Sankari asks:Have you ever had to colour brown black hair indian? I’ve tried to colour my hair (both at home and at the salon and the colour is never quite right and it disappears after a couple of weeks.
I’ve tried semi permanent all over hair colour at home. The colours I’ve tried were red and a deep purple/blue, both from Schwarzkopf and they just never took at all – They literally went down the drain. I’ve also had permanent red streaks put in my hair professionally but I dont know the brand. The colour did take but disappeared in a few weeks leaving me with blond/brown streaks.Â
I do tend to wash my hair every other day - not necessarily shampoo but just a rinse in the shower. Perhaps this habit is the culprit. I do shampoo and condition weekly. As you can see by the photo, I am dire need for a make over.HELP!!
Dear Sankari help is at hand.
Firstly, a semi-permanent will only add tone to hair colour and since yours is so dark it would be hard to see much of a difference unless you were in bright light or sun light. A permanent will lighten hair colour and be a lot brighter than a semi.
Semis are designed to go on cleanly washed, towel dried (but still slightly damp) hair. This is important because a semi is designed to wash out after upto 8 weeks, if applied to dry hair it becomes “stronger” and will act more like a permanent and may even lighten the hair and leave a regrowth. Semi-permanents should not contain ammonia. Ammonia in hair colours open the hair cuticle and swell the hair allowing colour molecules to penetrate into the hair shaft. Semis are designed to sit on the outer or cuticle layer of the hair. They effectively put a protective coating over the hair, filling in any gaps where the cuticle may be raised, forming a smooth surface. This is why semis are said to be conditioning and the reason why they provide a lot of shine as a smoother surface reflects more light (yes I was a bit of a physics nerd at school). They also contain shine enhancers such as bees’ wax, avocado extract etc.
When looking at the tones you’ve chosen, blue is the largest of the colour molecules and therefore washes out the quickest, and since purple contains a lot of blue, will fade quite quickly too. Reds are also notoriously fast fading and that is why the professional colours have added “extra strength” reds in both semi & permanents.
Red hilites can be a real bugger to stop from fading so it should only ever be done by a professional. Unfortunately there are a lot of “professionals” out there who either lack the knowledge or the enthusiasm to get this type of colour right. Personally, my favourite colour for good, long lasting red hilites has always been Wella’s intense red series. They contain P5 pyrazol which makes the colour lasts longer and stay more vibrant, the down side being that it’s almost impossible to get rid of once it’s there. The next big trick is that no matter what colour you end up having, but this is particularly important for reds and coppers, is you should not wash your hair for at least 48 hours. Why? When a colour molecule attaches to the hair it is small, but over the next 48 hours it swells and locks itself into the hair structure, if you wash before the 48 hours you risk washing away a lot of the colour you have paid for and your reds will fade very quickly after that.
Even if your hilites do fade a bit, a good hairdresser should recommend a product that you can safely use at home to “top up” your colour and keep it looking good during salon visits, though this will only work if all the hilites are of a similar tone and colour. Most professional brands have back up products (colour mousses, shampoos etc) that correspond to the in salon range of colours.
Your habit of rinsing your hair every other day is great. Over shampooing the hair is one of the quickest ways to strip colour out and this is why it’s very important to use the correct shampoo and conditioner for your hair type and colour. Anti dandruff shampoos are notorious colour thieves as are any astringent shampoos. Washing your hair once a week is great, I do, the rest of the time a rinse is fine. Just remember, after shampooing, give the hair a quick towel dry before you put conditioner in, then comb it through and leave for a few minutes before rinsing out. This will keep your colour and your hair looking the best it can be.
Hope this helps, Dean.