Friday, January 14, 2011

Hair Color: How to avoid fading




Many of you (hello, redheads) have often felt the woes of a fading hair color.  Fresh from the salon, it's shiny, rich, and vibrant, but four weeks later, you're grieving the loss of all those things. 

Here are a handful of things to try at home to help prolong the greatness:

  - Try to shampoo every other day, if possible.

  - Don't use super hot water on your hair: the hotter the water, the more open your hair's cuticle will be, allowing those color molecules to rinse away.  Plus, it definitely dries your hair (and skin!) out quickly.

  - Shampoo & conditioner matter: you must use something equipped to properly care for your color - a shampoo that doesn't overly cleanse and a conditioner that provides a good amount of moisture, neither of which should be high on the pH scale.  Despite your hair's other needs (smoothness or volume, for example), color care should be priority numero uno for shampoo & conditioner (styling products can make up for what you may not get out of a color-care shampoo/conditioner).

  - Keep it moisturized: this dry air is killer on hair, regardless of color.

  - Blondes need protein because of the chemical damage being done every time you lighten (especially if you have long blonde hair) - depending on your preference, both Aveda's Damage Remedy and Bumble & bumble's Mending lines are great for this purpose.

And some options to deal with the fading/outgrowth:

  - Aveda offers color "conditioners" in five shades.  I put that in parentheses because there's very little moisture and doesn't get applied like conditioner.  Apply the color wherever you want to see the results. If you're fading and growing out at the root, apply it there, and leave on in the shower up to 10 minutes.
         Blue Malva - for toning down brassiness in blondes and for grey/silver
         Camomile - for adding golden tones to blondes
         Madder Root - for red heads (and I mean RED, not auburn)
         Clove - for brunettes (could be mixed with Madder Root for auburns)
         Black Malva - for dark cool brunettes/black. 

  - Bumble & bumble has a line of tinted spray hair powders that are great for covering up a line of outgrowth, especially if grey hairs are involved.  They're also great at soaking up oils on second and third-day hair (which goes along well with the "don't shampoo too much" idea!).  These come in white, blondish, brown and black.

  - Add a "gloss" to your haircut in-salon between full color services.  It's mixed up and applied for about 5-10 minutes at the shampoo bowl.  It's a great way to boost your color and add a ton of shine!

Hope these tips help!
xoxo,
KM

Monday, January 10, 2011

Shiny and new!

Welcome to my NEW old blog!  I am back with a new look and a new home.  For those of you that knew and supported my makeup business, thanks for sticking with me!  This is the same content reloaded into a new place.  And for those of you wonderful people who are just jumping on board to my new Facebook page, welcome! 

The idea behind the FB page and the blog is to provide you with some tips, tricks, and how-tos to utilize at home.  Please let me know if there's anything you hope to see featured or addressed here.

xoxo,
Katrina