Spice Up Your Summer With Color!

About four years ago my hair was professionally colored a permanent light brown tone, at the time my hair was also relaxed. Needless to say the two did not mix very well and my hair went through a horrible stage. It was very dry all the time, I had a lot of breakage, and just overall unhealthy. After this episode I started using a rinse (semi-permanent) to get rid of the brown and give my hair a shiny, jet-black appearance. After the second rinse I developed an uncontrollable dandruff problem that my hair had never experienced. This was right before I decided to go natural. Being that my hair was already chemically processed, the coloring was simply too much for my hair to maintain its healthiness. So going natural was the best answer to how to have healthy colored hair.

My transition took about 1 year and 8 months to become completely natural. After the 8th month I was ready to have some color in my life, also at the time I was relocating and on the way to starting a new chapter in my life. As many other women, I felt all these changes called for a new look and I was excited to switch up my color. I did a lot of research about caring for color treated hair and what the consequences might be. Some naturalistas have experienced a change in curl pattern, breakage, dry spells, and even major hair loss. These testimonies kind of scared me, but I consulted with a professional and my worries were put to ease. It was the summertime and the last week before I was moving so I wanted something fun like a nice red-burgundy tone! In order to get my dark hair to lighten properly it had to be lifted (bleached). A lot of people say this causes too much damage to your hair, but I was confident that with the proper care I could manage. I loved the result, the color looked great and gave me that "brand new" feeling I was in need of.

The color came out perfect!

My results were positive. By properly moisturizing and caring for my hair, coloring had no negative effects on my curls at all. A good tip you want to remember about color treated hair is maintaining its healthiness and color go hand to hand.

• Consult a professional (even if you'll be doing it at home, ensure you know what you're doing)
• Always use a sulfate free shampoo, this will help protect your strands and color
• Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!
• Stay away from hot water when shampooing and conditioning, it will leave your hair dryer and strip your color
• Add protein treatments to your regimen, you'll lose protein during the coloring process so this will make up for it

Everyone's results will vary, but a major aspect of how your hair will do after being color treated is how you take care if it.

    Signing off, a true naturalista.