Keep your colour fresh and your hair healthy with these tips

There’s nothing quite like freshly coloured hair to get you feeling as confident and fresh as a Lizzo song. The vibe, the colour, the vibrancy, we love it all! So how do you make sure you’re treating your coloured hair as well as it’s treating you?

1. Moisture, moisture, moisture

We’ll say it again, moisture! Keeping your hair moisturised and hydrated is the most important thing when it comes to caring for coloured hair. Chemically treated and coloured hair needs extra protection from loss of nutrients, using a hydrating hair mask for coloured hair at least once a week will help keep your hair soft and help hold the colour for longer. 

2. For more intense repairing use a bond building protein mask

When colouring, especially if you pre-lighten your hair, the chemical bonds in your hair can be damaged during the process. Using a targeted bond building treatment like Briteplex repairs those bonds and rebuilds the proteins in your hair. 

For very damaged hair leave the treatment in overnight to revitalise your hair and restore shine.

3. Turn down the heat on your shower

Heat opens the cuticle of your hair (the outer layer) which can let the colour of your freshly done hair escape and wash down the drain. An open cuticle also gives your hair a rough, dull appearance.

For a coloured hair friendly shower use lukewarm water to wash your hair, and then finish with a cold blast to seal and smooth down the cuticle, giving you shinier, frizz free hair.

4. To keep your colour for longer wait 2-3 days to wash your hair, and wash less often 

When you colour your hair the outermost layer (the cuticle) opens which allows the colour in, but it can take a few days for it to close again and seal in the colour. If you wash your hair while the cuticle is still open the colour might wash away with your shampoo. 

After colouring your hair wait as long as possible before shampooing to give the cuticle time to close. Then try to wash less frequently as even the massaging motion of your fingertips with hot water can shake the colour pigment loose and fade your colour faster. 

Try alternating with dry shampoo to slow down the colour fade and keep oil at bay between washes.

5. Avoid chlorine

Chlorine, the cleaner used in pools, does a great job at killing bacteria and unfortunately isn’t bad at killing fresh colour either. Chlorine fades colour, and famously can give blonde hair a green tint. 

We recommend keeping your head above water if you’re having a pool day with freshly coloured hair. 

6. Ditch clarifying shampoos and be wary of anti-dandruff shampoos 

Clarifying shampoos give a deep clean to your hair, but they can actually strip your hair of its natural oils and, you guessed it, colour. Anti-dandruff shampoos have the same effect. Check the label to see if it says “colour safe” before using anti-dandruff shampoo on coloured hair.