How To Keep Highlighted Hair Healthy
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Highlighting your hair can add rich tones and depth, making it look stunning. Highlights add volume and depth to your hair, worth the effort. However, you should know how to keep highlighted hair! Here is a quick guide and tips for keeping your highlighted hair healthy.
It takes some effort and a change of routine to maintain healthy highlights. But it is worth the effort to preserve natural tones and colors for as long as possible. Hair can be damaged by highlights, mainly if you use bleach. Hair can become very dry from this.
How To Take Care Of Highlighted Hair At Home
To keep highlighted hair healthy, you must not add stress and nourish it with moisture and protein. Even if it doesn’t contain bleach, any highlighting can cause hair damage. It is essential to take care of your hair after highlighting it.
These are some things you can do for healthy highlighted hair:
1. Do not shampoo your hair daily.
- It doesn’t matter if you shampoo your hair each time you go to the shower. You don’t have to shampoo your hair just because it is damp.
- Healthy hair requires a minimum of two shampoos per week. This allows the hair to recover its natural oils and makes the most of them before it is washed out with shampooing.
- Over-shampooing your hair with highlights can cause damage to the color you just applied. Highlights and shampoo can dry hair. Give your hair time for natural oils to form and nourish it.
- You can condition your hair and rinse it out if it needs extra moisture. This is gentler than shampooing your hair and will help you eliminate any knots or tangles from highlighting and drying your hair.
- If your hair is oily and you feel the need to wash it more frequently, you might be able to use dry shampoo between washes. You can also style your hair in styles that hide the texture, like buns or braids. Eventually, you will need to wash your hair less often to keep oil at bay for longer.
- Instead of using shampoo every day, wash your hair once every three to four days.
2. Use Sulfate-Free Shampoo
- You should only use sulfate-free shampoos and other products for your hair. Sulfates can cause hair to dry out and may strip hair of its color.
- Shampoos with sulfates will lather well and soap up very well. This is a sign that shampoos are working. The shampoo doesn’t have to lather to clean your hair. Shampoos that don’t lather are better for your hair.
- Sulfate shampoos can accelerate the fading of your highlights and add color. If you want your highlights shining, it is best to stay clear of them.
- You have many great options for shampoos and conditioners that are sulfate-free, and will take care of your hair.
3. Use Leave-In Conditioner
- A good leave-in conditioner is your best friend when you want to maintain healthy hair. This is especially important for damaged or dried-out highlights that have been highlighted.
- Use a leave-in conditioner that is nourishing and moisturizing but free of sulfates.
- You can use it approximately 2 times per week to increase the hair’s moisture. Some leave-in conditioners can also protect hair from environmental stressors.
- The right leave-in conditioner can provide deep nourishment for your hair and keep your highlights in top condition.
- It will also restore moisture to any damage caused by the chemical process.
4. Lower the Temperature of Your Showers
- Hot showers are tempting, but they can be a real threat to your hair!
- Scalding hot water in a shower can open up hair cuticles and lead to color loss.
- Hot water can cause dry hair. This is especially true if the hair has been highlighted.
- Use lukewarm water instead to keep your hair color vibrant and prevent it from drying out.
- You can rinse your hair with cold water after your shower to seal the follicles and help retain moisture for added benefits.
5. Use Nourishing Product
- You can use different nourishing treatments if your hair has been damaged or dried out from the highlighting process.
- Hair masks and oil treatments are two options. These products will moisturize your hair and provide extra protein.
- You can also use protein treatments to strengthen your hair and help it recover from highlighting damage.
- To fortify your hair, you can do protein treatments once a week.
6. Avoid Heat Damage
- Hairstyling tools like straighteners or irons can cause hair damage. This is especially true if your hair has been highlighted and is already dry.
- Hair can become dry and brittle by using heat tools.
- You should spray a heat-protectant spray on your hair if you don’t avoid hot styling tools. This will protect your hair from heat damage and moisturize it. The spray acts as a barrier between heat and hair.
- You can also use your hairdryer or styling tools on a lower heat to reduce heat exposure. Instead of drying your hair with a hairdryer or blow dryer, air dry your hair and use a braiding iron to create waves.
- You can ruin your highlights with heat damage, so try to avoid it as much as possible.
7. Cut Your Hair
- After highlighting, a great way to make your hair look and feel healthier is to trim it.
- Trim can help to remove split ends and breakages. This will make your hair smoother and healthier and reduce the likelihood of knots and tangles.
8. Minimize Damage
- Before you get your highlights done, it is important to keep your highlights healthy.
- Highlights can be minimized in several ways to keep your hair healthy.
9. Strengthen Hair before Highlighting
- Before you highlight your hair, make sure to strengthen and condition it.
- To make your hair strong before the highlights are done, use deep conditioners and protein treatments. This will reduce the damage caused by highlights and leave your hair healthier.
10. View A Professional Stylist
- A professional stylist is the best thing to do. A professional stylist will inspect your hair before highlighting it and ensure that your hair is properly cared for and treated.
- While many people are successful at hairstyling their hair at home, there are numerous disasters.
- A stylist can also help you choose the best color and tone for your highlights to match your hair color.
Final Thoughts
It’s not difficult to keep your highlighted hair healthy, but you will need to change how you do things and the products you use. Avoid shampoos and conditioners that contain sulfates. Reduce the temperature in your showers. Give your hair some nourishment with deep conditioners to maintain healthy highlights. We hope this comprehensive guide on how to keep highlighted hair healthy could help you with the same.
How do I keep my hair from getting damaged from highlights?
If strands do end up damaged, it’s important to care for them properly to avoid making things worse. Don’t wash your hair every day, cut down on heat styling, get a silk pillowcase, and buy a microfiber towel.
What not to do after getting highlights?
Don’t wash your hair too often. The highlights are affected by just water, too, and using the product too often can stress your hair beyond its limits. Also, avoid excessive rinsings; just tilt your head back and let the water run through your hair for several minutes to get the shampoo and conditioner out.
How do you keep highlighted hair hydrated?
Use a leave-in conditioner every day When your hair is damaged from highlighting, you need to hydrate it as much as possible to restore its moisture levels. A trusty leave-in will help replenish your thirsty locks of this so that your hair can look and feel soft and smooth again.
How often should you highlight your hair to keep it healthy?
Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to go in for highlights every 6-8 weeks. However, the length of time you can go between highlight appointments varies depending on you and your hair, based on the following factors.
How can I strengthen my highlighted hair?
Rinsing your hair with water you have used to boil rice may help make your hair strands stronger. Rice water contains inositol, which you can use to repair hair strands from the inside out.
How damaging is highlighting your hair?
Highlights and semi-permanent dyes aren’t as damaging as bleach, but they aren’t without consequences, Mirmirani says. They can also change the inner structure of the hair, causing a lackluster look and dryness, especially if you frequently color to hide roots or gray hair.
Is purple shampoo good for highlights?
Purple shampoo works to neutralize the brassy or orange tones in brown hair to cool the overall look so highlights pop. If you have brown tresses with a few highlights, you can definitely use purple shampoo to keep those lighter tones fresh.
How long do highlights last in hair?
Keep in mind that you will need to dye your hair every four to eight weeks. On the other hand, highlights are considered to turn your hair into dimensional and voluminous. They can last up to four months.
Why is my highlighted hair so dry?
Because the outer cuticle has been penetrated by the dye, the natural oil of your hair, known as sebum, doesn’t travel down the strand. This means your hair may be dry and brittle. This is why it’s so important to take extra care of your hair after getting it colored.
How often can you highlight your hair without damaging it?
Generally, it’s safe to re-dye every 6 to 8 weeks. Permanent hair dye lightens the hair and deposits color.
How many times a year should you get a full head of highlights?
You can do partials and flashes in-between the full thing. We recommend getting a full highlight every 12 weeks or every third color service.
How many weeks should you go between highlights?
Four to eight weeks is the standard amount of time between salon visits, but even that is a big window. The highlights that require the least amount of upkeep start only a shade or two darker than your natural hair color and fade into a lighter color toward the tips of your tresses.