Best shampoo and conditioner for color-treated hair? (Drugstore type stuff. ) Thanks! :^)

[GreenPartyVoter]

[femmocrat]

1. Pantene or Avon.

I was out of Avon, so I bought Wal-mart's "Equate" brand of Pantene (cheaper), and it seems fine. It smells nice, too.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Hmm Avon's a thought. I have had bad luck with Pantene, though. I get this weird

build-up that is really hard to strip back off. :(

[blogslut]

2. Anything moisturizing is usually fine

Really, if the color process uses 20% or higher peroxide, you're fighting a losing battle. With peroxide that strong, the process blasts the cuticle permanently open and color that's been deposited is just going to slip out - no matter how well you treat it.

What's better is to have a deposit-only/semi-permanent color process using 10% peroxide. They're hard to find over-the-counter. That's what's confusing about the labeling with store-bought hair colors. The term "permanent" is misleading. The deposited color isn't permanent - the complete stripping of the natural hair color is what is permanent.

For semi/demi-permanent store products, look for Clairol Natural Instincts. L'Oreal Excellence used to be semi-permanent but they changed their formula sometime during the 90s to full-on permanent.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I've been using the Natural Instincts, but my Aussie Moist shampoo definitely pulled the

dye out faster than it should have, and I was left with lovely peroxide-brassy hair (and a heck of a lot more grey than I want. *pout*)

[blogslut]

8. Grey hair is tough

It's got a much more stubborn cuticle and is completely devoid of pigment - so any deposited color doesn't get the assist of underlying pigment. Just the same, definitely switch shampoos to something else. Pantene is a very nice OTC product. If you can fine a drugstore/grocery store that sells Redken - that's the very best you can get.

As well, if your tapwater smells of chlorine - try washing your hair with bottled water. Another trick is to apply conditioner before shampooing.

Let me ask, are you applying a shade of red to your hair?

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Pantene and my hair don't get along for some reason. Puts a weird build-up

on it. :( I will see if I can find Redken a the Rite-aid.

No chlorine here as I am washing from a well. :)

I'm trying to put brown on it. Usually a medium golden brown since that is closest to my natural.. well, formerly natural, shade. (I remember my mom trying to go reddish, and she would end up pink or looking like newly-minted copper penny! Yikes! LOL)

[blogslut]

11. Well

You should switch to a neutral shade of brown. Not an ash shade. Just a neutral.

Another few tips:

When coloring, apply the color to your new growth only and let that sit for at least ten minutes. After that amount of time, apply the remaining color onto your ends and finish out the time. Color takes roughly 15-20 minutes to fully process - leaving it on longer isn't going to have any beneficial effect.

Also, don't use the cap. Let your hair process in the open air.

When your color is done processing, wet your hair fully and lather it up using the color itself as a kind of shampoo step. Do not shampoo your hair immediately after coloring. Just rinse your hair as thoroughly as you can and wait as long as possible to shampoo your hair. Three days is good.

EDIT ADD: The very best thing to do is find a beauty supply and buy yourself a bottle of 10 Volume peroxide and some tubes/bottles of color.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. I tried a different Natural Instincts shade last night called "Brass Free Brunette." It has a pretty

nice tone to it. :)

I attempted to do what you said, and do the grey first. I'm not very good at limiting where it goes, so I know I probably had it on more of my hair than I should have. I used to use Natural Instincts a few years ago, but I managed to stress my hair out pretty badly. No moisturizing product could smooth the hair that grew past my shoulders, so I had to get about 4 inches cut off. :( I am trying so hard not to go through that again!

I am really annoyed with clairol for ditching the loving care stuff. It made it possible to touch up my grey roots without screwing up my ends.

[blogslut]

13. Another reason to hit the Beauty Supply

There's buttloads of things available there that you, as a non-licensed person, can buy that can't be found at the drugstore or grocery store. For example, you can buy yourself one of those haircolor bowls and those applicator brushes so you can part and paint your new growth properly. As well, they sell very decent bargain shampoos and conditioners by the gallon. As for the peroxide and color, I'm pretty sure they'll let you buy most brands - it's when the peroxide volumes go 40 and over that you have to have a license. Trust me, they'll let you know what's forbidden to buy and most beauty supply people are very helpful.

I'm still pissed off that L'Oreal changed the formulation for Excellence and that Redken discontinued their Shades shampoo - that stuff was sweet!

Another brand to look for in shampoo is Biosilk. There's a lot of regular stores that sell it. That shit is magic.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I'm gonna have to look for one of those stores, and if I can't find one I'll try

shopping online. (I love teh internet tubes!)

Thanks so much for your help! :D

[blogslut]

15. Here's the biggest and the best

http://www.sallybeauty.com

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. ooh! I know where there's one of those! :^) Do they carry something

temporary that would replace my Loving Care that I can put on when the grey starts to reappear, but I'm not ready to do the Natural Instincts again? (I'm still a little worried about frying my hair again. :( )

Btw, :yourock: :hug:

[blogslut]

17. Here's the thing about Loving Care

It built up metals in the hair that totally changed its structure and made it terribly difficult to apply other chemical processes over it. If that's all you ever used, it was fine but after a point, I'm betting your hair began to feel limp and shapeless. Colorists hated the stuff and personally, I'm glad it's gone.

They sell Clairol Jazzing - which is very similar to Redken Shades and the old Sebastion Cellophanes:

http://www.sallybeauty.com/temporary-hair-color/CLAIRL39,default,pd.html?cgid=Hair05-03

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. I never knew that about the Loving Care. I guess I am lucky I haven't burnt all my

hair off by adding the Natural Instincts too! I will be more careful what products I use from here on out. :)

[blogslut]

19. My mom used it for-like ever

She could never figure out why her hair wouldn't hold a curl and her perms never lasted. It took me all kinds of cooing to ween her off the stuff. And, I must say, I eventually convinced her to give up coloring completely. I wish I could have talked her out of the perms because they were more evil. But she learned to love her completely white hair and she looked hella awesome with it.

I myself, finally cut off the last of my tinted hair and I'm digging the streaks of grey amongst the light brown. I started coloring my hair when I was 12 and naturally, when I because a cosmetologist, I had every shade under the sun. I decided to stick with brown-red for about 20 years but now I'm perfectly pleased with it totally natural.

As a hairdresser, I had a motto: "There's a lot you can't change in life but you can always change your hair."

:hi:

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. I've started reaching the age where my roots are grey and the rest of my hair is still brown, with

some grey in it. But at 39 I'm not yet ready to go salt-n-pepper. I'll probably do what my mom did, which is color it until I can't stand it any more, which is about the time she went really grey up top. She had the stylist snip all the brown off, which was a lot since she could sit on her hair, and she had a lovely silver fox bob from there on out. :)

I figure that'll be me in about 10 years. :) (Or, if I really can't stand it, I'll get a buzz cut and start fresh! LOL)

[blogslut]

22. I transitioned my mom with highlights

I pulled pieces out and lightened them. Granted, she had a short haircut so transitioning her didn't take as long as someone with chin-length or longer hair.

But hey. it's your head and you have to do what makes you feel good. Color away! Just remember that darker shades age the face as the years go by and it's best to go a shade lighter with each decade. Highlights are a wonderful way to lighten hair. hide gray and the new growth doesn't show up as quickly as it does with an all-over color.

Of course, highlights are more difficult to apply and you'll definitely want to use a stronger product. You don't have to bleach though. You can pull your hair through a cap or section pieces off with foil, using a 20-volume peroxide/tint combo and achieve a very nice result.

[muffin1]

23. Thought I'd be fine with grey in ten years when I was your age.

I just turned fifty, and I'm still not ready. :)

[RebelOne]

26. I have been blonde all my life, colored it to keep it that way.

I have noticed that I do not have to touch it up as often because the blonde is now blending in with the grey, so my hair still looks blonde.

[Stardust]

29. I've used L'Oreal's Excellence-To-Go for years, but lately I've noticed

my hair is very dry. Do you suppose it's due to the reformulation you're referring to? I didn't hear about this...

What's a better alternative?

Thanks!

[blogslut]

30. It's classified as a permanent haircolor

Meaning that it uses 20 volume peroxide. The Excellence OTC formulation was changed sometime in the 90s from semi-permanent (10 volume peroxide) to permanent. I haven't used OTC Exellence in years because of that change. A 20 volume peroxide his stronger and more damaging to the hair than a 10 volume process.

If your hair is dry, it might be because Excellence has changed something in the product. However, if you have a lot of gray hair, keep in mind that gray hair is courser, dryer and less shiny than the naturally pigmented hair of youth. Putting chemicals on it certainly doesn't help.

Do a deep conditioning treatment once a week. Apply conditioner to damp hair, cover it with a cap and keep it on for 15 minutes to a half hour. Then rinse thoroughly.

[Stardust]

42. OK, thanks!

[muffin1]

4. I mostly use L'oreal or John Frieda stuff.

My hair still looks dull as hell after three weeks. I only shampoo every other day - condition every day, and usually 'deep condition' twice weekly.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. At the 3 week mark for me, I get brassy brown and yellowed grey. :^(

[muffin1]

7. Yep. It sucketh.

:P

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Yep!

[backwoodsbob]

21. pantene

[Beaverhausen]

24. Paul Mitchell

but if you color your hair red, like me, nothing will keep it from fading.

[snagglepuss]

25. You may not believe this but ditch the shampoo and just use conditioners.

I too use Natural Instincts which is only semi-permanent so it does wash out relatively quickly; however I was advised by an knowledgable hair stylist that semi-perm colors add thickness and are less damaging.

[blogslut]

31. Reds are notorious for fading

Here's a trick. Buy two boxes of Natural Instincts - One your chosen shade of red, the other a shade of warm brown in the same color level. Mix half the bottle of brown and half the bottle of red with one bottle of developer and apply. The underlying brown will help keep the red from fading so quickly.

Also, as I stated above, put the color on the new growth only for the first ten minutes, then apply it to the ends for the rest of the processing time.

[snagglepuss]

32. THANKS. Natural Instincts recently dropped browns that had red in them which is what

I had used and really liked. Now I have to use a light golden brown but miss the red. But one question isn't developer just for permanent dyes?

[blogslut]

33. No

Semi-permanent color uses 10 volume peroxide - a less strong solution. It's strong enough to open the cuticle enough so that the tint molecules can deposit and plump up but not strong enough to strip the natural hair color completely or leave the mantle/cuticle open as much as a 20 volume peroxide.

Natural Instincts is a semi-permanent tint. It says it's ammonia-free but ammonia isn't really a necessary component of the two-step coloring process.

Now, there is a hard-to-find, one-step Clairol product named Natural Instincts/Loving Care. It's a reformulation of the old Loving Care and while it contains no peroxide, it does contain many of the salts and metals that made the old Loving Care such an awful build-up mess.

There are some nice slip-off color products that don't deposit inside the cuticle but do temporarily bond to the hair, using heat as an activating agent. Sebastian Cellophanes, Redken Shades and Clairol Jazzing.

[snagglepuss]

When you suggest I use a developer and mix red and brown are you

referring to L'Oreal Natural Instincts Hair Color or to Loving Care?


Perhaps I'm confused with the term 'developer'. Is developer that stuff the color is poured into?

[blogslut]

40. Yes

When you buy the Natural Instincts home hair-coloring kit, the box contains two bottles. One is rectangular and contains the tint. The other is white with a tip and that contains the developer, also known as peroxide. I'm suggesting you buy two kits - one brown and one red. Pour 1/2 bottle of brown tint and 1/2 bottle of red tint into one single bottle of developer.

This leaves you with two left-over half bottles of tint and one full bottle of developer for the next time you need to color your hair. Seal the tint bottles tight because they shouldn't be exposed to oxygen and even then, may be weaker when the time comes to use them.

I brought up the Loving Care thing because I thought you were interested in peroxide-free coloring. My apologies for confusing you.

[snagglepuss]

41. No apologies. You've been great. I really appreciate your advice.

I'm ready to crawl under a rug or die of embarassment for not knowing what developer is and for seriously thinking that tint and developer blows up if not disposed of quickly. Open bottles of developer and tint can be saved? Who'd have thunk it? Sheesh, I can't get under the rug fast enough.

:yourock:

[blogslut]

44. Seperately, yes, they can be saved

Once they're mixed, their usefulness is gone in about an hour.

Now bleaching powder mixed with developer - that solution expands in volume and can, in essence "blow up".

[snagglepuss]

36. Dup. self delete.

[snagglepuss]

38. Dup. self delete.

[LiberalEsto]

45. I use henna and love it

I buy it at a local Indian grocery for $1.74 a box. That is enough to last me for three henna treatments - about a year's worth. I mix up the entire boxful at one time and freeze two-thirds of it.


I was a natural blond but darkened over the years, so I started lightening it. Around age 50 I switched to reddish blond coloring, buy switched to henna when Garnier discontinued that shade. My natural color now is an ashy brown with a tiny bit of gray. The henna makes it a warm brown with red highlights.

For henna, you need protective gloves, and a plastic conditioner cap to keep it from dripping off. You can find these caps among the African-American hair products. There are various recipes for mixing the henna. I add lemon juice.

I can't read the directions on the henna I buy because they are not in English, but information on using henna is available at this web site

http://www.hennaforhair.com

[snagglepuss]

47. My natural hair is light brown/ash blond. I thought henna didn't cover

grey and was only for brunette or black hair but it sounds like it works well for you so I'm very intrigued. Thanks. :hi:

[jmowreader]

27. None of the "mass market" brands, if you like your color

For your shampoo, go to a beautician and buy a quart of Paul Mitchell Color Care. It will cost you an arm and a leg, but that's okay. Wash your hair only twice a week, and only use a glob about the size of a nickel when you do. I bought a quart of this product a year ago and I've still got 12 ounces of it left. I've seen Paul Mitchell in drugstores and grocery stores, but there are two reasons I wouldn't get it there. First, the back of the bottle has all this verbiage about product not sold in a salon being old, watered-down or whatever. It may be total bullshit, but it's on there. The real reason I'd go to a salon is it's no cheaper at the drugstore: I paid $14 for this bottle, and the Fred Meyer supermarket across the street from my hairdresser sells it for $15.

Conditioner is a different story because you WILL go through a shitload of it--I condition every day. You'll get more mileage out of a bottle of salon conditioner because you use a lot less of it--a nickel-size glob of $18/quart conditioner does the same work as a handful of $4/quart product, so that's a consideration. My beautician also tells me to never buy the same brand twice--says it's better for your hair if you rotate brands. (This doesn't mean buy Redken once and never again; it means choose two or three different products and buy them in rotation.)

[REP]

28. Trader Joe's Salon in the clear bottle for $2.49 (made by Giovanni) - lauryl & laureth free

Lauryls and laureths are very drying. Giovanni shampoos don't have them, and you can get them at CVS or Target for $7 - $8 a bottle, or under $3 at Trader Joe's with the TJ. branding. Won't strip color or irritate sensitive skin, smells nice (if you like neroli, which I do), cleans hair well and makes mine feel soft, even in rock-hard water - I rarely need much conditioner, and I have very long, very thick and very dyed hair :hi:

[Flaxbee]

34. Nexxus doesn't test on animals, if that is important to you

I don't think Avon does, either.

Pantene does.

Nexxus is more expensive, but you can buy it at drugstores; I use a very small amount and lather it really well. A big bottle (esp. if you can get it at CostCo) lasts me and my husband almost 6 months, so it's worth the price to me.

[kimi]

35. For my hair care issues I went to

LongHairCommunity - has lots of info on this type of question, and many more hair-related issues. Lots of reviews, and opinions. I used to use commercial coloring dyes - all types - on my hair, and it got fried; I ended up cutting off about 10 inches and even now the last 3 or 4 inches of my mid-waist-length hair is not in good shape. I've gone to henna and cassia - two natural products - for my hair coloring. Both, separately, are very conditioning for hair. If you don't want color, cassia produces very little - henna will produce quite a bit of red, depending on crop, sift, harvest, etc.

They aren't drugstore products, though. But you might find some info there about what's best for your hair. I'd be bald if I hadn't learned about these things. The ingredients of the deep conditioning recipes can easily be found in the drugstore. Good luck! :)

[quakerboy]

37. I did well with pantene

Nothing else worked as well when I had blue, and eventually green, then bleached hair. But then I always do well with pantene. Nothing else works as well with my hair in its natural color either.

[blue neen]

39. L'Oreal has a line of sulfate free shampoos. They're pretty good at keeping your color.

My personal favorite, however, is Nick Chavez Plump and Thick Shampoo and Conditioner. It doesn't strip the color and it gives my hair lots of volume.

It's a little more expensive, but it stretches out the time between color apps--and I'm a redhead!

:) Good luck! :)

[Leonardo Da Biker]

43. I miss Breck

Saw a commercial years ago that it was coming back and nothing. Maybe it just isn't sold in my area. In the 70's everybody loved Breck.

[MerryBlooms]

46. The only place I could find Breck products was at the Dollar Store -

I haven't been to one since my move here to Illinois, but the Portland area stores always stocked it. Worth a check.