Experimenting with hair color and changing up your look is so much fun, but it's no secret that it can wreak havoc on your hair, especially if you use bleach. And let's be honest, most of us dark haired Latinas have to use bleach if we're gonna see any difference at all when changing up our hair color–even from one shade of brown to another, let alone going blonde or a fun color like purple or blue. But you no longer have to worry about frying your tresses every time you whip out the bleach. There's a completely safe and natural way to protect your hair.
Read more ¿Qué más?: 10 Surprising beauty & health benefits of coconut oil you probably didn't know
Thanks to the surge in popularity of all-natural coconut oil in the past few years, more and more people are discovering awesome uses for it. I, for one, have used it for cooking and baking, as a diaper rash cream for my son, in homemade cough syrup, to naturally clean the inside of my mouth (oil pulling) and as a moisturizer for my skin and hair. From now on, I'll also be using it as a pre-treatment before dying or bleaching my hair.
How it works: You know how your colorist tells you to come to the salon with dirty hair? Well, that's because the buildup of natural oils in your hair serves as a protector from bleach and other harsh chemicals that are often used in hair treatments. Applying coconut oil has the same effect, with the added benefits of coconut oil's soothing, ultra-moisturizing and health-boosting properties.
How to do it: I recommend using organic, unrefined coconut oil, which generally costs between $6 and $10 for a 15 or 16 ounce jar, but any natural 100 percent coconut oil will do the trick.
You can either place the entire jar in a bowl of very hot water to melt it, or scoop some out into a bowl and microwave it for about a minute until it reaches liquid consistency. Be generous when melting as the amount will vary depending on how much hair you have.
Apply the melted oil to your hair from root to tip, making sure your hair is completely saturated. If you're doing this during the day, cover your head with a towel, a plastic bag, a shower cap, whatever, and leave it in for one to five hours. But for maximum benefits, you should do this the night before you plan to bleach just before you go to bed and sleep with the oil in your hair, again covered with a towel or cap.
Bleach your hair as usual. Do not wash the oil out prior to bleaching. That's it!
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