Maintaining your Hair Colour

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Maintaining your Hair Colour

Colouring your hair is a great way to enhance your look. Whether you dye your hair or add highlights, you should enjoy the change and may never want to go back to your natural colour.

Colour enhancing shampoos and conditioners are the latest generation of hair care products that promise to keep your hair shiny, healthy, manageable and free of grey hairs and dull colour. The hair care industry has managed to create products that not only take care of our hair but keep it looking its best. But how do these products work and are they worth buying?

Dyed Hair - Being able to maintain rich hair colour over time can be a challenge, especially for those who dye their hair. As time wears on, your hair colour can actually fade and appear dull. But because dying the hair involves many chemicals that can be harsh and stressful on the hair, it isn’t wise to colour your hair more than you need to in order to maintain your colour. We all want to make sure our vibrant hair colour lasts. These products generally offer protection from the sun, which is the most common culprit in fading that colour process.

For those of you who are too busy to touch up the roots and colour every 4-6 weeks, try opting for a colour that is only a few shades lighter than your natural colour. This makes it less noticeable for colour to fade and you won’t have to worry about unsightly roots showing and ruining your overall look. When roots are less obvious, it helps the hair colour last longer in between touch ups. The easier it is for you to maintain your hair, the less worry you’ll have.

Before colouring your hair, apply a deep conditioning treatment. This will allow the colour to take more easily to the hair. So where do colour enhancing shampoos and conditioners fit into all this? When it comes to maintaining hair colour, there are certain products that help your colour not only last longer but add ingredients that help your hair continue to grow strong and healthy without being prone to breaking.

Invest in a good colour enhancing shampoo and conditioner and use them in between applications in order to enhance and keep your hair colour looking its best. These shampoos and conditioners are specifically formulated to tackle the damage that can occur when dying hair and also keep the colour looking fresh. Using colour enhancing shampoos and conditioners can drastically improve the health and appearance of your hair over time, making it much easier to maintain and last until your next colouring appointment.

As we age grey hair becomes resistant to chemicals such as perms and hair colour. When this happens, it’s often harder to care for grey hair. As we age, our grey hair often become dry and brittle because there are less natural oils in the hair. When this happens, use a good leave-in conditioner at least once a week to restore moisture to the hair and help soften the texture.

Grey hair can look yellow or greenish on some people. To neutralize the yellow colour and leave your hair shiny and beautiful, try using a shampoo for grey hair that contains a violet based colour, instead of your usual shampoo.

If you’re not ready to go grey, a new hair colour can disguise a few grey strands or change an entire head of hair. Avoid anything that is more than two shades lighter or darker than your natural hair colour or you could end up looking older than you really are. If you’re not sure that the new colour will look right on you, try using a semi-permanent hair colour which lasts 6-12 shampoos. Also keep in mind that colour can result in dry and brittle hair.

For extreme changes, such as going from blonde to brunette, make sure the end result suits your face. Brown, chestnut and honey shades are the easiest to work with and look good on just about any skin tone. Blonde and red hair dye is trickier. To use these colours, consult with your hairdresser first to match the correct shade for you. Also take into account that you may need to do several sessions in order to get the perfect shade. Black is an all or nothing colour of hair dye so be sure this colour will work with your skin tone.

Hair dyes can weaken your hair and constantly changing your hair colour can have devastating effects, including dry, split ends - so take your time finding the right shade and treat your hair with extra care by deep conditioning once to twice a week and limiting the use of heated styling tools.

Some of us like to experiment so there’s always temporary hair colouring. If you mess it up, choose a wrong colour, or just want something a little different for a short while, this is the perfect option. It’s also a great way to test a certain shade or colour before taking the plunge into a permanent shade. You can find temporary colouring kits at any supermarket or chemist and they usually use very mild ingredients that should not damage hair and wash out in 28 shampoos.