Highlights accentuate the natural curls or waves or the straight silky hair. No matter whether you have a platinum blonde, brunette, black or even blue hair, lightened hair needs extra care and attention to retain the colour and avoid frequent trips to the salon. Nothing is worse than spending big bucks at the salon and sees it fade after a week due to lack of proper care for your locks. Also if proper care is not given after highlighting your hair, you end up hurting your locks and making long-lasting damage. Here is a list of things to make your lightening hair colour last for more than just a few weeks and save tons of bucks spent on touch-ups.
Shampoo after 72 hours of colouring
When your hair is coloured, the cuticle layer is opened thus making it easy for a colour to penetrate the hair shaft. When you wash your hair immediately after lightening, the cuticle layer will still be open and paving way for the dye to find its way down the drain. It is said that it takes around 3 days for the cuticle to close. So the longer you wait the more time will the colour pigment get to soak into the cuticle? This helps in retaining the hair lightening colour for a longer time.
Use a shampoo that is free of sulphate
Sodium lauryl sulphate is an anionic detergent that is found many beauty and personal products. This ingredient is used in shampoos as a foaming agent. The products along with sulphate can increases the risk of stripping your hair of its natural oils and nutrients. This also results in stripping the colour that you have used dye. Use a sulphate free shampoo to keep your hair colour from fading.
Reduce the temperature of the water
Hot showers feel amazing after a tiring day but it is not great for your hair or hair colour. When washed with hot water the opened cuticle will allow the washout of dye. The best practice to follow is to wash your hair with warm water or room temperature water. Warm water will allow the shampoo and conditioner to penetrate and perform deep cleansing action. It is also advised to rinse with cold water after conditioning as cold water will help seal the moisture and prevent colour from fading by sealing the cuticle.
Wash your hair less often
Washing your hair daily is something that you have to avoid if you want to lock your colour. Every time you wash your hair little bit of dye is washed away along with the essential nutrients and natural oils that keep your hair moisturized. Try washing your hair just twice or thrice a week to keep it healthy and shining.
Use Shower filters
The water used to take shower is usually hard and it tends to remove dyes and natural oils. So it is a good idea to install shower filters to filter the hard water and protect your hair from soap build-ups and heavy metals that mess up with your hair colour.
Deep conditioners for colour-treated hair
Deep conditioning is a must for colour –treated hair. The conditioner should be specially designed for coloured hair for deep condition in. Deep conditioning will enrich and nourish your hair by maintaining your hair colour and preventing colour fading.
Turn off the heat tools
Heat treatment is the enemy of hair colour so regular blow-drying, hot styling tools, flat ironing and much more have to be avoided. All these styling tools release heat and that is harmful to the lightening hair colour.
Protect your lightening hair colour
Protecting and caring for your hair is essential to retain the lightening hair colour. But when you get your hair lightened from Dominic’s hairdressing only less effort is needed to maintain the same. You will get the best hair colour treatment from our professionals.
