How To Care For Curly Coloured Hair

Have you recently coloured your curly hair? Or maybe you’re thinking about it but are worried about protecting your curly hair from damage through colouring? Or you want to know how to prolong your colour for as long as possible. This post is here to give you some fab tips on how to care for your curly coloured hair.

I recently had a fairly dramatic colour change of my hair (by my standards anyway!) I had quite a lot of blonde highlights put in, followed by an all-over bright red. I’ll be honest, it ‘took’ a lot more than I expected! In the past, I’ve had so many disappointing hair colouring experiences, where, because my hair is sooo dark, you just could barely see any colour at all. This was definitely different! I was sort of expecting it to look mostly dark red, with brighter red streaks in, but it actually seems to have gone the other way round!

Anyway I absolutely love it (although it did take a bit of getting used to!) Now I’m doing everything I can to make the colour last as long as possible, so I thought I’d just share a few of the tips I’ve learned on how to take care of curly coloured hair.

How to care for curly coloured hair:

Have a curl by curl cut

Now this isn’t directly related to protecting your hair from colour damage, but if you have curly hair, I would highly recommend going for a curl by curl cut with a hairdresser who specialises in cutting curly hair. It makes the shape and condition so much better and I find I can use less product just by having it shaped better. This time I went to Mint Salon in Oxshott (as my previous hairdresser moved away) and they were brilliant! Check out my previous post on having a curl by curl cut to find out more about how it’s done.

Minimise bleach use

Curl purists would most surely say to steer clear of bleach altogether. There’s no denying that it’s not great for the condition of your hair. However, if your hair is really dark like mine and you’re desperate for a lovely vibrant colour, as I was, then it’s impossible to avoid using bleach. I did lighten my hair gradually over a few goes, and the last time (when I went bright red) I went for it a lot more with the bleach highlights. To be honest, I can’t say I’ve noticed a massive difference in the condition of my hair since – it’s always been a frizzball and I don’t think anything will ever change that! But I’m no expert and I’m sure if you really bleached the absolute life out of your hair, you definitely would see a deterioration in condition!

Don’t wash too often

This is a general rule for looking after curly hair anyway. It stands to reason that the more often you wash your hair, the quicker you’re going to wash out the colour. I aim to wash mine once a week. I usually do manage it, but the last couple of days it often ends up scraped back in a ponytail as the curls are just a bit rubbish and frizzy by then!

Use lukewarm water for washing

If you wash your hair in scalding hot water, you’re definitely going to wash out that lovely colour far more quickly! Instead, aim for the water to be warm, or in fact as cool as you can cope with. This will prolong the life of your colour a lot.

Use a deep conditioning mask once a month

Again, this is a good idea for looking after curly hair whether it’s coloured or not. But it’s particularly important to condition your hair well if you have used any bleach on it. I’ve always found it a faff having to put a hair mask on and leave it for 20 minutes. (What do you do in that time if you’re halfway through a shower?!) But my hairdresser told me just applying it and rinsing like normal conditioner will do the job just fine.

Avoid clarifying shampoo

It’s usually a good idea to use a clarifying shampoo every so often to remove build-up in your hair. However, if you have gone for a bright colour that you’d like to prolong, then it’s probably best to avoid using clarifying shampoo for now, as it will strip the hair of its colour more quickly. Instead, to help remove product build-up on my scalp, I’m using a scalp massager from Only Curls.

Use colour-protecting shampoo and conditioner

If you’re able to, it’s a good idea to invest in some colour-protecting shampoo and/or conditioner. I’ve been using Crazy Color shampoo and conditioner, which smells amazing and comes in beautiful packaging, however I do find that the shampoo doesn’t lather up as much as I would like.

Use a bond builder

A bond builder, or bond repair treatment, can be great for increasing hair elasticity and strengthening hair from the inside out. There are various ones available but this one from Curlsmith looks good. I’ll be steering clear of this for now, as it is extremely rich in protein and my hairdresser observed that my hair actually has too much protein in at the moment, oops!

I hope these tips have proved useful – do let me know in the comments if you have any more tried and tested ways to care for curly coloured hair!

Thanks for reading – til next time!

Hannah x

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