Colour Intensifier and Hair Colour Mask

If you colour your hair often, you know the colour does not hold the way you want, and if you are going for something bright and vibrant, it can start to fade fast, sometimes after the first wash. This is where a hair colour mask, also called a colour intensifier, helps keep the colour looking fresh for longer.

A colour intensifier is a pigmented product that maintains your colour and, in some cases, deepens it. It also neutralises unwanted tones that can creep into coloured hair when it is not topped up, so the shade stays truer between salon visits. Most intensifiers come in a spread of shades to suit the colour you are after. Red fades the quickest, so a red hair mask and copper hair mask are among the most used, and you can also find a brunette hair mask, blonde and purple tones, and brighter blues and greens.

How to Use a Colour Mask

A good routine starts with you, and a colour shampoo at the basin keeps you from stripping tone before the mask goes on.

• Shampoo first, then apply the colour hair mask for three to five minutes and rinse.

• Reach for it each time you wash to hold a vivid shade, since colour takes to the hair through an open cuticle, and rich demi-dyes in a hair mask for dyed hair deposit tone as they sit.

• Follow with a serum to add moisture and support to lengths that colour can leave dry.

A mask is one part of holding colour. For pigment you work in as you condition, the colour conditioner range does the same job in a lighter form, and for a bigger change, the hair colour range adds ready-to-use direct dyes in vivid shades. To pull the routine together, the hair products for coloured hair range brings the shampoos, conditioners, masks, and treatments your colour needs into one spot.

Keeping Colour Between Washes

How long a colour mask holds depends on how often you wash, how intense your colour is, your hair type, and the product. As a guide, a colour-safe hair mask holds for several washes, and lighter use stretches it further, so check the product page for the wash count on a given mask. For frequency, follow the instructions on your chosen mask first, then keep an eye on your shade and top up as needed, which tends to be 1 to 2 weeks for brunette and blonde, and more often for red and vivid.