Since the early 2000s we’ve been trained that coming to the salon with dirty hair is good before your color service. This use to be good advice because hair color use to be a very intense chemical process. Times have changed!
Now, we have better hair technology than ever before. The truth is, your hair will not evenly accept or properly receive hair color if your hair is too dirty.
Dirty Hair
What does it mean to have dirty hair? Dirty hair means your hair hasn’t been properly cleansed for three or more days, or it has too much product buildup throughout. Both of these issues can affect how well your color service turns out.
Other cons for coming in with dirty hair are:
- Your stylist may not be able to section your hair easily and precisely for foiling.
- Your stylist may not formulate to your true hair color because dirty hair appears darker than it really is.
- It will take longer for your color to process because it’s trying to penetrate past the dirty product or oil buildup.
Clean Hair
Cleansing your hair the night before or the day of your appointment will set you up for the best coloring outcome!
Here are the pros of coloring clean hair:
- We can see your true hair color when your hair is clean—essential for color formulation.
- Lightening is more predictable when your hair is clean because it doesn’t have to bust through oils and product buildup first allowing for even lightning throughout.
- Imagine being a stylist and working someone’s hair—would you prefer touching and working with a clean head of hair or an oily, product-laden head of hair? We all agree—clean is appreciated.
Related Article: Don’t Try This Color At Home!
Tips for Successful Haircare
You don’t have to start washing your hair every day. Rather, we want you to wash and dry your hair before your hair coloring services!
Here are our best tips for prepping your hair before a coloring service:
- Use a clarifying shampoo! We recommend, MAXI.WASH by KEVIN.MURPHY
A detoxifying shampoo that breaks down fatty acids for a clean, clear scalp. The balancing essential oils penetrate the scalp to brighten hair and purify an oily or flaky scalp. It contains anti pollutant ingredients that remove build-up of unwanted products and chemicals.
- Shampooing two times in a row might be necessary depending on your product build-up. The best way to know if you need to do this is if you’ve not gotten a proper lather at the scalp.
Our ends lather quicker and easier than the scalp. If you have dry hair but an oily scalp, focus your detoxifying cleanser at the scalp only—focus your conditioner on your ends
To discover which stylist is the best fit for your hair color services, try our Meet Your Stylist survey today!
