High Maintenance Hair Color – Everything You Need To Know

We all know that some hair colors are much more high maintenance than others, but what does that really mean or entail? In this post I’m going to break down what makes a hair color high maintenance, give some examples of high maintenance hair colors, as well as some recommendations to help maintain each of them.

You can find my post on low maintenance hair color here.

What is high maintenance hair color?

The simple definition of high maintenance hair color is that the color takes a lot of effort to maintain. This includes the cost of the service, the frequency of appointments, as well as how you need to care for your hair in-between salon visits.

What makes a hair color high maintenance?

Now that we know what defines a high maintenance hair color, lets dive in to what creates a high maintenance service:

1. Difficulty to achieve

Some hair colors are more achievable for certain hair types than they are for others. For example if you wanted to wear your hair platinum blonde, it would be much easier to achieve if your starting canvas was light versus dark or red.

Previously colored hair is much more difficult to lighten than virgin hair is. So if you have black box dye on your hair and want to go platinum blonde, this would likely only be achievable in multiple sessions. The condition of your hair would also suffer, and it would be extremely expensive.

Red is another hair color that is difficult to remove, so if you have dyed red hair, this would make things more difficult on both you and your hair stylist.

And when hair color is difficult to achieve, you can guarantee that it will be expensive too.

2. Your natural hair color

Even if your hair is not color treated, your natural hair color plays a vital role in the maintenance of your hair. Staying with the platinum blonde example, this would be much easier to maintain if your natural color was light versus dark.

I actually stopped accepting clients that wanted to go platinum blonde with a natural color darker than a level 5. Not only was there a high risk of damaging their hair, but the grow-out was painful. Because of the high contrast between their natural color and the platinum blonde, the roots began to show within days of coloring it.

3. The condition of the hair

The condition of your hair plays a role in more ways than one. No matter the color of your hair, if it is in poor condition it has become high maintenance because of what you’ll need to do (as well as stop doing) to nurture it back to health.

Damaged hair will not hold onto hair color as well as healthy hair because the outer layer of the hair is open and the color molecules can easily slip out.

And besides quick fading, if your hair is damaged it may not be able to tolerate getting to your desired color without breaking off.

To determine if your hair is in good condition, see my post here.

4. The up-keep

There are two different types of up-keep when it comes to hair color. The first is the most commonly known, which is how often you’ll need to visit the salon to maintain the hair color. This is what most people think we’re referring to when we say that a hair color is high maintenance. And it is true, that this is a big factor.

When it comes to on the scalp bleach applications, clients need to come in no later than every 4-6 weeks. If they push the appointment out further than that, it becomes a corrective color service. This is because the hair within 1/4 to 1/2 an inch from the scalp processes faster than the hair further away from the scalp due to the body head from your head.

If you push your appointment out past 6 weeks, you’ll wind up with a band of darker blonde in between your previous color and the color right at your root. In order to correct this, we must use foils when applying the color which takes much longer and creates a corrective color service.

The second type of up-keep is how you care for your hair at home. Platinum blondes need to follow very specific instructions when caring for their hair to maintain the color between appointments. Not only are there a lot of things they have to do, but there are many things they have to avoid as well.

For example; the sun, pool, and ocean will pull hair color right out, so those things need to be avoided for certain hair colors.

What hair colors are the hardest to maintain?

Luckily these days we have a lot of ways to help extend the life of our hair color. But that being said, there are certain hair colors that are still very high maintenance regardless of our current technology.

***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***

1. Blonde

If you couldn’t tell from my repeated use of platinum blonde in the examples above, this is the most high maintenance hair color of them all. It checks literally every category off of the list mentioned above.

It is difficult to achieve, contrasts with most natural colors, risks damaging the condition of your hair, and requires frequent salon visits as well as lots of at home care.

Since all color is removed from the hair during the bleaching process, the cuticle is often damaged causing the hair shaft to not hold onto the toner, as well as allowing moisture to slip out easily.

Products to maintain blonde hair:

• Olaplex no. 4 Purple – Purple shampoo with bond building technology
• Olaplex no. 5 Purple – Purple conditioner with bond building technology
• Olaplex no. 3 – Bond building treatment
• Olaplex no. 8 – Moisturizing treatment
• Olaplex no. 6 – Leave in conditioner
• Olaplex no. 9 – Leave in serum
• Olaplex no. 4 Dry – Dry shampoo

2. Anything with gray coverage

This color service may come as a surprise as to some as high maintenance, but I actually stopped performing a lot of gray coverage services in my salon because of it. Especially when coloring the hair a dark brown or red, the roots will begin to show usually within one week of being colored.

Anytime the natural color is contrasting with the new color, it will be high maintenance. The line of demarcation (or roots) will be extremely harsh and unnatural looking. You’ll typically need to visit the salon every 4-6 weeks without feeling a bit trashy and grown out.

See my post here for my best alternative suggestion for this color service.

3. Fantasy colors

Fantasy colors are right up there with the blondes because they need to undergo the exact same process. The hair will need to be pre-lightened 9 out of 10 times to achieve a bright vivid color.

If anything, you could almost consider fantasy colors even more high maintenance than blondes. This is because there is typically an extra step involved with applying the color on top of the bleached (and blow dried) hair. These services take an extremely long time to complete and are usually very expensive for how long they last.

Products to maintain fantasy colors:

• Viral Colorwash – Color toning shampoo in vivid colors
• Viral Colorditioner – Coor toning conditioner in vivid colors
• Bond Fix Stengthening Treatment – Repairing conditioning treatment
• Extreme Smoothing Styler – Leave-in conditioner

4. Reds

I would consider reds to be the lowest of the high maintenance hair colors because of the technology avaliable today to maintain them. In the past, we used to consider red to be the most high maintenance hair color because they will begin fading in just one wash.

To avoid this fading, we would tell clients to wash their hair in ice cold water to help keep the cuticle sealed and stop as many color molecules from coming out as possible.

But the reason I don’t consider red to be as high maintenance as before is because of the products now avaliable. I recommend all of my red heads to use a color depositing conditioner at home to maintain their red in-between visits.

This works fantastically and will hold them over until their color grows out from the scalp and needs touched up again.

Products to maintain red hair:

• Gem Lites Colorwash – Semi-Natural looking color depositing shampoo
• Gem Lites Colorditioner – Semi-Natural looking color depositing conditioner

High Maintenance Hair Color Conclusion

High maintenance hair color refers to hair color that requires a lot of effort to up-keep. It includes the cost of the service/s, the frequency of services, and the at home care necessary.

What makes a color high maintenance:

1. The difficulty to achieve
2. The natural color/current canvas
3. The condition of the hair
4. The up-keep

These are the highest maintenance hair colors:

1. Blondes
2. Gray Coverage
3. Fantasy Colors
4. Reds

Now if you’re looking for lower maintenance hair color alternatives, see my post here.

If you have any further questions for me, leave them in the comments! As always, Have A Good Hair Day!