Hair Colouring: What Goes On and How to Take Care of Your Strands After It

What are the musts to maintain healthy hair after procedures (or as healthy as it can be - only henna is a non-chemical hair colouring out there as far as I know; the rest do damage your hair, even if a bit)?

Dying hair works like this: hair cuticle is a protective layer of the hair. Ammonia - part of the die - elevates pH of the cuticle, relaxes and lifts the cuticle. Then, peroxide can enter - it destroys your own color pigment so that the hair can be coloured into desired color.

Peroxide is quite drying, that is why colored hair often is straw-like and that is also the reason for the multitude of conditioning treatments applied in salons post colouring.

There are some ammonia-free and semi-permanent dyes that are more gentle, but they wash off easier.

Here is how to maintain your color post-salon:

1) Wash your hair with non-sulfate shampoos (nothing wrong with sulfates in general, but they do tend to be more stripping (they wash off more from the surfaces they clean). We don't want to wash our 'do and $$ down the drain, so preferably nope to sulfates.

2) Wash your hair with slightly warm water, after conditioning rinse with cool water (hair cuticle opens up with hot and warm water - you don't want your color to escape). Cool water seals the cuticle back.

3) CONDITIONER! Can't stress it enough - think of it as a helmet for your hair. It doesn't repair but it Protects! It coats hair with all the good stuff that coats, attracts moisture from the atmosphere, keeps hair soft and shiny and prevents tangling and breakage.

4) Regular trims. Yep. To prevent further breakage of the hair.

5) Protect hair from chlorine and sun.

6) Pigmented and color-depositing shampoos (like our Blonde Bar!)

So, enjoy your hair experiments and take care of your crown