Maintaining healthy and happy hair is not something that requires a 10-step process, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. At-home hair care can be easy, affordable and beneficial in damage prevention.

General hair care

An easy way to get into hair care is to keep up with haircuts, depending on your desired look. Emma Grid, a stylist at The Salon, recommends getting a haircut every four to six weeks for someone who wants to keep the length they currently have.

For someone growing it out, who also protects their hair from heat and color, a haircut every four to six months will help them achieve healthy length.

Using heat, like blow drying or straightening hair, and adding color damages hair faster, causing split ends.

“If you are having more damage, it’s going to break off faster than your new growth can grow from your roots,” Grid said. “The idea of trimming regularly is true, if you are somebody who does a lot to your hair.”

To eliminate damaged ends from heat or color while also trying to gain length, Grid recommends a trim every three months.

Hair masks are a way to bring hydration and volume, and most can be applied while washing your hair. Grid recommends avoiding masks that have coconut oil since it does not soak into the strands and anything that is colorful or glittery. Masks with argan oil, jojoba oil and sunflower oil are all beneficial.

A once-a-month at-home hair mask she recommends is mixing honey, olive oil and raw eggs, enough to completely cover your hair. This can be put on dry hair, wrapped in a shower cap and sits for 30 to 45 minutes. After this, the hair can be washed like normal.

“It sounds really gross, but it makes your hair really shiny and feel really good,” Grid said.

Protecting color

Getting hair professionally dyed can be pricey, making color protection the most important step in maintaining this look. Avoiding a shower within the first 48 hours of your dye is crucial, according to Grid.

“When you very first get fresh color, your pH has been shifted from what’s natural, and it takes about 48 hours for that to get back to normal,” Grid said. “If you want to keep your color longer, wash it less because every time you wash it, you’re going to lift that pH over your cuticle a little bit, so you’re going to lose some color.”

Cold water will close the cuticles of your hair, making it more difficult for color to escape. Using shampoo and conditioner that is hydrating and has color protectant will also help maintain color.

For dyed blonde hair, many people immediately go to the popular purple shampoo. While this is beneficial, it may be overused. Instead of using this for every wash, Grid recommends using it with regular shampoo and only using it when a yellow tint starts to show.

At The Salon, the stylists’ go-to shampoo is Unite. This can be used for anyone with colored hair, and it comes with a purple shampoo for dyed blonde hair.

Sally’s employee Alex Dinning recommends Ion and Biotera for color protection shampoo and conditioner. For dyed curly hair, she recommends All About Curls.

At-home hair dyeing tips

Box dye from Walmart or Target is on Grid’s never list, as they are unregulated.

“A lot of them use what’s called 30 or 40 volume developer, so the volume of developer is a different percentage of peroxide,” Grid said. “The higher the volume, the more peroxide. The more peroxide, the more damage comes to your hair.”

The most volume developer needed is usually 20, and box dyes usually do not add the warmth that is needed because of how simple the product is.

“If you’re someone who already has delicate hair and then you put 40 volume developer on your hair, that’s when you’re going to see that heavy damage,” Grid said. “You’re going to see green tints.”

Going to Sally’s and finding what color product works best for your hair type is best, as they have tested hair swatches to show what the color will look like. This is much closer to what the color will look like than just a photo on a box dye.

Dinning recommends Wella for vibrancy, Iroiro for a variety of colors and One ‘n Only Argan Oil to get “more color for your money.”