Monday 7 March 2011

How to Protect Your Investment



Yes that's right, your investment in hair color: one of the biggest concerns clients have. Some things that will destroy your color are: 
  • Cigarette smoke,

  • Perspiration,

  • High ammonia color,

  • Very hot water when shampooing,

  • Chlorine,

  • Improper preparation of the hair before color service and 

  • Improper formulation.

While it's impossible for your hair not to fade, there are a couple of things you can do to slow down this process:
  • Begin with low ammonia content color: ammonia is what aids color to enter the hair. High ammonia colors swell the cuticle too quickly, making it difficult for it to fully close and therefore allowing precious color molecules to rinse out. The content of ammonia in hair color ranges from 0.5% to 5%. Color from companies such as Enjoy, range around 0.5%, where store brand colors meet and many exceed the 5% ammonia content.

  • Pre treatments are necessary for low ammonia content color because there isn't enough chemicals in the color to get through the contents in hair such as natural oils, hairspray, etc.

  • Cooler water is always recommended when shampooing, color safe shampoo isn't the answer. The root of it is the PH level, where it should me more acid the hair's natural PH level (human hair ranges from 5-6 on the PH Scale).

  • Using low PH shampoo will keep your cuticle locked, preserving color molecules. Conditioners containing wax may make hair feel great, but makes it difficult for color to penetrate fully into the hair shaft during a color service. Conditioners should have a small enough molecular weight to penetrate the hair shaft, giving deep moisture without leaving build up. These conditioners are great to use during vacation or summer months, but only to prevent hair from absorbing chlorine or salt water.

We hope this information will help you not only understand why your hair color is not lasting you as long as it should, but to help you prepare and get the most out your next color service. 

Contributed by Designer Stylist Jeff Gemmette

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