Last week, we explored what your hair goes through with different levels of color treatments, from temporary wash-out spray to permanent bleaching. While professional cosmetologists are well-trained at treating your hair while minimizing damage, that doesn’t mean your hair doesn’t need a little TLC to recover.
We’ve put together a how-to guide on keeping your newly-dyed locks healthy, shiny, and frizz-free.
Switch to Ultra-Moisturizing Shampoo
Shampoo is designed to strip oils out of your hair and off the scalp, but not all formulations are created equal. Color-treated hair needs gentle, mild cleansers combined with moisture-rich ingredients to maintain natural oils while introducing additional hydration even as you wash.
Keep an eye out for humectants, botanical butter, and oils on the ingredients list, including:
- Glycerin
- Argan oil
- Macadamia oil
- Olive oil
- Jojoba oil
- Shea butter
- Aloe vera
- Honey
- Murumuru Butter
You should also avoid sulfates, which do too good of a job cleaning color-treated hair. Instead, look for milder cleansers like lauryl glucoside, sodium cocoyl glutamate, and decyl glucoside.
Another tip is to focus your shampooing on the scalp rather than your entire mane. Most oils accumulate along the hairline, so wash close to your roots to avoid stripping vital oils out of the rest of your hair.
Skip Heat Styling
There’s no denying that our heat styling tools feel like must-have components in our haircare routine, but they can worsen chemical damage. With temperatures that can reach 400 degrees, your thirsty strands don’t stand a chance when facing off against curling wands and blow dryers. Instead, let your hair air dry whenever possible and opt for styles that don’t require changing your hair’s natural texture.
If heat styling is unavoidable while your hair is recovering, at least invest in a heat protectant spray. While it’s not as safe as avoiding the tools altogether, they seal your hair’s outer cuticle to help prevent moisture loss and often introduce other humectants like panthenol and aloe for an extra dose of hydration.
Treat Your Strands to Deep Conditioning Masks
If you’re not already a dedicated hair masker, color treatments are a great reason to start. With regular use, these intensive moisture bombs help reintroduce healthy hair oils to frizzy, brittle strands and reseal the cuticle to prevent even more moisture loss.
In many cases, they also work on a deeper level to repair damaged keratin chains, rebuilding the proteins on a molecular level to help your hair heal after chemical damage. Look for masks that contain nourishing and protective ingredients like antioxidants, fatty acids, collagen, silk, vitamins, and humectants.
Protect Your Hair from UV Damage
We all know the dangers of sunlight on our skin, but hair doesn’t fare much better under unfiltered UV exposure.
Not only does the sun break down your pigment quicker, causing you to color your hair more often, but it also saps the moisture from your strands. Before you head out for the day, spritz your hair with broad-spectrum protectant spray or add a hat to your attire.
Establish a Hair-Safe Bedtime Routine
We’re all guilty of going to bed with our hair wet, but post-dyed strands can suffer undue damage if you hit the sack before they’ve had a chance to air dry.
Wet hair is particularly vulnerable to tangling and breakage because the keratin temporarily bonds to the hydrogen in water rather than to each other. Hydrogen-protein bonds are far weaker than protein-protein bonds, so something as simple as turning over in bed can cause fragile strands to break due to friction caused by rubbing your hair across the pillow.
Swapping out your cotton pillowcases for silk or satin pillowcases can help solve that problem, as its smooth texture is gentler than cotton or jersey. You can also wrap your hair in a protective silk scarf before bed.
Advanced Skin Therapeutics Has What You Need for Healthy Hair
While the occasional color touch-up isn’t going to ruin your hair, you must take the time to care for your dehydrated strands to ensure your hair stays lusciously soft and hydrated.
Advanced Skin Therapeutics is your go-to source for haircare tips and treatments, from collagen-rich supplements to fuel new growth to hydrating washes that won’t strip your natural oils.
We also offer dermatologist-approved products like XFusion Keratin Fibers. This undetectable protein formula is designed to fill in thinning areas and cover up any unwanted color at the roots. It comes in nine mixable shades to achieve your perfect match without going under the tinting brush.
