Want to start the year off right with lighter, brighter locks? Colouring your hair can be one of the quickest, easiest ways to refresh your look. But it can also have unwanted consequences like dryness, breakage and, that all-too-familiar friend, frizz.
Whether you’re a colour virgin or a seasoned bleach babe, it’s easy to make mistakes with your mane’s maintenance. But, with a little extra TLC, you can prevent problems from the start.
From the products you use to how you style your highlighted strands, here are 5 things you’re doing wrong in your bleaching routine. And all the deets on the ultimate haircare kit that will repair and replenish your crowning glory.
5 Bleached Hair Routine Mistakes to Avoid
1. You’re not using a bond builder
There are no ifs or buts about it: bleaching damages your strands. But you don’t need to cancel your colour service! There’s a lot you can do to minimise tress stress, starting with choosing a skilled colourist and taking your colour down gradually.
Then there’s a plethora of products to strengthen and repair lightened locks – the most vital of which is a bond builder. One of the biggest concerns with colouring and chemical treatments is that they damage the hair’s structural bonds, which give hair strength, shape and elasticity. (We’ll stick to the basics here, but our article on hair bonding will tell you everything you need to know.)
A bond builder is super-easy to incorporate into your routine and will repair much of the damage. With 3D Bond Building Technology in a microemulsion delivery system, our Bond Building Pre-Shampoo Treatment penetrates deep for holistic repair. While most bond builders concentrate on just disulphide bonds, ours repairs all three structural hair bonds – while strengthening unbroken bonds to minimise breakage.
Tested on bleached and coloured hair, it strengthens from the first use and is clinically proven to reduce breakage by 85%*. Use once weekly before shampooing, or 2-3 times weekly for very damaged strands.
2. You’re Regularly Heat Styling Bleached Hair
As coloured hair is already susceptible to dryness and damage from the bleaching process, you’ll want to avoid excessive heat styling. You don’t need to avoid it altogether, as long as you always use a quality heat protectant. But take a break when you can and let your hair air-dry.
Worried it will take too long? The Microfibre Hair Towel Wrap in this reparative kit isn’t just super-cute, but also absorbs moisture like a boss to dramatically reduce drying time. (Tip: you can also use it with an overnight hair mask for ultra-soft, hydrated strands come morning.)
3. You’re Not Using Sulfate-Free Shampoo on Bleached Hair
Whether your locks are coloured or au naturel, if you’re still using a shampoo with sulfates, what are you even doing with your life? These (often cheap and nasty) detergents are what give many hair and body products their lather. But they’re also drying and potentially irritating to the scalp.
And here’s the kicker – they can also dull or strip your hair colour. So, they’re simply not on, whether you’re dying your hair darker or lighter.
For a colour-safe option, always go for a sulfate-free shampoo. Like our luscious Super Hydrating Shampoo, which helps restore softness, shine and volume while minimising frizz.
4. You’re not replacing hydration after bleaching
Bleaching disrupts the hair cuticle and makes your strands more porous – allowing moisture to escape. It’s therefore important to replenish that lost moisture with hydrating haircare products. More on this below!
5. You think coloured hair is for all the other babes
Think a golden glow-up isn’t worth the damage? Nuh-uh, honey. So long as you colour your hair the smart way – slowly, with a trusted hairdresser, using the right in-salon and homecare products – you can have your blonde strands and healthy hair, too!
How to Hydrate Hair After Bleaching
It starts in the shower with your shampoo and conditioner. To prevent tangles, breakage and frizz, a nourishing conditioner is more important than ever.
With fruit enzymes for squeaky-clean results minus the dryness, our Shampoo is formulated with ResistHyalTM Hyaluronic Acid technology to deliver 26 times more hydration.
Our botanical-enriched Super Hydrating Cream Conditioner instantly detangles for less breakage, whilst pea proteins repair and reduce damage by 65%. It also helps to seal split ends and restore shine – without weighing your hair down with silicones.
The Bleached Hair Solution: the Ultimate Kit
Want to stock up on all the haircare essentials we’ve mentioned? You’ll save when you buy our Shampoo, Conditioner, Bond Builder and Hair Wrap together in our new Bond Repair & Restore Kit! Colour, style and bleach your way with confidence with a kit that protects and cares for your locks. As much as you do.
Don’t forget to shop all haircare singles in the Coco & Eve hair range to keep your mane happy and healthy!
*Based on a clinical study with 20 women with bleached and coloured hair.
Written By: Pip Jarvis
Edited by: Iris
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