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After many years of coloring and bleaching my hair it was extremely damaged and I had to figure out how to repair it.
Growing up I always had long black hair that I wasn’t allowed to cut or color.
My mom was very strict when it came to my hair when I was a teenager.
All she really allowed me to do with it was trim the ends and style it but that was all.
When I turned 20 I decided that I want to color my hair, I wanted to go red.
This was the beginning of my coloring/bleaching journey.
Related Post: Top 5 Shampoos & Conditioners For Damaged Hair

My Hair Coloring Journey
So I decided to go red and I stayed that way for a while, then I needed a change and went back to my natural hair color.
And this continued on for some years with different colors and I also bleached my hair to get the balayage look.
After this is when I started to notice that my hair had become extremely damaged and I needed to do something about it.
These are some of the things I did to start healing my hair.
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The Big Cut
I decided I needed to cut of a good portion of the damaged ends because face it they were never going to get back healthy.
So when I made the big chop my hair was to middle of my back and I cut it almost to my shoulders.
Believe me I need to cut it all. But it was still hard to part with my hair.

Shampoos & Conditioners
So I decided after the cut that I need to find shampoos & conditioners that moisturized my hair and in turn would help it grow.
One of my go to shampoos & conditioners is the Dove Intensive Repair Shampoo & Conditioner.
This set really helps to repair my damaged color treated hair.
Click here to see my blog post on the top 5 shampoos & conditioners for color treated damaged hair.

Deep Conditioners
Finding the right shampoo & conditioner set is great but you also want to find a good deep conditioner that really helps to restore your hair.
I love trying new deep conditioners especially when my hair feels really dry.
One that I felt really worked for my hair was the Briogeo Don’t Despair Deep Conditioner Mask. This really helped my hair.
My hair was no longer as dry or damaged as it was before.
I also have a post about the Best 5 Deep conditioners for Dry Damaged Hair.
I would deep condition my hair 1-2x a week, depending on how much I washed my hair that week.
Hot Oil Treatments
So the shampoo & conditioner and deep conditioners all helped but I felt like my hair still needed a little more help.
I did really damage it with all the coloring and bleaching.
So I looked up which oils help restore damage to the hair and which oils helped for hair growth.
I found a couple that I liked but I mostly used coconut oil as it was the easiest for me to get my hands on.
If you’re looking to find out how to do a hot oil treatment or other oils that you can use to do a treatment read more here.
I would usually do this before I washed my hair so 1-2x a week, depending on how my hair felt.
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Collagen Supplements
I kept reading that if you wanted healthy hair you should try a collagen supplement. But I didn’t know how true this was, but I decided to give it a try.
Collagen is also good for your skin. So I thought why not give it a try it should help with something.
I used two different ones from HUM that I purchased at Sephora.
The first one was a dissolvable tablet (smells horrible) called Collagen POP + Vitamin C. This was good but it was really hard to drink because of the smell.
The second one was a capsule called HUM Collagen Love. This one is so much easier to take, because there’s no smell. But you have to take 3 capsules each time.
I noticed that this helped my hair look healthier and grow longer on top on clearing up my skin.
This really helped with my acne, so I guess it was a two for one.
Olaplex Hair Perfector No. 3
What is Olaplex Hair Perfector No. 3? It is a treatment formulated to relink broken bonds in the hair caused by chemical, thermal & mechanical damage.
This sounded way too good to be true, right?
So I read and watched so many reviews about this product and they all said the same thing.
This product was so good because it was salon quality and I really wanted to try it.
But it was a little expensive for the size. 3.3 oz cost $28.00, so I was skeptical. I didn’t know how many of these little bottles I would have to buy for it to really work for my hair.
So I waited a while…. And finally I decided to try it. My hair was still damaged even with all the care I was giving it. It needed something more.

Did Olaplex Hair Perfector No. 3 Work?
This product was amazing! It completely transformed my hair. It was worth all the money I paid for it.
I used it one time and noticed a huge difference; I thought maybe it was a placebo effect. Maybe I just thought it looked healthier but it didn’t.
So I continued using it. Another great thing about this product is that even though its small, you can get a lot of use out of it.
I was surprised how many times I was able to use it and I have medium to thick wavy/curly hair.
This product is what really made the difference for me and changed my hair.
No More Heat
This was tough one but styling your hair everyday is not something you should be doing if your trying to heal your hair.
Heat styling only adds more damage to your hair, which doesn’t really help repair your hair.
If you want to heat style you hair limit it to once a week, use heat protectant and try to go for styling that doesn’t require direct heat.
For example, blow dry your hair instead of flat ironing it helps.
Overall
Doing these 6 things really changed my hair and helped it to grow back healthier and stronger than it had been for some time.
These are the products and techniques I used to transform may hair
Leave me a comment below and let me know how you’ve combatted damaged/color treated hair, or if you’ve used any of these products.
Disclaimer: I purchased all products discussed in this review, and this is my honest opinion.
Great information especially for those of us who start out with a rough textured hair and then make things worse by getting a little crazy with the color!
LOL I definitely went crazy with the color. Thank you 🙂
I love your hair schedule. I’m starting a schedule for my hair.
Thank you! I am happy I could help!
I agree, it’s important to take care of your hair when you are coloring it! Otherwise you ended up with lots of damage! Thanks for the great tips! I will be using them!
Very true! Thank you!
Very good tips here! I had naturally curly, thick hair, so it was easily damaged. I never took the chance and colored it. My 20 yo daughter, on the other hand, uses both bleach and henna. She has also discovered some products (no idea which ones) that help protect her hair from damage. I will tell her about the Olaplex Hair Perfector #3!
I hope it helps:) Thank you!
When I went blonde I switched from DIY to a pro. I have seen too many people fry their hair. You give some sound advice here.
Nice! I did that to my hair and had to figure out how to repair it 🙁 Thank you!
So many great tips! A lot of people struggle with this and this will be really helpful! Thanks!
Thank you!
This has happened to all of us at one time or another. It feels so good when your hair is back to its normal, healthy state. Excellent info to keep on hand.
I totally agree! Thank you!
Yes! thanks for this, I’ve been on the fence abut trying Olaplex but think I’ll go for it!
Your welcome! It’s definitely a good product, I didn’t believe the hype until I tried it myself.
The hair perfector sounds like a game changer.
It sure is!
I usually use a really good conditioner when I get my hair done!
Conditioners are great!
Thanks for the recommendations. I would be very interested in how you do your coconut oil hot oil treatment.
Your welcome! I have a post that details step by step how I do my coconut oil hot oil treatments here https://hawtestyle.com/how-to-do-a-hot-oil-treatment/
I deep condition my hair and take a collagen supplement. Since I am working from home these days, I also let it go au natural and let my curls be. That has cut down on the drying and flat ironing.
Same here! I have not been styling my hair at all.
Great info! I fortunately don’t color my hair but I’ll pass this to my family members who do!
Thats awesome! Thank you!
This is such an informative and important post, thanks for sharing 🙂 hair care is something everyone needs
I agree! Thank you!
Thanks for the tips! I miss my stylist… they’ve only recently opened back up… my hair really needs some help. I’m going to try some of your tips.
Your welcome, I hope they work for you!
I’ve been looking for a good deep conditioner! I’m going to try the one you recommended! My hair stylist also says that if I’m going to buy department store shampoo/conditioner, that Dove is the way to go!
oh nice! I hope it works for you!
I’ve destroyed my hair with bleach a couple different times and deep conditioning definitely turned it around!
Me too, I agree deep conditioning is great!
Thanks for all the tips, my hair is pretty destroyed with all the color treatments.
You’re welcome, I hope they help.
Love hot oil treatments for my dry hair. Wonderful suggestions for those who’ve delved into a bit too much coloring!
Me too, Thank you!
I have alopecia Universalis, so I don’t have hair ANYWHERE. But when I did, I did change my color a lot. Anytime I needed a change it was usually my hair. My mom and I were just talking about her embracing her grey and she was told they would have to strip her hair of color and die it grey… she’s worried about the damage. I will certainly share this piece with her. Thank you!
oh ok. Same here. I hope this helps her.
Thank you for all the information. I may eventually need this. 3 years ago as part of a team building exercise at work we had to spoof a video and I wound up having to turn all my grey into red like you see in my avatar. I kind of liked not looking at grey in the mirror every day and have kept it up although I have now gone to a color closer to my original color.
Your welcome! oh ok, I hope this helps. Coloring is tough on the hair.
Hair care is very important for me and this is an awesome post! I would love to try the ones you recommended.
I agree it’s very important to me too. Thank you!
Thanks for this info! I definitely notice a difference after taking collagen supplements for my hair, skin, and nails.
Thanks for the great tips. I went over 10 years without coloring my hair, and just recently colored it again, so these tips will come in handy.
I love my flat iron but have to keep reminding myself not to overuse it and damage my hair. I use Dove shampoo and it’s great- I have coloured hair.
This is especially useful now, with so many people who attempted to color their own hair during the closures.
These are great tips! Damaging our hair is very easy to do!
You sold me on the Olaplex shampoo! I’ve only heard great things about it so I’ll definitely check it out 🙂
Great! I’ glad I could help 🙂
I have only colored my hair once. It was not much of a change so I never did it again. I’m almost 62 years old and I do not have any gray hair. I do have damaged hair from wearing it up all the time. Thanks for the info.
Your welcome!
Great tips! I colored my hair for about 10 years, but never any drastic colors. My natural hair is dark brown and I mostly did different shades of brown that had either red or caramel kind of colors, so I don’t think my hair is as damaged as a lot of others who have colored their hair, but my hair could definitely use some TLC.
It’s always good to give your hair some TLC. Thanks for reading!
Great tips! I’ve never colored my hair, but I’ve been looking into it lately. I will definitely keep this advice in mind. And yes to the deep conditioner at least 1x a week! Deep conditioning makes a lot of difference. (Feeling a little shame since I haven’t deep conditioned my hair in a couple of weeks).I definitely need to get back on my hair care routine.
It really does! Lol sometimes life happens, you can only try when you have the time.
Great tips! Olaplex is amazing and I will have to try out the Briogeo!
Thank you! Olapex is awesome, I hope you like the Briogeo.
I love the techniques you use. My daughter is always damaging her hair and it looks dried out and brittle- Yikes! I’m sending this link to her now. I actually don’t like to color my hair because it’s so thin and I’m losing some hair on top.
Kathy
Thank you! I hope they help her!
I need this because my hair is just ughhh i been trying to get it to grow for i don’t know how long and its taking forever. also i wanted to put highlights in my hair but never quite knew how to do it. so seeing your post it will be very helpful
I’m happy I could help!
Definitely a few things I am going to try – I don’t color as often (mostly highlights) but want to keep growing my hair long and need to pamper it a bit if I am going to keep with the color!
I totally agree, most of these tips I learned keeping up with my color, I’m happy I could help!