Tag: lightening
Brown to Blonde- It’s a Process!
It’s a Process! Getting your hair from dark to blonde does not come easy! Shannon had permanent dark hair color roots to ends. We wanted to do a blonde balayage with heavy blonde ends. March 31st was our first session. The first day we lightened her hair twice, an hour each time. After that day we gave her hair a break of about 7-9 days between lightenings. Today, April 18th was our last session. I think for now this is as much as Shannon’s hair can take!
Each of the 4 processes took about an hour and a half. We used lightener and waited an hour for each session. We used Olaplex, which protects the hair in extreme lightening conditions. Over the 3 weeks, Shannon conditioned her hair, used a bluing shampoo to tone down the gold and used as little heat as possible. Lightening just one time will take moisture out of the hair and after 4 times it really can do a number on your strands. It’s not good to have blonde ends if they are like fried straw and break off!
I wish I could say that we could do this process in one visit and like magic your hair is the perfect shade of blonde. It just doesn’t work like that! There is chemistry and limits and lots of things happening to the hair that we can’t control! We especially don’t want to comprise the health and integrity of the hair.
This is a perfect example of filtered looks. The photo on the left is Shannon in the salon, under lights that make her hair appear more gold than it actually does. I wish you could see it in person! The camera just doesn’t capture the true look. The photo on the right is filtered. So many times you will see a photo with color that you love but chances are it has been altered. It can be very misleading and give you the wrong expectations.
Colorful Hair is Beautiful
Colorful hair is beautiful!
The steps to get here are many and challenging. To get the purest tones of colorful hair the base color needs to be lightened to a level 9 or 10. Natural hair color falls into a level from 1 to 10.
Depending on how dark your natural color is, this lightening can take 2 or 3-5 hours. Often you need several lightening steps to get to the lightest level.
The most challenging part is that most people have some sort of color on their hair already. Hair that has color on the ends can be extra difficult because it doesn’t always lighten to the needed level. A color remover is needed to get rid of all artificial color in the hair before the lightening process can start.
Once the level of 9 or 10 has been achieved the hair is shampooed, conditioned and dried before the bright colors are added.
The placement of the colors to get your colorful hair are limited only by your imagination! These colors are placed in the hair and processing is about 20-30 min.
This appointment can be several hours. Bring a lunch, and something to read. 🙂
The cost depends on what actually needs to be done. Sometime it’s not easy to estimate the price because we aren’t sure how long and agreeable you hair will be. It’s a good idea to have a through consultation about colorful hair so you know all the pros and cons and price.
Unfortunately these color are not always permanent. They lighten with every shampoo. Some last 10 shampoos and others last 20. It’s really best to shampoo as little as possible and use dry shampoo until you feel the need to do a thorough cleansing.
It’s always good to know what you’re getting into before starting the process. It’s a fun look but it’s a commitment to get there and to keep it going!
