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Maintaining strong healthy hair can be a grueling onslaught in the high fashion culture we live in, and its easy to get caught up in the craze of heavy colouring and excessive heat use on the hair, which ok, can be a daunting topic, especially with all the common misconceptions flying around like rumors at highschool and its easy to get lost in the bible of do's and dont's.

Colouring

Ive read through varying articles on this site under the topic of hair and colouring seems to be one of the hot topics in relation to condition and health of hair. In my opinion, as a hairdresser myself the best colour to use on hair are semi/quasi permanent colours (semi lasts 6-8 washes, with little white coverage and quasi 18-24 with about 60%). These give the hair immaculate shine and dont damage the hair as they dont contain hydrogen peroxide which wont allow deep penetration of the cuticle. These colours fade out aswell which wont leave you with a regrowth.
other options to counteract permanent colouring would be the temporary range, which are things like coloured mousses, coloured gels. etc. these simply coat the cuticle and wash out in one wash depending on the hair's porosity.

Permanent hair colours look great when first applied but soon enough the colour can look drab and dull and leave a deffinate regrowth. the advantage to using these colours would be 100% white coverage. With permanent colours the colour molecules are small, mixed with hydrogen peroxide to allow them to penetrate the cuticle deep into the cortex. when inside the hydrogen peroxide oxidises the hair's natural pigment and the small colour molecules swell and join together becoming trapped. This is how the colour fades as aposed to colours mentioned before that will gradually wash out of hair.

Now heres the biggest risk, bleach. with the colours previously mentioned its extremely hard to get the hair to lift to a light blonde colour without using bleach. This is where the hair can become very damaged and as a result, the previously mentioned colours get 'tarred with the same brush'.
Bleach is mixed with hydrogen peroxide, and automatically we know that peroxide will open the cuticle. it swells and the cuticle lifts. inside oxygen is released from the peroxide and reacts with the natural hair pigments (eumelanin), making them colourless.
Bleaching is extremely dangerous and should not be attempted without someone who knows what their doing. if left on too long it can destroy the cortex completley, giving the hair

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