How to Fix Dry, Dull Hair & Get Your Luster Back

We’ve all been there—you leave the salon or finish dyeing your hair at home and are in love with the color and shine. But as the days and weeks go on— your hair begins to lack moisture, shine, and body. In a word, it’s dull.

Why does hair lose its luster? It could be caused by many factors, like using the wrong products, not getting enough nutrients in your diet, or overusing harsh chemicals or techniques. 

If this sounds like your hair, it’s time to show it some love. Here are seven ways to bring back color and shine.

1. Try a Treatment

If you have already colored hair, a Color Therapy Color Depositing Hair Mask will enrich your new hue. You’ll enjoy smooth, hydrated hair with a serious color boost, and you may even be able to go longer between coloring treatments in the future. These treatments should be used in lieu of conditioner every 2-3 times you shampoo—or whenever your hair needs intense hydration while refreshing your color at the same time. The more often you use it, the more color is deposited! 

Color Therapyin Caffe will add smoky ash tones to help neutralize any brassiness in brunettes, and Color Therapy in Perla can do the same for blondes by adding violet tones. Color Therapy in Castagna adds warm bronze and chestnut tones to brunettes while Color Therapy in Dorato adds golden and honey tones to both blondes and brunettes. All four colors help keep color refreshed by redepositing color along with essential hydration and nutrients. 

 

2. Go for a Gloss 

Add back that brilliant shine, refresh faded color, and even correct tones with a Color Reviving Gloss. Available in seven shades such as Amaretto, which adds bronze and caramel tones to brown hair, or Crema which neutralizes brassy tones in gray and blonde hair, this semi-permanent gloss can be a true secret weapon to freshening up your color. Its magic lies in Its ability to absorb into the cuticle layer of the hair to deposit color without putting it through a chemical change, like demi-permanent or permanent hair color does. You can add it to your mid-lengths and ends while touching up your roots. Or even every two to three weeks between dye jobs to keep your hair shiny and healthy-looking.

Pro-Tip: Use permanent hair dye to get gray coverage on roots (hair that hasn't been colored yet). Then pull gloss throughout your mid-lengths and ends. This combination of semi-permanent and permanent color is the secret behind what expert colorists do to maintain your hair color in a salon and avoid permanent color from building up and looking dull on the lengths and ends of your hair.

3. Add a Treatment

Adding the Pro Boost: Shine deep conditioning treatment to your routine will help keep your hair healthy-looking and moisturized thanks to hydrating hyaluronic acid (yes, the same you use on your face!) and argan oil. Anytime your hair needs a moisture boost and shine, you can call on a deep conditioning treatment instead of your regular conditioner to give your hair a radiant boost.

4. Start with the Right Stuff

If you choose your color wisely, you can head off a lot of issues later on. Our Radiant Hair Color is not only gorgeous, it’s also free from ammonia, PPD, resorcinol, parabens, phthalates, gluten, SLS and titanium dioxide.The color is specially formulated with multiple tones blended to create natural-looking, multi-dimensional color that is never flat or dull. 

If you’re going lighter, try something like Prime for Perfection®. Also formulated without ammonia, bleach, peroxide, parabens, phthalates, or gluten, Prime for Perfection is the perfect pre-color prep step to remove excess color build up before coloring.  The way it works is by penetrating the hair cuticle to remove excess color build up, giving you an optimal base for your color. This helps to avoid that brassy, dark and dull look and is recommended to use every third time you color your hair.

 

5. Take Care of Your Hair on the Regular 

Preventative, daily care goes a long way in keeping your color vibrant and healthy-looking. Use a shampoo that will shield your hair from the harsh sun, such as Color Protecting Shampoo, that also has UV protection. Our Color Protecting Shampoo is gentle enough to use every day, as it won’t strip the color while it cleanses. Blast your hair with a soak of cold water after a shower—the cold water seals the cuticles, helping amp up the shine, keep the color locked in longer and gives you the glossy locks you love. 

6. Tame That Mane

Protecting your color-treated hair with the right products is key to keeping it vibrant and healthy-looking. Check out Tame, a lightweight cream that can be used before or after styling to smooth and nourish, while adding shine and protection. Not only does it control frizz, it conditions and adds protection from UV rays and daily wear and tear. Tame can also be layered with any of our other styling products as a finishing step to smooth fly-aways.

Sleek Attack,™ a heat protective styling cream that gives you soft, touchable hold and style. Or, if you have curly hair, try Let's Bounce™ a protective curl defining cream that contains coconut oil and aloe to fight frizz.

7. Call on the Professionals 

Keeping your color-treated hair looking vibrant and shiny requires some attention and TLC, and with a little hair coloring know-how, you can take care of it at home. If you’re unsure where to begin, you can always check out our complimentary Video Color Consultations or our Color Crew in real time. Our licensed colorists are ready and waiting to answer all of your questions and get your hair back to its vibrant and fabulous self.

 

Don’t know where to start? Head to the Madison Reed color quiz online.

 

Originally published: 2/23/2016

Updated: 6/30/2021