pre-highlighting tips? going to the salon next week

[dainaleeo2]

Hey, i was wondering, for those of you who color or highlight, & either do it at home or get it done at the salon, what do you do before hand to make sure your hair stays healthy? I have a hair appointment next week, Wednesday i believe, & since I'm growing my hair out [along with the color that i've done], i need to get a few highlights around the top layers & crown so that when i grow out my naturally blonde hair, i won't have a huge mark where the light brown was :p

I was thinking of doing a few olive oil treatments, & i still have a thing of Nexxus Emergencee laying around, so I could possibly do a protein treatment if anyone recommends it. Basically i'll just be allowing it to dry naturally, no heat, nothing. My hair is in MUCH better shape after reading around here, & stopping my flat ironing [or doing it once in a GREAT while], so I think i can handle the highlights :)

[Pandora.]

I'm getting my roots done next week so I'll stick around this thread to see what others have to say. :)

[halo_tightens]

Try some coconut oil in your hair on highlight day. It doesn't interfere with the coloring, but helps to protect your hair from the damage that can be caused.

I know it might not be the ideal situation when going to the salon, but I think the best scenario would involve applying coconut oil to your hair the night before, sleeping with it in, and going to the salon and having the highlights done with the coconut oil still in your hair.

[Pandora.]

Try some coconut oil in your hair on highlight day. It doesn't interfere with the coloring, but helps to protect your hair from the damage that can be caused.

I know it might not be the ideal situation when going to the salon, but I think the best scenario would involve applying coconut oil to your hair the night before, sleeping with it in, and going to the salon and having the highlights done with the coconut oil still in your hair.

I heard coconut oil fades hair color? So if it fades hair color, wouldn't the person be more tempted to color previously dyed hair? Would I need to apply coconut oil to my hair if I'm only getting my roots dyed blonde?

[Carolyn]

I try to step up my over night oilings the week before. I also try to do a deep treatment with my heat cap a day or two before also. I often use GM 12 Minute or one of the Kiehls heavy conditioners or a SMT. I want my hair as moisturized as possible.

[LawyerGirl]

There have been some threads that talk about how coconut oil doesn't interfere with coloring, but they inhibit the.... free radicals (is that it?) that cause the damage when you color.

[Yarn Muse]

How much coconut oil do you use? And where do you find the stuff? I am thinking of having highlights done. I would think a hair stylist might balk a bit at being asked to do highlights on oily hair. But maybe you put in only a tiny bit?

[spidermom]

I would hope the hairstylist wouldn't balk too much if it's clean, oiled hair. I could see someone not wanting to get knuckle-deep into dirty hair, though.

[Pandora.]

Would jojoba oil be as effective as coconut oil? I only have jojoba oil and I don't have much time to go out and get some coconut oil before I go to the salon.

[halo_tightens]

I went off to to look for THIS (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495) thread so I could link to it here, and I saw that Pandora has found it already... It has lots of info on the subject.

I think coconut oil has specific properties that allow it to give this damage protection, so other oils (like jojoba) would not have the same effect.

[Kathie]

I heard coconut oil fades hair color? Would I need to apply coconut oil to my hair if I'm only getting my roots dyed blonde?

Bleach isn’t a color- your simply removing the color pigments from your hair. I think they mean when you dye hair a darker color, coconut oil can fade that out.

Just a small amount on your roots might work? But as mentioned, some hairdressers can get pretty stroppy about what appears to be unwashed hair.
I have a pretty good relationship with my hairdresser- if I was going down this road Id ask her if it was alright to turn up with coconut oil on my hair and explain why I'm doing it before the fact.


Oh, on an interesting side note- they've done tests regarding hair bleaching. They analysed the water used to wash the hair after its was bleached and found hair proteins and fats in it- yes, some of your hair just washes down the drain! I guess, that’s why coconut oil is mentioned here- to prevent some of this loss of hair components. But the thought of it was just shocking to me! They mentioned that it could keep occurring with subsequent washes (its not a stated fact because they can’t keep following the research participants around collecting the water that comes off their hair when they wash it).

[dainaleeo2]

thanks for all of the information. i'm planning on doing an olive oil + coconut oil tonight, wash it out tomorrow. I'm going to a baseball game so i wanted to make sure I had deep oiled it so that the heat [even if i wear a cap] doesn't kill it. at least it's a night game :)
i'll try adding a small bit of coconut oil to my hair before i go then. i'm going to a new stylist, since my old one...she didn't seem to understand at all the idea of putting oil into your hair. she told me that was why we have new products that do the same thing :p she didn't quite get it. plus my hair was fried last time [last summer], so i switched it up on a good recommendation :) hopefully they won't freak & wash it a million times before highlighting -groan-

[fashionaddict]

I went to the salon about 3-4 weeks ago to get my hair highlighted. Since I had read FrannyGs (sp?) advice about putting coconut oil on hair before coloring it, I decided to give it a try. At the salon they did not pay much attention to the fact that my hair was oily. I did not tell the stylist that I had applied coconut oil the evening before and also in the morning. She did ask me how long I had not washed my hair. I told her it was about 3 days and that was that.:) I thought it best not to get into the 'why-on-earth-would-you-put-that-on-your-hair-before-coming-here' conversation and although she must have thought that I was a weird greasehead, at least I did something to prevent the damage to my hair.:D Yes, I think the coconut oil helped, but I also followed it up with a lot of heavy oiling and SMTs the week after highlighting.