keeping your hair color vibrant. here is the SECRET.

December 22, 2014

We all love getting our hair done. One of the coolest things about hair is that you can change it all the time. Color is always exciting because it’s an easy way to tell people who you are without having to speak. The only downfall about coloring your hair is that it can be very high maintenance. Aside from having to get our roots touched up from natural hair growth, color can be high maintenance because it can fade quickly. Black hair color and blondes fade the least. Brown hair colors fade a bit. Reds, coppers, and bright hair color all fade pretty quickly. Black, browns and blondes tend to keep fairly well until your due to see your stylist for your next cut or root touch up. All the brighter colors may need a touch up before your next visit in 6 weeks to keep it looking vibrant.

There is no way to stop your color from fading but you can slow down the process. Follow these easy steps to ‘make your colors last’.

Make sure your hair is healthy. Damaged hair fades much quicker than healthy hair does. Imagine your hair strand to be like a straw. When it’s healthy, it is strong and can hold fluid within it. If you were to damage the straw by “punching a bunch of holes” into it, the water would just leak out. Your hair is no different. When your hair is strong it can hold in color molecules. When it’s damaged, the color molecules leak out every time your hair gets wet.

You can repair damaged hair by getting a good protein mask to use 1-2x/ week. Use it in replace of your conditioner and let it sit on your hair for 5-10minutes before rinsing it out. DON’T sleep in your mask overnight. Damaged hair is fragile. The heaviness of a protein mask can cause your hair to break.

Wash your hair with cold water. The colder the better. The outer protective layer of your hair, the cuticle, opens up with hot temperatures allowing the color molecules to leak out. The opposite holds true as well. The colder the water temperature, the more sealed the cuticle becomes locking in those color molecules. Having a tightly sealed cuticle also makes your hair look shinier because it gives light a smooth surface to reflect off of. If you can bare it, wash your hair with icy water to really prolong your color.

Use sulphate free products. Sulphates are a cheap and ultra harsh cleanser that will strip your color faster than you could imagine. This ingredient is also found in some of your common household floor cleaners. Think of the kinds of stains and grime floor cleaners can strip away and just imagine what it’s doing to your hair and color.

Products with quality cleansers may not “sud” as much but they are much gentler on your scalp and hair.

Wash your hair less frequently. The pH of water alone is enough to strip some of the color out. The more you wet it the faster it fades. So yes, that means avoid swimming. But don’t worry, your body oil production will start to slow down as it gets used to your new washing schedule. Keep your hair looking fresh by using ‘nvenn’s clean’ on the days that you don’t wash. It will deodorize your scalp and absorb any light grease that may be present.