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Handy life hacks to keep your hair dye from fading.

Maintain your latest hair colour with ease with our helpful tips.

There's nothing worse than your freshly dyed hair fading after just a few washes – we've all been there right?! But it needn't be that way. As we take a look at some handy life hacks to help prevent your hair dye from fading, and keep it looking as blue as the day that you first dyed it!

Size view of woman with blue and purple hair : Life hacks for maintaining colourful hair

Help maintain your shade from that first dye.

One way to help your hair colour along when using a semi permanent dye, such as Directions or Manic Panic, is to leave the dye on for longer than the initial recommended time.

One of the wonderful things with semi permanent dyes like these, is that they are formulated with a more natural base of ingredients and are vegetable based, so it's safe to leave these dyes on for longer.

If you're using a semi-permanent dye, such as Crazy Colours, Directions, Manic Panic, or Stargazer. Try leaving the dye on for a few hours to let the colour really penetrate your hair.

This will result in a much bolder shade, and can help to keep your hair dye from fading - however we wouldn't recommend doing this with permanent/ammonia based dyes; check the ingredients before you try this.

Woman with blue hair : Hair colour care tips

Touch up your conditioner.

You wouldn't think of adding hair dye to your conditioner, but a little really can go a long way to help prolong your colour.

This tip only really works with semi-permanent vegetable based dyes, such as Directions, and Manic Panic. We don't recommend using this technique with a permanent/ammonia based dye.

Simply add a small amount of your semi-permanent hair dye to your usual conditioner and shake the bottle to mix.

Apply this conditioner/dye mix to your hair once a week as a refresher to top up your colour.

Handy tip with this technique.

We recommend wearing disposable gloves when trying this out, this will help to prevent any possible staining (trust us, nobody wants bright purple hands..).

Finish off by rinsing your hair in cold water to really help lock in that shade.

However, if mixing up your conditioner seems a little too drastic, we recommend using a colour protection conditioner such as Directions, or Crazy Colour once a week to help maintain your hair colour.

Alternatively, try a good quality conditioner such as Aussie 3 minute miracle, and let it do work wonders on those locks! - You can find these hair care products and more at reputable hair care and beauty shops.

Woman with purple ombre hair : Life hacks to prolong your hair colour

Protect as you style.

The more vivid your hair colour the more likely it's prone to fade quickly. One way to help your hair colour along is by using a heat protection spray prior to blow drying or straightening your hair. Simply spray and brush through before styling.

Cheat a little; with dry shampoo.

Reduce your regular hair wash and swap over to dry shampoo to help maintain your shade. By simply switching to dry shampoo, even just for every other wash, you can help to prolong your colour.

Just spray and rub into your roots, then comb through to finish.

Some final words...

Whilst no colour is 100% fade proof, using one of these handy life hacks with your hair care can certainly help to prolong your hair colour and help keep that dreaded fade at bay for a little longer!

However you want to colour your hair, you'll find some great alternative semi-permanent dyes, whatever shade you want to dye your hair.

Check out our directory site for a great list of semi-permanent dye brands to stock up on, alongside some handy products to help your shade along the way.

Image credits (in order shown): Luis Quintero @ Pexels | Guilherme Jorge @ Pexels