Make Your Hair Colour Last Longer
There are 3 main reasons that will cause your hair colour to fade. Washing the hair is the most obvious, but the 2 other factors which contribute to your colour fading are hot iron styling and direct sunlight. If you follow some basic tips, you can greatly lengthen the life of your hair colour, thereby maintaining the colours vibrancy and shine as well as saving cash in the long term.
The most obvious cause of colour fading is washing the hair. Shampoos that are too severe can quickly cause your hair colour to fade. Even mild shampoos can cause colour fading if the hair is washed too often. It is a good idea to invest in a shampoo specially formulated for coloured hair. There are many effective colour-care shampoos on the market, but the best shampoos for preserving hair colour are sulphate-free and as always you get what you pay for.
After you have found the right shampoo and conditioner, it is important to decide how often you should shampoo your hair. Most hairdressers strongly discourage washing the hair every day. Just rinsing your hair with water and applying conditioner will keep most people's hair clean. Unless you have a job which causes you to get exceptionally dirty, like a chimney sweep or a coal miner, there is really no need to shampoo the hair every day.
Hot iron styling can also cause hair colour to fade. The heat generated by curling irons, flat irons, and blow-dryers can cause damage to the hair's cuticle, which is the outer layer which protects and seals in colour molecules. The more damaged the cuticle is, the easier it will be for colour molecules to "escape" from the cortex of the hair, which is the inner layer where the colour pigment resides. To stretch out the life of your colour, allow your hair to dry naturally whenever possible. If you must use blow-dryers and curling irons, it is a good idea to purchase a heat-protection spray. There are many heat-protection styling products on the market, and they will protect your hair from the damaging effects of hot iron styling.
Finally, it is important to protect your hair from sunlight. We all know that the sun has the ability to lighten hair, yet few of us protect our hair from the powerful ultra-violet rays of the sun. Most of us slather sunscreen on our skins, but do nothing to protect the hair. Wearing a hat is an obvious solution, but very few of us wear hats all of the time. Instead, it may be more practical to switch to hair care products that contain UV protection ingredients. Many shampoos, conditioners, and styling products are available that offer protection from UV rays. These products will state on the if they are formulated to protect the hair from sunlight.