Spilling the Tea: Should Hair be Clean or Dirty before Color?

My feathers got pretty ruffled yesterday when I read published article that answered "Absolutely YES!" to this dirty vs clean hair question.  There is a lot of lore out there around this questions so I'm sharing the down and dirty here, so that both your hair color, scalp and perhaps your hairdresser will have the best experience.

A well-known cosmetic chemist and I have had lengthy conversations on this subject, "should hair be dirty or clean on color day?". Yes, we have nerded out on the topic. It begs the question, what constitutes dirty hair? Hair with an excess of oil, maybe sweat from workouts, and sticky hair products, to name a few. All of these can happen in a day or over several days. It makes both science and common sense that these oils, salts, and products can be a physical barrier to the color penetrating, or alter the results of the final color by changing the chemistry of the hair color. This all boils down to uneven color penetration, i.e., splotchy color or missed spots. So let's put this dirty hair tale to rest! The answer lies in-between "absolutely clean that day" and "covered in products, sweat or chlorine from swimming".

Whether you color your own hair or show up at the salon, what we DO want is hair that has been washed a day or two ahead of coloring using these little tips:

1) Don't scrub your scalp, be gentle so the color has less chance of irritating.
2) Do keep hair products and heat on scalp to a minimum.
3) Avoid sweaty workouts until after your color.

A light film of natural oils is protective for your hair and scalp- that is the ideal environment for the best outcome for your hair color, so washing one day or two before, no more. So now you know! Please spread the word so I can keep my feathers down after reading "facts" about dirty hair and color. We only color every so often, and we want it to count.