MattNH... There`s 3 minutes time-difference in our posts..you must have been posting yours as I was typing mine... I just posted it and logged out... no bothers man ..copy/paste anything you want anytime !.
foras..... ALL hair fades over time..even growing hair will be almost bleached from exposure to the sun, in very hot countries, especially. ..the difference is growing hair grows out in time and the ` bleached` [oxidised] hair is trimmed off by the barber when you go for a trim....system-hair is a sitting-duck, so not alone do you need to keep it moisturised/lubricated, you need to use a good leave-in conditioner, which has sunscreen in it too, if you will be out in the sun a lot....people who take ` sun-holidays` should even pop on a straw hat if possible to protect their hair.
But back to ` normal` daily wearing .... yeah, a lot of shampooing will also lift the colour, so I avoid it as much as I can..... I often just give the lace a rinse/apply shampoo to it in a sink while avoiding the hair, in order to remove sweat residues etc., in the interest of hygiene...... even at that, as a system ages, I re-colour it to spruce it up again.