Is it better to color dirty, dry hair?

Most people apply hair color to dirty, dry hair maybe because the directions haven’t changed since the early and mid-1900’s; this is when the first commercial hair color brands hit the free market. Also, back then, hair color and shampoos were too harsh, and most people would wash their hair once a week.

Let’s fast forward to today where hair color is less harsh compared to the early days. And today you can buy luxury shampoos that are mild, sulfate-free and have a pH of 5.0. Using a high-quality shampoo allows you to shampoo more frequently without causing excess damage to the hair and scalp.

Still, some hair color manufacturers have not changed their directions, while some have updated their instructions to cleanse the hair with a quality shampoo before the color application. To better understand why this is better than applying hair color to dirty, dry hair, let’s take a look at the science.

Water molecules are attracted to each other due to hydrogen bonding.
A hydrogen bond forms between a hydrogen atom on one water molecule and will link to an oxygen atom on another water molecule. Hydrogen bonding is essential to hair coloring and all beauty products and services.

Everyone knows that a damp sponge absorbs a spill more than a dry sponge. Do this experiment, take two sponges, dip a damp sponge and a dry sponge into grape juice. You will find that the damp sponge will attract more of the grape juice than the dry sponge, by a lot.

Hair color must penetrate the hair to achieve maximum results. But, dry, dirty hair resists penetration and repels hair color. Damp hair absorbs the color into the hair for complete saturation. That is due to hydrogen bonding.

Here at COLURE, we formulated Clean Start Shampoo, designed to prep hair before hair coloring. Clean Start Shampoo is sulfate-free, has a pH 5.0 that is gentle to the scalp, and will not remove natural protective oils from the skin. Clean Start Shampoo will remove color-blocking elements that will improve hair color penetration and promote better gray coverage.