Last week, our March/April cover star Beyoncé put us back on mute after sharing her Cécred wash day ritual featuring her natural, colored hair. “Maintaining 25 years of blonde on natural hair through all the experimenting I do has played a huge part in developing Cécred’s products,” she writes on Instagram. “It’s the hardest to keep color-treated hair healthy and strong, but Cécred is here.” Choosing color over perms or relaxers, Bey’s long blonde-streaked tresses are a result of expert color maintenance throughout the past quarter-century.
For over 10 of those years, celebrity colorist Rita Hazan has been responsible for treating the Queen’s mane. “I always make sure to prioritize her hair health before anything else– it’s essential in order to keep her hair voluminous and vibrant,” Hazan tells ESSENCE. Credited for the impact her color treatments had in the development of Cécred, specifically the Fermented Rice & Rose Protein Ritual, “conditioning treatments are important and I never overprocess her hair no matter how light she wants to make [it],” she says. “It’s great for enhancing her softness, adding shine, and reducing breakage.”
Debunking the stigma that people who wear wigs can’t have long, healthy hair, Hazan explains the difference between color-treating wigs versus natural curls. “Wigs are usually treated with preservatives and you can be a bit more aggressive color wise than you can with natural hair,” she says. But “Beyoncé always wanted [her hair] to be lighter.” Shedding light on the gradual change of her natural hair color, “we were able to work together to slowly go lighter to keep the health of her hair while we achieved the variations of blonde she wanted to achieve.” (Think: sun washed blonde for the Renaissance World Tour).
The process behind coloring the Queen’s hair is simple. “I work quickly,” Hazan says. “I do a single process to lighten her natural color, then we tone and maybe add a few extra highlights.” In addition to a conditioning treatment after every color to hydrate and strengthen the strands, knowing when to give her hair a break is a key part of maintenance. “Coloring her hair hasn’t had any negative effects because I always make sure to keep her hair healthy,” she says. “I know when to stop.”
Known to achieve a true blonde tone without brassiness, Hazan’s color techniques also stand up against heat. “It’s easy to maintain color when using heat as long as you’re incorporating a weekly treatment into your hair care routine,” she says. For Beyoncé, heat protectant and the Cécred Moisture Sealing Lotion preps her hair for hot tools (like the Dyson Supersonic, Airwrap and “old school pressing comb” she uses.) “If you’re using the right formulas, the color will never fade.”
