Hair color fading after one week, why and what are the reasons behind it? Hair color fades after one week due to UV exposure, using chemicals, etc. When your hair color starts to fade fast, it cannot be enjoyable – especially if you paid money for it in the first place! Here are some tips to follow to avoid color fading after one week. Unfortunately, there’s nothing worse than beautiful hair that doesn’t last, which most women have to deal with at some point.
Fortunately, there are precautions you can follow to extend the life of your locks and help your color stay true for as long as possible! This article will explain what to look out for and how you can avoid fading hair color and keep your mane looking fresh, shiny, and gorgeous!
Hair color fading after one week
Hair color fading after a week is a common problem. But not all fading is terrible. Fading can happen because the hair has been freshly dyed and needs more attention and care or because you’ve washed your hair too often, overwashed it, or applied too much heat. Either way, you’ll want to take preventative measures to protect your color from washing out before it even fades. The best way to do this is by using shampoo and conditioner with UV filters.
Reasons for fading hair color so fast.
There are a few reasons why your hair color fades after one week. Typically, the cause is due to how you wash and treat your hair.
1: Washing hairs
Shampooing too often is the only reason hair color will fade quickly. Excessive washing and combing, as well as using heavy-duty hair care products, can lead to an overworked scalp. When the scalp becomes irritated, it creates a buildup of sebum that clogs up the hair follicles, which leads to dryness and breakage. When you don’t let your scalp recover from regular shampooing or daily wear-and-tear, hair color may start fading more quickly than it would on someone who isn’t wearing their locks in a bun or pulled back tight for work.
2: Dyes with more bleach
For darker hair, different color formulations can achieve red and black tones. For blondes and light-haired people, the ash color is often applied to give more depth. More bleach dyes in these formulations often lead to faster paint fading. This can be addressed by using shampoos with less shampoo or avoiding chlorine while swimming. Frequently using hot styling tools such as curling irons also hastens the fading process, so it is essential not to hold them too close or for too long when styling your hair.
3: Using chemicals
Your hair color fades after one week because you’re using harsh chemicals with shampoo, conditioner, and styling products. To save your locks, swap out those products for sulfate-free formulas and ones that are ammonia-free.
The second reason your color might fade faster than you’d like is that you didn’t apply enough. Try concentrating on just the roots of your hair or the strands closest to your scalp when coloring so that the product has a better chance of penetrating all hair shafts and bonding with the cuticle. Finally, too much sun exposure can cause chemical degradation in some dye types.
4: Sun exposure
If you have light hair color, the most common culprit for fading is exposure to the Sun. Whether on your vacation or outdoors in your hometown, prolonged exposure can dry out and damage your hair cuticle, so strands don’t stay as vibrant. To avoid this, try wearing a hat and sunscreen with an SPF of 30+ if you’re going to be outside all day. You can also keep up your routine of using conditioner, which has been shown to protect hair from environmental stressors like UV rays. But don’t forget to rinse off any product residue!
5: Stress, tension
Stress is the most significant cause of hair color fading, including the chronic kind. Lack of sleep, staying up late, and trying to do too much without any time off will all stress your body out and cause the melanin in your hair follicles to degrade more quickly.
To combat these factors:
Take a night off- once a week, and allow yourself to stay up as late as you like. If you’re married or have kids- see if there are some chores or activities you can avoid altogether. This one day should be about rest and rejuvenation for both mind and body.
6: Medication
Several things can cause hair color to fade. A popular misconception is that the more time you spend in the Sun, your hair color will fade faster. Your shampoo, conditioner, and many other hair products can be sources of ingredients that may cause fading.
There are also medical reasons for hair color fading: Diabetes and medications like Propecia and Minoxidil have been known to cause significant levels of fading in many people who take them. If you suspect a drug is a potential source of your color change, we encourage you to speak with your physician about switching products or contacting our Certified Esthetician!
7: Air pollution
It may seem like your hair color would fade more on a smoggy day in the city than on a cloudy day in the country, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Pollution and sunlight can affect how quickly your color fades and breaks down over time. The pollutants act as catalysts for a chemical reaction that eats away your hair dye or natural pigment and causes faster fading
Suppose you’re concerned about fading because of exposure to outdoor air pollution. In that case, you can avoid this issue with an inside-out approach: use a high-quality, non-toxic product with maximum strength pigments (that will stay intact even when coming into contact with sunlight) and do your maintenance and touch-ups inside instead of outdoors.
8: Washing hairs with hot water
Heat opens the cuticle, causing more color molecules to seep out of your hair and into the hot water. The hotter the water, the more damage is done. The fact that most shampoos also contain sulfates (to clean your hair) makes this process even worse by stripping away natural oils that protect against this type of damage. When washing with hot water, be sure to use a conditioner afterward to counteract all of these drying factors.
9: Use harsh shampoos
Aside from the various reasons for hair color fading, one of the most prevalent and familiar ways that color fades faster than you want is due to using harsh shampoos. If you’re using a solid or everyday shampoo, they can start eroding at the protective layer of oils on your scalp.
These oils prevent UV rays from breaking down the pigment in your hair, which in turn causes it to become more brittle and subject to breakage. A better option would be switching up your shampoo every couple of days with a gentler product that contains more moisturizing ingredients instead of all those drying chemicals.
10: Heat styling
styling with hot tools is one of the most common culprits for color fading. Heat can accelerate fading by up to seventy percent because it opens the cuticle and lets hair color molecules escape. Some recommend always waiting until your hair cools down before styling it, but others claim that this doesn’t do much and you should only stay a few minutes after it has been styled. One of the best things to do is make sure not to overheat your hair, as that will lead to faster fading (and give you damaged locks).
11: Use a blow dryer
Many people use blow dryers to style their hair and prepare it for the day. While it is possible that using a blow dryer with the wrong heat setting can dry, leading to faster hair color fading, heat styling on any level can cause your hair color to fade faster.
12: Exposure to hard water
This is a common problem for many people with hard water. Most soaps and hair care products have been formulated for people who have soft water, which does not require much rinsing after washing. In hard water, there are substances such as calcium and magnesium in the water that react with what you put on your hair.
Once reacted, it turns into a substance called lime or scale. This can make your hair look dull, dry, and unhealthy. You should wash your hair twice as often when using products designed for challenging water conditions because they may not work as well on your hair when they don’t dissolve properly.
13: Lack of protein treatments
The cause of hair color fading is the lack of protein treatments. When you don’t put in any effort to improve the condition of your hair and provide it with nutrients, over time, your hair will show signs of neglect. And one sign of decay is that you might experience color fading after only a week or two. One way to reduce this is by adding more protein or moisturizing your hair daily with a nutrient-rich conditioner. Proper nutrition can go a long way to restoring healthy locks.
You can also check out our other related article The Best Red Hair Dyes That Won’t Fade:
7 Ways to Prevent Hair Color from Fading
Following are some precautions to avoid hair color fading.
1: Lower Your Shampoo Frequency
Many people are going through their lives using the same shampoo every day without realizing they should change it. Doing this can lead to your hair color fading faster than it would otherwise, which is why we recommend lowering your shampoo frequency.
To do this, we recommend using conditioning or clarifying shampoo at least twice a week (usually Monday and Friday) instead of daily. This will help remove residue buildup but won’t be too harsh on your scalp like some shampoos may be.
This will also give you time between washes for natural oils from the scalp to rejuvenate and replenish the hair strands from root to tip.
2: Minimize hard Water Exposure
The hair color faded after a week. It is because of a buildup of minerals in the water or shampoo. To avoid this, try to use a clarifying shampoo and conditioner, which strips the hair of product buildup and dirt that causes color degradation.
A dry scalp can also cause hair color to fade faster, so make sure you use a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. The more often you wash your hair with harsh shampoos, the faster your dye will start running out too! If you want vibrant color for longer, rinse as much excess dye out of your locks as possible before drying them with the help of a towel.
This will give it more time to fix your strands without preventing sebum from seeping daily.
3: Use Cool Water for Showers
Showers can contribute to your hair color fading quickly. Add a few cups of cool water to the mix, and you’ll retain more hair color. Hot water opens up the follicles on your scalp, which may lead to that water seeping into your cuticle and damaging your hair shafts. Also, while shampooing, use cold or warm water instead of hot so that it doesn’t open up the follicles any further. When you blow dry afterward, try not to touch wet hair because it could close the cuticle back up, trapping the moisture inside and making it more challenging to re-open those cuticles.
4: Avoid Going Overboard With Heat-Based Treatments
Maintaining your color often means paying more attention to how you’re handling it. If you want that your hair color too long last, here are a few of the things you should avoid:
Exposing your hair to heat-based treatments (e.g., blow dryers, curling irons, etc.) too frequently or for too long at a time. – Overuse of shampooing or conditioning, especially if you have oily hair. Shampooing removes oils from the scalp and can cause it to produce more oil as a result.
Similarly, if you condition excessively with an oil-based product like olive oil, this may also increase sebum production. – Exposure to chemicals that can strip the color out of your locks, such as chlorine from swimming pools and hair products containing sulfates and ammonia.
5: Cover your hair With a Hat or Scarf When in the Sun
If you’re noticing that your hair color is fading faster than you’d like, look at how much time you spend in the Sun. When it comes to hair color, sunlight can be brutal.
Rather than spending time in the Sun and risking damage, try covering up with a hat or scarf as much as possible. If this is not an option, consider investing in a product that will protect your hair from sunlight. Plus, because of modern advancements in hair care products and treatments for natural or processed hair, the process doesn’t have to damage your tresses!
6: Buy Products with Extra UV Protection
Color care shampoos, conditioners, treatments, and hair masks are a great way to fight to fade. You should choose a product with UV protection (essential!) or ones specifically formulated for color-treated hair. But be mindful of what products you use too. If you use heat tools, styling products, or coloring treatments daily, your hair will fade faster!
Plus, it should go without saying: Stay out of the Sun as much as possible! You might want that lightened color for now but try not to wash it out prematurely with too much sun exposure. It will help keep that bright blonde looking fresh if you add a rinse of shampoo in between showers instead of stripping your hair entirely.
7: Go from Lightest Shade First
When your hair is dyed, the lightest shade usually shows through first and fades quickest. As you move up the color spectrum, the strands get a little darker before they start to fade. This can happen because different hair dye brands use other ingredients, so some of those shades could contain lighter pigments that result in more fading.
The pigment molecules are responsible for holding on tightly and locking in hair color. The smaller the molecule size, the less likely the pigment will bind well to your locks. This results in fading sooner than usual. When going for a fresh new look at your salon or with products at home, choose a brand with larger molecule sizes (more giant molecules = more color retention
Does permanent hair dye fade?
The answer is yes, permanent hair dye fades. However, there are a few different factors that could affect how long your color will last. One factor which is often overlooked is your natural hair color and texture. If you have dark or light brown locks, you’ll be able to keep your color for a longer period than someone with blonde or red hair.
Another factor that impacts the longevity of our color is where we’re located and what activities we do daily. If you are in a locality with high levels of humidity like Florida or New York City, the sun may play a role in fading your pigment more quickly than in California or Arizona, where it’s dryer and the sun isn’t as intense.
Does black hair dye fade?
There’s a myth that if you apply black hair dye, your strands will be 100% jet-black forever. Again, this isn’t true! Black hair dyes are usually the most intense colors on the market, so it’s not surprising that many people believe this myth. But, as any colorist can tell you, that is not true.
Even with natural black or dark brown hair, our roots and ends naturally lighten over time due to exposure to the sun, pollution, and even using hot tools like blow dryers or flat irons. We can slow down this process with the proper shampooing regimen and conditioner. Still, eventually, our gorgeous dark locks will need a touch-up to maintain their allure and vibrancy.
FAQS
Get answers to your questions.
What hair colors fade slowest?
Depending on the type of hair color you use, some colors will fade faster than others. Colored hair dyes work in various ways, and all react differently to the chemicals in shampoo, water, and sunlight exposure. For example, if you have chemically lightened hair by using bleach or ammonia, you may need to dye your hair with dark colors that do not contain peroxide.
These colors will penetrate better and last longer. On the other hand, black or dark brown colors will naturally take longer to fade because they are pigmented intensely into the cuticle layer of your hair strands.
How to refresh a faded hair color?
Aside from perms, relaxers, and other color treatments, you can use a toner or hair dye remover to refresh your color. Remember that using too many of these products can weaken your hair and make it more prone to damage.
Avoid fading hair color by using a dry shampoo before going for another color treatment, which will refresh the powder on the surface of your strands. This should buy you time, so you don’t have to go as long between treatments.
Make sure not to overdo it when coloring your hair as well! After all that hard work and money spent on healthy locks, bleaching your hair a few times will only weaken them and create split ends.
How can I avoid fading my hair color?
- Wash your hair with cold water for the last rinse before styling your hair. Hot water can cause heat damage, making your hair look dull and fade after a few weeks.
- Don’t use shampoos that contain sulfates and sodium Laureth sulfate if you have color-treated hair. The detergents in these shampoos may leave behind a residue that could cause color fading. Instead, switch to a low-sudsing shampoo.
- Try not to over-process your color by constantly dying it back up again. Doing this often can wear down the healthy cuticle layer of your hair and make it more prone to fading color because it will allow underlying natural pigments to show through more efficiently.
Conclusion
The lack of consistency in hair care routines can also lead to fading hair color. So, it’s always a good idea to have a plan for your hair going into the week. Additionally, note which activities are more likely to fade your color, and then make an effort not to do those activities more than you need to. Lastly, make sure that you’re giving your color a break by using cool shampoos occasionally- this will help refresh the pigments used during coloring and can help avoid fade. Remember: everyone goes through different seasons in life, and fading hair color is just one way of letting people know what you’ve been up to lately!
To avoid needing so many touch-ups, try mixing up your routine. If you like spending time outdoors but hate wearing a hat all day long, consider applying sun protection before leaving home or using sunscreen when there’s plenty of shade available. If you go swimming regularly, don’t leave out washing off chlorine after getting out of the pool! It might seem common sense, but small details like these can increase over time if they aren’t addressed regularly. We all want our favorite style to last forever- but sometimes, keeping things fresh is even better. Make sure to keep yourself healthy daily, so your skin stays resilient and doesn’t fade prematurely!
