What Color-Treated Hair Needs For Summertime
By Gigi Anders
It’s almost summer. You color your hair. Do you see where I’m going with this? The new L’ANZA Healing ColorCare Collection is a must to protect your salon investment from fading, stripping, and going green in chlorine, salt water, and fresh water.
And sunlight. Let’s not forget about sunlight. You thought winter was harsh on hair? Summer’s the worst. Seriously. All that humidity and heat and sweat on your scalp and the back of your neck? And then you go inside and get blasted by A.C.? Not great for hair.
So. Here’s the recipe to lock in color and luster all summer long:
Once a week, use Clarifying Shampoo ($27). Its botanically-based “Flower Shield Complex” deep-cleans sans stripping. Say adios to the previous week’s product build-up, pollution, minerals, metals, and other impurities. Like all L’ANZA products, it’s EDTA-, sulfates-, sodium chloride-, and gluten-free.
After shampooing, apply Color Preserving Conditioner ($27). This lightweight but nourishing formula contains the same potent ingredients Actual Flowers use to preserve their color. Pretty cool, huh? It also contains sunscreens and replaces vital nutrients and moisture to strengthen and maintain your color.
Healing ColorCare Trauma Treatment ($28) is so good I wish it was a prescription drug. This ultra-deep conditioning treatment heals, well, traumatized hair. Of any texture. Over-processed? Damaged? Basically fried? Ceramide-2 and Tyrosine (essential amino acids) properly attach color to hair and give it immediate, deep love. Since my hair is curly and wavy and therefore in perpetual search of hydration, I used this on towel-dried hair and left it in overnight. When I woke up, my hair was poetry.
Healing ColorCare Color Illuminator ($34). I looove this one. This you use after blow-drying, once hair is completely dry. It’s a weightless brightening spray that instantly revives hair color, with shine for miles. Optical Refraction Technology – really -- provides “color pigment optimization” (can you tell this brand is meant for professional hair stylists?) to boost hue vividness. This illuminates your pigment, making hair extra brilliant and vibrant without feeling greasy. Keratin Amino Acids promote hair hydration, and calendula flower extract protects hair colors in the yellow-to-red range. But all colors will heart it.
