If you spend hundreds on getting your hair color to look just right, then you probably go to just about any length to keep it looking good. But, could the shampoo you’re washing with be causing more damage than you think? Turns out that using some types of volumizing and clarifying shampoos on color-treated hair may be the worst thing for your color.
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According to celebrity colorist Beth Minardi of Studio B Salon, shampoos that are more alkaline, like volumizing or clarifying ones, tend to strip away buildup from the hair or swell the hair to make it feel fuller. “Sadly, these products minimize or eliminate the protective lipid layers, which protects both the inside and the outside of the hair’s outer layer, the cuticle. Deep-cleansing shampoos need to be formulated very carefully to refrain from causing the cuticle to open up and loose the color that’s been deposisted. Once the color slips and fades away, your hair can start to turn a brassy shade,” she says.
While we’re not saying that you shouldn’t ever opt to cleanse your hair or add volume with one of these types of shampoos, we are saying that you need to look for something that is acid-based, like Minardi Wash ($26), Davines Solu Shampoo ($26) or Christophe Robin Delicate Volumizing Shampoo with Rose Extracts ($51). “Acid-based shampoos are designed to protect that lipid layer on the hair so that they cleanse without stripping. The cuticle of the hair remains pretty much closed so that the opportunity for your color to fade or change is vastly minimized,” says Minardi. “You have to think of color-treated hair as a cashmere sweater, not a pair of jeans. The fiber needs gentle loving care.”
