HAIR COLOR HELL: Avoiding the Dull, the Drab and the Lifeless
Mar 17, 2011 Posted by Corrie Shenigo
There is beginning to be a running theme on my head, and it’s not entirely by choice.
It all started when I decided to take my dark locks back to their original shade of blond – call me crazy, but I believed my long time stylist when she told me it would take between 4-5 visits to do this without burning the crap out of my hair… which was long. Like really long (make a mental note of this, ‘cause it comes back later in this horror story.)
Visit 4 passes (still not blond), visit 5 (not blond, but a variety of mouse-ey colored streaks are apparent – and scary), visit 6 (more mousey streaks, looking a little cha-cha). At visit 7 I have a full out meltdown. Seriously folks, this is not Super Cuts. This is a very expensive Beverly Hills salon and with each visit I’m envisioning all the sad, homeless shoes that I can’t rescue from the confines of a boutique. Not to mention that around visit 4 my long-time stylist had to strategically start chopping off my locks to cut out the chemical burns she was creating. No, visit 7 was my last straw – and she swore that I would walk out a beautiful natural shade of blond, not too cha-cha, not too orange and healthy as the day is long. Then she slapped the dye on my head and proceeded to lament about her a**hole boyfriend… again.
Suffice it to say this tale of negligence and out-and-out hair abuse did not end well. My head was varying shades of pink, orange and a weird vomit tone that shall go without a name, I had what she lovingly referred to as a chemical cut, to which she almost got a single punch to her shiny face – I refrained and instead opted to end our 8 year relationship, not pay her and find someone else who could put her boyfriend woes on the back-burner and focus on her job.
What is the point of this tale of terror, you may be asking? (Obviously, you’ve forgotten how I veer off track only to return us all safely to the depot of the point at hand.) Repeatedly dying the hair is a tricksy business, and while we all like to think the professionals we hire to do it will leave our hair and it’s follicles in tip-top shape before, during and after the process – it’s not a magic show. So often, it seems, taking your hair for a spin of a different color (yes, even just covering the grays or going one shade brighter or deeper) can leave the hair looking dry, dull and rough, which (Isn’t It Ironic – Thank you Ms. Morrisette.) in turn makes your haircolor look more drab than fab. But is it a hopeless cycle of longing and disappointment?
No. You know me better than that, ladies. (Yes I’m talking to the 70% of you ladies out there who rely on hair color. Don’t try to deny it.) There is hope and that hope lies neatly in our laps with an assortment of tips and products recommended by professionals who are not engulfed in Grand Canyon-size boyfriend drama. (Now let’s all say a big thank you to Good Housekeeping and their April 2011 article entitled “Haircolor 911” – thank you!)
First and foremost on GH’s list of haircolor do’s and don’t and do’s? Water. Do not drown your hair. According to Pantene senior scientist Jeni Thomas, Ph.D. (officially ph-ancy), the latest research shows that as much as 80% of color fad is caused by water alone, and not any overzealous scrubbing or shampooing. Porquoi?: Dye strips your hair strands of an the protective outer lipid layer (just like on your skin) comprised of natural oils that make your hair feel all soft and smooth, and that’s when the avalanche of terror begins. Your colored hair becomes more porous, absorbing and releasing water too easily and taking with it some of the color molecules you just put in it (sigh.) Bye-bye hair dye.
A couple of things you can do to avoid this virtually unavoidable hair reaction are:
1) Avoid excessive rinsing in the shower. Scientist Teca Gillespie (awesome name) with P&G suggests, “Once you’ve shampooed and conditioned, don’t tilt your head back and let the water just run over it for several minutes,” – guess that means try facing the shower instead? Ms. Awesome Name also recommends sparing your hair if you like that early morning face splash. And hey, while you’re at it, try washing less frequently by spraying on a dry shampoo to soak up the oily bits.
2) Use a color-protecting shampoo. I know this one sounds like product mumbly-jumbly (just another thing to buy), but let’s hear them out. These shampoos are especially formulated to be gentle and protective (Um, shouldn’t shampoo be those things anyways?), whereas clarifying shampoos are designed to be harsher and stripping. Redken haircolor consultant David Stanko recommends that later the day before your color appointment to remove silicones, waxes and hairspray resins so your color doesn’t attach itself to those as opposed to the actual hair. Noted. And thank you.
This whole water-is-the-devil thing is troubling living out here in Los Angeles where watching the brushfires from the my deck is a regular summer activity (and after visit 7 my hair really did look like a tumbleweed waiting to ignite.) So what to do when that valuable lipid layer is already shot to hell and your hair is dryer than Hades?
Apparently your scalp oils normally rely on the hair’s fatty (Did you just call me fat?!) lipid layer as a tiny transport system designed to distribute the valuable oils down the pipeline that is your hair shaft. So without the lipid layer (which you’ve already shot to hell) your hair is stranded (I hate puns, so assume that was unintended and let’s move on.) Another little bit of sunshine is that without the lipids, the very conditioner you’re using to combat the issue won’t adhere evenly and will join your hair color on it’s journey down the drain.
So what’s the answer? You guessed it! More shiny, fancy smelling products!
Think of your hair as a science lab, once you’ve added the color and any number of other stressors, your hair has a new chemistry, which requires conditioners specifically formulated for colored hair. While we don’t know if this is product placement or just another example of Ms. Thomas’ ph-anciness, GH mentions that P&G has developed a liquid crystal polymer that helps colored hair act, chemically speaking, like uncolored hair so conditioning agents adhere to the hair strands just like they should. And just where can we find this magical potion? Why in a variety of P&G products! A few mentioned are Pantene Color Hair Solutions Color Preserve Conditioner and Sebastian Professional Color Ignite Single Tone Conditioner. Regular use of these products also help create a protective barrier to prevent dye molecules from washing out.
A few brush-fire prevention pointers:
1) Condition every time you shampoo. Every time. Every time.
2) Use a mask once a week and leave it in while you shower – while this seems counterproductive to the aforementioned water-is-the-devil theory, it’s not if you’re using a product that can actual adhere to the hair. Hurray! H2O is redeemed!
3) If you are a devotee of the hair dryer and flat iron like I am, be sure you’re using a heat-protective product. Stanko hits this one home with a few seriously scary words, “Flat irons run up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In essence, they cook your hair. It’s moisture evaporated right out.” (My hair is frozen with fear.)
So now that we’ve safely made it across the Nile and through the deserts of the Sahara, let’s turn to that most lustrous of hair fanciness: Shine!
Simultaneously my favorite word and a head adorning necessity, shininess is a vital component in acquiring that all-day-feel-good hair compliment. And how do we solve a problem like Maria? I mean like less-than-lustrous locks? We understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan and then look at the results – we are totally scientific, no?
The protein layers that are the cuticles of your hair are like fish scales (thankfully without the smell) across your hair shafts, and when they’re lying flat, light bounces off creating an even reflection that produces that enviable result: shine. What haircolor does is essentially counterproductive to attaining this goal as it lifts up those layers with ammonia so it can penetrate to where the permanent color molecules live. Sadly, once the cuticle is man-handled by the ammonia, it scatters light, making your locks look dreadfully dull (alliteration!)
The plan: Smooth down the cuticle to post-haircolor shininess.
1) Stanko rolls out another cooking vs. hair analogy, “There’s an old saying: Once a steak is well-done, you can’t make it rare again.” (Quit scarin' my hair, Stanko.) “You can’t completely reverse damage, but a product that delivers ceramides (cera-who?), hair’s intercellular glue, can help replace what might be missing.” Yes… sigh… more product. Repair treatments, masks and conditioners can all contain this mystery element, so keep the eyes peeled. (Oh yeah, and again… lay off the hot, hot water and heat-styling products – I know this is not going to happen, and so does Stanko.)
2) Try a glaze on for size (I’m totally doin’ this!) Glaze is a clear demi-permanent salon process that does for your hair “what a topcoat does for nails or a clear gloss does for lips – it adds instant shine.” Thanks Stanko! Salon versions last about four weeks, while an at-home glaze (which rubs in like conditioner in the shower) will add shine until you’re next shampoo.
3.) Color, wash, rinse, don’t repeat, condition, mask, don’t repeat, don’t style, do style, don’t repeat, add glaze – I believe our planning phase has gone a haywire – but never mind, I’ve always been a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal (but, so was Amelia Earhart and look what happened to her – eek!)
The only other step in this shot-to-hell plan is a tiring one: consistency. Without consistent hair care, your locks will immediately fall back into the danger zone of dull, lifeless, brush-fire dry hair and that is not a good look on anyone. Except this guy… he looks awesome.
I know you’re all waiting with baited breath to hear the end of my tale… so whatever did I do?! Well… I rushed home to mama (naturally). Thankfully my Step-mom is a former stylist and she turned my hair (in one fell swoop) into a nice honey blond that was both complimentary and not to harsh on my already damaged locks. Then, through a few tears, she chopped as much of the chemical cut out of my head as she could, which is how the stylish long bob with bangs that I’m rocking right now came to be. (I’m seriously grateful the look just happened to pop up on the recent runways – thank you fashion gods!)
The end.
'til Next Time!
It all started when I decided to take my dark locks back to their original shade of blond – call me crazy, but I believed my long time stylist when she told me it would take between 4-5 visits to do this without burning the crap out of my hair… which was long. Like really long (make a mental note of this, ‘cause it comes back later in this horror story.)
Visit 4 passes (still not blond), visit 5 (not blond, but a variety of mouse-ey colored streaks are apparent – and scary), visit 6 (more mousey streaks, looking a little cha-cha). At visit 7 I have a full out meltdown. Seriously folks, this is not Super Cuts. This is a very expensive Beverly Hills salon and with each visit I’m envisioning all the sad, homeless shoes that I can’t rescue from the confines of a boutique. Not to mention that around visit 4 my long-time stylist had to strategically start chopping off my locks to cut out the chemical burns she was creating. No, visit 7 was my last straw – and she swore that I would walk out a beautiful natural shade of blond, not too cha-cha, not too orange and healthy as the day is long. Then she slapped the dye on my head and proceeded to lament about her a**hole boyfriend… again.
Suffice it to say this tale of negligence and out-and-out hair abuse did not end well. My head was varying shades of pink, orange and a weird vomit tone that shall go without a name, I had what she lovingly referred to as a chemical cut, to which she almost got a single punch to her shiny face – I refrained and instead opted to end our 8 year relationship, not pay her and find someone else who could put her boyfriend woes on the back-burner and focus on her job.
What is the point of this tale of terror, you may be asking? (Obviously, you’ve forgotten how I veer off track only to return us all safely to the depot of the point at hand.) Repeatedly dying the hair is a tricksy business, and while we all like to think the professionals we hire to do it will leave our hair and it’s follicles in tip-top shape before, during and after the process – it’s not a magic show. So often, it seems, taking your hair for a spin of a different color (yes, even just covering the grays or going one shade brighter or deeper) can leave the hair looking dry, dull and rough, which (Isn’t It Ironic – Thank you Ms. Morrisette.) in turn makes your haircolor look more drab than fab. But is it a hopeless cycle of longing and disappointment?
No. You know me better than that, ladies. (Yes I’m talking to the 70% of you ladies out there who rely on hair color. Don’t try to deny it.) There is hope and that hope lies neatly in our laps with an assortment of tips and products recommended by professionals who are not engulfed in Grand Canyon-size boyfriend drama. (Now let’s all say a big thank you to Good Housekeeping and their April 2011 article entitled “Haircolor 911” – thank you!)
First and foremost on GH’s list of haircolor do’s and don’t and do’s? Water. Do not drown your hair. According to Pantene senior scientist Jeni Thomas, Ph.D. (officially ph-ancy), the latest research shows that as much as 80% of color fad is caused by water alone, and not any overzealous scrubbing or shampooing. Porquoi?: Dye strips your hair strands of an the protective outer lipid layer (just like on your skin) comprised of natural oils that make your hair feel all soft and smooth, and that’s when the avalanche of terror begins. Your colored hair becomes more porous, absorbing and releasing water too easily and taking with it some of the color molecules you just put in it (sigh.) Bye-bye hair dye.
A couple of things you can do to avoid this virtually unavoidable hair reaction are:
1) Avoid excessive rinsing in the shower. Scientist Teca Gillespie (awesome name) with P&G suggests, “Once you’ve shampooed and conditioned, don’t tilt your head back and let the water just run over it for several minutes,” – guess that means try facing the shower instead? Ms. Awesome Name also recommends sparing your hair if you like that early morning face splash. And hey, while you’re at it, try washing less frequently by spraying on a dry shampoo to soak up the oily bits.
2) Use a color-protecting shampoo. I know this one sounds like product mumbly-jumbly (just another thing to buy), but let’s hear them out. These shampoos are especially formulated to be gentle and protective (Um, shouldn’t shampoo be those things anyways?), whereas clarifying shampoos are designed to be harsher and stripping. Redken haircolor consultant David Stanko recommends that later the day before your color appointment to remove silicones, waxes and hairspray resins so your color doesn’t attach itself to those as opposed to the actual hair. Noted. And thank you.
This whole water-is-the-devil thing is troubling living out here in Los Angeles where watching the brushfires from the my deck is a regular summer activity (and after visit 7 my hair really did look like a tumbleweed waiting to ignite.) So what to do when that valuable lipid layer is already shot to hell and your hair is dryer than Hades?
Apparently your scalp oils normally rely on the hair’s fatty (Did you just call me fat?!) lipid layer as a tiny transport system designed to distribute the valuable oils down the pipeline that is your hair shaft. So without the lipid layer (which you’ve already shot to hell) your hair is stranded (I hate puns, so assume that was unintended and let’s move on.) Another little bit of sunshine is that without the lipids, the very conditioner you’re using to combat the issue won’t adhere evenly and will join your hair color on it’s journey down the drain.
So what’s the answer? You guessed it! More shiny, fancy smelling products!
Think of your hair as a science lab, once you’ve added the color and any number of other stressors, your hair has a new chemistry, which requires conditioners specifically formulated for colored hair. While we don’t know if this is product placement or just another example of Ms. Thomas’ ph-anciness, GH mentions that P&G has developed a liquid crystal polymer that helps colored hair act, chemically speaking, like uncolored hair so conditioning agents adhere to the hair strands just like they should. And just where can we find this magical potion? Why in a variety of P&G products! A few mentioned are Pantene Color Hair Solutions Color Preserve Conditioner and Sebastian Professional Color Ignite Single Tone Conditioner. Regular use of these products also help create a protective barrier to prevent dye molecules from washing out.
A few brush-fire prevention pointers:
1) Condition every time you shampoo. Every time. Every time.
2) Use a mask once a week and leave it in while you shower – while this seems counterproductive to the aforementioned water-is-the-devil theory, it’s not if you’re using a product that can actual adhere to the hair. Hurray! H2O is redeemed!
3) If you are a devotee of the hair dryer and flat iron like I am, be sure you’re using a heat-protective product. Stanko hits this one home with a few seriously scary words, “Flat irons run up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In essence, they cook your hair. It’s moisture evaporated right out.” (My hair is frozen with fear.)
So now that we’ve safely made it across the Nile and through the deserts of the Sahara, let’s turn to that most lustrous of hair fanciness: Shine!
Simultaneously my favorite word and a head adorning necessity, shininess is a vital component in acquiring that all-day-feel-good hair compliment. And how do we solve a problem like Maria? I mean like less-than-lustrous locks? We understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan and then look at the results – we are totally scientific, no?
The protein layers that are the cuticles of your hair are like fish scales (thankfully without the smell) across your hair shafts, and when they’re lying flat, light bounces off creating an even reflection that produces that enviable result: shine. What haircolor does is essentially counterproductive to attaining this goal as it lifts up those layers with ammonia so it can penetrate to where the permanent color molecules live. Sadly, once the cuticle is man-handled by the ammonia, it scatters light, making your locks look dreadfully dull (alliteration!)
The plan: Smooth down the cuticle to post-haircolor shininess.
1) Stanko rolls out another cooking vs. hair analogy, “There’s an old saying: Once a steak is well-done, you can’t make it rare again.” (Quit scarin' my hair, Stanko.) “You can’t completely reverse damage, but a product that delivers ceramides (cera-who?), hair’s intercellular glue, can help replace what might be missing.” Yes… sigh… more product. Repair treatments, masks and conditioners can all contain this mystery element, so keep the eyes peeled. (Oh yeah, and again… lay off the hot, hot water and heat-styling products – I know this is not going to happen, and so does Stanko.)
2) Try a glaze on for size (I’m totally doin’ this!) Glaze is a clear demi-permanent salon process that does for your hair “what a topcoat does for nails or a clear gloss does for lips – it adds instant shine.” Thanks Stanko! Salon versions last about four weeks, while an at-home glaze (which rubs in like conditioner in the shower) will add shine until you’re next shampoo.
3.) Color, wash, rinse, don’t repeat, condition, mask, don’t repeat, don’t style, do style, don’t repeat, add glaze – I believe our planning phase has gone a haywire – but never mind, I’ve always been a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal (but, so was Amelia Earhart and look what happened to her – eek!)
The only other step in this shot-to-hell plan is a tiring one: consistency. Without consistent hair care, your locks will immediately fall back into the danger zone of dull, lifeless, brush-fire dry hair and that is not a good look on anyone. Except this guy… he looks awesome.
I know you’re all waiting with baited breath to hear the end of my tale… so whatever did I do?! Well… I rushed home to mama (naturally). Thankfully my Step-mom is a former stylist and she turned my hair (in one fell swoop) into a nice honey blond that was both complimentary and not to harsh on my already damaged locks. Then, through a few tears, she chopped as much of the chemical cut out of my head as she could, which is how the stylish long bob with bangs that I’m rocking right now came to be. (I’m seriously grateful the look just happened to pop up on the recent runways – thank you fashion gods!)
The end.
'til Next Time!