Using hair dye is one of the most fun ways to experiment with your personal style or hide graying in your locks if you wish to. While there are many products out there that can promote your radiant, shiny and healthy-looking color of choice, there is one particular shampoo ingredient that could alter it negatively if you aren’t careful.
We spoke with hair expert and cosmetologist Ghanima Abdullah from The Right Hairstyles and dermatologist Dr. Cheryl Rosen, Director of Dermatology at BowTied Life all about this ingredient and why anyone with color treated hair should avoid it!
The Drawbacks of Sulfate Products on Color Treated Hair
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a harsh detergent used in many personal care products for the hair and skin. As Rosen explains, it can “strip away the protective lipid layer of the skin,” which leads to “dryness and accelerated aging” of your scalp, directly affecting your tresses, especially if they are color treated.
If your hair is colored, Abdullah adds, you “definitely want to stay away from sulfates in shampoo since they strip the hair and your color right along with it.” If you’re using a sulfate-free, color-safe shampoo, Abdullah still advises that “it’s best not to wash your hair too often” to prevent fading. “I would say once or twice a week at the most,” she notes.
“Your best option to preserve color is to use something that deposits a little color each time you wash,” she continues, saying these kinds of shampoos are available for almost any bold hair color, but not for pastels.
Overall, sulfates are found in many mass-market shampoos since they are detergents used to remove oil and dirt from the hair, and provide a richer foam. They give a refreshing, rich lather in the shower, that many of us love, but what we could lose in this instance outweighs the temporary satisfaction we could gain when rinsing.
If your hair is colored, it’s essential, as these experts say, to use a sulfate-free shampoo and wash your hair less than you usually would to produce the color (and dry shampoos for color treated hair can keep your locks looking fresh in-between washes!)
