The journal
The eight-week plan: making your colour last between visits
You paid for ten weeks of colour. Most people rinse three of them down the drain in the first month. Here's the schedule our colourists actually follow.
Noor Haddad · Colour Director, Master Stylist · June 18, 2026 · 6 min read
Week zero starts at the basin
The first 48 hours after colour are when the cuticle is still settling. Skip the wash entirely for two days — yes, even after the gym; a rinse with cool water and nothing else if you must. Every early wash is a small withdrawal from the ten weeks you just paid for.
When you do wash, water temperature matters more than any product claim on any bottle. Hot water swells the cuticle open and lets pigment walk out. Lukewarm to finish-cool is the single cheapest colour-preserving habit that exists.
Wash less, cleanse smarter
Two, maybe three washes a week is plenty for most colour-treated hair. On the in-between days, water rinses and a light conditioner on the ends will do more good than another lather.
Use a sulfate-free, low-pH cleanser — not because sulfates are evil, but because strong surfactants at high pH are efficient at removing exactly the thing you want to keep. This is the whole reason the Colour-Hold bottle exists on our shelf, and why it's the only product I push unprompted.
Heat is a colour decision
Every pass of a 210-degree iron shifts warm tones warmer and dulls cool ones. If you heat-style regularly, drop your tool 20 degrees and add a thermal protectant every single time — not most times. Your toner will visibly outlive your neighbour's.
- Fine or lightened hair: 150–170°C, one pass
- Medium, healthy hair: 170–190°C
- Coarse or resistant hair: 190–210°C, never higher
Weeks six to eight: the gloss window
Around week six, colour doesn't so much fade as go quiet — flatter, warmer, less glassy. A 45-minute gloss and toner refresh resets the tone and shine without touching your regrowth budget. It's the best-value service on our menu and the one guests most often discover a year later than they should.
Book your next full colour before you leave the gloss appointment. The guests with the best hair in this city are not the ones with the biggest budgets — they're the ones whose next appointment already exists.
What we'd skip
Purple shampoo every wash (once a week, or your blonde goes grey-lilac and dull). Boxed 'gloss' kits over fresh salon colour (they stack pigment unevenly). And any viral rinse involving something from your kitchen — your colourist can tell, and vinegar cannot tone.