How to Keep Your Hair Color Vibrant!
The moment is here – you’ve finally taken the plunge and colored your natural hair. So what’s next? How do you keep that color looking its best for as long as possible?
We don’t want to continue adding those harsh chemicals to our delicate strands, so that means we have to come up with something. After having red and purple hair (two colors that can fade FAST) that faded on multiple occasions, I finally got a professional consultation and learned these simple tips to keep vibrant color for months!
Use color safe products
This is first and foremost. Some products (especially shampoos), can be extremely harsh and strip our hair of its natural oils*. While doing so, these products would also be fading our color faster than normal.
Instead, opt for color safe products on wash day. There are higher priced brands like Paul Mitchell that make color safe products, while Shea Moisture* also has cheaper and natural options.
Rinse with cool water
One thing you may notice when you first wash your hair after getting a color done is that it some of the color may rinse into the drain. What you may not have known is that if this happens continuously, then your color is pretty much fading away each time.
One way to maintain your color is to wash, condition, and rinse with cool or cold water. Warmer water, while soothing in the cold winter months, will only run the color out, as it’s good for removing product build up. Cool water helps seal in the color, seal in moisture, and also makes hair shiny. If you don’t want to stand in a freezing cold shower though, like me, then condition in the shower, but rinse out your hair in the bath tub or the sink.
Moisturize often
With natural hair in general, we should always want our hair to be moisturized and healthy. With colored hair, this fact is even more important. Colored hair has the tendency to be drier than non treated hair due to the chemicals that are added.
To keep a vibrant and healthy color, keep your hair and ends moisturized. If not, ends can become tangled, knotted, and would need to be trimmed. Use the LOC (Liquid, Oil, Cream) or the LCO (Liquid, Cream, Oil) method depending on what works better for your hair type to keep your ends in their best condition.
These are a few of our tips for keeping your color vibrant for as long as possible. With colored hair you may have to make a few changes to your hair regimen, but by being prepared the end results will be worth it.
Comment below and let us know what your best tips are for keeping your colored hair vibrant and healthy for as long as possible!
