Can Shampoos Strip Haircolor From Your Hair? [2024]

Does Shampoo Remove Haircolor?

When researching shampoo, we noticed a trend in the questions. It had to do with shampoos and hair color dye.

Questions like…

Is your shampoo good for color-treated hair?

Will your shampoo strip the color from my hair?

Why are sulfates bad for my dyed hair?

Despite our good intentions, our daily habits can sometimes harm our hair color. Neglecting to use a heat protectant or over-washing our hair with harsh clarifying shampoos are just a few ways our haircare routines can impact our hair color.

Taking 5 minutes to read this article will answer these questions and give you some insight you may not have realized about shampoo and hair dye.

5 Habits That Are Potentially Damaging Your Haircolor

Shampoos can cause color-treated hair to fade, as all shampoos can strip some color over time. Using sulfate-free shampoos is gentler and slows color fading, but some fading will still occur when washing with any shampoo.

Here are 5 habits that are potentially damaging your hair:

Using the wrong type of shampoo

Not all shampoos are created equal. The type of shampoo you use can significantly impact the appearance of your hair color due to ingredients like sulfates and other powerful cleansing agents. To keep your hair looking vibrant, you need to choose a shampoo formulated to protect, preserve, and amplify your hair color.

If you don’t use a color-safe shampoo, your hair color could fade. Opt for shampoos labeled as color-safe, sulfate-free, or made for color-treated hair to help prolong the life of your hair color.

Wetting Your Hair In The Shower

The water in your shower, if unfiltered, may contain hard minerals that can accumulate in your hair, causing your hair color to fade faster than expected.

To protect your strands, wear a shower cap or tie your hair in a top knot when you don’t shampoo, preventing the water from directly contacting your hair and minimizing mineral buildup.

Your Styling Products May Contain Alchohol

Alcohol-based products can dehydrate your hair, leading to split ends, breakage, and a dull appearance. To maintain vibrant hair color, sparingly use alcohol-based products like hairsprays or gels, and opt for color-safe, alcohol-free alternatives.

You Need Protein Treatments

Your hair requires protein to be robust, much like your body. For those with color-treated hair, protein treatments are crucial for restoring damage from chemical services. Each time you color your hair, the cuticle lifts to allow the color molecules to deposit. Protein treatments penetrate and help strengthen the hair, enabling it to repair itself after these services.

Sun Damage

The sun can also harm your hair color if you don’t take precautions. Wearing a hat when spending extended time outdoors can help protect your hair color.

The Money Factor

We respect those wanting to educate themselves before making a purchase. Access to companies in so many ways today makes reaching out and getting answers easier than ever.

When you pay a lot to have a beautiful color added to your hair, you want it to fade faster than it will naturally. No need to wash hard-earned money down the drain when there are ways to plug the drain.

To accurately answer the commonly asked questions about sulfate shampoos and stripping hair, we had to do some deep digging and get a little biological. What we found might surprise you about the connection between shampoos and dyed hair.

What A Surprise!

It’s not the shampoo doing all the stripping of the color, it’s the water! Turns out that sulfate – what gives most cleansers the ability to effectively remove dirt & oil –  has been getting a bad rap of stripping the color from color treated hair.

Sulfates still get some blame.

But sulfate is not the only culprit for why hair dye fades as different rates.

What Is 18-Mea?

18-MEA is part of a complex structure within the hair cuticle known as a cell membrane complex. This structure is made up of intricate layers of cell membranes and fatty acids like 18-MEA. The complexity of this structure is the reason why the loss of 18-MEA is essentially permanent.

This fatty acid is covalently bonded to the hair and is an integral part of its structure. Simply applying 18-MEA to the hair does not allow for the reformation of these complicated structures, and it will just wash off with the next shampoo.

Some companies have created cationically charged forms of 18-MEA and similar fatty acids, which, like all cationic conditioners, will selectively adhere to damaged areas of the hair. However, these ingredients will still rinse out over a few shampoos, making it a temporary solution. Truly replacing lost 18-MEA is not something we currently have the technology to do.

Hair is primarily composed of protein, notably alpha-keratin.

Why does 18-MEA Matter?

The hair’s natural lipid layer, called 18-MEA, acts like a traffic controller, directing the rate at which water moves in and out of the hair shaft. The lipid layer balance can be easily upset and permanently damaged.

During the coloring process, the natural lipid layer is destroyed. Therefore, the recommendation is to add extra conditioners to the hair care routine to dyed hair, to provide a kind of artificial layer of 18-MEA, the layer stripped away during the dye process.

When we lose this layer, hair tangles easily, appears dull and brittle, even feels course to the touch. 18-MEA gives hair its water-repellent property to keep the hair soft, and shiny, by allowing water to roll right off the shaft.

This natural water barrier in hair is easily broken down by external factors such as light (both UV and visual), chemicals (hair dye), and high pH products (like baking soda).  So, wearing a hat not only protects your face from sun exposure, but it can also protect the damage to the 18-MEA layer on your hair.

Possible Solutions To Save Your Hair From Damage

Back to the question about sulfate shampoos stripping hair color.

To get the hair color to last as long as possible, people are usually instructed to avoid the use of the ingredients SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) and SLES (sodium laureth sulfate). Both these ingredients are very effective at the job to remove oils and build-up from hair styling products which means they can also remove other things like hair dye.

Avoid the following in your hair shampoo:

• 🧪 Harmful Ingredients Avoid sulfates (like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate), parabens, and formaldehyde, as they can strip hair of natural oils and cause irritation.- Sulfates
  – Silicones
  – Parabens
  – Phthalates
  – Formaldehyde
  – PPD, or para-phenylenediamine
  – Propylene glycol
  – Synthetic fragrances
  – Alcohol
  – Coal Tar
  -Triclosan
• 🚫 Toxic Chemicals Chemicals such as DEA, TEA, and MEA are harmful surfactants that may cause skin irritation.
• ⚠️ Synthetic Additives It’s best to steer clear of synthetic fragrances and colors, as they can lead to allergic reactions and long-term health risks.

Dye stays attached to hair due to its size.

Hair dye has large polymers that essentially get trapped in the hair, allowing the color to stick. The polymers remain trapped until the hair opens up wider than the polymer, and then they escape.

Water Plays A Vital Role

What makes hair open up like a flower to the sun? Water.

When hair encounters water, it causes the hair shaft to swell and the cuticle opens, making space for dye to immediately exit. Since it is impossible to wash hair without water, unless you use a dry shampoo – but that’s for another article all together – there is no way to keep the cuticle closed all the time.

When the natural lipid layer is damaged or removed, the hair losses its ability to repel water. So, no matter what shampoo, low pH or high pH, sulfate or sulfate-free, the cuticle will open, and the color will continue to strip from the hair when it gets wet. Environmental factors of sun and heated styling compound the fading.

Once the natural protective layer of lipids is stripped away, there is no way to replenish it naturally. The only option to is artificially replenish the layer with specific repair products or reduce the hairs exposure to damaging effects.

Most people who stop dying their hair and let the gray color grow naturally, they report a softer feel to their hair and the dullness is replaced by shine and more manageability.

There really is no true color safe shampoo available which uses water.

To reduce the number of hair washings, a dry shampoo without baking soda is the perfect tool.

The best way to reduce the effects shampoo has on stripping the color from hair is to use milder, less harsh ingredients, to slow the fading process. Reducing hairs exposure to environmental damage is the second-best way to extend the color of dyed hair.

How To Choose The Best Shampoo For Your Hair?

Choosing a shampoo with natural ingredients will always be the best choice because it is made without toxic chemicals. Choose a natural shampoo and conditioner to help reduce dye from fading as quickly and when possible, choose options with minimal packaging.

Not only is less waste better, but natural can last longer than traditional brands saving money in the short and long term. Reduce plastic waste in landfills + less exposure to toxins + saving money, all are added bonuses to getting the most from the money spent at the hair salon.

The Tangie Solution For Healthy Hair

Tangie’s Zero Waste Shampoo is the perfect mix of natural & low waste for shampoos in a variety of scents to make your hair happy and your nose happy too.
If you want a bit more hair protecting ingredients, take a look at THIS BAR too.

If you want to add more conditioning to your hair care routine and also want to reduce your exposure to plastic, check these out Zero waste conditioners.

We love how long they last (>6 months even with daily use!) and each one replace 2-6 plastic bottles, depending on use.
Win-win for the wallet and the world.

Hope you found this article helpful.