Taking care of my hair

Is it hard work taking care of coloured hair?

I believe that every different hair needs special care for its own condition, but I also believe that a good routine and discipline of daily and weekly care can make a huge difference. I can’t say it is too much work, but I like to give some care and attention to keep my hair healthy and nurtured.

My hair is dyed, as I mentioned in this post here, and to keep its health, colour and shine, I have established a few products and care methods that work wonders.

I think that it is very important to think about the health of the hair strands and scalp, so even though I dye my hair I still use a deep cleanse or anti-residue shampoo at least once a month. I usually leave this process for the last wash before I dye my hair. Whenever I think it’s necessary I do this more than once a month, but it really depends if your hair discolours too much during each wash – which is not my case. I find it very important to wash my hair very well, especially if you use finishing products. I also like to use a hair exfoliator to really take care of the scalp – this is a trick I learned and it makes a huge difference to your hair strands and scalp health – your scalp needs as much care as your skin does. If your hair is not very receptive to a deep cleanse shampoo, you can replace it with a neutral pH shampoo.

My weekly care routine involves: first I wash my hair with a shampoo for coloured hair, and for the second wash I can either repeat the process or use a shampoo tailored to the result I am looking for – hydration, volume, etc.
A tip that almost everybody know but don’t do as much is to dilute the shampoo in water before putting it in your hair. This is very helpful and avoids accumulating shampoo residue in your hair.

I don’t wash my hair too many times a week. My hair is not oily, which allows me more time between each wash, and whenever necessary I just use a dry shampoo.
After washing, I always remove the excess water and apply a mask once a week, and I feel that my hair responds well to this routine. After leaving the mask for about 10 minutes, I rinse and apply the conditioner. I learned this with an amazing hairdresser – the correct order should be: shampoo, mask and conditioner. It was really well for my hair and the conditioner closes the cuticles that are hydrated after the mask. And I try to do this with room temperature to cold water, which is better for your hair and scalp health.

A new line of product that I have been trying lately are coloured conditioners. After the shampoo or after the mask, I apply the products and leave it on for a few minutes. It helps revitalise the hair colour, besides conditioning the hair.

After washing I always apply a colour protector, an oil and/or leave in – depending on the hair situation, and always in that order. While the protector I spray all over my hair, the oil and leave in I use just a small amount, and apply it only on the hair length, especially the tips.

If I am going to dry my hair, I apply a thermal protector in case the leave in or the colour protect does not already have it. And I also spray thermal water before brushing or using the babyliss, which helps it to shine.
And if I am using a hair dryer, I try to keep the temperature warm to cold, to avoid the strands from taking to much heat. After all, sometimes I use a babyliss so I always try to balance the temperature to avoid damaging my hair, even when using a thermal protector.

Phew…is that all?

It seems very complicated, but once this becomes routine, you can manage better how long that takes and adopt what works best for your type of hair. This way your hair is always healthy and beautiful.
If you don’t have time, patience or desire to use this amount of products or steps, opt for products that take care of your needs in a practical way. There are a lot of products nowadays that does more than one function – which can help reduce the amount of steps in your routine.

I will leave a list of products that are my personal choices and are some of my favourites – keeping in mind that I always have two different products for each item so that my hair does not get accustomed. And I vary them from time to time.