Clarify before or after hair dye?

[diddiedaisy]

Hi all, I've just bought a clarifying shampoo and hair dye. Would it matter to the health of my hair which order I did things. My hair is quite brittle at the moment, but strangely doesn't look or feel dry. Thanks

[Arctic]

Before. The colour will be able to get in touch with your hair better this way, and also because clarifying shampoo might fade your new colour post-dyeing.

[lapushka]

I never used to wash before dyeing, and my mom doesn't either. Some packet inserts even say to not do this on freshly washed hair. The natural oils protect your scalp from the harsh chemicals. Usually you need to wash with a milder shampoo after dyeing as well, and with some dyes the shampoo is incorporated into the dye so you only have to suds the stuff up before rinsing. Follow your packet insert!

[diddiedaisy]

Thanks. I'll do a clarifying wash in the morning or maybe tonight. I'm not dying my hair until Thursday, but I've never clarified before so I wasn't sure if it was better to dye it before I got the build up out in case it offered some kind of protection. I never dye just washed hair, but sometimes I'll dye it in the evening and it's been washed that morning.

[Arctic]

Oh yeah, if the instructions say to not wash, then it's good to follow them. But never the less, I'd clarify at least few days beforehands the dyeing. Then if would get a bit oily before the actual dyeing yet be free of products buildup.

[Robot Ninja]

If it's a permanent dye, you're not supposed to use it on freshly washed hair. Supposedly coconut oil helps with color retention and minimizing damage, so you could do that after clarifying to "dirty" your hair a bit.

[endlessly]

You definitely want to do it before you dye your hair and several days in advance. Then, if I were you, I'd avoid washing your hair again until after you dye it since your natural oils will help protect your scalp and provide added moisture to your hair. Since you said your hair is more brittle, I'd actually suggest waiting to use the dye if you could because no matter how gentle a dye claims to be, it will make already damaged hair a lot worse and you could potentially see more breakage and splits as a result. If you absolutely have to use the dye on that day, it doesn't hurt to use a very deep conditioning hair masque just to make sure your hair is strong enough to survive the dyeing process. Best of luck!

[Anje]

A good wash-cycle before, so your hair can get dirty again and you can dye it dirty. (Slathering on coconut oil a few hours beforehand and then dyeing the oily hair has gotten a lot of people exceptionally good results. If I went to conventional dye, I would do that always.)

It might not hurt to chelate in the wash before dyeing, too. It seems that the ions present in a lot of our water, especially copper, can build up on hair and contribute to the damage that you get from peroxide. Coconut oil reportedly can bind up some of that, but I think I'd put my trust in a real chelator first and reduce what the coconut has left to mop up.

Clarifying after dyeing is likely to wash out a lot of your freshly applied dye. No thanks!

[diddiedaisy]

Thanks for the great advice. I had a bath tonight and clarified, deep conditioned and then used my normal conditioner.