A good hair care routine is the cornerstone of any healthy head of hair. No matter how naturally healthy your hair is or how badly it has been damaged by environmental stressors or excess heat styling, your hair’s current state is a reflection of how well you care for it and maintain it. We’ve gone into great detail regarding the importance of things like developing a healthy shampooing routine and how to properly use heated styling tools on your hair to minimize damage and breakage, and this advice is applicable to just about every hair type.
However, one of the most difficult and challenging of hair types to maintain is hair that has been dyed and chemically treated to alter one’s natural color. Due to the process of chemically treating the hair and the chemicals involved in the hair dying process, it is very easy to mistakenly damage the hair and destroy the outer cuticle layer, which can lead to breakage, severe dryness, and an overall terrible experience.
Thankfully we have you covered when it comes to taking care of your chemically colored hair. Read below to learn tips and tricks on how to keep your new hair color looking its absolute best, while most importantly making sure that your hair is as healthy and well maintained as possible!
What happens when we chemically color our hair
The process of chemically altering your hair color, otherwise known as dying, involves a great deal of chemical alteration when it comes to how the chemicals interact with your hair strand. In order to remove the pigment from your hair, the chemicals need to break down your outer cuticle layer enough to deeply penetrate the hair strand. This process is no easy feat, and it causes a very powerful but temporary breakdown of the cuticle layer. Due to this, your hair can become temporarily dry and brittle after the hair dying process. Depending on how bright the dye is compared to our normal hair color, the process may require a very strong amount of bleach, which will only further damage the cuticle layer.
How to care for bleached and dyed hair
Thankfully the cuticle is able to recover relatively quickly following its destruction during the dying process. However, it is crucial that you treat your hair very gently and cautiously during this recovery process, otherwise you run the risk of completely damaging your hair’s health. For this reason it is vital to not wash your hair for at least 36 hours following your hair dying process, and only using an extremely gentle shampoo when doing so. After this 36 hour period you want to avoid any shampoo that contains sulfates, as these are extremely powerful surfactants that are capable of removing the pigment from the hair and breaking down the recovering cuticle layer. Additionally, you’ll want to be continually looking to apply moisture to your hair, using oils and deep conditioners to seal the cuticle layer to ensure your hair’s moisture levels while locking in that new pigment as long as possible.
How to Take Care of Bleached and Dyed Hair
