What to Know Before You Color It

After carrying weaves and subjecting her hair to common warmth styling, Tammy Porter’s stylist satisfied her to permit her pure curls to shine via. “As a Black woman, I didn’t want to live up to European beauty standards,” says Porter of Carson, CA. “I also didn’t want to spend my life in the beauty salon and at the time the natural hair community was booming!”

So Porter, 41, launched a 5-year journey to shift from chemical relaxers, warmth styling, and extensions to her pure curls. She was a brand new mother and company government when she determined to offer colour a strive once more.

She hadn’t coloured her hair in years. “I loved my hair blond, but I was nervous,” Porter says. “Like a lot of people, I had some bad color experiences. As a natural girl, I saw it change my curl pattern and damage my darker hair.”

For Porter and many individuals of colour, carrying their hair in a pure state means no chemical relaxers or any main chemical substances that might alter their pure curl sample. Textures of their pure state differ from tight coils to unfastened waves.

Many have tales of hair colour therapy gone incorrect. But as science improves and stylists grow to be extra expert at treating your tresses, there’s no must cower from colour.

To preserve your coils popping and wholesome if you colour your hair, think about these questions first.

Are Your Hair and Scalp Healthy?

Black individuals have hair that tends to be coarser and drier.

Time can take a toll. So can some hair therapies. You can go from diva to wreck very quickly.

“Your hair shaft is not as hardy as you age and coloring for years can cause some issues,” says Amy McMichael, MD, FAAD, a dermatology professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.

If your hair may be very dry, breaking, and total not on its A-game, it’s finest to carry off on colour till you get your tresses the TLC they want.

“I suggest my patients handle any skin or scalp issues before coloring their hair,” McMichael says.

Talk to your physician about how your well being could also be inflicting points along with your scalp. A dermatologist focuses on pores and skin, nails, and hair points and might prescribe drugs or therapies like medicated shampoos to assist flip issues round.

The crown of your head will not be the one factor to test in case you’re prepping for colour. “I ask my clients if they are taking medications before doing a color treatment,” says Debra Dye Brown (sure, her actual title), a grasp cosmetologist in Atlanta.

Brown says sure drugs – like these for hypertension, sure hormones, or steroids – can influence how properly hair colour works and, in some instances, trigger a response. “If you think about it, some drug tests require a strand of hair because what you put in your body will often show up there,” Brown says.

Where you’re in life – whether or not going via menopause or a high-stress interval – is a think about how your colour journey unfolds. Talk to your stylist about all of it. You’re of their chair to share in any case.

Did You Find a Professional?

Unless you made all A’s in superior chemistry, it could be finest to go away the hair dyeing course of (particularly if going lighter) to the professionals. “The box of color doesn’t know anything about your hair that I would as an expert,” says Milena Ghattas, superstar colorist in Beverly Hills, CA. “Coloring your hair at home for years may be causing damage over time even if you can’t see it.”

A skilled colorist will know how one can assess your hair, well being, and way of life that will help you make a plan. Do your homework to discover a licensed colorist and take a look at their social media pages to see if they’ll colour hair that appears like yours.

Hair colour is, properly, colorblind. “The process of coloring the hair is the same for everyone,” McMichael says. “It involves poking holes in the hair to allow the color to seep in.” (Those “holes” are made with chemical substances.)

Natural hair could crave extra moisture typically and much more if colour is utilized. Also, colour can loosen the curl sample – however solely quickly if executed proper, Ghattas says – on pure hair.

While pure hair is available in all textures and shades, many individuals of colour have darker hair colours (with extra purple and gold undertones). Taking hair from darkish to gentle entails essentially the most chemical substances (bleaching) and might be extra damaging than going from gentle to darkish.

Are You Doing Too Much?

It’s not a good suggestion to do all of your styling modifications at one time. Using a relaxer, colour, and warmth styling in a single setting is usually a dangerous thought. Give you hair a break between companies and attempt to do different companies at the very least 2 weeks earlier than colour.

A much less everlasting however gentler choice is a semi- or demi-color as a substitute of a everlasting colour. Semi- and demi-colors (to not be confused with rinses that wash the colour out every week) will fade in 6-8 weeks, however have much less chemical substances that may injury the hair and don’t penetrate the hair shaft like everlasting colours. Permanent colour has to develop out or be lower out.

What’s Your Color History?

Pros like Ghattas and Brown will ask new purchasers about their prior moments with colour. “I want to know if you did a temp color recently or if you’ve colored your hair for years,” Ghattas says. “I ask about how your hair responded in the past and we talk about your starting point and end point.” You’re distinctive and so is your hair.

Did You Do a Strand Test?

Will that shade of darkish brown flip your hair inexperienced? Will this gentle blond even be just right for you?

Strand checks present how your hair will react – earlier than you strive it in your complete head. It additionally helps your colorist discover out if the colour will work, how a lot it could have an effect on your curl sample, and in case your hair is just too fragile for the look you need.

Permanent Color or Not?

Researchers have been finding out the protection of hair colour for years. In 2019, researchers from the National Institutes of Health reported that girls who often used everlasting hair colour had been extra prone to get breast most cancers than those that don’t – and the chance was larger amongst Black ladies in contrast with white ladies. It’s not clear why. Semi-permanent or momentary hair colour weren’t linked to breast most cancers danger within the examine.

The discovering was based mostly on knowledge on greater than 46,000 U.S. ladies ages 35-74, together with 55% who used everlasting hair colour. The ladies had been adopted for 8 years, on common. The examine doesn’t show that hair colour precipitated anybody’s most cancers.

Many hair dyes comprise chemical substances like ammonia or hydrogen peroxide, which may trigger pores and skin irritation, redness, and different well being issues.

If you’re involved about chemical substances in hair dye, speak to your stylist about switching up your hair dye merchandise or ask your physician about whether or not the chemical substances are OK for you. If you’re taking a look at henna instead, it’s a milder type of hair dye, in contrast with everlasting dyes, and it’s much less prone to trigger allergic reactions. But it may nonetheless be irritating to some individuals, McMichael notes.

How Are You Showing Your Hair Some Love?

Along along with your new colour, you’ll need a stable plan to maintain your coils wholesome.

“Keep your hair trimmed. Every 3 months is best,” Ghattas says. “You also want to keep up with moisture treatments and keep your hair hydrated.”

Porter, who has been completely satisfied along with her colour (executed by Ghattas), is severe about holding her hair wholesome. “I condition my hair regularly and before color. I don’t use heavy products so the color can penetrate better, and I use a moisturizing shampoo,” she says.

Another tip: Use a sulfate-free shampoo to keep away from drying out your hair and fading your new colour.

Whether protecting your grey strands or getting over a method rut, dyeing your hair – when executed proper – can provide the pop of colour you crave.