That's right: One of the biggest reasons for faded hair color is hard water. The same hard minerals that cause limescale around your home can also strip away hair dye. The more you wash your hair with hard water, the worse the problem will get.
The more porous the hair, the more color will fade as essentially the color molecules don't have as much real estate to latch onto the hair shaft and stick around. Unnatural colors are particularly bad with this. If you have hard water in your area that can also cause color fading.
Apply a leave-in conditioner or a light hair serum to add moisture and shine. This can help improve the overall appearance of your hair. Consider using a color-depositing gloss or a clear gloss treatment. These can enhance shine and refresh your color without full dyeing.
Shampoos remove natural oils and strip hair of its pigment, so the more often you wash your blonde hair, the quicker it will fade. If you get oily hair in between washes, try a dry shampoo on days when you don't wash your hair.
Hot water can dull blonde as it causes the hair cuticles to open. I know washing with cool water is a pain especially when it's cold outside but even just switching from hot to cool when rinsing out your conditioner can help preserve the brightness of your blonde as this will close and seal the cuticles.
The longer the bleach is left on your hair, the more pigment is dissolved, and the lighter your hair will become.
Hormonal Changes: Hormonal fluctuations, especially during puberty, pregnancy, and menopause, can affect melanin production. These changes can result in blonde hair darkening over time. For instance, increased levels of certain hormones can stimulate melanin production, leading to a gradual shift from blonde to brown.
Bleaching hair makes it very porous, sometimes unevenly so. So it will take on hair colour easily, but just like a sponge it will release it when shampooed just as fast. The only way to stop it from fading is to keep applying a colour to try and match your natural dark shade.
Highlighted hair is often porous and can take on ash tones heavily – the hair then appears greyish or sometimes even silver. When you say your blonde highlights look grey, it is often because they take on a grey-blue tone, sometimes all over and sometimes in patches.
Washing your hair will cause the colour to fade faster and can cause your hair to become more brittle and prone to breakages. For optimum blonde hair maintenance, avoid washing your hair too regularly -- we recommend aiming for no more than 2-3 washes a week.
Nature's Rarest Palette: Red Hair Standing at the apex of rarity, natural red hair occurs in just 1-2% of the global population. This striking shade results from a specific genetic variant of the MC1R gene, requiring both parents to pass on the recessive trait.
Of all the dreaded hair woes, brassiness ranks high on the list. Brassy hair is caused by an overabundance of warm pigments in your hair, usually caused by bleaching and the hair coloring process. Brass usually shows up as yellow or orange tones in blonde hair and orange or red tones in brunette hair.
This is exacerbated by the fact that blonde hair often undergoes chemical processes that can lead to a higher susceptibility to damage and dryness. Without regular deep conditioning treatments, your blonde hair may lack the hydration it needs, leaving it looking dull, tired and lifeless.
Hair color can fade due to a variety of factors, including frequent washing and styling, using products containing sulfates, added salts, and even alcohols, exposure to sunlight, UVA and UVB rays, and even minerals in your water, chlorine and other chemicals.
Hair stylists often tone bleached or blonde hair to neutralize brassy yellow and orange tones on bleached hair with a purple color. Purple shampoo is a great at-home solution for toning hair and preventing brassiness.
It won't completely alter the color of your hair, but it will help you manipulate the shade of your naturally blonde or lightened locks. In a nutshell, hair toner products neutralize unwanted warm or brassy tones to help you achieve a shinier, healthier, more natural-looking shade.
Blonde highlights can lose their lustre over time due to environmental build-up. Pollution, hard water, and even styling products can leave residues that dull your hair colour—that's where a clarifying shampoo comes in handy!