Brunette colors are popular, beautiful, versatile and easy to live with and love. While they are easier to maintain than red or blonde colors, every brunette can benefit from a few color boosting pro tips.

These ten tips from our hair colorists will help keep your brunette color and condition beautiful.

1 INGREDIENTS MATTER

There’s no need for nasty, harsh and old-fashioned ingredients in hair color. There’s a new generation of ingredients which can deliver permanent, salon grade color without unnecessary harsh chemicals.

The key ingredients to avoid in color products are ammonia and PPD. Ammonia will dry and weaken your hair and can irritate your eyes and nose with its harsh smell. Ammonia used in industrial cleaning products and it shouldn’t be in your hair color. Leading breast cancer researchers advise reducing or avoiding PPD exposure, so let’s take their word for it.

Our color range is hypoallergenic and is free from ammonia, PPD, parabens and phthalates and is suitable for sensitive skin.

2 DEEP CONDITION – QUALITY COUNTS

Get ahead of process-worn locks with an intensive conditioning treatment such as our favourite thermal Tsubaki oil treatment and Repair Mask. If the ends of your hair are fragile and prone to breakage, consider using our Split End Serum to rebuild and repair the ends of your hair, which are often the weakest part of the hair. These products will infuse your hair with the moisture it needs to strengthen your hair, minimize breakage and repair damage and also leave your hair beautifully soft and shiny. We recommend rotating botanically based hair treatments to maximise the exposure to a range of beneficial active botanicals, and the benefits to your hair.

3 THERMALLY BOOST TREATMENT BENEFITS

Adding gentle heat to your oil or deep conditioning treatments with a thermal cap will allow the active ingredients to penetrate within the hair, maximising the benefits and outcomes. Applying some gentle heat with a thermal cap will soften and lift the outer cuticle of the hair, allowing the active ingredients to be fully absorbed. The effect can be quite transformational. Thermal caps are reuseable and can be used with any almost any hair treatment – we recommend pure, botanical based deep conditioning products.

4 SKIP THE SUDS

Daily washing dulls hair color. You can slow your fade by reducing washes which allows your natural oils to hydrate and strengthen your hair between washes.

5 NO LIFT SEMI’S/TONERS TO BOOST color, TONE & SHINE

If your brunette color goal is a finish without any warmth in it at all, try a toner in between permanent color applications. A toner is a cool-based color blended with a no lift 5 vol developer. It will deposit cool tone and shine only, leaving a high-shine, super soft tonally balanced finish. We recommend selecting a toner which is a level lighter than the lightest color in your hair and we have toners for all color levels.

If you prefer richer, warmer tones in your hair, a golden or copper based semi-permanent color will boost color, tone and shine. Semi-permanent colors are also a great way to experiment commitment-free with copper, mahogany or golden tones. Select a 5 vol developer with any warm based color to add semi-permanent warmer tones to your darker base.

6 CONDITION TO SWIM

Avoid the drying and tonal impacts of chlorine or salt water by wetting hair with tap water and adding conditioner before you take a dip, which can help protect your hair from the drying effects of salt or chlorine water.

7 COVER IT UP

We love it, but the sun isn’t always the best friend to our skin and our color, and it does cause color fade. Pop on a wide brim hat to extend your color and protect you from sun damage.

8 STICK TO YOUR ROOTS

Reduce processes by applying permanent color to your roots only. Permanent color will cover grays, so this approach is a great way to stay on top of regrowth and reduce processes in the lengths of your hair. Boost tone, color and shine in your lengths with a toner or semi-permanent color. That’s how we color our hair. We call it color Perfection and it could just be the perfect color approach for you too.

9 LIFT OUT OLDER PIGMENTS

Consider lifting out older, darker pigments annually with a bleach wash. This is helpful if you have color build-up or older, layered color which leads to darker, duller color results. If you have some built-up color, or if you want to lighten your color level by two color levels and you have color in your hair, a bleach wash will give you a lighter base color and a fresh color start.

10 HANDLE WITH CARE

Reduce or avoid using heated styling tools as much as possible. Lean into your natural texture. If you fight it you might just win the battle but lose the hair health and condition war. Repeately applying heat directly to your hair will make your hair more porous, and that means it’s more difficult for the strands to retain color.

The Ash Brown has left my hair without the ghastly red tone; soft and manageable,a month on. Thanks for fast delivery and quality product. Also for all the information freely available on your site about the colors . This enabled me to choose the color that gave the result desired.

M. Cross

I am incredibly impressed at the color!! It is the ABSOLUTE perfect dark brown, not even my latest hair dresser could get right. The very reason why I have tried this. The home kit is like a mini-professional kit, with everything you need. I love this product. I highly recommend this product

T. Butler

The Shade kit had everything I needed for such an affordable price. I absolutely loved the shampoo and conditioner. My hair throws a lot of warm tones and I’m always apprehensive about trying at home colors but the cool dark brown color did not disappoint. I’m very impressed with this product and will continue to purchase.

E. Kokkin