I successfully colored my hair auburn and I think it looks great. I’ve gotten comments at work ranging from “I don’t believe it’s really you” to “was that intentional?”

It’s gotten some getting used to. A lot of people said they got the color I currently have “by mistake” when doing it at home. So if any of you are looking to go auburn, make sure it’s a color that will fare well with your skin

I will be inserting pictures as soon as I can. I didn’t take many, only three actually, mostly because my husband wasn’t available to take pictures and red dye has a tendancy to stain anything and everything it touches. So If you need clarification on anything please feel free to comment.

(NOTE: my base color ranged between levels 7-10, bleached in chunks. Hair is healthy, medium porosity, high density, regular thickness. r\Rarely used any heat appliances, had 1″ of virgin hair at roots which is a level 7N.  Target hair color is a level 6RBR.)

Supplies:

• A dozen old towels
• Two brushes, two bowls for mixing
• Wella InDepth
• ColorTouch RG 8/43
• Koleston Perfect 6/4 R
• Koleston Perfect 6/74 BR
• Color Charm 20 Volume
• 1.9% Emulsion
• Jojoba oil
• Color Touch 6/4 R and 6/47 RB

Procedure:

1. Made sure my scalp was in good condition and that I wasn’t allergic to the dye.
2. Put on a swimsuit (easier to go rinse off without taking off clothes) and tied a towel around my neck.
3. Covered the bathroom and counters with towels to make sure no dye will get anywhere.
4. Double checked I had everything I needed.. including a timer or watch.
5. Applied jojoba oil lightly all over my hair
6. Mixed 1:2 with 8/43 RG with 1.9% emulsion all over my head, except roots, to fill in underpigmented hairs. Left on for 35 minutes. Rinsed, applied InDepth.
7. It was a nice lovely color of carrot orange now. I mixed one tube of 6/4 with one tube of 6/74 Koleston Perfect and with a ratio of 1:1 mixed with 20 developer.
8. Applied all over head.
9. Went to watch TV for 50 minutes.
10. Rinsed, applied InDepth, and VOILA, beautiful auburn!

I could’ve toned the hair a bit with colorTouch but since my scalp was stinging a little bit I wanted to let it rest for a while. I’ll probably use the colortouch to refresh the color once I notice it start to fade a bit. Red tends to fade or wash out the quickest so this really is a needed step to keep the color shiny.

Overall it was a great experience. Last time I had used products from Sally’s (Color Charm) and this time I used professional products (that only salons are supposed to have). Needless to say there was a HUGE difference and I will continue to buy these products. It was better because the color quality and simplicity in application just couldn’t compare. The RG just filled in the parts that needed filling, and the overall color was so EVEN, deep, and multitonal.. and doesn’t wash off within the first wash like most do. It’s great. And fairly cheap. All of the color cost me about $40 total. But I did have the developers on-hand already, and those usually are about $20 a piece. It sounds expensive but comparing it to a $200 salon visit, it’s just a drop in the bucket

Whether this has already happened to you or if you’re curious as to how to get light blonde hair, regardless of what color hair you currently have, here’s some good advice.

I’ll go through 3 different scenarios, the most common ones, for the sake of time and reading interest.

Scenario 1: you messed up and thought a box kit at the grocery store would be the perfect solution, and now your hair is fried and either orange, red, or bright yellow… and it’s ugly.

Relax. Take a deep breath. Don’t freak out, this can be fixed pretty easily. But know that only the color can be fixed in this scenario– the damage to your hair is done. Hair is basically dead protein, so once it’s damaged, all you can really do is protect it from getting more damaged… until you eventually cut it off at a salon. With that said, the last thing you want to do is bleach your hair again. This is what I would suggest:
1) Put on a hat, go to sally’s beauty supply, and purchase Wella InDepth. Costs around $5. It will bring your pH levels back down and deep condition your hair.
2) Now this part is up to you. Depends how bad the color is. If at all possible, wait a week before doing anything else to it. Give your scalp a rest because it’s been through a lot. However, if you’re looking a bit like a clown then continue on:
3) Get a very gentle semi or demi-permanent PROFESSIONAL haircolor and color your hair. NO BOX KITS! You will want a color at the same level that your hair currently is, meaning that you will need to do a bit of research on the color wheel and hair levels. Picking the right level and undertones is KEY to fixing your hair. You will want to pick a color that “cancels” out the color your currently have. Here’s three examples:
-If you have orange hair: You will want to pick a color that has a blue base
-If you have yellow hair: You will want to pick a color that has a purple base
-If you have red hair: you will want to pick a color that has a green base
And obviously any of the in-betweens will be combinations of the colors. For example, if your hair is yellow-orange, you will want a base that has purple and blue. And so on, and so forth. As far as the level of the hair color, the best way I can suggest to determine the EXACT shade, is to match your hair with a swatch from the same line as the semi/demi-permanent you will be buying. I say this because I’ve noticed that every product line has slightly different levels. Stick with one product line. Personally, I would recommend Wella. Their professional color is absolutely amazing.
4) Apply the color per the directions on the color product. Do NOT use more than 10 volume developer however. 10 volume and below is “deposit only” which is what you will want to do: just deposit color to correct your bozo-ness. Now it is possible to use more than 10 volume, but for the sake of your hair’s health, that should be avoided. 20 volume and above causes “lift” or lightening, the same thing bleach does. Only bleach is much more intense.

Scenario 2: You have black hair and suddenly want to be platinum.

Before you go color cowboy on me, first evaluate how you will look with platinum hair. Usually people with that dark of hair will not wear light blonde hair very well. But if you’ve tried on a wig or tried a virtual makeover and you like what you see, read on. Getting level 1 or level 2 hair to a level 9 or 10 is not impossible, but very difficult. You must first make sure your hair is in GREAT condition, preferably virgin hair. This is because if you colored it black, you must first get all the color out in order to proceed. There are products to help get this out, and shampooing over and over again with cheap shampoo might help as an at-home method, but 9 times out of 10 most people can’t get it out enough to go light blonde. You might have to wait until it grows out. With that said….
1) You will be bleaching the crap out of your hair. You will want to condition it every other day for a month (preferably) before bleaching.
2) Invest in Redken Levitation Bleach. It’s an on-the-scalp oil bleach that is super gentle to your hair and scalp comparitively. A little pricey (and hard to find– it’s meant for licensed cosmotologists only but check ebay!) but you also need to ask what your hair’s health is worth to you.
3)You will most likely need to bleach 3 times. Use Wella Indepth after each bleaching and follow instructions carefully. DO NOT leave the bleach on too long to avoid the hair from being under-pigmented.
4) there wil be shedding during the process. Don’t freak out. Your hair’s going to be all ticked off in going from that extreme so some of it is going to break off. It’s the price you pay. However, you will not get actual large handfuls of hair falling out. If that happens.. .WASH THE BLEACH OFF IMMEDIATELY. You most likely are having other issues or scalp problems.
5)After bleaching, do NOT forget to tone!! You need a toner and not a demi-permanent. Demi permanents will deposit color into the structure of the hair, and toners act like a “nylon” over it. It creates the desired “hue” you are looking for. Look at the color wheel to determine how to reach your tone.

Scenario 3: You bleached your hair, but not evenly, and you look a bit like a dalmation.

This is a tough one. You will carefully need to reapply bleach to all portions of your hair that is darker, trying not to overlap too much with the pieces that are bleached lighter. Go slowly and carefully. This is either an easy job or a very difficult one, just depends on how many spots you have. If you can’t do it, try to get a friend to help. But unfortunately manually filling them in is the only way to fix this one. Don’t forget to tone when you’re done

I cut my hair about once a year, and never have split ends in between cuts, with or without constant use of heat utensils. The reason? I’ve found the secret to preserving my hair. I’ll share my techniques with you :c)

Let’s say you just got out the shower and your hair is soaking wet, and let’s also say you don’t have time to let it air dry (since air drying is obviously nicer to your hair) so you need to blow dry and style your hair. The worst thing you can do for your hair is apply more heat than you have to. Ideally, the best route would be to avoid ALL heating tools, but that just won’t happen, so our goal is to minimize the damage and amount of heat as much as possible. Lightly pat dry your hair, and DO NOT RUB. lightly finger comb your hair if you have some tangles, taking care to not break any strands with your fingernails if they are long or chipped. Then use a wide-toothed comb and comb through your hair. If it’s tough to comb, apply a very light de-tangler. Now pat dry your hair again, concentrating on your ends. You should have more water collecting at the bottom of your hair if it is long. Now apply a little bit of jojoba oil (it’s cheap… can be found at any GMC or walgreens), put enough on your hands so that they glisten, and then rake your hands through your hair. If you put on too much your hair might look a little greasy. This oil will absorb into the hair when the cuticle expands by using a blow dryer, which helps condition your hair and counter the damage the heat will cause. Take your IONIC blowdryer (there’s a big difference in results… trust me) and start blow drying your hair, pointing DOWN the hair shaft. It helps to blow dry in sections if your hair is super thick.By this i mean pin up the top 1/2 of your head with a clip and just blow dry the bottom, then unclip the top part and blow dry the top. That way, you will ensure you won’t miss spots or overdry your hair. Yes, there is such a thing. You can tell your hair has been overdried when it feels slightly like straw. When it feels “rough” you essentially were applying force against your cuticle, causing it to flare, essentially causing damage to your hair.Smoothing your hair down with a serum or light conditioner helps the appearance of this, but note that damage to your hair still has ultimately been done. You know your hair is “dry enough” when it is slightly damp. Again, you do not want your hair to be COMPLETELY 100% dry.

Next step is to style it. Apply a bit of serum that contains silicone. Careful to not apply too much– or your hair will clump or feel sticky. If you’re going to be curling or flat ironing your hair, the same rules still apply to either, and here’s the trick to reign them in from abusing your hair. Set it to a medium-low setting. The lower the better. If you have thick hair, you will need a higher heat setting than those with thinner hair. Medium is probably the highest you should go, though, as a general rule. Take a THICK section of your hair, about 1-2 inches, at a time. The thinner the sections you take, the more concentrated the heat will be on your hair, and the more damage it will cause. Here’s how to tell if you’re leaving your hair on the iron too long: feel your hair immediately after applying the heat tool to it. If it is too hot to the touch, you are leaving it on WAY TOO LONG. It should be WARM, not HOT. You may notice that it isn’t styling as quickly this route. That is true. Healthy shiny hair takes more time because you have to treat it as the fragile thing it is. Now you wait until that strand of hair completely cools (usually 2-5 seconds), then reapply the heating tool again. Do this until you get the desired result. It usually takes me about 3 rounds and I have THICK hair.

When you are done, lightly apply an anti-breakage serum (such as Organix in coconut oil… my favorite!) to slick down and protect the hair a bit and add some shine. Then, you’re done :c) See, that wasn’t so hard!

• 

]]> http://illumisis.com/2008/11/the-cure-for-straight-shiny-healthy-hair/feed/ 0