How To Make Your Haircolour Last

How to Make Your Salon Colour Last

Your salon hair colour is an investment, we get that. After all, we were there for your colour consultation, application, processing, and even the big reveal. We truly want you to be happy with how your colour looks and makes you feel, and desire that you have that feeling for as long as possible. And, since you are a walking billboard for our services, it’s also important to us that your colour continues to look amazing long after you have left the salon. The old saying ‘If you don’t look good, we don’t look good’ certainly comes into play in our book.

Home Care Considerations
To protect your precious hair colour and keep it from fading, we simply can’t stress enough how important it is for proper home care. Our best suggestion is to treat your hair like a fine fabric and to always use care when washing, drying and styling. Use that delicate setting, so to speak, with gentle shampoos and effective conditioners that are designed specifically for colour-treated hair. With that in mind, we highly recommend that you only use professional colour care products to keep your colour investment looking its best…and we have our reasons why.

Pro vs. Consumer Brands
The difference between pro and consumer brands that you can find in your local supermarket or drugstore comes down to price and quality of the ingredients. The main reason that professional products cost more than consumer brands is that they commonly use higher quality ingredients in their formulations. This is especially true with shampoos and conditioners, as using better cleansing and conditioning agents greatly affect the price of the product. It’s simply not possible to use better ingredients in a less expensive product. And these cheaper options, like the consumer brands you would find on the drugstore or supermarket shelves, do come at a price for the health of your hair and the longevity of your colour.

Ditch the Sulfates
To keep the cost down, many of the consumer brands use sulfates in their shampoos. Known as alkyl sulfates, these inexpensive detergents and harsh degreasers can dry out skin and hair, and even cause irritation for some people. That’s why we feel it’s wise to avoid products with sulfates, as they are simply too harsh for your colour-treated hair.

What the pH?
Because of the less expensive ingredients, drugstore brands also have a higher pH level that can react with your hair’s natural balance. This higher pH raises the cuticle layer, which allows the pigment from your color application to wash away from shampoo to shampoo. In addition to allowing your color to fade, drugstore brands can also leave your hair feeling coarse, dry and even brittle. And nobody wants that!

Condition Right
Regular conditioning is also a must for your colour-treated hair. In addition to a good dose of moisture to quench your hair’s thirst, the chemical process used for your colour application may also require regular restructurizing treatments. However, these protein-based conditioners should be used carefully and only with the recommendation of your salon professional (that’s us!). Do be aware that the over-use of protein can actually damage your hair and cause an increase in brittleness. Instead, let us prescribe the best solution for your hair’s specific needs. That is part of the service we provide – our expertise!

How often you condition is also important. In addition to a daily rinse-out conditioner and a weekly deep treatment as prescribed, we advise the use of a leave-in conditioner and thermal spray for protecting strands from heated styling tools, as well as environmental elements.

Protection Equals Prevention
Even with the use of leave-in conditioners and thermal protectants, be sure to promptly rinse your colour-treated hair after swimming to help remove chlorine from pools, salt water from the beach and other residue from the environment. And remember to cover up with a scarf or hat during exposure to the sun, especially if it’s prolonged. Such exposure can add to the fade factor, not to mention burn your scalp and even cause flaking.

Prescription for Perfection
You may have noticed all of the pretty bottles of hair care products lining the retail area of our salon. Rest assured that those are not there for decoration. We carry these specific brands because we feel that they are the best options for our clients’ hair. We have put a lot of thought and effort into choosing these products and know what each has to offer and how to use them to their full potential.

Before leaving the salon, we sincerely hope that you take our advice and opt for the prescribed products and then apply the best practices at home to help keep your colour investment looking its absolute best.