People with afro-textured hair always suffer when it comes to colouring their hair.
In December last year, I wanted to be like the cool kids and colour my hair orange, little did I know what was in store for me.
As a person with dark 4c type hair, I first had to bleach my hair before applying the colour. While the colour looked good, my hair didn’t.
It was so dry and breaking a lot. After a month, I was able to put on a black dye, and the breakage didn't stop.
Wash days were the worst because I knew that I had to watch my hair fall onto the sink. However, I did deep conditioning and made sure to keep my hair hydrated and it's still recovering.
To help people like myself, who have coarse hair but still want a bit of colour without damaging their hair, Nubian Crown Hair Studio, partnered with L'Oréal Professionals to launch DIA Light and DIA Richesse safe colour for type 3 and 4 ethnic hair at their salon in Hyde Park, Johannesburg.
Tshireletso Yvonne Diogo, founder of Micro Locs SA and managing director of Nubian Crown Hair Studio, says it was important to come up with a hair colour that does not change the state of ethnic hair.
“The beauty industry is still limited in terms of options for colouring natural ethnic hair in a way that does not permanently change the structure of the hair, causing dryness and breakage in the long run. What options are there for an ethnic natural who is looking to continue on a healthy hair journey while enjoying diverse styling options, which include safe colour applications? Until now, there really were none,” says Diogo.
She adds: “Nubian Crown’s safe colour for naturals is possible through L’Oreal DIA Light, which is acid-based demi-permanent colour specifically designed to treat and protect the hair while depositing the colour pigments. A true ammonia-free technology breakthrough.”
At the launch, the new dye was put to test to see how it works on ethnic hair. Although the models’ hair colours changed, their hair texture and volume remained the same.