The Best Way To Keep Your Color Looking Fresh In-between Salon Visits
In the summer months, being out in the sun and swimming can be the culprit of the color change. And during the winter season, harsh, cold weather can be really stressing to the hair, leaving it brittle, dry, and breakage. Remember to wear a hat or use products with UV protection. Heat, chemicals, exposure, rough treatment and wear & tear also change the color, products can even be burned and stained into your hair color via hot tools. Other reasons might include:
Residue from shampoos
Chemicals from hair products or over-processing
Natural oils on the scalp
Mineral deposits from the water coming into your shower
Discoloration from smoke
Pollutants in the air, including smog and car exhaust
Chlorine from a swimming pool
Using too hot of styling tools and burning the hair/burning product into the hair
Steer clear from products that strip your color, refer to our blog post, Hair Product Ingredients To Avoid. Anything containing plastics, surfactants or sulfates will remove color quickly and leave your hair looking dull over time. Find a shampoo and conditioner combo that is PH balanced and doesn’t contain harsh chemicals. Key ingredients that enhance the life of your color will always include extra hydration and moisturizers. The products want to protect and keep the color in, not allowing your hair to be overexposed to damage from the sun or heat. Stick to letting your hair air-dry with a moisturizing leave-in product such as Olaplex No.6 and No.7 or ColorProof's
BLONDE:
Hair Has A Brassy, Orange, Red, or Yellow Tint:
For lightened blonde hair, the underlying pigment is yellow, and for lightened brown to black hair, the underlying pigments are orange to red. When the brassiness starts creeping up, think of it as your natural hair telling you, “Hey, remember us?” When brassiness occurs, that also means that among the red, yellow and blue color molecules your hair dye contains, the blue ones have made a faster departure, leaving—you guessed it—just the warm tones. Since the blue color molecules are smaller, they’re broken down easily and fade quicker with every wash. Unfair. Hence, red hair colors tend to fade faster because they have the largest molecules. The molecule size makes it more difficult for red dyes to penetrate deeply into the hair, thus they dissipate more rapidly.
Talk with your stylist and plan out a 4 to 8 week schedule to have a toner put on to refresh your color as well. Use Olaplex to rebuild and repair bonds while washing your hair with cold water and either a clear based or a marvelous blue or purple toned shampoo and conditioner like ColorProofs' SuperSheer Line and SignatureBlonde Violet Line to neutralize and keep those brassy tones at bay.
If you've tried everything to keep the yellow tones at bay and still nothing is working, ask your doctor, for some diseases and medications can turn hair yellow.
Platinum Blonde Maintenance:
Going atomic blonde is a bold move, there's many side effects of this transition, including dryness, breakage, and brassiness. To achieve such a blonde, the hair cuticle is opened and the shaft is stripped entirely of any pigment, leaving the hair more susceptible to damage than ever.
Be sure to use Olaplex's at home treatment No.3 to rebuild the broken bond and hair shaft.
COLORS:
What causes hair color to fade? And what haircare ingredients should you avoid if you want to maintain your color? Read Up On Harmful Ingredients in our other blog post, Hair Product Ingredients To Avoid
Science and chemistry and our everyday life in the world take over. Wait as long as you can before washing your hair. You want the color to be locked in for as long as possible, allowing the cuticle to close back once again, so it can melt into the hair. Waiting at least 48 hours after a color service is key to keeping that color shining brightly.
Avoid using hot water when showering. Hot water opens up the cuticle and expands your tresses, causing color molecules to be washed out with the water. To avoid this, use lukewarm or cold water to keep your color intact. And when you do shower but aren't washing your hair, try to keep your hair dry, try tying your hair up in a bun or invest in a shower cap. Remember to use a heat protectant when using hot tools to avoid the damage from extreme heat and to keep the heat from eating up all your color. Try ColorProofs' HeatProof Anti-Frizz Blow Dry Creme or IronMaster Color & Heat Protecting Setting Spray.