One of the questions I get asked most in the chair is "what should I actually be doing to make this last?" — so I thought I'd put it all in one place.
The biggest thing that fades colour faster than it should is heat and washing too often. Hot water opens the hair cuticle and lets colour molecules slip out, so try to wash on a lukewarm to cool setting where you can bear it, and stretch the gap between washes if your hair type allows it. A dry shampoo for the in-between days does more for your colour's lifespan than almost anything else in your routine.
Sulphates are the other big one. They're brilliant at cutting through oil, but they're not gentle on colour, so a sulphate-free shampoo and conditioner is worth the switch if you've had anything from a full colour to a balayage done. It doesn't need to be expensive — it just needs to say sulphate-free on the bottle.
If you're blonde or have any lightened pieces, a purple shampoo once a week keeps brassiness at bay between appointments. Any more than that and it can start to look a bit flat and ashy, so little and often is the way to go.
Finally, a good heat protectant before styling isn't optional in my book — it's the difference between colour that holds its tone for weeks and colour that starts looking tired within days. If you're ever not sure what's right for your specific colour, just ask me at your next appointment and I'm happy to talk through it. ← Back to the blog