Since we talked about how to get pastel or silvery hair in my last post, I wanted to chat to you about how to maintain your gorgeous new mermaid locks. It'll take willpower. It'll take cash, and it'll take desperation to have the hair of your dreams!
Getting pretty pastel hair or turning your platinum blond locks into an edgy shade of gray is all well and good, but what the heck do you do when you wash it for the first time and your hard-fought-for color starts to fade? You could weep, a little bit, which is completely understandable, or you could try some of these tricks and tips for getting that pesky color to actually stick in your hair.
I'll tell you a little secret, though. Unfortunately, my stylist told me that gray is a tricky, tricky color — you tone it and you never quite know what you're going to get, unless you get it professionally toned every two weeks. The same goes for lilac. You could get baby blue, you could get pale lilac. You could get a dark purple. You might actually find yourself getting a set of five shampoos that you rotate because you have to rotate them in order to prevent your hair from going too dark or too light. It's a little bit of experimentation, but it'll be worth it. I promise ya!
Silver Shampoos And Conditioners
Silver shampoos and conditioners are generally the best way to maintain silver and blond tones in your hair - the problem being is that they're usually a really deep purple in color, they can make your hair ever so slightly lilac-y or very lilac or if you leave the shampoo on for too long. That's fine, if your hair is lilac. If it's pink, or if it's silver, and you don't want your hair to be lilac, then perhaps it isn't the best choice.
The thing is, purple neutralises yellow: that's why it's hailed as the king of shampoos if you've had a home bleach disaster or if your hair is looking more yellowy or brassy than ashy or gray.
It can also turn your hair gray or lilac if you leave it on for too long. As I discovered, you can also use it as a dye — I mixed a little bit of my super strong silver shampoo with a hair mask, put it onto my hair, left it for ten minutes, and it turned a pale gray color with little bits of lilac at the tips where my hair is almost platinum in color.
As for the conditioners, in my experience, although they're purple in color, they don't really do anything to boost color or prevent brassiness. But! Silver shampoos are pretty drying, which is a bummer, as your hair is gonna be dryyyyy after all that bleach. But needs must, right? So, in my opinion, you might as well use a silver conditioner just to attempt to boost the color even a little tiny bit. Slather it on, leave it on for at least three minutes, then wash out.
Another thing — different silver shampoos do different things for different people. Some of the cheap ones have worked brilliantly for me, and some of the super expensive ones have done next to nothing. So start with a cheapish one, experiment, and work your way up.
More Pastel Hair Tips
Pink Shampoo
Now, I don't know if it's widely available — but! — there's a pretty awesome product available from Bleach London, a company that started out as a salon in London, then branched out into selling cool DIY ombre and funky color kits in drug stores all over the UK. They sell an awesome shampoo and conditioner called Rose. It deposits a little bit of pastel pink dye into your hair with each wash, so you can wash your hair every day to build up to a full on candyfloss hue, or every other day for a paler color.
You can also use it to maintain baby pink hair after you get it dyed professionally at a salon, or after you've dyed it at home. Head to your local beauty supply store to find something similar, or, try a pink toner — yep, they exist! I also found baby blue, grey and lilac toner at my local pharmacy.
Hair Dye In Your Shampoo And Conditioner
Unfortunately, as I mentioned before. getting pastel colors — and particularly the ashy tones of gray — to stick to your hair is really, really difficult. If shampoos don't do it, and you don't want to head to the salon every week for a top up, you may well have to resort to sticking a little bit of hair dye into your shampoo and conditioner, then washing your hair, conditioning your hair.
Whether you put the dye into your hair every time you wash it will depend upon how quickly it fades; again, this is something you'll just have to test.
For the absolute best results use a brush to apply the conditioner all over your head (perhaps if you do this once a week when you apply a hair mask) as this will make sure that the color gets to all of your hair, including those pesky underneath bits that you might have thought you caught but that you didn't quite manage to get. Otherwise, you run the risk of having darker bits and lighter bits. Some people say you'll be fine just using the cheapest of the cheap of conditioners to deposit conditioner, but it's worth using a decent conditioner simply because your hair is going to be fried and it needs some lurve.
Washing And Drying Your Hair
You might not want to hear this, everyone, but you gotta stop washing your hair so freakin' often. The more you wash it, the faster it'll come out. Plus, it strips your hair of essential oils, which is going to make it feel even more dry. You need to nourish it. Not only that, if you wash it more frequently, you'll be tempted to use heated styling products on it more freqently, which will wreck it even more — SO. Stop washing it. Every three or four days. You can do it. I promise you, you can. Your color will be brighter and prettier for longer, plus, your hair will be stronger, less prone to breakages and much more resilient.
- www.buzzfeed.com/augustafalletta/here-is-every-little-detail-on-how-to-dye-your-hair-gray#.pwAG2yM9yO
- stylecaster.com/beauty-high/silver-hair-dye/
- potato-hime.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/grey-hair-how-to-obtain-and-maintain-it.html
- www.blacksaliva.org/2013/09/maintaining-silverlilac-hair.html
- Photo courtesy of Idhren via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/idhren/10743248386
- Photo courtesy of JFXie via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/jfxie/8486092501
- Photo courtesy of Idhren via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/idhren/10743248386
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