Just a few adjustments will need to be made between the care of your natural hair and your newly colored hair.
Color treated hair and your natural hair color will require similar maintenance and care. The major difference will be in the products you use, since now you not only have to look after keeping your hair buildup-free, clean and well moisturized, but you’ll also need to use products on your hair that won't make those new colors fade!
Where to Begin?
You’ll want the clarifying shampoo and the color treated shampoo as your reliable method for cleaning the hair without stripping the color or the moisture from your locs. According to the professional and well respected Joy Barnes of No More Hats Salon, “A clarifying shampoo will remove heavy product buildup, dirt and grime and will also provide almost like a new foundation. Clarifying removes sweat, dirt, buildup even deeper than the moisturizing shampoo. Clarifying shampoo will purify the scalp and hair. Like when you make a fast to remove the refined sugar and inflammation and so on. This is your purifying detox tool for your hair and scalp.”
What’s Next?
After cleaning the scalp and locs you’ll then want to go for the deep conditioner to really nourish your hair with the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. Apply the deep conditioner from the roots down to the tips of your locs. Then use the Dr Locs steamer for about 20 minutes, longer than 20 minutes also works, but 20 minutes should be enough. Run the steamer up and down the locs while the conditioner is on to really help your locs absorb that goodness. Then rinse it out really well in cool water. For an even deeper cleanse, after steaming your locs, you can sit with a hair cap over your locs and let the conditioner sit for longer. Then rinse with cool water.
It’s Grooming Time
After that, go right into grooming. You can use the original line when it comes to your grooming. Use the Leave-In Conditioner and then the Imani locking spray while you're twisting. Clip the hair and sit under a hood for a salon-like finish. If you're interlocking, use the Leave-In conditioner - you’d just skip the shampoo and the pre-cleanse from the non color-treated line. However, if you have buildup, you can still use the pre-cleanse to pull that stuff up.
Sidenote for the curious ones: The pre-cleanse will get rid of the buildup you can see, whereas the clarifying shampoo will remove the buildup you can’t see. The Pre-Cleanse is really if you have buildup, buildup, buildup.
Our color treated line can also be used side by side with the Yaya Oil for added moisture.
Our Tips:
- Stick with professional colors. Over the counter colors and colors done by a professional are far from the same thing and will have entirely different results. You will notice a difference.
- When it comes to coloring locs, you want to go to someone who knows how to color locs. Someone who isn't used to coloring locs, might mis-quote you and then realize they need more color than what they thought, and an inexperienced colorist with locs might get frustrated and charge you something else later on. Or the color might not come out as they expected because they are used to coloring a loose-hair’d client.
You can check on their instagram if they have clients with locs. There is a big difference between coloring locs and loose hair and if the price is the same as loose hair, they might not have colored locs in the past. So always get a consultation and get a feel for what they’ve done and look at pictures to see their clients with locs whose hair they’ve colored.
- Don't be afraid of being honest with what you’ve done in the past few years with your hair. All that stuff can come up during the coloring process. So please, be honest with your colorist, so that no surprises come up during the coloring process. Buildup and old products can come up, even if you’ve washed the locs. The color won't work properly, so you need to be honest with the history of your locs so it can help the colorist do the right job. We want you to have a great experience getting colored and this is an important step for that.
- And lastly, according to Joy, “Always be mindful not to strip your hair too much. You’re probably washing your hair once a month, so you’ll want to use the entire color treatment kit.” If you're washing your hair once every two weeks, then use the clarifying shampoo once a month and the color treated shampoo on its own every other wash. Clarifying once a month is ideal, to keep your scalp clean. You don’t need to clarify after working out, water works its magic, but Dr Locs moisturizing shampoo can be used every two weeks, and if you wash once a month, go for both the clarifying shampoo and then follow up with the moisturizing shampoo.
