After carrying weaves and subjecting her hair to common warmth styling, Tammy Porter’s stylist satisfied her to permit her pure curls to shine by way of. “As a Black lady, I didn’t need to dwell as much as European magnificence requirements,” says Porter of Carson, CA. “I additionally didn’t need to spend my life within the magnificence salon and on the time the pure hair neighborhood 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 govt when she determined to offer colour a strive once more.
She hadn’t coloured her hair in years. “I beloved my hair blond, however I used to be nervous,” Porter says. “Like lots of people, I had some dangerous colour experiences. As a pure lady, I noticed it change my curl sample and injury 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 will alter their pure curl sample. Textures of their pure state fluctuate from tight coils to unfastened waves.
Many have tales of hair colour remedy gone fallacious. However as science improves and stylists change into extra expert at treating your tresses, there’s no must cower from colour.
To maintain your coils popping and wholesome if you colour your hair, think about these questions first.
Are Your Hair and Scalp Wholesome?
Black individuals have hair that tends to be coarser and drier.
Time can take a toll. So can some hair therapies. You’ll be able to go from diva to break very quickly.
“Your hair shaft just isn’t as hardy as you age and coloring for years could cause some points,” says Amy McMichael, MD, FAAD, a dermatology professor at Wake Forest College College of Medication in Winston-Salem, NC.
In case your hair could 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 recommend my sufferers deal with any pores and skin or scalp points earlier than coloring their hair,” McMichael says.
Speak to your physician about how your well being could also be inflicting points together with your scalp. A dermatologist focuses on pores and skin, nails, and hair points and might prescribe medicines or therapies like medicated shampoos to assist flip issues round.
The crown of your head will not be the one factor to verify when you’re prepping for colour. “I ask my shoppers if they’re taking medicines earlier than doing a colour remedy,” says Debra Dye Brown (sure, her actual title), a grasp cosmetologist in Atlanta.
Brown says sure medicines – like these for hypertension, sure hormones, or steroids – can influence how properly hair colour works and, in some instances, trigger a response. “If you consider it, some drug checks require a strand of hair as a result of what you set in your physique will typically present up there,” Brown says.
The place you might be in life – whether or not going by way of menopause or a high-stress interval – is a think about how your colour journey unfolds. Speak to your stylist about all of it. You’re of their chair to share in any case.
Did You Discover a Skilled?
Except you made all A’s in superior chemistry, it might be finest to go away the hair dyeing course of (particularly if going lighter) to the professionals. “The field of colour doesn’t know something about your hair that I’d as an skilled,” says Milena Ghattas, movie star colorist in Beverly Hills, CA. “Coloring your hair at house for years could also be inflicting injury over time even when you can’t see it.”
A skilled colorist will know learn how to assess your hair, well being, and life-style 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 will colour hair that appears like yours.
Hair colour is, properly, colorblind. “The method of coloring the hair is identical for everybody,” McMichael says. “It entails poking holes within the hair to permit the colour to seep in.” (These “holes” are made with chemical substances.)
Pure hair might crave extra moisture usually and much more if colour is utilized. Additionally, colour can loosen the curl sample – however solely quickly if completed proper, Ghattas says – on pure hair.
Whereas pure hair is available in all textures and shades, many individuals of colour have darker hair colours (with extra crimson and gold undertones). Taking hair from darkish to mild entails probably the most chemical substances (bleaching) and will be extra damaging than going from mild to darkish.
Are You Doing Too A lot?
It’s not a good suggestion to do all of your styling modifications at one time. Utilizing a relaxer, colour, and warmth styling in a single setting could be a dangerous concept. Offer you hair a break between providers and attempt to do different providers no less than 2 weeks earlier than colour.
A much less everlasting however gentler choice is a semi- or demi-color as an alternative 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. Everlasting colour has to develop out or be reduce out.
What’s Your Shade Historical past?
Execs like Ghattas and Brown will ask new shoppers about their prior moments with colour. “I need to know when you did a temp colour not too long ago or when you’ve coloured your hair for years,” Ghattas says. “I ask about how your hair responded prior to now and we discuss your place to begin and finish level.” You’re distinctive and so is your hair.
Did You Do a Strand Take a look at?
Will that shade of darkish brown flip your hair inexperienced? Will this mild blond even be just right for you?
Strand checks present how your hair will react – earlier than you strive it in your total head. It additionally helps your colorist discover out if the colour will work, how a lot it might have an effect on your curl sample, and in case your hair is simply too fragile for the look you need.
Everlasting Shade or Not?
Researchers have been learning the protection of hair colour for years. In 2019, researchers from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being reported that girls who frequently used everlasting hair colour had been extra more likely to get breast most cancers than those that don’t – and the danger was increased amongst Black girls in contrast with white girls. It’s not clear why. Semi-permanent or momentary hair colour weren’t linked to breast most cancers threat within the examine.
The discovering was based mostly on knowledge on greater than 46,000 U.S. girls 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 brought on anybody’s most cancers.
Many hair dyes comprise chemical substances like ammonia or hydrogen peroxide, which might trigger pores and skin irritation, redness, and different well being issues.
In the event 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. In the event 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 more likely to trigger allergic reactions. However it will possibly nonetheless be irritating to some individuals, McMichael notes.
How Are You Displaying Your Hair Some Love?
Alongside together with your new colour, you’ll need a stable plan to maintain your coils wholesome.
“Preserve your hair trimmed. Each 3 months is finest,” Ghattas says. “You additionally need to sustain with moisture therapies and maintain your hair hydrated.”
Porter, who has been completely happy together with her colour (completed by Ghattas), is severe about protecting her hair wholesome. “I situation my hair frequently and earlier than colour. I don’t use heavy merchandise so the colour can penetrate higher, and I exploit a moisturizing shampoo,” she says.
One other tip: Use a sulfate-free shampoo to keep away from drying out your hair and fading your new colour.
Whether or not overlaying your grey strands or getting over a mode rut, dyeing your hair – when completed proper – can provide the pop of colour you crave.
