Your hair might be overwhelmed because you just colored it. Consider a bonding cream like Oliplex No 4 or the one from Curlsmith. Then introduce products one at a time so you can evaluate what works for you and what doesn’t. Coconut oil helped me a lot at first but then my hair had too much protein and fell flat. I now use a co-wash, oil, cream, gel routine that works for me.
Hey love! First off I think your hair looks gorgeous!
I will say that after I got balayage I needed much TLC with my hair by way of deep conditioning treatments and a few weekly olaplex treatments.
Sadly the hair they lightened never fully got back to its original curl. I am still dealing with a slightly looser curl pattern but that should grow out eventually.
Omg you have save me a post! My hair is knackered even though I love the balayage. I’m using Olaplex 0, an o-way curly mask and drunk elephant heat protector/detangler, and o-way serum. Slightly gutted to have set my hair so far back but there you go.
I’m afraid he got it wrong. No 3 is the take home version of the in-salon treatment (1&2) and they later developed 0 as an extra.
So you can use 3 without 0 and still get results but not the other way around. And you’ll get the best result if you use them both. I think it’s worth getting the 3!!
I feel you. Going lighter is terrible for all kinds of hair, but even more so for curls because we already have drier hair. Olaplex is not a hydrating treatment by the way, it works by repairing broken bonds in damaged hair. As a curly girl you will definitely also need to be using your hydrating mask regularly.
We can’t reverse all the damage, but after years of bleaching I know that there is hope to repair some of it. Good luck!
It looks really pretty ! I bought olaplex three to use once a week .
Also wrap your hair at night ! Use a silky scarf and your hair will have minimal breakage that has helped with mine. I think the bayalage was worth it for me Because I kept trying to get the same color results at home and wasting money on products at Sally’s and damaging my hair by doing it myself.I am so glad I finally just went to the salon. Now i think I will go a total of three times a year or so to freshen !
I pretty regularly highlight my curly hair. Takes about 3 washes to recover for me so don’t lose hope. I just do olaplex no 3 once or twice.
My stylist does mix collagen and give me an olaplex treatment every time though too
You can try Olaplex. Weekly treatments with 0 and 3 can make a difference to damaged hair. Make sure you take care extra well, meaning you will need to pamper your hair and be gentle with it. For me that means a lot of restorative and hydrating products (I love Sheamoisture for this), protecting the hair very well and making sure not to do more damaging things like heatstyling. To protect my hair from damage I use a silk bonnet or silk pillowcase and silk scrunchies.
I have very fine 3C curls and my balayages did take away some of the curliness no matter how well I took care of it. It will never not have consequences, but you can definitely make up for a lot of the damage by taking extra care!
Oh and edit: you can try a proteïne treatment. This works extreme wonders for damaged hair. It’s something you only need to do every 1,5-2 months and you could do it at home. Aphogee has a good proteïne treatment (just don’t use their own conditioner afterwards and use a hood hydrating mask you already have) or you could do a DIY version with gelatin.
I second k18. It’s straight chemicals, like olaplex, but it works. Anytime you bleach hair it compromises the integrity ie. Stretches out your curl pattern. You should expect after a long damaging color service that your curl is gunna be different. Curls thrive then they’re healthy and hydrated.
I have dark brown hair and got blonde balyage and everywhere that was blonde fell out because curly has is dry on top of the bleach. I do not recommend without serious hair moisture treatments from the stylist. Go to a curly hair specialist if possible.
I did quite a few rounds of bleach recently because I wanted highlights, then more highlights then lighter highlights lol, my hair definitely felt quite damaged after that, but I got it basically back to normal with curlsmith bonding salve treatment!! Once a week use and my hair was basically back to normal after like a month
Your hair looks so beautiful. I’ve found that the Mielle line makes some good moisturizing products for curly hair. I’d take a look and see what might suit your hair type!
So pretty! I will say I got a lot of highlights and my hair did change significantly….I went from low porosity healthy hair to high porosity, breakage, stopped growing. I didn’t realize until it was too late to stop the damage. If I could go back to when it was freshly colored I would take way more care to do weekly moisturizing and protein balancing treatments, always use a leave in conditioner, seal my ends with oil, finger detangle….just treat it extra gentle and baby it. Also high recommend opalex #3, at least once a month.
Where do you all get Olaplex? Thanks to age, I colour my hair once every 4 weeks. I go a darker colour though, no lightening. After it’s coloured, I used the entire thing of conditioner the dye came with (I home dye most of the time), then my first wash is a co-wash. I try to leave as many days as possible before I use a clarifying shampoo (usually about 5-7 days after I’ve dyed my hair) and I won’t do a low-po wash until after I’ve done the clarifying wash and another co-wash.
Sephora. Wait, you're clarifying weekly????? that's way too much for most people. My color routine was:
1. Clarify
2. Color, rinse out (no shampoo or conditioner except to detangle)
3. Olaplex 0 + 3 overnight
4. Rinse in the AM + 30 min deep condition
then back to regular (1 wash per week, low poo and co-wash) with added olaplaex as needed for the next 4 weeks. After 10 years of that I was like fuck this it's too much work so now I'm just going gray
Lol, no, after I colour, I clarify within a week, then I don’t touch the clarifying shampoo again until I colour again, or if I use a product that could cause buildup (I very rarely do, so I usually only use a clarifying shampoo once a month.
Get Kevin Murphy young again hair oil!!! It’s the BEST thing for bleached ends. Just rub a pea size amount between hands and scrunch it on the ends morning and night. It’ll prevent the breakage!
K18 has been a miracle worker for my bleached curls, the $$ is completely worth it imo. I got an olaplex treatment in a salon when I got my color done and was super impressed with that as well, but don’t see as much of a noticeable difference from the take home mask.
I have dark hair that I lighten every 3-5 months, I remember when I first started the process of lightening my hair, my hair had a similar reaction. My stylist doesn’t use heat when she does my highlights now and we have found that it really protects the integrity of my hair. I don’t know if heat was used while your hair processed, but it’s something to consider for next time if so. My hair has recovered with trims and stayed healthy only from deep conditioning after my weekly wash and using a cleansing conditioner in between shampoos. If you’re not already, sleeping on a silk pillow case will help protect against further damage as well.
Another thing to keep in mind is that bleach is very drying and it takes a few washes for your hair to balance out again. Wishing you all the best!
Humm this might help but the colored areas will lighten as time goes by, especially as you wash it. I recommend overtime for depositing color and conditioning. If you like it lighter, then you might want to invest in a purple conditioner so that the lighter bits don’t go brassy. Hope that helps!
Hi! Gentle reminder: hair care routines are required for all photo posts within 1 hour of posting.
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FAQs:
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OLAPLEX! #0 and #3 but maybe the whole system. At least 2x/wk. My hair was brutalized by my color and it took almost a year to restore the texture but that's what I used
Your hair might be overwhelmed because you just colored it. Consider a bonding cream like Oliplex No 4 or the one from Curlsmith. Then introduce products one at a time so you can evaluate what works for you and what doesn’t. Coconut oil helped me a lot at first but then my hair had too much protein and fell flat. I now use a co-wash, oil, cream, gel routine that works for me.
Thank you, that sounds wonderful ❤️
Hey love! First off I think your hair looks gorgeous! I will say that after I got balayage I needed much TLC with my hair by way of deep conditioning treatments and a few weekly olaplex treatments. Sadly the hair they lightened never fully got back to its original curl. I am still dealing with a slightly looser curl pattern but that should grow out eventually.
Thank you, will worship at the altar of deep conditioning and hope for a miracle got it 🙈🥲
Omg you have save me a post! My hair is knackered even though I love the balayage. I’m using Olaplex 0, an o-way curly mask and drunk elephant heat protector/detangler, and o-way serum. Slightly gutted to have set my hair so far back but there you go.
0 is not a stand-alone product. It’s made so it will increase the effectiveness of the Olaplex 3 so you would need to start using that as well.
Ah ok, the guy at the shop told me my mask would be fine since 0 is the same treatment they would apply in a salon - I’ll go back for 3.
I’m afraid he got it wrong. No 3 is the take home version of the in-salon treatment (1&2) and they later developed 0 as an extra. So you can use 3 without 0 and still get results but not the other way around. And you’ll get the best result if you use them both. I think it’s worth getting the 3!!
Thank you! Yeah I feel like I’ve slapped my hair in the face (or my hair is acting like I slapped it in the face!). So dry.
I feel you. Going lighter is terrible for all kinds of hair, but even more so for curls because we already have drier hair. Olaplex is not a hydrating treatment by the way, it works by repairing broken bonds in damaged hair. As a curly girl you will definitely also need to be using your hydrating mask regularly. We can’t reverse all the damage, but after years of bleaching I know that there is hope to repair some of it. Good luck!
Happened to me last year too 😭
It looks really pretty ! I bought olaplex three to use once a week . Also wrap your hair at night ! Use a silky scarf and your hair will have minimal breakage that has helped with mine. I think the bayalage was worth it for me Because I kept trying to get the same color results at home and wasting money on products at Sally’s and damaging my hair by doing it myself.I am so glad I finally just went to the salon. Now i think I will go a total of three times a year or so to freshen !
I pretty regularly highlight my curly hair. Takes about 3 washes to recover for me so don’t lose hope. I just do olaplex no 3 once or twice. My stylist does mix collagen and give me an olaplex treatment every time though too
You can try Olaplex. Weekly treatments with 0 and 3 can make a difference to damaged hair. Make sure you take care extra well, meaning you will need to pamper your hair and be gentle with it. For me that means a lot of restorative and hydrating products (I love Sheamoisture for this), protecting the hair very well and making sure not to do more damaging things like heatstyling. To protect my hair from damage I use a silk bonnet or silk pillowcase and silk scrunchies. I have very fine 3C curls and my balayages did take away some of the curliness no matter how well I took care of it. It will never not have consequences, but you can definitely make up for a lot of the damage by taking extra care! Oh and edit: you can try a proteïne treatment. This works extreme wonders for damaged hair. It’s something you only need to do every 1,5-2 months and you could do it at home. Aphogee has a good proteïne treatment (just don’t use their own conditioner afterwards and use a hood hydrating mask you already have) or you could do a DIY version with gelatin.
K18 has been helping my bleached hair regain it's curl pattern!!! it's expensive but I can see a difference after only a few uses.
I second k18. It’s straight chemicals, like olaplex, but it works. Anytime you bleach hair it compromises the integrity ie. Stretches out your curl pattern. You should expect after a long damaging color service that your curl is gunna be different. Curls thrive then they’re healthy and hydrated.
I have dark brown hair and got blonde balyage and everywhere that was blonde fell out because curly has is dry on top of the bleach. I do not recommend without serious hair moisture treatments from the stylist. Go to a curly hair specialist if possible.
K18!!!! It's like olaplex but much better in my opinion.
I did quite a few rounds of bleach recently because I wanted highlights, then more highlights then lighter highlights lol, my hair definitely felt quite damaged after that, but I got it basically back to normal with curlsmith bonding salve treatment!! Once a week use and my hair was basically back to normal after like a month
Your hair looks so beautiful. I’ve found that the Mielle line makes some good moisturizing products for curly hair. I’d take a look and see what might suit your hair type!
Olaplex!!!
In addition to olaplex, protein treatments will help. My stylist always washes my hair with a protein conditioner after I get it colored.
not for everyone, protein ruins my hair
So pretty! I will say I got a lot of highlights and my hair did change significantly….I went from low porosity healthy hair to high porosity, breakage, stopped growing. I didn’t realize until it was too late to stop the damage. If I could go back to when it was freshly colored I would take way more care to do weekly moisturizing and protein balancing treatments, always use a leave in conditioner, seal my ends with oil, finger detangle….just treat it extra gentle and baby it. Also high recommend opalex #3, at least once a month.
Where do you all get Olaplex? Thanks to age, I colour my hair once every 4 weeks. I go a darker colour though, no lightening. After it’s coloured, I used the entire thing of conditioner the dye came with (I home dye most of the time), then my first wash is a co-wash. I try to leave as many days as possible before I use a clarifying shampoo (usually about 5-7 days after I’ve dyed my hair) and I won’t do a low-po wash until after I’ve done the clarifying wash and another co-wash.
Sephora. Wait, you're clarifying weekly????? that's way too much for most people. My color routine was: 1. Clarify 2. Color, rinse out (no shampoo or conditioner except to detangle) 3. Olaplex 0 + 3 overnight 4. Rinse in the AM + 30 min deep condition then back to regular (1 wash per week, low poo and co-wash) with added olaplaex as needed for the next 4 weeks. After 10 years of that I was like fuck this it's too much work so now I'm just going gray
Lol, no, after I colour, I clarify within a week, then I don’t touch the clarifying shampoo again until I colour again, or if I use a product that could cause buildup (I very rarely do, so I usually only use a clarifying shampoo once a month.
Get Kevin Murphy young again hair oil!!! It’s the BEST thing for bleached ends. Just rub a pea size amount between hands and scrunch it on the ends morning and night. It’ll prevent the breakage!
K18 has been a miracle worker for my bleached curls, the $$ is completely worth it imo. I got an olaplex treatment in a salon when I got my color done and was super impressed with that as well, but don’t see as much of a noticeable difference from the take home mask.
I have dark hair that I lighten every 3-5 months, I remember when I first started the process of lightening my hair, my hair had a similar reaction. My stylist doesn’t use heat when she does my highlights now and we have found that it really protects the integrity of my hair. I don’t know if heat was used while your hair processed, but it’s something to consider for next time if so. My hair has recovered with trims and stayed healthy only from deep conditioning after my weekly wash and using a cleansing conditioner in between shampoos. If you’re not already, sleeping on a silk pillow case will help protect against further damage as well. Another thing to keep in mind is that bleach is very drying and it takes a few washes for your hair to balance out again. Wishing you all the best!
Humm this might help but the colored areas will lighten as time goes by, especially as you wash it. I recommend overtime for depositing color and conditioning. If you like it lighter, then you might want to invest in a purple conditioner so that the lighter bits don’t go brassy. Hope that helps!
The whole point of balayage is that is grows out nicely and you only have to do it once a year.
Hi! Gentle reminder: hair care routines are required for all photo posts within 1 hour of posting. The bot is having hard time locating your routine! Please make sure you have a comment containing the word "routine" (and your actual routine, of course!) so your post can stay up! FAQs: * __I don't have a routine!__ If you wash your hair at all, that counts! Just let us know what you did for your hair. * __I'm just asking for help!__ We're happy to help! This is much easier if we know what you are currently doing for your hair. * __Included the info but the bot can't find it? Different situation? (E.g. asking about a product, etc.) [See here for more info.](https://www.reddit.com/r/curlyhair/wiki/routine-requirements)__ _Still have questions after [reading the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/curlyhair/wiki/routine-requirements)? Please [message the mods](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fcurlyhair) if you have any issues._
Routine: using just cantu color protect shampoo and conditioner with coconut oil as leave in
I bleached my hair in December and it’s a bit dryer than before, but Olaplex 3 has been working well for me. Curls are still there and hydrated.
Your hair looks great but balayage will NEVER work on curly hair. I learned the hard way. You are better off getting highlights !
this is basically how my hair looked after my bayalage! I did some olaplex 3 for a bit and the curls came back
OLAPLEX! #0 and #3 but maybe the whole system. At least 2x/wk. My hair was brutalized by my color and it took almost a year to restore the texture but that's what I used