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If You Dye Your Hair, You Need These Color-Preserving Shampoos & Conditioners

by Maria Del Russo
Bustle/Amazon

When you start dyeing your hair, you quickly realize that you can't just keep using whatever shampoo and conditioner is on sale at the drugstore. Many hair-care products contain ingredients that can cause color to fade, which is why hair colorists always recommend buying a shampoo and conditioner made specifically to keep your color looking vibrant and fresh. Ahead, a handy breakdown on how to decipher between the best shampoos and conditioners for color-treated hair, plus six of the top picks you can get online.

As you likely already know, dyeing your hair typically causes some form of damage, especially when there's bleach involved. Any sort of chemical process opens up the hair cuticle, making it more porous, which causes moisture to evaporate more quickly than it would in or non-dyed hair. This is why, when shopping for a shampoo for color-treated hair, you want to look for a formula that's moisturizing. Similarly, it's also important to steer clear of ingredients that can sap the hydration from your hair like sulfates. Conditioners for dyed hair are much easier to shop for, since they typically don't contain sulfates (a foaming agent) in the first place — and since, across the board, their primary goal is to moisturize and repair.

From volume-boosting formulas to clarifying cleansers to heavy-duty hair masks, scroll on to discover six of the best shampoos and conditioners for dyed hair.

1Best Natural Shampoo For Color-Treated Hair

For a shampoo that's sulfate-free, color-preserving, and from a clean beauty brand, you can't do much better than Intelligent Nutrients PureServe Color Saving Shampoo. Made from a blend of natural botanicals and certified-organic ingredients, the formula helps prolong the life of your color by keeping it protected from from environmental pollutants, like free radicals, which can cause your color to fade or become dull. It also helps reduce brassy undertones and increase shine, so your hair looks and stays vibrant in between touch-ups.

In addition to being sulfate-free, it also doesn't contain any parabens, silicones, or synthetic fragrances, so it's safe for use on sensitive skin and scalps.

2Best Clarifying Shampoo For Color-Treated Hair

To remove product buildup on your scalp, you should be using a clarifying shampoo about once a week. In addition to sometimes causing dandruff, greasy roots, and itchy scalps, product buildup can also cause your hair color to look dull. For a sulfate-free clarifying shampoo, the Carol's Daughter Rhassoul Clay should be your go-to. This balancing formula, which contains clay, aloe juice, and argan oil, clarifies your hair and scalp without being drying or stripping. Reviewers say it leaves their hair feeling deeply cleansed, but soft, and rave about its abilities to keep their color looking shiny.

Though any hair type can benefit from using a shampoo like this on occasion, if you have oily roots but dry ends, this could be the exact solution you've been looking for.

3 3. Best Prestige Shampoo For Color-Treated Hair

For a salon-quality shampoo that professionals love, there's the Phytomillesime Botanical Color-Enhancing Shampoo. With a formula rich in color-enhancing botanical extracts, this shampoo helps keep your color looking vibrant and shiny. Hydrating ingredients like argan butter and hibiscus extract work to restore moisture and repair damage, while the lack of sulfates prevents your color from fading with each wash.

4Best Volumizing Shampoo & Conditioner For Color-Treated Hair

For color-treated hair in need of a boost of volume, this shampoo and conditioner duo from L'Oréal's Ever Pure line is a drugstore favorite. Each product helps add body and fullness to flat-looking hair, and since the formulas are free of sulfates, salts, and surfactants, they won't strip your color or weigh your hair down. L'Oréal says the duo helps keep color looking vibrant for up to four weeks, and for the price, it really can't be beat.

5Best Conditioner For Color-Treated Hair

For an amazing deep conditioner at a drugstore price, L’Oréal comes to the rescue again. The Elvive Color Vibrancy conditioner helps repair color-treated hair that's become damaged and dry, while also increasing shine and offering protection from future breakage. Infused with a blend antioxidants and an intensely conditioning serum, this formula will have brittle hair feeling silky again in no time.

6Best Hair Mask For Color-Treated Hair

If you prefer using a hair mask in place of conditioner, (a pro-tip for anyone with severely damaged or dried-out hair), try this color-boosting formula from Garnier. Like most deep conditioning treatments, this one-minute mask helps soften and smooth hair, but what sets it apart is its color-enhancing abilities. Using a blend of 98 percent natural ingredients sourced from botanicals like goji berry, papaya, coconut, and avocado, it helps your color look more vibrant each time you use it (it also smells delicious).

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