How Long After Dying Hair Can I Wash It (And Why)?

How Long After Dying Hair Can I Wash It (And Why)?

Exact Answer: After Four Hours

Hair dyeing is also known as hair coloring. It changes the original hair color partly or wholly to an artificial color that looks good on the hair. It is mainly done for cosmetic purposes. But the primary purpose for which it is done is to cover up someone’s gray or white hair.

Coloring or highlighting one’s hair makes the person look good. So it is trendy for beauty purposes. Hair dyeing can be done by yourself at home or with the help of a hairdresser professionally. It is found that hair dyeing at home in the United States in 2010 was close to two billion dollars, but the same became nearly three billion dollars after a decade. This shows how popular the concept of hair dyeing is.

How Long After Dying Hair Can I Wash It

How Long After Dying Hair Can I Wash It?

Some people also color their hair, which can be tricky because they are lightened and more porous. This means that the color would not respond to the dyes the same way virgin hair would. The chemicals present in the coloring process could ultimately decline your overall hair quality. There are several tutorial videos available on the internet for you to dye your hair from the comfort of your home. There should a process that you should follow for applying dye to your hairs. You should know that dyeing hair will not strengthen the hair somehow; instead, it will weaken.

When we start coloring our hair, our hair is much darker than our standard hair color. This is due to the melanin pigments responsible for the dark color of the wholly broken hair. This is caused because of oxidation. The oxidizing agent is hydrogen peroxide. A mixture of hydrogen peroxide and ammonia is performed for the creation of an alkaline solution. This alkaline solution helps in speeding up the reaction.

Dying Hair
Events After Dying HairTime After Dying Hair
Drying of the dyeWithin thirty minutes
Washing the dye offAfter four hours

After a dye is applied to the hairs, it is advised to let the dye dry for thirty minutes, and the person shouldn’t move much in this period. After it is dried, let the dye remain for four hours so that the hairs can soak the dye. After four hours, it is allowed to wash the dye off with a shampoo.

Why Does It Take That long After Dying Hair To Wash It?

The coloring process will break into the hair shaft, and it destroys the pigment molecules giving you light hair at the end of the process. The dark pigment gets destroyed, and during this process, the chemical has to break down the organic fatty acids on your shafts. This is the reason why most hair professionals recommend people to wait for a few days or weeks before they decide to dye after their hairs have gone white so that their hairs can get enough pigments to retain the darkness of the color for a long time after dying.

During this process, your hairdresser should recommend you cut off some amount of hair. However, on the other hand, if your hair does not feel too damaged, you could use a deep conditioner to restore some amount of moisture so that you can prepare yourself for dyeing. You have to stay cautious about using these kinds of things because you should know what you are allergic to. If you are allergic to some of the components present in the chemical of the color, then there is no need to continue to do the dying process.

Hair Wash

It takes that long after dying hair to wash it because it is advised to give some time to the hairs so that the dye can be soaked entirely and the color remains on the hairs for a longer time. If enough time is not given, then the hair will not become shiny. This will make the hair weaker and porous leading to the break-off of hair.

Conclusion

Overall, it can be concluded that we all like to dye our hair to look glamorous. But dying itself has many side effects. It causes damage to the hair and makes it dry and frizzy. If you feel like your hair is being damaged after dying, you should consider deep conditioning before taking other steps.

On average, it is advised to wash off the dye after four hours of its application. It is advised to let your hairdresser cut the split ends a few inches. But if you do not feel that your hair is too dry or damaged after the coloring procedure, you can put some hair oil or conditioner to revive the moisture content in your hair.

References

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1858345/
  2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969708002398
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20 thoughts on “How Long After Dying Hair Can I Wash It (And Why)?”

  1. I’m glad to finally understand the reasons behind the recommended wait time before washing off the dye

  2. I must say, the explanation about why the dyeing process takes so long is very comprehensive and educational

  3. Avatar of Ellis Christopher
    Ellis Christopher

    I’m surprised to learn the negative impact hair dyeing has on the hair. It’s definitely something to consider

  4. I wasn’t aware of the damage hair dyeing causes. This has definitely given me something to think about

  5. A very informative post. I had no idea about the reasons why one should wait so long to wash off the hair dye

  6. The post has definitely made me think twice about dyeing my hair. I didn’t realize the potential damage

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