HappyLifestyleJournal
Many women dye their hair regularly, whether it is to cover their grey hairs or just to switch it up a little bit and come out of the boring routine. In any case, dying your hair can damage it, but you can make certain steps to significantly protect it from that damage. However, there are some things that we usually do after dying our hair that ruin it and create unnecessary damage to it. Those things that you shouldn’t do if you don’t want to ruin your dyed hair are the following:
1. Washing your hair before 72 hours have passed.
Many women can’t wait that long to wash their hair, so they do it immediately the day after dying it. Stylists and hair dye producers agree that you need to wait 48-72 hours after dying your hair before shampooing it. This is because during the dying process, the cuticles in your hair open and that is where hair dye attaches. So, to preserve color in your hair, you need to let the cuticles close before you wash your hair, which means waiting 72 hours.
2. Washing your hair too frequently.
By washing your hair too often you will probably wash out some of the color, even if you do it after the cuticles have closed. This happens because, when being washed, hair swells and lets the color partially wash out. As the chemicals contained in every hair dye make your hair more sensitive to water and more likely to get damaged, the best would be not to rinse it for too long. So better forget about letting the water run over it for a long time while you are enjoying your shower. Also, what causes even more damage is rinsing it with hot water, as it opens the cuticles and lets the dye wash out. But even if your hair is not dyed, washing it every day can make it less resistant to the conditions from the environment, which means it will grease up more quickly. So to keep the quality and the color of your hair safe, don’t wash it every day. If it gets greasy very quickly, consider using a dry shampoo.
3. Using regular shampoos and conditioners instead of color-safe ones.
Regular shampoos are meant for regular hair. If your hair is dyed, you should consider using a shampoo and conditioner for dyed hair. There are now many shampoos and conditioners made specifically to preserve dyed hair and protect the color. The main difference between these products and the regular ones is that these help seal cuticles in your hair and keep the dye from washing out. Moreover, if you dye your hair, it can easily become dry and look damaged, so to heal it use the products made specifically for that purpose.
4. Scrubbing it roughly.
You have probably noticed that if you scrub your freshly dyed hair with a towel, your hair will leave plenty of color on it. As water opens the cuticles and the color is washed out easily, when you scrub your hair, you literally take the color out of your cuticles – you scrape it off. That is why you should switch from scrubbing to blotting you hair gently and letting it dry naturally if possible – that way more color will stay on your hair.
5. Using heat on your hair too often.
We already mentioned that dyed hair is more sensitive to influences from the environment. One of those influences is heat. Whether you are using a straightening or a curling iron, or you are simply blow drying your hair, you are damaging it. You can reduce this damage by using a spray designed to protect your hair from high heats before you use an iron or a blow dryer, but the best option would be to minimize the use of this equipment if you want your hair to stay healthy and beautiful.
6. Exposing your hair to chlorine frequently.
This might be hard during the summer when you probably want to spend every free minute by and inside the pool. However, you should be aware that chlorine, that is very much present in the pool water, is very damaging to hair, especially if it is dyed. But you can minimize this damage by making your hair wet with regular water before getting into the pool, as this will somewhat protect it from absorbing chlorine completely.
Learning how to take better care of your dyed hair can help you preserve the color of your hair, it will last longer and your hair will be less damaged.
