Colouring hair does two things at once: it puts pigment in, and it takes strength out. Most colour-care lines only address the first. milk_shake splits the job across four lines — Colour Specifics for the salon chair, Colour Care for keeping the shade, Integrity & Strength for the everyday wear that follows, and Everlasting Bonds for hair that colouring has actually broken. Used in the right order they add up to one routine; bought at random they overlap and waste money.
This guide lays out that routine step by step, names the exact product and size for each step, and is honest about which steps most people can skip. Canadian prices are the live prices on ProHair.ca when written.
Step 0, in the salon: Colour Specifics
Colour Specifics is the professional service line and it is where a good colour result starts. Clarifying Shampoo (1 L $55.00) removes styling residue and mineral build-up before the service so pigment takes evenly; the Pre-Colour Porosity Equalizing Lotion (200 ml $22.50) evens out porous ends so they do not grab darker than the roots. After rinsing, the Post-Colour Acidic Cuticle Sealer (200 ml $22.50) closes the cuticle and locks the pigment, then the Post Colour Shampoo and Post Colour Conditioner (1 L $55.00 each, or the Post Colour Duo) finish the service at an acidic pH. The Colour Stain Remover ($15.00) takes colour off skin. These are litre and salon sizes; if you colour at home, the sealer and the stain remover are the two worth owning.
Step 1, every wash: Colour Care
Colour fades when the cuticle stays open and the fibre dries out, so a colour shampoo has two jobs: clean without lifting pigment, and close the cuticle on the way out. Colour Care Color Maintainer Shampoo (50 ml $7.19, 300 ml $23.69, 1 L $47.50) is sulfate- and paraben-free, hydrates with milk proteins and stabilises the pigment with Integrity 41. Color Maintainer Conditioner (same sizes, same prices) closes the cuticle and detangles. If you prefer vegan, the Flower shampoo and Flower conditioner swap milk proteins for soy proteins and moringa and add a floral scent at the same prices. Either way, the Colour Care Duo is the cheapest way to own the pair.
Step 2, once a week: the Colour Care mask
A conditioner works in a minute; a mask works in five to ten and goes deeper. Colour Care Deep Conditioning Mask (200 ml $23.69, 500 ml $42.50) uses the same milk protein and Integrity 41 pair to feed the lengths and flatten the cuticle so light bounces off the surface and the colour reads richer. Use it instead of the conditioner one wash a week — not on top of it, which just rinses money down the drain. Coarse or thick hair can use the mask twice a week; fine hair should keep it to once.
Step 3, on damp hair: the leave-in
The step people skip is the one that protects the first two. Incredible Milk 12 Effects (55 ml $10.94, 150 ml $24.75; also in Flower) detangles, controls frizz, protects from heat and helps colour last — twelve claims on the label, but for a colour routine the two that matter are heat protection and UV protection, because a blow-dryer and the sun are what reopen the cuticle you just closed. milk_shake itself boxes shampoo, conditioner and Incredible Milk together as its Holiday Trio, which tells you the brand thinks of these three as the routine. That is exactly the Colour Care routine on our brand page, with the mask as the weekly step.
When the hair is rough, not broken: Integrity & Strength
Colour-treated hair that feels rough, dull and brittle from heat styling, brushing and weather — but is not snapping — belongs on Integrity & Strength. Nourishing Shampoo and Nourishing Conditioner (70 ml $10.35, 300 ml $24.75, 1 L $71.10; Duo available) support the hair's own strength with milk proteins and leave it soft without weight. The Intensive Treatment mask (200 ml $25.63, 500 ml $42.50) is the weekly step; the Split Ends Savior (100 ml $26.13, amaranth extract and murumuru butter) is a leave-in for the last inch of hair; and the Nourishing Muru Muru Butter (200 ml $63.00) is a rich pre-shampoo treatment for very dry, thick hair — apply to dry lengths, wait, then wash. Alternate Integrity & Strength with Colour Care rather than replacing it: colour wash one day, strength wash the next.
When the hair is broken: Everlasting Bonds
Bleach, lightener, perms, relaxers and repeated permanent colour break the bonds inside the hair fibre. No amount of conditioning fixes that; a bond builder does. Everlasting Bonds is milk_shake's answer, built around the patent-pending NutriBond complex — rice proteins, amino acids, hyaluronic acid and glycosaminoglycans — combined with milk proteins, in every product of the line, so each step continues the repair rather than one product doing all the work.
- Intensive Repair Pre-Shampoo Treatment (400 ml $122.50) — the salon service step, applied before washing; it repairs in a single use and is priced and sized for the backwash. At home, use it once a month on hair that has just been lightened.
- Repair Shampoo (50 ml $10.00, 300 ml $28.75, 750 ml $67.50) — starts the repair at every wash.
- Repairing Conditioner (50 ml $10.00, 250 ml $31.25) — lightweight, so it detangles bleached hair without the heaviness that makes fine blondes flat. The Everlasting Bonds Duo is the pair.
- Intensive Repair Mask (120 ml $36.25, 400 ml $110.00) — once a week in place of the conditioner. The 120 ml is not small for a mask; it is a concentrated treatment and lasts eight to ten uses on medium-length hair.
- Leave-In Treatment (100 ml $27.50) — on damp hair before styling, heat protection to 230 °C, so the blow-dry does not undo steps two to four.
Steps two to five are the Everlasting Bonds routine on the brand page. Buy the pre-shampoo only if you are lightening regularly.
Which line, honestly
- Coloured, otherwise healthy → Colour Care shampoo, conditioner, mask, Incredible Milk.
- Coloured and rough from heat → alternate Colour Care with Integrity & Strength; add Split Ends Savior.
- Bleached, snapping, elastic when wet → Everlasting Bonds for the first month, then alternate with Colour Care once the breakage stops.
- Blonde going yellow on top of any of the above → keep the line, swap the shampoo for Silver Shine every second wash. See our blonde guide.
- Coloured hair that suddenly "won't take colour" or looks dull in a hard-water city → Scalp Care Deep Detox Shampoo once a week to lift copper and lead residue.
How much this costs, realistically
A full Colour Care routine in retail sizes — shampoo, conditioner, mask and Incredible Milk — is about $96 and lasts a medium-length head two to three months, because the mask and leave-in outlast the shampoo. The Everlasting Bonds equivalent is about $124 for the four home steps. The litre shampoo and conditioner drop the per-wash cost by roughly half, so once you know the line suits you, buy the litres and the pump. What you should not do is buy the mask from one line and the shampoo from another to "cover everything": the lines are designed so that each product carries the line's active, and mixing them halves the dose of both.
Shop milk_shake at ProHair.ca — filter by Color fading, Damage or Breakage to see only the products in this guide, or start with which milk_shake shampoo is right for your hair.