10 Commandments for Coloured Hair Care

I have had every kind of coloured hair. Box, Salon, Powdered fruit drink. Pink, red, brown, black, ombré, opal, platinum, two tone blond and brown, two tone purple and blue and galaxy. Many people wonder how I still have hair on my head.

Me, for now.

My recent hair experiment lead me to type up this blog. I am a mixture of Jeffree Star and Kandee Johnson.

Here are my 10 commandments for keeping hair on fleek:

Thou shall take pre and post hair colour care.

Don't wash your hair 24 hours before bleaching and 48 hours after colouring. What? You heard me. Not washing before colouring makes sure that the hair gets less damaged. It's protected by it's oils. Not washing afterwards make sure the hair colour bonds to the hair. Yes even though it's dried and you already carried on with your life, there is still sciencey things happening. Even if you just bleached your hair you must wait.

É note: If you are planing to get fashion colour hair. Be prepared to spend a while in a salon/ bathroom. My galaxy hair took me 5 hours by myself and the Barbie inspired hair took me 2.5 hours in the salon. It may take longer as my hair was already like a Level 7/ 8 on the bleach scale.

5 hours of questioning every decision I've ever made

2 and a half hours of thinking of the final scene of Barbie in Rock 'n Royals

Thou shall cleanse hair sparingly. . .

I had to “train” to get my hair to need a wash twice a week. Mondays and Thursdays. See I can even tell you the days. The more you wash the more the colour fades. Over washing also causes damage to hair. For days I just want to shower, I bought a more robust showercap from Dischem. Other days dry shampoo is your friend.

é Note: If you are going the lighter or full on blonde route, purple shampoo is a must. It tones out yellow and lessens brassiness. I also suggest to only use it after the second/ third wash because depending how pigmented it is it can tint your hair purple. Not ideal.

. . . and with grace

Here is where you have to read labels. Not all shampoos are the same. Sulphites causes colours to wash out faster. I use Tresemmé Naturals. It has a low SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) content. It's a basic foaming agent you get in anything that bubbles. Toothpaste, Floor wash, face wash, dish soap, if it makes bubbles, it's in it. (Queue those Facebook posts and e-mails with factoids telling us how bad it is.)

Then when you wash, ONLY wash your scalp and condition ends. You don’t need to shampoo your whole head. As you rise it rinses over the length of your hair, which cleans it. Also the condition only the ends and the length.

Thou shall not do excessive mechanical or heat damage.

Don't rub your hair dry with a towel. I squeeze out most of the water and just wrap my head in a towel. Let the towel do the work by sucking up the moisture. (Also make sure to use a towel that you wouldn't care to get stained. Though it would be a conversation starter if your guests ask you why the towels are tie dyed pink.)

If you have long hair I think that the Invisibobble type hair bands are the best. I don't get as many tangles or breakage with them as with normal or rubber bands.

I also stopped using a hair brush and opted for a wide tooth comb. I'm less likely to rip out my hair with it. It's also the best for combing out wet hair.

I also stared embracing heat free styling. I let my hair mostly air dry. If I have to, I make sure to spray it with heat protection before styling it. Here is an educational film by Guy Tang.

I also switched up my cotton pillow case for a satin one. Here is mine from MrP Home. I also found them to be better for my skin. They also don't make those weird sleep marks on your face.

Thou shall maketh time for conditioning . . .

Once a week I super deep condition my hair. Bleaching is damaging and if it's not treated it will feel like hay.

B*tch stole my look!

I switch up between natural and commercial. Sometimes I smear on some coconut oil. This I leave on from a half an hour to unlimited. When I clean house I leave it on for 8 hours. I also like castor oil.

Commercial stuff I like Garnier's Honey Treasures mask. Or just normal conditioner. I leave it is for 30 minutes and my hair feels great. Also try Palmer's Coconut mask. That stuff changes chemically damaged hair like a boss.

. . . And useth finishing oils

It was a trend so most oils were phased out. Luckily in ZA most women have ethnic hair and ethnic hair love the moisture oil gives.

I usually use oil after I washed my hair. It makes the drying process faster and makes my type A1 hair more manageable. Sometimes, especially more in winter, my ends feel gross and dry so I just work in some oil on the ends of my hair.

Thou shall nourish thyself for hair in future

Now not all of us get those free blue gummy sweets for our Instagram. #Spon #ad. But there are things you can buy for a fraction of the price. If you have a good Multi-vite you are already good to go but because I know I put my hair through a special kind of torture: Bleach

I like Vital's Hair, Skin and Nails gel capsules. They are literally available every where. Dischem, Clicks, Checkers, PnP and even on Takealot.com . If you want to take the vegan route try Natura'sCombin Assist tissue salts Hair and nails. They are also available every where online at Faithful to Nature.

Looks may be easy to come, yet decide on how thy display

I started a hash tag to group all my hair selfies. #Kyknoudiehare. It was two old ladies who obviously didn't think I could understand Afrikaans: Look at the hair. Like I'm not a person. I had people physically stop and stare at me with their mouths open. (For me weird hair feels like normal hair as my Instagram feed normalizes this for me. I follow A LOT of fashion coloured hair women. When I see other unicorns, mermaids, mermicorns I always compliment them.)

Because my hair to so bright, I tend to lean more towards more “natural” coloured neutral make up. I'm not really going for pastel Goth, club kid, Harajuku, cos-player look that is normally associated with fashion colours. Fashion hair with other excessive colours (make-up and clothes) can quickly look like a costume. Even my eye brows are still their normal colour.

If you are not doing the fashion colours and you do a change like from brown to red/ blond or blond to dark you still need to change make-up. When I dyed my hair dark brown after being blonde for seven years I felt like I looked weird until I got a darker brow pencil and got darker lip stick.

Love they hair as is discolours or fades . . .

And it will fade. But not all colours fade equally. Blue and green become muddy but purple and pink become a cool pastel colour but then the roots come out. * eye roll *

Here I usually enlist the help of Platinum/ purple shampoo. Recently, since I coloured my hair with it, I would mix some of Renew's Perfect Colour with it's in-box conditioner with a few drops of the colouring. That is then tones out some of the weirdness.

. . . and know the one that will who will assist when if fails

Let's say it's been 10 weeks, by then your hair is going to be looking pretty real. You need someone to make you come right. I tend to mess with my hair on my own because I understand the basics of hair and hair type science but we can't all be our own Guy Tang.

Come though for us Guy

Now and then it's best to get in a chair of a professional. Look for someone who suits your needs. I had the worst experience at a more high end salon where I spent a lot of money and just got treated like someone they wanted out of their seat for the next one. The next time I went I got second rate service from the stylist because she double booked me with a bride so I got stuck with a junior stylist who couldn't stop complaining about how the other juniors should be helping her.

At the moment I'm at a more old school stylist wit a two chair salon where we judge people who think they can colour their hair blonde in one sitting with a home kit. We also laugh at people who mess up their hair at home and she has to fix it.

If you aren't confident colouring at home, buy the colour and most stylist will assist you with application. They are trained and have the knowledge and the right tools for the application.

That is my commandments for healthy coloured hair. Amen to healthy hair.

é

Choose-day: Making the best of load shedding.

No one asked for this. For my non-South African Readers: Our Power supplier can not meet the demand for power in our country so we have a “share power” schedule forced on us. I use the term schedule very loosely as there is more of a general time it might go off and on.

There are a lot of angry people out there and I would not want to be their social media manager. I personally love the hash tag Eksdom. Hilarious.

I want to give you suggestions on how to use this unplugged time to your advantage.

Read:

Yup. Sounds super obvi but do it. I realize some people find it to be a chore but read a book your interested in. There are really books out there for every person. Don't even read an adult book. Teen and young adult fiction has become more than Sweet valley high. . . In fact this is what FrancinePascal is writing now:

Exclusive books link

Draw: 

 

Get a B2 pencil, a sharpener, eraser and a book (a cheap one is about R18) and start drawing. Start easy by just drawing your hand. If you want to get good at drawing something specific search and print a how to before hand and practice. Link for pony. Link for Kio.

Many people are all like:”but I can't draw”. You don’t have to show your book to anyone. You don't even have to tell any one you are drawing. Even if you start by tracing and shading the picture or wringing your name in a creative way

Jonathan Harris

Get awesome candles:

Hit up Mr Price home. They have the awesomest range of colours and scents. I have vanilla, Espresso, Cinnamon, Gardenia, and the beachy Miami. Arrange them on a dinner plate. Check their bargain bin rack for single plates or serving dishes. Pudding bowls are also nice

 Feeling even cheaper? Buy a few shot glasses and cute coloured Costas candles. Just R17 for 6. I love the pink and purple. Why have the plain white standard 'We have no power' candle when you can have these pastel wonders.

Beauty it up:

Clean your nails and paint them properly. By that I mean actually waiting for each coat to dry before applying the next.

Do an oil facial with some olive or coconut oil. Do any face mask. You have the time to switch off and relax.

Start a journal:

Buy a really nice pen and start wringing. It's doesn't have to be a diary entry (tho' some people use twitter and facebook for that). I could be for your reference to see who you have changed or for inspiration, like a to do list.

Here are some ideas. Write about things you love, places you like to go or where you would like to be. Answer some questions about yourself. After these rolling black outs, pick a time to write. Every Sunday or before bed or while you are waiting for someone.

Also remember don't only limit your journal to writing. Draw a picture, add an inspirational article. Just keep it positive. Don't weigh yourself down with the deep shit. The world has enough of that.

What are your ways to keeping yourself amused when Eskom is unamusing?

#nowifi #nolife #eskdom

é

Haulling like a trucker

My hauling has become slower because of my wedding issues. I don’t twit as much either but when I did this is what I tweeted :

Full on Queen bedding from Mr Price Home.
 

I’ll be for reals with you. I don’t what I’m doing but I have inspiration and a Pinterest Board with a name : For the Home. I don’t have a house nor an idea what it looks like inside but I had to have 5 star hotel white bedding. It’s neutral and I can add any pop of colour. I also see it’s Aloe “infused” (there were anti bacterial ones too)


 Silk pillow case:

Everywhere I read about growing hair they recommend silk pillow cases. I bought this one also at Mr Price home for R39.95. (That awkward moment it’s the same material as your My Little Pony’s princess dress . . .)

Dischem add buys:

Dquip Facial cleaner: I enjoy YouTubing BubzBeauty and she raved about Clarisonic. I can’t throw my money at them because I enjoy eating and mascara. I picked up this at Dischem with my gran’s Christmas voucher (Last year’s was a NYX pallet). What a cool machine. My skin texture already feels different. I actually buffed out my one zit. It started getting red and ‘hatching’ but that thing just washed it out before it became an issue. Buy two AA batteries.

Basics heated eyelash curler: 15 years ago there were annoying infomercials with a heated eye lash curler. I bought this one. When it’s heats up, the rubber pads turn white. Don’t worry, it won’t fry your eye balls. I’m still out if I like this concept. I’m use to seeing through the curler so it feels awkward.

Compact mirror: Because Leopard print.

Gingerbon

Something about this sweet makes me feel super healthy. Maybe it’s the ginger, maybe it because I can actually understand what the ingredients are.

Have you tried any of the above products?

é