Grey Hair Maintenance

A couple weeks back I shared my Colour Journey and I felt that it was finally the right time to share how my hair care routine has changed since I’ve changed my hair colour to grey. Lightening your hair already comes with the territory of brassiness management – which can be quite intimidating to some, but grey hair is a whole other story.

Please don’t let the amount of product scare you into thinking that grey hair isn’t manageable – because it very much so is! I’ve added more products than what I was originally recommended because I’ve witnessed too many grey dye jobs gone wrong due to the lack of maintenance, and green hair is the last thing that I want. Regardless of how popular multi-coloured hair may be at the moment, grey hair is what I envisioned, so grey hair is what I want to maintain.

Let me preface by saying that ever since I changed up my hair colour, I’ve only had to wash my hair once a week. Yes, it does get oily throughout the week, so instead of washing it a second time and risk the chance of fading the grey and causing it to go brassy, I refresh it with dry shampoo. So besides a mid-week spritz of dry shampoo, this handful of product only gets used once a week and isn’t much of an interference to my daily routines. I guess I should also mention that I wash my hair on Friday nights because it’s when I have the most down-time and don’t have to worry about waking up early the next morning.

This step isn’t completely necessary, but with the amount of trauma my hair has to go through in order to arrive at grey, I warrant that it deserves some R&R to nurture it back to a semi-healthy state. Once a week before each wash, I apply a generous portion of Revlon’s Orofluido Asia Zen Control Mask through my colour treated ends and leave it in for an hour before rinsing it out. If I want an extra deep treatment, I wrap a platic bag around my hair (yes, you heard me, I use a plastic bag) and give it a quick blast of heat with my blowdryer.

To combat the brassiness of fading dye, I first shampoo my hair with Clairol’s Shimmer Lights Shampoo. I like applying a generous amount of the shampoo into my hair and leaving it in for an hour as well. This allows the purple pigments to really settle into my hair and counteract any yellow/orange tones that may be peaking through. I should probably mention that for each step I like to leave it in my hair for an hour and wrap it as well. Does it make more sense now why I like to go through my hair routine on a Friday night?

After the initial “pigment rinse” (or so I like to call it since I basically use this step to deposit colour-correcting dye into my hair), I go through a thorough wash with Aveda’s Color Conserve Shampoo. Not only does it rinse out any residue that’s accumulated in my hair throughout the week, but it also helps to conserve the hair colour so that it doesn’t fade as quickly. I should note that this step is the only one that isn’t left in for an hour. I simply lather up and rinse out.

After cleansing my hair, I like to apply Aveda’s Color Conserve Strengthening Treatment to boost its integrity. Going from dark brown to a platinum blonde is quite damaging to my hair and I’ll do whatever I can to improve my hair’s quality. I make sure to evenly distribute the product throughout my bleached ends and let it sit for an hour before washing it out.

At this point my hair already feels quite conditioned, but I like to take it one step further to deposit a little bit more pigment. It doesn’t hurt to try right? I apply a ridiculously generous amount of Aveda’s Blue Malva all over my hair and allow it to sit for a little over an hour before I wash it out.

After I’m done with the in-shower routine, I like to use a couple more products to really lock in and seal all of treatments that I put into my hair. After each wash, I use Matrix’s Repair Inside cream that helps nourish the hair from the inside out. Immediately after, I apply a quarter size amount of Aveda’s Smooth Infusion product to help tame any frizz that may occur. None of the products are heat dried as I like to air dry my hair. My grey hair is already damaged enough that I feel that it’s only appropriate to spare it from any extra heat damage.

Every second day, I like to run a dime size amount of Aveda’s Color Conserve Daily Color Protect throughout the ends of my hair to provide it with some added protection. But beyond that, I don’t do much else for my hair throughout the week. This just goes to show how low maintenance grey hair really can be as long as you approach it with the appropriate measures.

Grey hair can quickly go from 100-0 with no maintenance, but with the right preventative measures, it can easily be maintained for quite some time without many touch ups.