- Yes, you can do a keratin treatment after highlights.
- However, if you did the highlights at home and plan to do the treatment at home too, I recommend you wait three weeks between one and the other. I’ll explain why later.
- If you did your highlights at a hair salon and also plan to do the keratin treatment there, it’s also important to allow three weeks between the highlights and the keratin treatment.
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Why is it important to wait three weeks to do a keratin treatment after you get highlights?
Because to do the highlights, you’ll have bleached some sections of your hair. Therefore, those parts of your hair will be porous, that is, weaker.
The keratin treatment is applied with heat. And that heat can burn the parts of your hair with highlights if you haven’t previously repaired it.
Also, the heat from the straightener can lighten your highlights up to two numbers lighter.
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That’s why ]I always recommend my clients to do these treatments at the hair salon, because we professionals have the right tools so as not to burn the hair or change the color of the highlights.
So now you have highlights, if you want to do a keratin treatment, you must respect this rule.
A keratin treatment is always applied three weeks after highlights
And another thing. I advise you to do the treatment in a hair salon.
Because the professional will have experience and knows perfectly the products they work with. Therefore, you can avoid any unexpected situations that may arise.
When we talk about highlights, we’re talking about a coloring process that has two distinct parts:
- Bleaching , where some sections of the hair are lightened, so that the color difference with the rest of your hair is noticeable.
- Dye or toner , which is applied to neutralize unwanted colors, such as strident orange or yellowish tones.
These two processes need time for the color to set in your hair. And don’t forget, when you remove color, you also remove moisture, nutrients, and vitamins.
Also, when you add toner or dye to highlights to tint them, your hair will absorb the product as if it were the last drop of water in the desert.
After a few days, the color will set and your hair will expel the excess.
What do you think will happen if you do a keratin treatment but don’t wait for the color to set in your highlights?
Your hair won’t be able to absorb the color, and some of the color you got in the highlights would disappear.
If you applied blonde highlights, you may not notice much of a difference.
But if your highlights are caramel or chocolate-colored, they may turn orange or reddish.
That’s why you should wait at least three weeks after your highlights before doing a keratin treatment. Because keratin can lighten the color of your highlights by up to two numbers.
And that’s not even the end of your problems.
Because the keratin is also sealed by using a straightener at very high temperatures.
And when you had your highlights done, the bleaching process stripped your hair of its moisture. It left it weaker and prone to breakage.
Therefore, if you run the straightener over your highlights, the heat can burn those sections of your bleached hair irreversibly.
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What if after you get your highlights, your hair is frizzy, dry, brittle, and dull? You need a keratin treatment. But you’ll have to wait three weeks before you do it.
What can you do during those three weeks? That’s what I’ll talk about next.
How to prepare your hair for keratin treatment after highlights
I’ll tell you how to evaluate your hair and how to keep it hydrated with different products until the time you can apply the keratin.
Let’s start by evaluating the state of your hair after you get the highlights.
Evaluate how porous your hair is after getting highlights
This will give you an idea of how healthy your hair is after getting highlights.
All you need to do is wash your hair and look closely at it.
- Wash your hair and use a sulfate-free shampoo to avoid damaging the color of your highlights!
- Let your hair dry naturally, checking the time it takes for your ends to dry.
And this is very important. Because if you apply a keratin treatment now, the heat from the straightener will burn your hair.
But your hair also needs moisture. And this brings us to the following.
Moisturize your hair with natural oils
Natural oils like coconut, argan, and flaxseed are light oils that won’t detract from your highlights. Rather, they’ll moisturize your hair.
Apply oil masks, leave them on overnight and rinse them out the next morning using only shampoo.
You can use them once or twice a week to give your hair nutrients and prepare it for the keratin treatment.
You can also use masks with keratin. In this case, I recommend you apply them twice a week, leaving them on for twenty minutes.
Trim your ends
Trimming the ends of your hair after you get highlights will strengthen your hair. Why? Because dry, brittle, split, or damaged ends show the hair fiber isn’t very strong.
If you cut them off, the hair fiber will have less work and will not waste nutrients on parts of the hair that are practically dead.
It’s always a good idea to cut two centimeters off your ends at least every two months. That will stimulate growth and remove some of your damaged hair.
Conclusion
After you get your highlights done, you should wait three weeks before applying a keratin treatment.
That way, you’ll make sure the heat of the straightener doesn’t ruin either your hair or the color of your highlights. Finally, as a tip from a professional stylist, I suggest you go to a hair salon to apply the keratin treatment.
Because a professional will be able to evaluate if your hair will withstand the keratin treatment after your highlights.
