Reader Denise asks:
I just recently got my hair dyed and got 7 foils to the front. Since then, my curl pattern is different. Where the highlights are at, my hair is straight, but curled at the root.
Is it from the highlights? Can I do anything about it without doing damage to my hair?
Unfortunately, it is possible to experience curl pattern damage from using hair dye. In some cases, some women are able to recover some of their curl pattern in other cases some women suffer from permanent straightening damage.
Audrey Sivasothy of The Science of Black Hair did a great post about this on Curly Nikki:
“Yes, coloring textured hair can sometimes result in temporary, unpredictable changes in your hair’s curl pattern. Sometimes, the changes are permanent. Whenever you alter or manipulate the hair’s protein bonding arrangement a slight relaxing effect can occur. These curl pattern changes are less likely to occur in coarse hair textures (coarse refers to the diameter of the hair fiber, not the feel of the fiber), and are more likely to occur in those with fine to medium hair textures. Prior damage may also influence whether or not you experience changes in your curl pattern. Using a protein reconstructor after coloring may help some lost curls find their way again.”
Try these products to help get your hair back on track: Aphogee Keratin Reconstructor and HSI Professional Argan Oil Leave-In Conditioner.
You also will want to lay off heat usage, as this surely will be likely to make your curl pattern loss even worse.
What to do if you cannot restore your curls
If you find that treating your hair with conditioners, reconstructors, and moisturizers has not restored at least some of your curl pattern you have two options. You can be patient and grow it out trimming the permanently straightened ends until they are fully gone (almost as if you were transitioning). Or you can get your hair cut to remove the damage all at once.
Prevention
In the future you will want to make sure your hair is in good shape before you decide to dye your hair. Consider going with darker to medium tones because the lighter the hair color the more potential there is for damage. Once your hair has been dyed you will want to give it extra moisture and condition your hair as often as you can to prevent damage.
dyeing your hair any color without bleaching it wont ruin your curly pattern. however highlights & bleach will. trust me, i have loose curls & i bleached it; and its now just thick, dry, brittle, different curls; you name it! my only advice is to, and i know you get this a lot, moisturize it. i wasn’t one who really cared for my curls before i bleached it & cute it since it always was curly no matter what i did, but bleaching is a horrible yet delightful expirience. its cool while it lasts, then after a while you’d want your curls back. so just make sure you moisturize & try to keep away from shampoos & heat obviously.
I was wearing a wash and go for 3 years and loved. I went to the beauty shop one day and go my hair permanently colored. It left my hair feeling like a relaxer. It’s been six weeks and my curls have not returned. I am growing my hair out and the wait for curly hair to return is awful. I will never allow color to touch my hair again. Please let me know if you have any tips for me.
I got my hair colored in Dec. 2016. I went to my cousins shop to let her do it. My hair has been natural for almost 5 Yes and I had only used heat about once a year. So my hair was healthy. No crazy shedding, it curled all the way to the end, it had grown all the to mud back. So I felt it wouldn’t hurt to get a little color. I only got 7 foils in the front. You could barely even see the color it didn’t make much difference. But now it’s May 2017 and it looks like it did when I transitioned from perms. I asked her several times like way before even going in if it would mess up my curls in a anyway. And she said No. I cry every time I deep condition my hair cause it’s so limp and thin. It only curls now at my new growth. She said that I’d have to deep condition about 4 more times. I wish I know this before hand. Because I would have never done it!!!! Never never. Even my husband said it looks like I got a perm. I guess I’ll just start over.
Try doing a protein treatment like Aphogee 2 step it may help to restore your curls but there is no guarantee… if it is really damaged you will have to wait to grow your hair out and cut it off at your own pace.