“Super-hot water opens the cuticle and washes away the dye.”

So, though a hot shower is tempting as anything, you should not indulge in it, as it is a recipe for dry and rough hair, and ruins the shine of your hair color in no time.

5. Touch-up

To extend your hair color by few more weeks, ask for a few highlights from your colorist. Lighten your hair roots at the hairline by a couple of shades, and this is sure to keep your hair flawless until your next full-on hair color appointment.

6. Get a glossing treatment done

To enhance the luster of your hair and maintain the hair color, get yourself a glossing treatment. According to Trammell,

“It adds a shiny coat and locks the color in.”

7. Embrace hat hair

You need to protect your colored hair from UV rays, because that can fade your shade just the way it fades your curtain or your car seats! Wear a hat whenever you have to run errands in the sun.

8. Use sunscreen

Wh-a-a-a-t? Yes, you read that right! Try the Bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Heat and let it protect your hair without making it look all greasy and slimy.

9. Invest a quality brush

To keep your hair health after coloring it you need to get yourself a quality brush. One iwh boar bristle and nylon fibers distributes the scalp’s natural oils over the entre shaft, thus, protecting the hair color from fading away.

10. DIY, WHY?

I know you are high on Pinterest tutorials, but let’s not apply that on our hair! Don’t try making hair sprays at home. Instead get yourself a hair concealer that washes out the sediments without blotching your look.

11. Ask for help

Accoridng to Pemoulié,

“Once they started getting hand-painted color, clients who were previously getting foils every eight weeks are now able to go 10-12 weeks between appointments.”

12. Style cleverly

To protect your hair color, you need to learn of ways to get away with unwashed hair, and that’s where creative styling comes to your rescue. Buy a dry shampoo, and apply a cherry-sized portion at the root. Now, backcomb your hair and tie it into a top-knot. No one will have a clue that you have not washed your hair for 5 days!

Don’ts of colored hair care:

1. Don’t blow dry

Once you get your hair colored, it becomes more susceptible to damage, and so, whenever you wash your hair, let it air dry. If you are late to work, and have to blow dry your hair, make sure you use it on the lowest heat setting or better still on the cool blast setting.

2. Avoid chlorine

If you love swimming like me, then you could be at a risk of harming your colored hair with the chlorine in the water. Relax! We are not going to ask you to stop swimming! There is a solution: Before you slip into the pool, wet your hair with water and apply a leave-in conditioner. This layer will protect against the chlorine in the water, which will in turn, protect the hair color.

3. Don’t Color Your Hair Too Frequently

Whenever the roots begin to show, use products to touch-up instead of going for a full-on hair treatment. A hair mascara or spray-on root concealers can come in handy and save you the trouble of coloring 5 times a month!

4. Don’t Double-Process Color-Treated Hair

Yes, we are harping on the same thing, because once people color their hair, they try more chemicals to just protect that color and do not achieve anything. Instead, they also lose the natural shine and texture of their hair. We suggest you visit your stylist, and ask him or her to provide you with formulae that’s low on ammonia, and are organically produced.

5. Don’t Skip Regular Trims

Our locks tend to get frizzier and duller after we color them. For this reason, you need to get regular trims. This ritual helps to keep your dyed hair looking healthier than before. When you go to get your hair trimmed, ask your stylist to not cut it super short. This is just a way to keep the frayed hair ends away!

Allergic reactions to keep an eye out

Hair dyes contain several chemicals and it is more than likely that your hair and skin might be allergic to a few of them.

The common symptoms of hair dye allergy are,

Mild irritation
Itchiness
A rash
Swollen lips
Inflamed hands and feet
Puffy eyes
Lightheadedness
Breathlessness
Swollen tongue and/or throat
Collapsing
Nausea and vomiting

If you notice these chronic symptoms after applying hair color, call emergency services immediately. You can also treat yourself with an adrenaline injection.

For mild allergy, steroid creams can be helpful. You can use ice to calm down the irritation caused by the dye.

To avoid this, you can take a few precautions to avoid side effects completely. These include.

Test the dye before using it. Before apply the dye all over your hair, apply a dot behind your hair. Wait for a couple of minutes and see if the dye is irritating your skin or not. If it does not inflame the area behind your ears, then you are not allergic to the dye.
You should wash your hair dye in the amount of time recommended by the product. Do not leave it longer. Not just that, read all the instructions, usually on the body of the dye pack, and follow religiously to make sure you don’t suffer an allergic reaction.
Skip the eyebrow area while dyeing because there is a chance you will damage your eyes.
Use gloves when you apply dye. ALWAYS!

How to take care of hair color types other than full-body hair color:

1. Temporary and semi-permanent hair color care

Temporary hair dyes fade gradually, while semi-permanent ones fade faster as no developer is used while dyeing the hair with a semi-permanent hair dye. But both the types can be preserved and cared for in the following way:

The first two days after you dye your hair, DO NOT TOUCH IT! No shampooing, conditioning, spraying, nothing.
Shampoo your hair only once a week. If this seems like a lot of sacrifice at your end, you can use dry shampoos in the meantime.
Use sulfate-free shampoo to clean your hair. Shampoos with sulfate is too harsh on colored hair, and fades it faster than usual. Also, if you have colored your hair, you need to look for a formula specially created for red hair, because the color red tends to fade faster than other dyes.
Use repair mask for your color-treated hair. After you shampoo, comb the conditioner through your tresses using a wide-toothed comb. Leave the conditioner on for 3 to 5 hours, for a deeper treatment.
Wash your hair with color water.
To protect our hair of harmful UV rays, use serum with a good SPF.

2. Highlights care

For the highlights,

You need to deep condition your hair, once every week. Use Davines NouNou Pak (with Olive Butter and Cherry Oil). This not just nourishes your colored hair, but also lends it added bounce and luster.
Get baby trims, every month to keep your highlights healthy.
Use conditioners infused with jojoba oil to have fun in the sun. It also protects your hair from getting dehydrated.
Use color safe shampoo instead of your regular shampoo. One that is rich in Vitamin F will nourish, restructure and restore the bounciness of your highlights.

That is all we have got for you, today. Was this guide helpful? Did we miss out on anything? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Featured image source: Google, copyright-free image, under Creative Commons License

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