Though the color has already been rinsed out of your hair, it still needs time to really set in to your hair after you leave the salon!

Washing your hair too soon after having it colored or toned will pretty much shampoo the color right out, therefore the longevity of your color is already compromised. Waiting at least 48 hours gives you that time to let it settle in!

I cannot stress this enough! Do not use shampoo and conditioner that you bought from the grocery store. I could go on and on about what makes it bad, but suffice it to say: you get what you pay for.

Using a $4 bottle of shampoo on your $120+ color will not maintain it, in fact it will strip it right out.

I have my favorite product lines that I always recommend (R+Co and Oribe) to maintain your color (and the health of your hair in general), but really as long as you bought the product from an actual salon, that is better than using anything from a regular grocery store!

It’s quite simple: everytime you wash your hair, you rinse out some of your color, causing it to fade. There’s not much we can do to avoid it unfortunately.

So obviously, the more frequently you wash your hair, the faster it fades.

This is a hard one for a lot of people. I used to be someone who washed her hair everyday because I hated how it felt to just wash my body and not my hair. I get it.

I now only wash my hair once a week. Not everyone can do that so I recommend to get it down to twice a week.

I have a few tips to train your hair (and you) to go longer between washes:

• Start by just stretching it out by one day. So if you wash everyday, try doing every other day for a week, then every three days and so on.

• DRY SHAMPOO. This helps absorb the oils your scalp is producing to make it still look and feel fresh on day 2 or 3, etc. It’s a life saver. 

**It took me awhile to find one that works well for me and doesn’t make my hair feel more dirty and heavy with product. I personally like Skyline by R+Co. It’s just a powder you puff into your hair and not aerosol based like most dry shampoos which I personally like better!

• Get creative with styles and accessories! You can still have super cute and put together hair, even when it’s dirty! You can hide your dirty hair by putting it up in a half/full pony tail or messy bun. You can just leave it simple if you like or you can spice it up by throwing in a headband, a cute scrunchie or clip and you’re good to go!

A little hair anatomy lesson for you! Our hair is made up of three parts: the cuticle, the cortex, and the medulla. 

The cuticle is the outermost part and it is like a protective layer to the cortex but it’s not solid—it looks like shingles stacked on the roof of a house.

The cortex is where all the fun happens. It is where pigment lives and changes when we color it. (Among other things, but I’m just keeping it simple here.)

And the medulla is just a teeny tiny layer at the center that no one really knows the purpose of. It’s kind of just there, so not really important. Fun fact: some hair strands don’t even have one. So clearly...doesn’t matter.

Back to what does matter: the cuticle and the cortex. So like I said, the cortex is where pigment lives and is changed when your hair is colored. In order to do that though, the cuticle (like shingles on a roof) has to be lifted or opened for the color to penetrate the cortex to make those changes.

So clearly, the color that is used on your hair has the technology to lift that cuticle to get to the cortex. Once we rinse it out (which is typically with cooler water) and put conditioner on it, it seals the cuticle back down so that the color stays in.

Our goal is to keep the cuticle closed as much as possible. Using hot water opens that cuticle back up, allowing the color to kind of just slip right out, making it fade quickly. Which obviously, we don’t want.

I’m not saying you have to use ice cold water (if you can stand it, all the power to ya!), but you will have a color that lasts much longer if you use lukewarm/cool water. 

Lukewarm/cool water will help to keep your cuticle sealed down, therefore not letting your color slip out and go right down the drain.

This kind of goes back to the little hair anatomy lesson explained in “Don’t wash your hair in hot water.” Leave-in products help to keep the cuticle smoothed down. They help to fight frizz and to moisturize ends.

Our ends have taken the most “beating” compared to the rest of the hair because it is essentially older hair. Leave-in products help to even out how our hair feels from roots to ends and keep them feeling healthy, moisturized, and smooth.

I would say leave-in products are an absolute must if you are going to blow dry your hair and/or put any heat on it. Again, we are trying to keep the cuticle closed as much as we can to keep that color in! Also what is the point of having beautifully colored hair if it’s going to look dried and fried?? 

**A favorite of mine is Supershine by Oribe! It is in a cream form and is basically a lotion for my ends to help them from drying out!

Just like hot water, the heat from curling irons, flat irons, blow dryers, etc. will open up the cuticle in your hair. Also, excessive heat will damage your hair because of the constant opening up of the cuticle. We don’t want that!

It’s fine to blow dry and style your hair on your wash days (which hopefully are only 1-2 times a week). But when you do, be sure to use leave-in products and a good heat protectant before putting heat on your hair.

On your days between washes, if you need to touch up a few pieces, that is totally fine too! Just be sure to use heat protectant and only touch up the pieces that need it. The point is to not be putting heat on all of your hair everyday! It will keep your hair healthy and your color maintained!

I don’t know how else to put this except that chlorine and salt water will just strip the color out of your hair, making it fade QUICK. Especially blondes that just had their ends toned or fashion colors, that will pretty much just come straight out.

It stinks for the summer when we want to swim and go to the beach, but there’s not much going around it. Just put it up in a messy bun and try to not get it wet if you can help it.

One thing that can help is getting your hair wet with cool, normal water first and then put it up in a messy bun before going swimming. Your hair is like a sponge, it will only really let in what it has room for. But obviously if you’re swimming a lot and putting your head under the water, there’s not much to avoid it stripping out your hair. Kind of goes back to the more you wash it, the faster it fades. 

Pretty much your best bet is to just try not to get it wet in chlorine or salt water.

As the toner for blondes begins to fade out, violet shampoo is a must to keep your hair from going too brassy or yellow. It helps to maintain the pretty, bright, and toned blonde you left the salon with!

A word of caution: using violet shampoo too much can actually have the opposite effect, making it look more dull instead of bright. Also, violet shampoos will act like a clarifier, so overuse can dry your hair out.

I suggest waiting to use your violet shampoo until about 4 weeks after the appointment so you don’t clarify your toner out prematurely and only using it once a week or every other wash!

All you adventurous people who love your hair

pink or blue or purple, etc. you know that it does not last very long. Fashion colors act more as a stain and lay on top of the cuticle instead of going into the cortex. 

So really, you’re looking at maybe 4 washes before it’s quite faded (depending on the color, deeper colors can last longer and pastel colors, shorter). Viral shampoos and conditioners will be your best friend to maintain that hot pink (or whatever color) until your next appointment.

Each color is different, so be sure to leave your appointment with instructions of how to use your viral shampoo and conditioner. 

*Side note: It’s extremely important that you only use cooler water when you wash your hair if you have a fashion color!