Preserve Your Hard Earned Cash

We spend our hard earned cash on getting our hair coloured, whether it be to cover the pigment challenges strands, to be different, or to simply have a change, but....

Are you washing your cash down the drain!?

​Start preserving your cash and your colour now.

​Colour fades for a number of reasons...

1. Heat - sun, hot water, heated appliances​
2. Lack of moisture and protein
3. Damaged or porous hair
4. Excessive washing
5. Swimming
6. Use of sulphates, paraben, alohols and silicones

We've covered in previous blogs the effects of chlorine and sun on the hair, you can read these here Chlorine & Sun

Like the sun, heat damages colour molecules whether they be natural or organic. Avoiding sun and heated appliances are crucial to preserving your colour, but just as important is washing with cool water, I have seen colours wash straight out with even warm water, and for different reasons. Fashion colours are notorious for it as is damaged or porous hair.

So I bet you've already wondered, what is considered damaged or porous hair!?
Your hairs outer layer is called a cuticle, it best described as fish scales, and these cuticles in healthy hair close down along the hair shaft protecting the inner core of the hair as well as locking in protein, moisture and colour. When the cuticle becomes damaged it cannot close and retain protein, moisture or colour, but it also allows other chemicals, heat and pollutants in. Damaged or porous hair looks dull and lifeless, tangles easily, soaks up water easily but can dry very quickly.

Washing hair too often shortens the life of your colour, you're using hot water and shampoo, as I mentioned earlier you hair has a cuticle layer and shampoo is designed to open the cuticle slightly to allow the removal of dirt, oil and pollutants, and with this then removes colour. It is recommended that you wash every 3 days as a minimum, and don't forget to use cool water.

In recent years there has been a lot of hype around paraben and sulphate free products and I'm sure at some stage you've learnt that silicone's are bad too, and as a result most professional products have eliminated the use of these ingredients but another thing to be aware of is the alcohol content of the products you use, including styling products. Alcohol is a drying agent and when used frequently on the hair it has the same impact.

May your colour last the distance!

If you have anything to add or any feedback, please leave your comments below.