Dying your hair or going blonde may seem like a great idea until you realize you have to bleach your hair. Bleaching is necessary when you want pastel or bright colored hair, especially when you have naturally dark hair. A lot of people aren’t aware that pastels or any unnatural color may look amazing in the first few weeks of application, but after that it may turn out washed out gray or green depending on your color. Now, you are faced with this new color and hair texture that is a lot harder to manage. Bleaching can be incredibly damaging to the hair and will require you to change your whole routine. Though, don’t be afraid of getting the color that you want. There are a lot of ways you can manage your hair and keep it healthy even with bleaching. Here are a few care tips to help you with your pastel or bleached hair.
Over Styling
In the first two weeks of getting our hair colored, we want to show it off as much as possible. Meaning there will be a lot of styling and heating tools involved. Yes, newly colored hair looks amazing when it is curled, straightened or styled in any way. The color tends to appear brighter, however, this can make the color fade a lot faster and further damage the hair. It is important to avoid using any heating tools and styling products in the first two weeks after applying the hair color. Not only will heat affect the color of your hair it will also dry it out further and make the after effects of the hair color a lot worse than it really should be.
Oils and Treatment
The first areas of your hair that will tend to dry out after coloring your hair is your ends. It’s incredibly beneficial for your hair to apply oil to your ends, at least 2 a day on the ends. This will reduce the chances of split ends and prevent it from drying out. Treatments in the first 2 weeks of coloring is important too. These treatments can help make sure that your hair will remain beautiful, even when the color has faded. There are now certain treatments that can cater to your hair color. These treatments can help intensify the color of your hair again without coloring it. It will also nourish the hair and increase the keratin in your hair that you stripped out due to bleaching.
Prepping Before the Bleaching
Before you even get your hair color you have to prep it for the bleaching. Two weeks before you even get your hair bleached make sure that your hair is healthy enough to be bleached. If you suddenly bleached damaged hair you will open yourself up to further damage and even cause hair loss. This is another important thing to remember when going to the salon. Your hairstylist will have the right to reject you if they know that your hair is too fragile to be bleached. If you still continue with bleaching your hair even with the warnings from your hairstylist. You should be ready for the consequences. It’s ideal that your hair is in its top condition before bleaching.
The Canvas
Pastel hair color or any bright colors will require your hair to be near white to get the optimum result. So, even people with blonde hair may bleach their hair. Though, a great thing about pastels is that it requires very low or no peroxide lessening the damage. A thing to remember about this is that most of the time the hair will not go back to this near white canvas when the color fades. If you want to get the original canvas color back, you may have to strip away the remaining colors in your hair with hair products.
Refreshing
If you want to maintain your color, you will have to tone your hair every two weeks. Pastels may require a lot more toning than bright colors such as neon blues or red. Use shampoos and conditioners that are made for colored hair. Look for products that can help maintain your hair color. Avoid hot showers and showering or bathing too long.
After Care
Once your hair color fades the hair will tend to look dry and washed out. You can get toners and treatments that can help hydrate the hair and reduce the metallic or washed out color of the hair. The best option you can take is to either refresh the color, use a toner, gets lots of treatments or color it with another color. Never leave it as is, it will only further damage the hair.
Coloring your hair is a great idea and a fun way to show off your personality, but you have to remember that your hair’s health is at risk with any type of procedure. Make sure you know the do’s and Don’ts to taking care of your pastel hair.
