Attention All Brunettes: Here’s how to keep your hair colour healthy for longer

Picture the scenario: You’ve just left your favourite hair salon after a glorious sesh with your bestie hairdresser. They’ve done the works and your hair has never looked or felt better! You can’t believe the gloss, the shine, the vibrancy of this new brunette version of you. Be gone greys, and hello glorious, healthy colour! Sure, it might have cost a small fortune, but you're looking and feeling great.

Skip ahead to two weeks later. You look in the mirror and your previously amazing brunette locks are now looking limp, brassy and a tad faded. What do you do? First of all, don’t panic. All is not lost! With the proper guidance and knowledge, you can keep your hair looking fabulous for weeks to come. No expensive extra trip to the salon is required - we promise!

How do you maintain a glossy brunette colour?

Looking after and maintaining a healthy brunette colour might take a little bit of work, but with the right maintenance, consistency and products, it’s something you can definitely achieve (without too much effort, might we add!)

Below we’ve broken down the three vital steps you need to take to achieve and maintain the brunette hair colour of your dreams, why these steps matter, and our favourite products to help you get the best results.

Use colour-protecting products

It sounds obvious, but it’s a step many people skip.

There are a LOT of factors that contribute to hair colour fading, including sunlight, the overall health of your hair, water hardness and excessive washing, to name just a few. Colour-protecting products actively help to prevent the impact of these factors.

Colour-protecting products that are aligned to your hair shade work to create a barrier against the things that would strip your hair colour of its vibrancy.

The benefits of colour-protecting products include:

• Prevention of excessive water damage by creating a barrier around your hair strands, so water hardness can’t dry your hair out and cause consequent colour fading.

• Fewer sulphites and detergents, chemicals that strip colour and can oxidise your hair, causing that brassy, raw look.

• Active moisturisation of your hair, as dryness can also cause brassiness and create dull-looking hair, reducing the overall gloss and shine of hair colour.

Our top colour-protecting product recommendations for brunettes include the Wella Professionals Invigo Colour Brilliance Shampoo and the Wella Professionals Invigo Colour Brilliance Mask.

Infused with lime caviar, Wella Professionals Invigo Colour Brilliance Shampoo is PH optimised, offering up to seven weeks of colour protection. The Wella Professionals Invigo Colour Brilliance Mask is an intensive treatment designed to improve hair surface and enhance colour vibrancy with its Anti-Oxidant Shield Technology. Alongside vibrancy maintaining Copper Encapsulating Molecules, this product is a must-have for brunettes!

Used in conjunction with each other, this is a powerhouse duo to maintain dreamy, glossy brunette locks week after week.

Incorporate brunette-specific products into your haircare routine

Brunette-specific products are formulated to work against the natural fade that can occur over time. As the brunette colour fades, many people find it tends to take on an orange tinge, creating that brassy, faded look we want to avoid. Brunette-specific products contain pigments and formulas designed to target this fade and reduce brassiness, so you get a richer, glossier and longer-lasting brunette colour.

You might see brunette-specific products referred to as ‘blue shampoos’, and there’s a bit of colour science at work here. Blue shampoos are designed to counteract orange tones in brunette hair. Why blue? Well, orange and blue hues are opposites on the colour wheel, meaning blue cancels out orange.

There are many brunette-specific products on the market, but we can’t recommend the Matrix Total Results Brass Off Shampoo & Conditioner Duo enough!

By depositing balancing blue-violet pigments to reduce brassy, orange undertones, these products are suitable for both colour-treated and natural brunettes to help them achieve and maintain a healthy, deep brunette colour long-term. With added vitamin oils to naturally moisturise and condition hair, this duo ticks all the boxes and is an affordable, luxurious product to incorporate into your regular hair care routine.

Consider using the Matrix Total Results Brass Off Custom Neutralization Mask for added support. This rich 10-minute treatment contains highly pigmented blue-violet tones to neutralise brassy/orange tones and helps protect and repair fragile hair.

Use dry shampoo to prevent washing your hair too often

Many people don’t know this, but our hair responds to water in different ways, and it’s susceptible to losing vibrant colour when exposed to harsh water conditions. By harsh, we mean water that is too hot (something we’re all guilty of doing) or too hard. When we wet our hair, it swells, and the hair cuticle lifts, enabling water to get into the hair fibres. Hair dye works by binding with the hair fibre, so when water gets involved, the vibrancy of the dye can be reduced or dislodged. After a few repeated washes, it’s easy to see why a beautiful colour can quickly lose its edge.

Try to avoid washing your hair too frequently to prevent the impact of water damage. The standard recommendation is to wash your hair no more than every 2-3 days, and you really want to aim for the higher end here.

You can still keep your hair tamed and reduce greasiness with a high-quality dry shampoo. We recommend Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk. This superb product cleans without water in less than two minutes, adds volume and texture, and is excellent for extending the life of blowouts and your vibrant hair colour.

You’re all set!

And that’s it! Our three expert-backed, proven tips for keeping your brunette hair colour healthy for longer.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the recommended products and see how you can level up your haircare game today.

All products mentioned, plus a range of other great haircare staples, are available to purchase at Oz Hair and Beauty today.