Caring For Your Color

Color Fun Wednesday

You go to the salon every month to get your hair beautiful, rich and shiny.  You leave feeling excited and renewed.  You walk around for the rest of the day with more bounce in your step, your hair swinging from side to side.  Then, about two weeks later, you've lost that excitement and things become normal again.  The color has lost some of it's shine and it just feels like your normal old hair again.  What you don't realize is that there are things that you can do at home to help prolong your color's richness and shine.  Here are a few tips and tricks that will keep your color looking it's best until you are due back in the salon.

 

~Use Color Care Shampoo.

As simple as this may seem to be, some people have a tendency to just use "whatever is in the shower".  And if they run out of shampoo before making it back to the salon for their next appointment, they'll run to a discount store of some kind and pick up any shampoo that looks or smells good.  That's not the best way to prolong your hair color.  You spend good money on getting your hair colored and you spend precious hours in the salon getting it beautified.  Would you wash your cashmere sweater in any old detergent you found?  No, you wouldn't.  Then why would you treat your hair with any less care?  Remember this fact:
 
Your hair is a permanent accessory that goes with you
everywhere, every day. 

Treat it like a fine fabric.  After all, once you've damaged it, there's only so much you can do to make it feel soft again.  And the damage won't go away until you've cut the damaged hair off.  Those discount shampoos open the cuticle layer of the hair up and pull color out through the open layers of cells.  Remember the shingles on the roof analogy from "Shampooing, Conditioning and Towel Drying Your Hair"? If you are lifting the cells away from the central structure of the hair, you will allow more of the pigment molecules to leave the hair, leaving your hair dull and faded.
 

When choosing a color care shampoo, lean towards Sulfate Free if you can.  The sulfates are an ingredient that create a rich lather from the shampoo, but they have a tendency to open the cuticle layer too far, again, pulling some color out of the hair's cortex (the inner layer below the cuticle).  Just remember what else I mentioned in "Shampooing, Conditioning and Towel Drying Your Hair".  Sulfate free shampoos lather will be more of a wet foam, not a rich lather.
When choosing your shampoo, talk to your stylist.  Every stylist has their favorites.  My personal favorite is Schwarzkopf Color Save.  I have never seen reds and vivid colors last as long with any other shampoo as they have with this shampoo.  It is the shampoo that I have in my shower.  Unfortunately, we stopped carrying this product line in my salon, so I have to fall back on my other two top picks.
 

One is Redken Color Extend Shampoo .  It has Redken's Interlock Protein Network in it, which is a group of proteins that help to build strength in the hair.  It also has UV filters that help to reduce the damage the sun causes the hair, and it uses cranberry oil to add shine and enrich your color.

I also refer my clients to Biolage's ColorTherapie.  It has a protein complex similar to Redken's that helps to add strength back into the hair.  It also uses hibiscus oil to add shine to your color, as well.

Both of these shampoos, on the other hand, have sulfates.  I started looking through the ingredients list of all of our products to find our sulfate free options.  It's A 10 is a well known and respected brand.  If I weren't using Schwarzkopf, this is the shampoo I would use.  I already use their Intensive Masque as my conditioner, and their Miracle Leave In Spray and their Styling Serum after my shower.  They have their original formula, a keratin infused option, a volumizing leave-in and a treatment for blondes.  Then, there is Pureology.  Their entire product line is 100% Vegan and meant for color treated hair.  Their shampoos are sulfate free and are good for preserving the richness of your color.  Tigi Colour Goddess is a shampoo that helps brunettes and red heads keep their richness for longer between color.  MoroccanOil's shampoos are also free of sulfates.  They have both volumizing and moisturizing options.  Regis has their DesignLine brand with a few sulfate free options.  Enchanted and Enchanted Midnight are Regis' most recent additions to their product line.  They were specifically created for color care and protection.  Their Moisture Shampoo is also sulfate free and their Ultimate Radiance is a great cleanser that leaves the hair feeling soft and looking shiny.

I haven't had a chance to use all of these products yet, but I will start testing them out for you guys with my hair and see what kind of results I get.  With the funky colors that I do, I'll be able to see how much each shampoo fades my color easily.

 

 

 ~Use Cool Water

 

When washing and conditioning your hair, cool water helps to keep the cuticle layer of the hair closed more, so that the pigment molecules won't seep out during washing.  It also helps to keep the cuticle sealed when rinsing out the conditioner.