Mataining healthy hair while colored

Permanent hair colors are the harshest for hair, and pose the most potential health risk .Whenever possible, choose temporary, semi-permanent, demi-permanent, and natural dyes.

Glossary of Dye Types

• Permanent hair colors change the natural pigment found within your hair.
• Demi-permanent color enriches color, adds shine, and blends gray. With its lower levels of hydrogen peroxide and artificial color molecules, this service has less structural impact on your hair than permanent color, and it gradually fades over a period of four to six weeks.
• Semi-permanent color stains your hair shaft and covers gray but fades after six to eight shampoos.

Consider a natural color service or one that uses lower levels of hydrogen peroxide or developers, along with colors that have a lower dye lot.
 
Natural and Herbal Color Rinses
Certified organic henna and plant materials can also color your hair, but with a more gentle and natural approach, since they contain no synthetic chemicals, preservatives, or harsh oxidizing chemicals, such as ammonia. These pure vegetable products do not alter the structure or natural color of your hair and actually condition your hair while imparting color and sheen. No matter what you have heard, these products have come a long way.
You can create a wide variety of plant pigment color rinses yourself. These concoctions do not create radical hair color change, but instead accentuate your hair’s natural tone and shine. If your hair is less than 15 percent gray, some plants will disguise the gray. In these cases, the product actually stains your hair, although very subtly. Cumulative usage creates longer-lasting, slightly more intense results. You can repeat the application as often as desired, depending on the color level you prefer.
 
If You Do Color …
Remember this advice for keeping colored hair as healthy as possible:

• Protect and condition your hair and scalp regularly.
• Don’t stray far from your natural level and tone. Dramatic color changes require more upkeep, since outgrowth becomes very obvious very soon. (This also applies to texture services.)
• Follow your stylist’s recommendations for home-care regimen.
• Color-enhancing shampoos do work, helping you hold on to your desired color between salon or at-home color treatments, so do try them out.
• Be especially vigilant about protecting chemically treated and naturally colored hair from the sun.
• The less you chemically process your hair, the more healthy it remains