Collection: Novara Hair Care & Accessories

Virgin hair carries its color on the inside, produced by melanin, the natural pigment that gives the fiber its shade. Color brought in from the outside depends on what the hair goes through between two applications.

Novara color depositing shampoo lays its pigments on the surface of the fiber. It does not lift the cuticle to lodge the color in the cortex, the inner part of the hair, the way an oxidation color does. The step gains in speed and in reversibility. In exchange, the deposit stays sensitive to anything that rubs and anything that reopens the surface.

Three moments cost it the most. Washing first, because hot water lifts the scales and lets some of the pigments escape. Drying next, when a terry towel catches the fiber and you have to rub to soak up the water. Then the night, eight hours during which your head moves on a cotton pillowcase that catches the lengths and drinks their moisture.

Porosity plays its part too, meaning how easily hair lets water in and out. Your lengths are the oldest part of your hair, and therefore the most porous. They hold pigment less well than the regrowth near the scalp. That is why a tone fades at the ends before it shifts anywhere else.

How often you wash weighs as much as the products you put on top. It is in fact the first lever for looking after colored hair over time.

Which product for colored hair should you start with?

Take the conditioner mask. It is the only product on this page that works on the pigments themselves, at the moment they escape. The others protect the fiber and limit friction, which serves the color without holding it in directly.

• The color protecting conditioner mask: the one to take if your color looks dull after two or three washes. It closes the surface of the fiber and leaves a film of care that keeps pigments in place. A 200 ml bottle covers every wash between two colorings.
• The microfiber hair towel: its threads take up water on simple contact, with no rubbing needed. The color deposit is spared and frizz goes down. Your hair comes out already well wrung, so the dryer runs for less time on the lengths.
• The satin sleep bonnet: useful if your mornings start with a laborious detangling. Satin is a smooth weave, hair slides across it instead of catching. The fabric absorbs almost nothing of your evening products. On very short hair, it will not bring much.
• The massaging and diffusing brush: the only item on this page with nothing specific to colored hair. It detangles without catching and spreads a product or your color depositing shampoo from roots to ends, which avoids product clumped on a single area. Its four modes are chosen with a button, including the scalp massage while brushing.
• The beard oil: it concerns colored beards only. Beard hair is thicker than head hair and grows on skin that produces less sebum, so coloring leaves it rough to the touch. Three to five drops on a clean, dry beard, worked down to the skin of the chin.

How do you sequence these products around your color depositing shampoo?

The order counts for more than the number of products. Novara instant color shampoo lays the color down in 10 minutes in the shower. Everything that comes after serves to keep it in place until the next application, four to six weeks later.

1. During the application, the brush spreads the product from roots to ends. A missed area comes out lighter once dry.
2. After rinsing, the conditioner goes on the lengths and ends, never on the roots, which do not need it. Two minutes, then a lukewarm rinse.
3. On the way out of the shower, the microfiber towel replaces the terry one. Press the lengths between your hands, roll the turban and let it work while you get dressed.
4. Come evening, the satin bonnet goes on dry hair, lengths gathered without a tight elastic.
5. For a colored beard, the oil is worked in at night, when it has the whole night ahead of it.

The habits that wear color down faster

Four habits undo part of the work. Scalding water at the end of the shower reopens the surface the conditioner has just closed, a lukewarm rinse is enough. Fabric softener cuts the absorbency of microfiber, so the towel is washed without it. A tumble dryer damages the satin weave and costs it its smooth surface, whereas drying flat in the open air preserves it. Then there is the bonnet put on lengths that are still damp, which tangles hair instead of protecting it.

Your questions about Novara care products and accessories

Do you need the whole range to see a difference?

Each product works on a different moment of your routine, so a single one is enough to change something about that moment. The bonnet shows from the very first morning. The conditioner needs three or four washes before the difference in tone shows. Taking all five at once speeds nothing up, it simply covers more moments.

How often should you use the conditioner mask?

At every wash, with no limit. It rinses out, so it does not build up in the hair. A dollop on the lengths is enough. Doubling the dose does not improve how the color holds, it weighs fine hair down and leaves it flat at the roots. If your lengths feel heavy, cut the amount before you cut the frequency.

Is the microfiber towel useful on hair that is not colored?

Yes, the drying benefit holds for everyone. Curly hair finds less frizz with it than with a terry towel, fine hair dries faster in the open air. It is right after a color depositing shampoo that it earns its keep most, because a pigment deposit on the surface fears friction more than a color lodged inside the fiber.

Does the satin bonnet replace a satin pillowcase?

It does better on one point. A pillowcase protects the area where your head rests, whereas the bonnet gathers all your lengths and follows them as you move during the night. It also slips into a travel bag. The pillowcase keeps an edge if you dislike having something on your head to sleep.

Do these products suit color done in a salon?

Yes, none of them contains pigment. They work on the surface of the fiber and on friction, adding nothing to your color and taking nothing away. Salon color lodges inside the hair, but it wears down with washing and at the ends like everything else. The benefit is the same.