From The Straits Times    |

Here’s an all-too-familiar scenario: You’ve just tinted your tresses. You sashay out of the salon with a shampoo ad-worthy sheen … only for tiny thickets of reprehensible roots to peek through mere minutes later, it would seem.

Happily, there are a ton of at-home tips, tricks and tinctures to try for mane maintenance, starting with the simplest: For maximum shine and minimum spend, colour-sustaining shampoo is where it’s at.

Colour-depositing shampoos

Crucial caveat: ease off on your expectations because rinse-off shampoos aren’t going to have you looking like you spent half a day at a salon. Rather, richly restorative shampoos, conditioners and masks like those from L’Oreal Professionnel’s incredibly invigorating Pro Fiber range (price on request at selected salons) work in tandem to lend your locks a lovely sheen, which in turn deflects light and diffuses the harsh transition in hue between your real roots and your faux “fur”.

Game to try a cool new spin on the ol’ “lather, rinse, repeat” adage? A neat way of introducing so-called colour-depositing shampoos into your routine is to use them as a gentle post-wash treatment.

Think of this hair hack as being homologous to the double cleansing component of your skincare ritual. As with your facial cleansing oil, your regular shampoo spirits away the day’s dirt and debris, for fuller penetration of the temporary pigments from the second application of your colour shampoo. We swear we won’t judge if your newly rejuvenated crop compels you to perform a slow-mo beauty commercial hair flip!

Pressed hair powders

Option two: Try packing on pressed powders, which are pretty much elevated eyeshadows as far as formula is concerned. To wit, the hugely hyped Color Wow Root Cover Up range (available in a staggering spectrum of shades for international shipping too!) helps shadow in sparse spots and roots along the hairline – especially useful if you have a pronounced widow’s peak like me.

Technique-wise, simply part your hair down the middle, then grab an angled brush and stipple in your colour of choice where needed. Top tip: Try mixing and matching complementary colours so as to simulate the faceted flash of real follicles. Bonus: If you’re a ponytail person of the Ariana Grande persuasion, shading in your root hairs can also “extend” your hairline to lend the illusion of a fuller updo. A lick of clear mascara to fix the fibres in place and you’re all good to go.

Tinted dry shampoo

Finally, the fool-proof finale: Tinted dry shampoo! I’m obsessed with Sachajuan’s sensational Dark Volume Powder (available via Net-A-Porter), which works wonders for cover-up jobs on fragile, extra-fine follicles.

Use this souped-up spray exactly as you would any conventional dry shampoo: Prep your pouf by giving it a brisk comb-through with a wide-toothed comb. This de-tangles and doubles up as styling of sorts.

Next, drag your comb down the centre of your crown to create a horizontal part. For each section you make, flip the hair over and spritz in a zigzag motion, paying particular attention to the roots, where the mist is needed most. For increased control, spray onto a brush and work through the hair from roots to ends.

The gentle graduation of colour afforded by this aerosol amplifier blurs out any discernible demarcation remarkably well; the effect is so subtle and sophisticated, it would pass muster even in close-up selfies and such, methinks.

Best bit? All of these root rectifiers – tinted shampoos, pressed powders and dry shampoo – are the very definition of commitment-free experimentation: When the party’s over, step into the shower and suds off, like Cinderella shedding her bejeweled finery. Because hey, if your DIY project goes awry, you can simply rinse it out and make an appointment with your colourist. Good luck with your locks!

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