Hot or cold?

In my last post we talked about shampooing and conditioning. One thing that goes hand in hand with shampoo and conditioner is water. One thing we didn't touch base on is that water is another thing that also strips the color from your hair. You wouldn't think that water would be something that would threaten your hair color, but alas... it is! In my personal opinion, there isn't a single thing you can do that will, without a doubt, protect your hair color. All you can do is try and prolong it, until it's time to color your hair once again.

The argument that comes with washing your hair is whether to use hot or cold water. I'll give you the science behind it, and then my own results. After that... You can make your own decisions.

Heat makes things expands. So it makes sense that hot water opens the pores of your hair, which allows for color to "escape." The evidence of your color escaping is the bleeding of your color into your shower water. On the opposite hand, cold makes things contract. The idea is that if you use cold water, the pores of your hair will contract and won't let your color escape.

My personal findings:
I use hot water. I use hot water because I feel like it gets my hair cleaner and then I don't feel the need to wash my hair as often. I have used cold water before though and the amount of bleeding turns out to be about the same. I'd rather use hot water and not have to wash as often than use cold water and have to wash more often and get the same results. I also don't like using cold water because I don't like to be cold. I do use "cool" water to rinse out my conditioner though. A hair dresser once told me that by rinsing with cool water it locks in moisture and with as dry as my hair is... I need all the moisture I can get.

In the end though, it's really up to you. No one can tell you that if you use cold water your hair color will last longer. If anyone tries to tell you that, they're lying, maybe they get different results, or maybe I'm just a pansy when it comes to being cold. Who knows? Only the hair gods, that's who. Maybe it's all psychological and none of this actually matters at all!

If you've been religiously using cold water, and it works for you... Tell us about it in the comments. How do you do it? How cold do you get the water? How much "bleeding" do you experience even with cold water?

Happy washing everyone!

Andi.