Emerson Salon – Capitol Hill Seattle

Sometimes, there are factors that contribute to a shorter/longer shelf life for your custom designed color after you leave the salon. Here are some effects, causes and possible solutions.

• Fadeage: Color will always fade over time but the more you take care of your hair, the longer it will last. If your hair is porous, you use heating implements and if you don’t use the professional products designed for colored hair and recommended for your hair type. (Example: Leave In Luxury by Kevin Murphy or Rapid Repair Spray by Alterna.) Always use a color safe barrier protectant before using high heat and make sure to schedule regular trims to rid your hair of split or porous ends that don’t hold color well.

• An odd greenish tinge to highlights: This could be for a number of reasons: You swim a lot in chlorinated pools. This can be remedied by wearing a swim cap on top of predampened hair with a light conditioner in it. This acts a barrier against the chlorinated water that can react over time to create the greenish hue. The other reason is you recently had your color done and the toner used on you hair over deposited on your porous ends. If your stylist doesn’t remedy this in the salon you can use this home remedy. Saturate your hair with hot water, shampoo once and then add cheap dish washing liquid (like palmolive or Dawn) to the area that is unsatisfactory. Leave this in with a towel around your head for 10-30 minutes. Rinse and condition. If you suspect your tap water to be an isssue (Minerals, chlorine,etc) you can use distilled or filtered water to rinse your hair when shampooing and conditioning. If any of these solutions doesn’t work, call your stylist.

• Flat, dull, dry hair: You can either start using a deep conditioner 1-2X a week for 20 minutes (like Alterna’s Caviar Hair Masque or Kevin Murphy’s Born Again), schedule a warm or clear demipermanent or permanent gloss with your stylist, or you can use a shine spray daily (like Rapid Repair Spray).

• Inconsistent color: This could be caused by fadeage on color corrected or bleach and tone hair. In this case, the hair has been compromised by inequal porosity in the hair. Schedule an all over color with your stylist as damaged hair’s color life is determined only by it’s condition. Most likely, you have been warned of this possible factor and know already that you must have continued commitment and investment in your color in order to reach your color goal. Use only the products recommended to you and make sure to always use a light leave-in conditioner (Staying Alive by Kevin Murphy) to help keep in the color that did deposit well. If you don’t have these hair condition factors, call your stylist for a recommendation.