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

February 2017 Favourites

 

NYX Professional Stations in Clicks:

Image Via NYX

 

 

This is where it's at! If you have any NYX products on your wish list, this is the place to get it. Some Clicks stores don't really care to restock. Many a time the racks are barely stocked. (I'd like to think it's because the items are popular and not because the staff DGAF.)

With the full store, there is also a professional make up artist. The woman that was at the store was super knowledgeable about the products and assisted with great tips. Everything was fully stocked (Angels sing wearing Angel Veil) If you are into dupes their Lip Lingerie line is straight up competitors for the reality TV personality's over priced lipstick line. We even found dupes for MAC. I bought Stockholm and Castle

Follow NYX za on Insta and FB. Shop online At Clicks

Blow out:

I normally just let my hair air dry but when hair is an unusual colour there is a 100% chance that it will attract attention. My hair is type A1. My straightener is the cheapest one ever: the normal hair brush. You know those middle of the mall kiosks that sell shit you don't really need? The ones that scream in your face while you are having a conversation with someone? Once one that was selling over priced straighteners was like: It must take ages for you to straighten your hair? _uck off NO!

My point is my hair has no volume. When my hair is wet I take R1 size dollop of gel and work it in my roots (I use Revlon Flex Extreme hold styling gel) and spray Tresemmé Heat Defence Styling Spray. I free dry it until damp then head in section by section with my big barrel drying brush. As soon as the section is dry I put in a big Velcro curler. Repeat on whole head. Spray with Perfect Touch Firm Hold hairspray (the green one). All the products are firm or extreme hold or else in minutes it will be flat.

Shoe City Wedge Platform booty Dasha:

I saw this shoe in January and it rolled out to my local Shoe City early Feb. As soon as I saw it I did not hesitate to buy it. This will be my new fancy shoe. I have been looking for a nice wedge for months so it's the shoe I've been waiting for. It's good with skirts, jeans, dresses. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY it feels comfortable. Now I won't run a half marathon yet but they don't murder my feet like high heels.

Cast iron grill:

Being a long time watcher of cooking game shows and food programs, as soon as I found out I'll have a gas cooker I so badly wanted a cast iron grill. And I can say that a year later it's probably one of the best things I bought.

It has two sides. A smooth and a grill. The grill I love for steaks or ribs and chicken. The smooth side for flapjacks and breakfast. It takes a hole pack of bacon and cooks it to perfection. When I make breakfast on it, it take half the time and I don't need two tiny pans.

Here and here is on Takealot.

Here and here on Yuppiechef

I bought mine at Checkers in the camping section.

Foodstate Thyroid Formula:

I don't really want to get real on my blog. I had issues and I don't really have the money to spend on the tests to find out what is wrong. So I got diagnosed by MOMmd and decided to self medicate. This stuff is bomb it you have hypothyroidism. If this stuff worked this well for me. I can't wait to try their other products

Here at Takealot

Here at Dischem

Pop Sockets:

I first saw Pop Sockets on Jenna Marbles' YouTube and found them in ZA. This made holding my phone easier. My hand feels more relaxed taking photos, texting and playing games. My Pop Socket is stuck on my case but it holds pretty well. They are available on their website or here is a list of retailers who stock them in store. (I bought mine at Pylones Mall of Africa)

Being with your Tribe:

Girl gang, tribe, squad. What ever you call it. It feels good to be with similar thinking people. I am a social introvert according this Buzzfeed quiz (Buzzfeed Quiz = truth of life). so even though I always question my social interactions (I usually have a play by play on all the stupid stuff I think I did for weeks afterwards) I still enjoy the company of strong independent women. Recently I got together with the women in my family for a dinner and spent a day with my best friend who was in the country for a vacation. It's always great to hear positive views on life.

Some social things wear my out. After most long interactions I feel like just scrolling through Pinterest or watching a Monster High movie from the safety of my bed . . . for a few days. But I feel that being with my group of people I don't feel all:

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