How To Maintain Coloured Hair

As someone who dyes their hair on a regular basis (I haven't had natural black hair since 2008!), I've become well versed on how to maintain hair colour. Below, I'm going to outline some fairly simple tips to maintaining your unnatural hair colours (and these tips are especially true if you've got unicorn hair or grey hair). 

First off, just keep in mind that unnatural hair colours will fade and you will need to spend lots of time and money to keep that hair colour, unless you are into letting it fade and becoming an ombre. Hair colours that aren't brown require more upkeep and money. I also do not recommend dying your hair at home - unless you're just going for a brown colour (depending on how strong you want the colour, red is also doable at home). Box dyes do work (depending on brands), but colours are usually limited to browns, reds, and a bleach box. If you want more natural-looking hair colour, box dyes are okay to use. The bleach box that is offered by any brand is NOT okay for use. You will not achieve the bleach you want. Your hair will turn out orange, and dry. I do not recommend bleaching your own hair at home unless you are a hair professional and have good bleach powder at home.

So enough of the warnings, and let's move on to the actual tips:

1. Stop washing your hair everyday. Washing your hair everyday strips away its natural oils, and can produce negative effects. Shampooing too often can create breakage in your hair because it is drying your hair out. 
• "But my hair feels gross!" This is something everyone thinks and says when I tell them not to shampoo every single day. It only feels gross because you're not used to it. The oils that are building up on your scalp are actually good for your skin, because it provides a natural barrier for your scalp from dirt and other nasty stuff.
• If you're worried about it looking dirty, tie your hair up. Ponytail it, put it in a bun, or slap on a snapback/touque/hat.
• Shampooing everyday means that you're washing out the colour faster. Vibrant colours like bright reds, blues, platinum blondes, greys, ash colours, etc. Water strips the colour out, and if you wash your hair everyday, that colour you just spent close to $1000 getting, will be gone and dull within 2-3 weeks. Do you really want to go back to the salon and spend another $1000 so soon?
• If you had to bleach your hair before getting the colour you wanted, the more you wash your hair, the quicker you'll revert back to that nasty brassy orange colour that's underneath (quite similar to my before picture above). Now there's no actual way to prevent getting that colour, but you can prolong your colour by washing your hair less.
  
2. When you're not washing your hair, use dry shampoo. Dry shampoo helps absorb odours, sweat and excess oil. Many dry shampoos are scented, so they also provide a clean, fresh scent to cover up the fact that you haven't washed your hair in a while. 
• I suggest using a brand that offers a super light-weight feeling and outcome. Heavier dry shampoos produce more product buildup on your scalp, leading to a more dirty feeling overtime. 
• Batiste is a cult-favourite; it's relatively inexpensive (~$10 at drugstores) and offers 200mL of product. It sprays white, but as you work it into your hair, the whiteness disappears. They also offer a variety of scents. However, I'm not a fan of Batiste for long-term unwashed hair. Every other day washes would be fine with using Batiste, but I find that Batiste leaves product buildup on my scalp and makes my hair feel super gross, limp, and mangled by the time I wash it.
• Higher-end dry shampoos are often "lighter". I currently use Living Proof's Perfect Hair Day Dry Shampoo, and I find that it doesn't leave product buildup on my scalp.
  
3. Use sulfate-free shampoos!!! I literally cannot stress this one enough. You spent $1000 on your new hair colour, and you want that to last right? That $5 Tresemme shampoo you have? Throw it out. Sulfate is responsible for giving you that lather in your shampoos, but it is the number 1 culprit in stripping hair colours. Sulfate-free shampoos are pricey (~$30-$40 depending on brand), but if you're not washing your hair every single day anyways, that shampoo will last you quite a while. Now keep in mind that there are studies out there saying there's a negligible difference between sulfate-free shampoos, and regular shampoos in maintaining hair colour, but I find that the more chemicals that a shampoo has, the faster your hair colour strips. 
   
4. If you went white-blonde, or ash blonde, use purple shampoo. Purple shampoo distributes purple pigment to neutralize brassy, yellow tones. 
   
5. If you went unicorn, use Manic Panic (or any other at home unicorn dyes) to maintain the colour. Some people suggest mixing manic panic and white conditioner and coating your wet hair in it, whereas others suggest using it directly on dry hair (like a dye). 
   
6. If you can't invest or don't want to invest the money and time into maintaining your unicorn hair colour, don't colour your hair. Please. It's the absolute worst when people have this super gorgeous purple hair, or whatever, and then within 4-6 weeks it is this brassy orange colour. Trust me on this one. I've had that brassy orange colour. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, but looking back at photos, I realized that my hair was super orange and brassy. Not a good look in my opinion. I don't have the sort of income to go back to the salon every 4 weeks to tone my hair colour, so I choose to wash my hair less in order to prolong the colour. 

Now I'm obviously not a hair professional, I'm not licensed to do any kind of hair dying, cutting, etc. These are all my opinions on how to maintain MY personal hair colour. My only qualification is the fact that I dye my hair crazy colours all the time. I've been platinum blonde, browns, black-purple, dark blue, pink, ash grey, lilac grey, and brassy orange.

Funny anecdote, when I dyed my hair a really nice dark blue, people at my work place that I didn't even know personally would talk about my hair all the time. I became known as that girl with the blue hair! My supervisor said that whenever they had meetings, I would always somehow come up in the conversation. It was very awkward, knowing that all these professors with PhDs and several published academic journals and articles knew who I was, but I had no idea who these people were.

This is not a sponsored post; if any of the photos are yours and/or if you'd like me to take them down because you are the featured model, let me know please! I screencapped all of the photos off Instagram (public accounts).