Maintain Colored Hair Tips | Guide
There’s nothing better than walking out of the hair salon with a fresh colour - whether that’s a shade that’s different from your usual or covering up those pesky greys, fresh hair colour is all you need to feel like a new person!
However, to maintain coloured hair, you might need a few tips and tricks up your sleeve to keep your colour looking as vibrant as the day you stepped out of the salon. The best products for coloured hair boost your hair’s health while keeping your colour looking bright and radiant. Here’s a list of our favourite coloured hair products to keep your hair looking flawless between salon appointments!
Top Tips to Maintain Coloured Hair
The key to keeping coloured hair vibrant is protecting the deposited pigment in your hair - it sounds super technical, but is actually easy to do, especially with the right coloured hair products and techniques!
1. Use Sulphate Free Shampoo
The number one suggestion that you’ll get from your hairstylist to maintain coloured hair is to opt for sulphate-free shampoo - here’s why. Sulphates are a type of cosmetic ingredient called surfactants - they create that rich, foamy lather that we all love in our shampoos, body washes, face cleansers and even toothpaste.
However, in shampoos, sulphates have the unintentional side effect of lifting out hair colour - something we don’t want to happen to freshly coloured hair!
A sulphate-free shampoo that repairs hair and locks in your hair colour at the same time!
2. Use Dry Shampoo Between Washes
Another top tip is to use dry shampoo between washes - it has to be one of the best products for coloured hair, ever! In fact, go as long as you can in between washing your hair, especially if you’ve coloured it a bright, unnatural shade like fire engine red or lime green. Dry shampoo will be your best friend - it absorbs sebum and refreshes your hair right at your scalp so you can go longer in between hair wash days!
3. Avoid Spending Too Much Time in Chlorinated Water
We all know that chlorine can be damaging to hair - it makes it dry, brittle, and porous. It’s able to do this by stripping away the natural oils on our skin, scalp, and hair - not something that our hair should be exposed to regularly!
Making hair porous allows two things to happen - hair colour gets stripped from your hair, and if your hair is bleached, can make your hair look green (and not in a cute way.) Chlorine oxidises with trace amounts of copper - which is also used to keep pools clean - creating that recognisable green hue in hair.
Phyto Huile Soyeuse Lightweight Hydrating OilThis nourishing, lightweight oil replenishes hair that’s dry from bleaching or colouring for silky smooth locks.
4. Use Cold Water to Wash Your Hair in the Shower
Did you know that the temperature of your water matters when washing hair too? As well as using coloured hair products like sulphate-free shampoo, using lukewarm to cold water is best to maintain coloured hair. Hot water opens up your hair’s cuticle - the very same cuticle that’s trying to hang on to any deposited colour or pigment in your hair.
Colder water stops this process from happening, locking vibrant shades for longer to maintain coloured hair in between your salon appointments!
5. Use a Colour Depositing Shampoo and Conditioner
Did you know that you can actually buy hair conditioner that has hair colour in it? Of all the coloured hair products, this one has to be the handiest for keeping hair colour vibrant at home. It’s one of the best products for coloured hair you can add to your hair care routine. Colour depositing conditioners are most ideal for bright, unnatural colours like red and blue - however, that’s not the only hair colour that benefits from hair products like this!
The most common colour depositing shampoo is purple shampoo, for keeping blonde hair cool and blonde instead of warm and brassy - but some conditioners are also great for depositing reds, greens, and even blues to keep your bright hair colour looking fresh.
Philip Kingsley Moisture Balancing ConditionerColoured hair is prone to dryness and damage - replenish any lost moisture with this balancing conditioner from Philip Kingsley.
6. Protect Your Hair from the Sun
On your list of essential coloured hair products should be a hair serum that shields your hair from UV rays. Yes, hair needs protection from the sun, too! UV exposure can fade vibrant hair colours, breaking down the pigment and making your hair look dull and drab. The solution? Using a UV protective hair serum or leave-in conditioner that has UV filters to shield your hair from the fading powers of the sun.
Now, these aren’t the only tips for maintaining coloured hair - however, they’re the top six that we think you need to keep your hair looking fresh and radiant.
Let’s talk skincare for a second - are you trying to figure out a skincare routine, or find the best skincare products to help reach your skin goals? Try our skin quiz!
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