Hey my curly girl fairies! I hope you’re all excited for my new blog post as much as I am. Well I bet you’re not as excited seeing as I’ve been MIA on here. Stuff happened and I just lost motivation to post on here. I apologize for my lack of commitment to my blog but I can assure you that I am back and ready to help all my curly girl fairies.
Today’s discussion is on dyed hair, is it your friend or an enemy in disguise? Well through my research and personal experiences, I have come to a realization that it is an ENEMY but can become your friend lol. Let’s get into the discussion shall we.
Once you have coloured/bleached your natural hair, it is important that you take the process and products used for washing hair seriously. Your hair could end up looking and feeling dry and/or dull. We don’t want that now do we?
When you have dyed hair, no matter how much you hate to admit it, wash days become more often. Once a week is the best to retain moisture and stop your hair from breaking but if that feels like too much of a task then once every two weeks is highly recommended. Coloured/bleached hair requires more TLC due to the rate at which the hair could dry up and look dull. Trust me I’m talking from experience here 😂.
Let’s start of with the processes and products involved in coloured/bleached hair:
Shampoo – you need to find the best shampoo which is free from sulphates, parabens or silicons. I know what some of you are thinking; “that narrows the choices down”. Well yeah but that also helps you be able to find just the right products that your hair deserves. You need to shampoo way less than you normally would have at first. Swap shampooing for co-washing and shampoo only once a month. Shampoo strips off the nutrients from your hair and may leave you with dry hair yet again but co-washing retains the moisture. You can use your conditioner to co-wash but i recommend using a designated co-wash such as the Cantu Co-wash. Remember to wash your hair with luke-warm water.
Conditioning & Deep Conditioning Treatments – Conditioning your hair every time you wash it is very essential for us curly hair fairies. This goes for deep conditioning as well. When you have coloured/bleached hair, it is important to deep condition your hair on every wash day. I know that’s a lot of work but hey it’s all worth it to have healthy well defined curls. Deep conditioing as well as condtioning helps keep your hair soft, deeply moisturized and healthy looking. My favorite deep conditioner is from Shea Moisture as well as the Cantu Deep Treatment Masque.
Protein Treatments – dyeing your hair weakens the structure. That is why protein treatments are here to help by filling the gaps in the hair shaft left damaged by the chemicals in the hair dye. Protein treatments are to be done at least once or twice a month to help strengthen the hair. It leaves your hair feeling restored and stronger, Protein treatments are not meant to be left in your hair for too long or else it’ll leave your hair feeling straw-like. Protein treatments can be bought or home made. Homemade protein treatments will be posted to my blog soon.
Moisturizing – it is best to look for products that contain essential oils that help make your hair feel healthier. Avocado oil is an excellent choice for colour treated hair. Argan oil promotes softer and stronger hair which protects your hair from breakage. Coconut oil promotes hair growth and helps moisturize dry hair – apply it to your hair between wash days to keep it from drying out completely. These are just a few oils that are good for your hair but as long as you already have some oils to help moisturize the hair then you’re good!
Other Creams, Butters & Leave-ins – this is my favorite type of moisturizing. There is a process to moisturize your hair and I call it LOCO. This stands for Liquid(water), Oil(feeder oil), Condition(Leave-in conditioner/cream) and Oil(sealant oil). Note that the oils mentioned above are feeder oils while Castor oil on the other hand is a great sealing oil. Feeder oils provide the nutrients and benefits that our hair needs while sealant oils seal in the moisture that you have given your hair. This process means that you are required to wet your hair a bit, feed it with some oils mentioned above, moisturize the hair with cream and seal it all off with some castor oil. Shea moisture leave-ins and butters for curly hair are recommended for this process.
Styling & Heat Avoidance – you would need to keep manipulation at a low and do more protective styles. To be honest I do not do this lol. I hate twisting my hair before sleeping but I’m trying to become more responsible because looking at my hair the next day after not doing any protective styles is kind of sad. My hair looks dry and is always tangled up! Ladies, do protective styles before bed!! Now with the curly girl method, you are required to keep the use of heat to a minimum and try to avoid as much heat as possible. If you want to stretch out your hair by doing a braid out.
Well these are the fundamentals to be followed when dealing with colour treated hair. In my opinion dyed hair is an enemy lol but with the help of these tips, you can turn your colour treated hair to your best friend!! And that my fairies is how you take care of your dyed natural hair. If you have any questions hit me up in the comments or message me on twitter @Nickiiii_B Always happy to chat!!!
Join me next time for more exciting tips and tricks to achieving healthy and well defined curls! I hope this post helps!