Slight Case of Insanity

Below are some tips and recommendations from my experience in hair colouring/maintenance, and the products or methods I have found work best for me.

Remember, if in doubt, CONSULT A HAIRDRESSER! I am not trained, I have learned through trial and error, so don’t take my advice as Gospel.

Products I recommend for maintaining hair colour:

Shampoo & Conditioner:

Goldwell Rich Repair
Yes, they are more expensive than the stuff you buy in Coles, but trust me, they are worth it. I have noticed a very significant difference in my hair quality even having only been using them for 2 months. And my hair was in a bad state when I first purchased them.

Hair Masque:

Goldwell Colorglow Bright Shine Hairmasque
Again, the best I’ve found. Simply use it instead of your conditioner every couple of washes. Only downside is it has to stay in for 5-10 mins. Just shave your legs while you wait!

Leave-in Treatment:

Goldwell Rich Repair Leave-in Cream Fluid
Love this stuff. It works wonders. You can put it in wet or dry hair and it just re-hydrates it so well. My hair was like straw from repeated bleaching and this stuff has given it back it’s moisture and soft, silky feeling.

Protein Treatment:

Redken Extreme: CAT
This stuff is vital if you don’t want your hair to all break and/or fall out from bleaching. It helps rebuild the protein structures in your hair that are broken down by bleaching. I use it between EVERY bleach and it’s saved my hair a number of times. However, don’t leave it on for more than the recommended time, and only use once a week at most as overuse can have the same effect as no use at all, or worse.

Heat Protection:

TRESemme Heat Tamer Protection Spray
I don’t use any other TRESemme products bar this spray. A must for protecting hair from heat damage when blow drying or straightening. Simply spray on wet or dry hair before blow drying, straightening or curling.

My hair/product tips:

Shampoo & Conditioner:

If you have coloured hair or regularly colour your hair, avoid using ‘supermarket’ brands, such as Garnier, Pantene, Sunsilk, TRESemme et cetera. I have used a number of these brands before and thought they had improved my hair condition as it felt softer and was shinier. But all they actual do is deposit silicon over your hair follicles, which in turn will prevent your hair from absorbing dye. This is also why they make your hair feel soft & look shiny; they are not nourishing it, just simply coating it.

Blow drying/Straightening

If you blow dry or straighten your hair, as I do, always use a heat protecting product of some description. Although I don’t recommend their shampoo & condition, I do use TRESemme heat protecting spray on my hair before I straighten it. It just helps stop the iron drying out your already traumatised hair, and helps to maintain the colour.

Bleaching:

When bleaching, I learned the hard way to take it slow. If you rush it you risk losing your hair. I recently went on a bleaching spree to lift my hair from jet black (by the way, the HARDEST colour to get out, argh!) to blonde so I could dye it pink. I did multiple bleaches in the span of a weekend, and my hair started breaking as a result. This was my first serious whole-head bleaching attempt and I would definitely take my time if I was to do it again. As in, a few weeks at least. And only doing a bleach every 4 days at the most, making sure to use a good protein rebuild in between and plenty of hair masques to help restore your hairs condition.

Hair Dye

I haven’t experimented a great deal with ‘unnatural’ hair colour brands, purely because the majority are not available in Australia. I have mainly used Fudge as it is readily available, and WAKK Stain which is just another colour brand made by Fudge. I have experimented with the following Fudge Brands:

These are (in order of picture): Purple Haze, Blueberry Hill, Raspberry Beret, Pretty Flamingo & Red Corvette. Of these I found the Purple Haze faded to a yucky grey very quickly and the Pretty Flamingo faded to an awful pale pink/orange/yellow kind of colour also very quickly. The others lasted the expected length of time however I have found the Red Corvette to be the longest lasting, and my personal favourite colour. Although it is supposed to be a red, it comes out like this in my hair:



The one thing I have found that works is to leave the dye in for a LONG time. As I mentioned in my How To blog post, I often leave it in for around 3hrs on average and I have noticed this makes a very significant difference in the life of my hair colour.

So that is my experience so far with hair dye and products for coloured hair. If you have any questions or want to share your own hair dye experiences or tips please comment here or email me.

Happy hair dyeing kiddies!

Tagged as Colour, Dye, Fudge, Hair, Hair Dye, Pretty Flamingo, Purple Haze, Raspberry Beret, Red Corvette, WAKK Stain + Categorized as Everything Hair, Me, myself and I