Tips for making your hair color last

Keeping your color

A professional dye job can be pricey and time-consuming, so there's an incentive to try to extend the life of the color.

"I used to wash my hair every day but now I shampoo maybe once a week," confessed Erica Hanna, a Minneapolis woman whose hair is currently lavender. "I rinse it, then use conditioner just on the ends. It sounds gross, but it isn't."

Hanna got that advice from her stylist, Shelley Rae at Honeycomb Salon. Rae also advises using cool water to keep the cuticle of the hair closed, which helps hold the color.

Other recommendations include using dry shampoos to reduce fading, and buying professional color-safe shampoo and conditioner.

"Any stylist who does [color] should send their client out the door with instructions," Rae said. "We don't want them to go to all that trouble and then have the color they paid for go down the drain."

Kevyn Burger