The £2 bathroom item hairdressers say protects coloured hair better than expensive masks

There’s a small, almost cheeky fix colourists have been whispering about over the basin: protect dyed hair with a £2 bottle of conditioner you already own, instead of a £30 “colour shield” mask. No bond‑building jargon, no twelve‑step routine, no guilt about not doing a weekly hair spa. Just a cheap, basic conditioner and a change in where you use it.

Shower running, towel on the radiator, a line‑up of products watching from the shelf: purple shampoo, hair mask that cost more than dinner, oil you swore you’d use “every wash”. And still, three weeks after a fresh balayage, the ends look tired and the colour has that slightly washed‑out look. You blame hard water, the weather, maybe your shampoo.

Then a stylist in the chair next to you says, almost off‑hand: “Put a blob of cheap white conditioner on your lengths before you shampoo. Treat it like a protective slip layer.” No miracle serum. No salon‑only vial. Just the plain conditioner you’d usually ignore. It sounds like something your gran might have done before coloured hair was a category. It also sounds doable on a Tuesday night when you just want to get in and out of the shower.

It starts with a £2 bottle.

The real reason your colour keeps fading

Coloured hair doesn’t just “vanish”; it’s slowly rinsed and roughed out of the cuticle. Every wash swells the hair shaft as water pushes its way in, lifting the cuticle slightly. Add surfactants from shampoo, hot water, and a good scrub at the roots, and you have the perfect set‑up to leach out dyes, especially reds, coppers and fashion shades.

We’ve all had that moment watching pink, brown, or black foam curl down the plughole after a hair wash. That’s not just excess dye from week one; it happens over and over because colour molecules sit in a structure that doesn’t love being soaked, scrubbed and steamed. If you swim, live somewhere with hard water, or wash daily after the gym, you’re giving your colour a tough life.

Here’s where the boring £2 conditioner comes in. A simple, silicone‑free (or light silicone) conditioner is mostly water, fatty alcohols and cationic conditioning agents. Those positive charges are drawn to the slightly negative surface of hair, clinging to the cuticle and smoothing it. Put that between your hair and shampoo and you’re effectively dulling the impact of water and surfactants on your lengths, where colour lives.

A cheap conditioner becomes a sacrificial shield, so your expensive colour doesn’t have to be.

The pre‑wash conditioner trick

Method is pleasingly low‑effort. Before you shampoo, wet your hair thoroughly with lukewarm water and squeeze out the excess. Apply a small handful of basic conditioner from mid‑lengths to ends, comb through with your fingers, and let it sit for a minute while you soap your body or cleanse your face. Then, without rinsing the conditioner away, lather your shampoo at the roots only.

Massage the scalp, let the foam travel gently down the lengths, and rinse everything out together. The conditioner on your mid‑lengths acts like a buffer, softening the hit from shampoo while still allowing your scalp to get properly clean. You haven’t added a step; you’ve simply moved your conditioner to before the wash, not just after.

Don’t overthink it. You’re not trying to do a heavy mask here. Use something light, unscented if possible, and avoid “deep repair” formulas packed with proteins if your hair is fine or prone to stiffness. For very thick or curly hair, you can be a bit more generous. Let’s be honest: no one measures in teaspoons in the shower. Aim for enough slip that your fingers slide easily.

“You’re cushioning the colour,” one London colourist told me. “Your roots get clean, your ends get protected, and you haven’t spent a tenner on a tiny tube.”

• Use a cheap, simple conditioner as a pre‑wash shield.
• Apply from mid‑lengths down; keep shampoo at the scalp.
• Rinse both out together with lukewarm, not boiling, water.
• Follow with a tiny amount of conditioner or leave‑in if needed.
• Do it every wash, not once a month when you remember the mask.

Why this beats splurging on weekly masks

Expensive masks can be lovely, but they’re occasional visitors. A £32 tub that you use “on Sundays” won’t protect your colour on the five other days your hair is being washed, sweated in, and tied up wet. Consistency beats drama. A dull white £2 bottle that lives in your shower and gets used every wash will quietly do more for your colour than a show‑off product you rarely reach for.

The science backs the boring approach. Most colour fade happens in the first few minutes of wetting and washing, not in the twenty minutes you’re sitting with a mask on. Reducing swelling and friction each wash matters more than occasionally drowning your hair in ingredients. A pre‑wash conditioner layer lessens cuticle lift and tangling, which means fewer broken pieces reflecting light badly and making colour look flat.

There’s also damage control. When hair gets tangled and rough in the shower, we yank at it with a brush afterwards. That snaps fragile, chemically treated lengths and frays the ends, which makes colour look older than it is. Smoother hair in the shower means easier detangling later. Protect the cuticle, and you protect both shine and shade.

Don’t just grab any bottle: what to look for

Not every conditioner loves colour the same way. Fragranced, heavy formulas loaded with certain oils can weigh finer hair down, and some “clarifying” conditioners sneak in ingredients better suited to scalp than ends. Look for something labelled “for frequent use”, “gentle” or “daily”, and ideally one that doesn’t boast about deep cleansing. This isn’t a scrub; it’s a soft jacket.

If your hair is fine and oily at the roots, keep the pre‑wash strictly from ear level down. For thick, curly or coily hair, you can bring it a touch higher, avoiding the scalp itself. Blonding and bleaching roughen the cuticle more than single‑process brunettes, so bleached hair often benefits the most from a cushion step like this.

You still get to use your fancier products. A bond‑builder once a week, a tone‑correcting mask every couple of washes, and a lightweight oil on the ends can all layer on top of the basic pre‑wash. The £2 bottle isn’t replacing everything; it’s the cheap, reliable friend that shows up every time, preventing the need to fix quite so much later.

Key tip	Detail	Why it helps coloured hair
Pre‑wash conditioner	Light conditioner on lengths before shampoo	Shields colour molecules from harsh washing
Shampoo at the scalp only	Let lather travel down, don’t scrub ends	Cleans where needed, avoids over‑stripping
Lukewarm water	Skip very hot showers on hair wash days	Less cuticle lift, less colour loss

The tiny routine that actually fits real life

The best routines are the ones you’ll keep doing when you’re tired, late, or sharing a bathroom. A pre‑wash conditioner step takes 30 extra seconds at most. You can still bung your hair in a claw clip, still sleep on it half‑damp if you must, and still hit the snooze button. What changes is the quiet reduction in wear and tear, wash after wash.

Pulling back, this is less about buying something new and more about moving something you already own. You’re changing the order, not your whole personality. A cheap conditioner in the right place can do the unglamorous, daily protection work that glossy masks only promise on the label. Some treatments land like a big reveal; this one lands like a small, repeatable habit.

Share it with the friend who always says, “My colour never lasts,” and is half‑planning another salon visit they can’t really afford. Or try it yourself for a fortnight and notice how much less colour you see sliding down the drain. The £2 bottle isn’t the star of your bathroom shelf-but it might be the one doing the real work.

FAQ:

• Does this work on all hair colours? Yes. It helps reds, coppers, brunettes, blondes and vivid shades by reducing wash‑out and roughness, though very bright fashion colours will still fade faster by nature.
  
• Won’t conditioner before shampoo make my roots greasy? Not if you keep it on mid‑lengths and ends and focus shampoo just on the scalp. Fine hair may still want a tiny amount of post‑wash conditioner, or none at all.
  
• Can I use my expensive mask as the pre‑wash? You can, but it’s overkill for every wash. Use a simple, cheap conditioner as the daily shield and save masks for weekly or fortnightly treats.
  
• How soon after colouring can I start this? As soon as your stylist says you can wash your hair. The first few washes are when this trick makes the biggest difference to colour longevity.
  
• Is silicone‑free better for this method? Silicone‑free is a safe bet, especially for finer hair, but light silicones are generally fine. Avoid very heavy, waxy formulas if your hair gets weighed down easily.