While fashion colours and bright hair strands may be all the rage at the moment, it’s important to understand what you’re getting yourself into before you head to the hairdresser asking for a new rainbow do.
In order to achieve brights, pastels and everything in-between, your hair will first have to be lightened. To lighten your hair bleach will have to be applied by a professional, which will cause some amount of damage. The more pastel you want your hair, the more your hair will have to be lifted. Some colours can be achieved a lot easier than others, i.e.. Red will deposit on warmer hair, whereas blues, lavenders and ashy tones will have to be applied to white hair to avoid it fading to a murky hue.
Fashion colours also tend to fade a lot faster than other colours so upkeep needs to be more rigorous. A few tips and tricks to maintain a vibrant colour are:
Wait at least 3 days before shampooing your hair after the colour’s applied
Use a colour safe shampoo
Use a conditioner that has colour pigment added to it (see our earlier post titled ‘3-in-1 crazy hair treatments’)
Wash your hair in cold water, warmer water will cause the colour to fade faster. While also having amazing benefits to the health of your hair, if you have more than one colour this will prevent any colours from running or transferring to other parts
Wash your hair less often. Over-shampooing is one of the main reasons fashion colours fade too quickly. Try to cut it down to just once a week.
Use leave in treatments. Leave-ins tend to seal the cuticle down, locking the colour into the hair shaft
Avoid styling your hair with heated tools as often as possible
With all of this in mind, bright colours can look absolutely amazing and with proper care will last a long time in your hair.
