If you're spending time + money coloring your hair, you don't want products to negatively impact hair color in any way! Common ingredients used in some hair products, like sulfates + oxidizing agents can dull, distort and oxidize hair color, making hair color fade quickly with less vibrancy. Keep reading our 10 tips to preserve your bold and vibrant color to care for your hair at home once you've left the salon!
1. Wait 72 Hours After Color Before Shampooing
When the hair is bleached, colored or chemically treated - the cuticle (the outside protective layer of the hair strand) is opened, making it easy for color to penetrate into the hair shaft. When the hair is washed too soon after these chemical processes, the cuticle layer may still be open which leads to hair color fading faster, and being washed down the drain. It can take up to three days for the cuticle layer to fully close, so the longer you wait to shampoo your hair after it's been colored, the more time the pigment will have to absorb into the cuticle, helping to keep color vibrant + lasting longer in between visits to the salon.
2. Wash Hair Less Frequently
The best way to care for your color is to wash hair only twice to three times a week. The more often you wash your hair, the quicker your vibrant color will fade! If you find that your hair tends to get oily when extending washes, try a gentle, color-safe detoxifying hair treatment pre-shampoo, like Save Me From Product Overload, that absorbs oil, rebalances the scalp and locks in color vibrancy with added softness + shine.
2. Use Filters to Prevent Damage from UV + Minerals from Hard Water
One of the number one enemies to color-treated hair is UV light + exposure to hard water minerals that wreak havoc on the hair. Hard water contains high amounts of minerals. UV rays make hair stiff, faded, and tangly. Minerals are important for a healthy diet, but your hair and scalp don’t absorb them similarly, causing build up and potentially hurting the microbiome balance a healthy scalp needs. The same idea occurs in hair that is overly exposed to salt water. Adding a UV + hard water filter, like Save Me From Sun + Sweat, will protect the hair from sun + hard water minerals.
3. Pick the Right Shampoo
When your hair is colored, using a shampoo without sulfates is critical. Sodium laureth sulfate, also known as sodium laureth ether sulfate, is a type of anionic detergent that is found in many personal care products, used to help produce a foaming effect to shampoos, conditioners, and cleansers. Using products with sulfates however can strip the hair of its natural oils + moisture, which can lead to stripping the vibrancy out of your color-treated hair! Opt for using a sulfate-free shampoo + conditioner to keep your hair color from fading. Save Me From has great sulfate-free hair treatments that are designed to repair + protect ALL hair types from damage - whether you have dry, frizzy, brittle hair that's curly, straight, fine or coarse.
4. Condition, Condition + Treat
When the hair has been chemically altered from bleaching, hair coloring, perming + relaxing - hair becomes weaker, and is prone to breakage + color loss. Using a conditioner that is rich in moisturizing ingredients such as oils, butters, conditioning polymers and other hydrating elements can help to form a protective barrier to help prevent coloring from fading quickly. After using a conditioner, using another conditioner that is deeply conditioning will help hair retain moisture better than the traditional shampoo-then-conditioner process. For an added moisture boost, pick up one of the assortments in the Save Me From collection in our Save Me From Hair Despair Kit to rotate with nourishing actives to rehabilitate hair back it it's full health + luster, locking in color vibrancy post salon.
5. Use Leave-in Treatments to Protect Hair Color When Styling
Colored + chemically-treated hair needs extra hydration and protection to prevent damage and loss of nutrients to the hair. Leave-in conditioning treatments will help to keep hair smooth, hydrated + prime hair for styling while preventing your vibrant hair color from fading. Save Me From treatments are so versatile as an intensively conditioning treatment mask that can be rinsed out, or a leave-in treatment diluted to a creamy consistency! Each targeted treatment has multiple benefits all in one product that is lightweight as a styling foundation underneath products or used to style exclusively on it's own, all hair types can enjoy the reparative benefits of our nourishing + targeted formulas!
6. Air Dry When Possible
Using hot tools on the hair dries out the hair, breaking the keratin protein in the cortex which causes damage to the cuticle on the outside of the hair shaft, leading to not only moisture loss but also color loss. Instead of reaching for the blow dryer + curling iron, try heatless hairstyles that can give you a similar look without compromising your hair health + hair color! We suggest enhancing wavy hair textured hair with 1/2 to 1 pea-size of Save Me From Pollution Assault on towel-dried, damp hair starting from the ends, working to midshaft with small amount remaining applied to roots. Air dry, or wear in braids for defined, beachy waves!
7. Never Forget Heat Protection
If heat styling is something you can't go without, don't forget to protect your hair from hot tools such as blow dryers, curling irons + flat irons! The ingredients in our heat protecting + moisturizing hair treatment, Save Me From Thermal Obsession, utilizes advanced botanicals and innovative technologies to prevent and repair hair from thermal damage. We approach thermal protection in a multifaceted way, using ingredients that form a protective shield on the cuticle, condition to allow better compatibility and less breakage, increase moisture and color retention, and reduce the temperature of the hair when exposed to heat. In effect, this tip to root reboot works to reduce split ends, infuse hair hydration, eliminate frizz, and hydrate a dry scalp.
8. Swim Smart
Chlorine is a chemical bleaching agent intended to keep pools clean, and can definitely have an effect on color vibrancy when enjoying a sunny pool day. Blonde hair is susceptible to turning a greenish tint, while hair that is darker may becomes dull, dry, and lose it's lustrous shine. If you find yourself wanting to take a dip into the pool, try wearing a swimmer's cap to protect your delicate strands. In addition to harsh chemicals in the pool, swimming in the ocean can also strip the hair of moisture making hair stiff + prone to breakage. Using an deep conditioning + protective treatment, like Save Me From Sun + Sweat, designed to create a barrier on the hair shaft so chlorine + salt water can't penetrate into the hair + will save your hair from breaking and the coloring from fading by the salt water and chlorine.
9. Make Time for Hair Masking
One of the most common complaints is about how dry hair gets, which can be a symptom of loss of hydration in their hair due to damaged coticules + lipid barrier on the hair strand. Infusing hydration back into the hair means more than applying a conditioner! It means using ingredients that repair the lipids, reinserting hydration and lock it all with some better habits such as using an intensely conditioning mask at lease once weekly. Allowing at least 10 - 30 minutes a week (or repair your hair with a Save Me From overnight hair treatment while you sleep!) can add a super does of healing nourishment that helps to repaid damage, increase shine - and naturally keep hair color vibrant + strong, for longer!
10. Prepare Your Hair for Your Next Color + Chemical Process
Before your next color service, you want to protect the integrity of your hair AND the integrity of your color with a strengthening treatment, like Save Me From Chemical Conflict treatment, to replenish hair with the same building blocks of natural + healthy hair. The hydrolyzed vegetable protein penetrates the cortex of the hair to replenish lost protein and provide structure while lubricating the cuticles. It addresses three important aspects of healthy strength: tensile strength (elasticity), bending modulus (flexibility), and cuticle abrasion (lubricity).
In addition, we use a biomimetic keratin protein created through novel proteomics technology, to match the amino acid sequence of keratin protein found in the cortex and cuticle of hair. Since it is biomimetic and replicates protein in the hair, it targets the most damaged areas of hair allowing for intelligent repair therefore improving hair porosity + keeps your hair color vibrant and lasting longer.
