QuoteReplyTopic: Root Touch-ups For Blonde Hair Posted: October 29 2008 at 12:20pm
Thanks for the reply!
I didn't get a bottle since I figured a brush would be fine, but I learned from that mistake. Next time I'm going to use both. It will be easier to apply it with that.
I did look for activators at Sally but I couldn't find any. I could only find one for the Born Blonde semi-permanent toner. But I didn't get that toner, I got the Clairol Creme instead; So I figured using a Born Blonde activator wouldn't work. I think next time I'm just going to go to another Sally store and see if they have it there. 315 looked dark to me as well, but when I looked at the swatches at the store it matched my hair almost perfectly so that's the only reason I got it. I should have went with a different one.
I completely forgot to apply conditioner to my hair before bleaching. I was going to but oh well, definitely will next time.
My hair is pretty pale (except for the roots). Though it has a lot of variation because I used to have highlights and the girl who tried to cover them up didn't really do it completely. She just bleached the pieces of hair that weren't bleached before, foiled them, and washed them out. She definitely did not distribute a toner on them (that's why they're a lot more yellow then the rest of my hair). Thank you for the suggestion on the shampoo. I think if that could help with this problem.
She also put a blue toner on my previously highlighted chunks of hair (which were almots white) and then they started to turn silvery (now they're completely white). Basically she played around with a few different toners, one after the other, and really messed up the color of my hair. Though it's not that bad I supposed since the variation makes my hair look more natural, but yea, she could have done a better job. I just can't believe that she's so bad at doing hair when she's obviously worked at the salon for a while. Weird.
So anyway, back to my hair, I think that 302 or 323 would work great to even out and cancel some of the yellow.
Here's a pic of what the top looks like now in natural light. You'll see the strawberry-ish pretty clearly.
Hi, so sorry you had a rough first go with the bleach. I think another thing that may be handy if you do it again in the future is using a bottle & brush. Do you have any photos for reference to show the contrast of the top to bottom. Idk if you got to the pale yellow stage. Did you put the activator packet into the 20-30 vol developer then the liquid? I notice that without the activator packet the bleach is more "gentle" and takes longer to get to the pale point. I also feel the 315 is good to mix with other colors but seems very dark for my taste.
Your choice of 7th stage is great for resistant hair with alot of red undertones & to double drab the formula. It is difficult to see & can be rubbed with a towel maybe to see how things are coming up.
A good thing to do would be if you have lots of hair hehe... Make little swatches with good scotch tape or duck tape. Bleach those to the pale yellow stage with Wellite or Complements or born blonde/ instant whip. Make sure to add the activator packet if your hair is dark, resistant, etc Each works for 90 min (not that I'm saying you would need that it all depends on your hair condition, porosity etc).
Also you could get a mirror for back view hung up & practice with Conditioner only in a bottle Applying to roots etc. Also before actually doing color hair can be protected with a thick conditioner mid-lengths to ends. I think if bleach accidently gets where it isn't wanted putting a damp cloth to rub it off or squirt with water may help. More often hair that is highlighted will be seperated and treated differently in packets. You can view the ABCH booklet online (A test for certification-this shows examples).
Virgin hair gets to a pale yellow easier. Hair swatches I have re-used that were colored lol sometimes keep a difficult shade...so it is really picky getting this stuff just right!!! *keeping in mind the most important too..condition of hair* As For the Toners or demi/semi options... (idk what your hair color is now?) on bleached to pale yellow- 301 blue-looks a little light yellow vanilla cream to me, 302 violet, looks beige vanilla (less yellow) 323 blue-violet) look nice & pale. Mixing 323 & 301 looks pale -just right for my taste. Mixing 303+307 look beige-pink (delicate) too dark for me. 307 looked more beige purpley. These are just experiments on swatches & your hair will show you exactly how it will turn out per your swatch. Another alternative is 10NA Wella Color Charm Demi. I also like Miss Clairol Topaz 40D. Towhead looks too dark for my taste.
Mixing 2pts of developer to 1part toner may make the coverage lighter (less deposit).
Schwarzkopf Silver shampoo (check this out on a bleach swatch) it makes a beautiful pale platinum. To curb YELLOW/Brass perfectly.
For me 315 would have to be mixed with a 301 or something to look less "yellow" the base color.
302 your pick sounds good but test to see as I don't know where your hair is at the moment .
Goodluck :)
Edited by borne.blonde - October 28 2008 at 11:12pm
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Ok, so I decided to do the roots today... and unfortunately it did not turn out exactly as I expected it would.
I got the Clairol 7th Stage lightener, and according to the bottle I was supposed to mix it with a 20vol toner. Well, since my hair is pretty resistant I decided to get 30 instead since that would lift faster and better - or so I thought.
Turns out that the lightener is actually BLUE not WHITE as I expected. (Guess I should have got the Born Blonde Creme Lightener since that one is white and would make it much easier for me to see what's going on underneath.) Mixed it and had my sister help me apply it with a brush; another mistake - I should have used a bottle instead since it's hard to do it with a brush plus she kept accidentally getting bleach on the rest of my hair that's already blonde.
Like I said many times, my hair is insanely thick and long. It took her probably half an hour to apply the stuff to just my roots (very sloppily).
I figured since I had already had it on my hair for so long I should have already seen a difference in color, but I didn't see any. I waited and waited and became more frustrated since the blue of the lightener was interfering with the rest so it was hard to see what was happening. Plus it mixed with some of the blonde streaks that I had in my hair previously, making my hair appear GREEN. I was freaking out at that point so to make it lighten faster I used a bit of heat.
It basically looked like nothing was happening except my hair turning green. So I went and washed it out. Turns out my hair was lightening, but very verrrrryyyyy slowly and the bleach had already dried up by now so I figure leaving it on longer wouldn't make a difference anyway. Well, my roots looked A LOT like they did when I got it done at the salon (when the girl screwed up and had to rebleach). So basically I figured I would have to do the same thing again, but being all wet and just out of the shower I couldn't go back to the store to get more bleach.
So I decided to tone it with the toner I got (Clairol Creme Toner 315) thinking that it wouldn't make a difference. I toned it anyway for maybe 10 mintues and washed it again. Well, now my roots are kind of strawberry/golden blonde while the rest of myhair is pretty pale.
Though the toner didn't do a whole lot for my roots, fortunately it did take out some of the yellow that I had at the top from the previous disaster that the stylist didn't fix properly.
So now I'm stuck with about 1" long roots (thankfully it doesn't look that bad) that are kinda strawberry-ish/gold. I'm thinking rebleaching would be unnecessary, so I just need to pick a different toner. Thankfully the Clairol website offers good advice on how to choose toners based on the color you prelighten your hair.
I would consider my roots to be a glonden yellow I guess since it's not pale like the rest of my hair. I'm thinking that in order to get it to match better with the rest of my hair I should probably pick the 302D Platinum Baige toner since that is the only one that would match the closest to the rest of my hair if I applied to my roots; the rest would turn out too yellow or too beige I think.
Should I just do that?
Edited by ThisGirl0 - October 28 2008 at 7:04pm
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Well, I went to Sally yesterday and got all the products I need. The only thing that I had to get that was different was the toner. Online the swatch that looks closes to my blonde is 311, but when I looked at it at the store it was totally different. I ended up getting a 315 since that matched almost perfectly.
I'm gonna be doing it sometime next week. Can't wait.
Edited by ThisGirl0 - October 26 2008 at 2:56pm
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It still amazes me how many stylists out there that don't seem to know what they're doing. Bleaching to pale yellow is basic hair colour 101. That just bothers me.
I bleach mine and it's the best it's ever looked color wise and health wise. My only advice is use professional products wherever you can. It's quality that's the difference, and that's what counts when you dry it off after coloring to see how it turned out.
I used Redken Levitation Oil Bleach, applied twice, 55 mins each time (my hair is 7R) to bring it to very very pale yellow. I then tone with Wella Color Touch (demi) in half Lightest Ash Blonde and half Pearl Ash. All pro products. Love the results and have never been happier.
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Hey girl! I just wanted to say good luck with keeping your roots covered.I also wanted to tell u about a color deposting shampoo that will keep uour blonde nice & bright.It's called Artec color.U can look online at it.They have all kinds of blonde colors.Check it out.I use it for my red colored hair.It works wonders to keep my red, vibrant.Good luck with your hair! :)
Edited by Slipknothartgir - October 19 2008 at 1:43pm
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It is very sad that the person who started this thread had such a bad experience with a salon professional stylist. I am a professional colorist of 9 years, and an American Board Certified Haircolor Specialist... take my advice in regards to when and if you ever decide to visit a salon again.
MAKE SURE YOU DO A PRE CONSULTATION WITH THE STYLIST that will be working with your hair. Ask them questions about what the techniques, formulas, outcome and maintainance will be on your hair. Listen to how they respond... should they not be able to provide you with real answers and just try to say that everything will be great, then I would go to someone else. A highly trained professional will go into detail without a problem.
As for the formulas for your hair, DO NOT APPLY ANY KIND OF toner to the mid-lengths/ends of your lightened hair that involves 20 vol, for that matter any peroxide at all. Use only a demi or a semi that will deposit color OR ELSE you will just increase the damage to the lower portion of your hair and you will have poor color retention over time.
American Board Certified Hair Color Specialist & Life Coach for the Beauty Industry
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I looked at all the colors that they have... and my hair has a lot of variation in it due to the previous highlights. I see a very slight difference between some of the shades. I could pick probably 3 of those and go with them and probably have it look okay (though 311 looks like the best choice). I don't really see how you can specifically determine which one you need other then based on what you want it to look like. It's difficult. I think I'm just going to have to wing it 303 or 311 since they look the closest.
Also, the last time I had my hair done (described in detailed above) the stylist used two or three different colored toners, I believe (she mentioned blue and green) to try and change the color of my hair; it didn't work the first time since she didn't lighten my roots enough. For some reason she thought that bleaching my hair to a red-orange state and using green toner would work to make it look like the Towhead shade. Weird.
Edited by ThisGirl0 - October 17 2008 at 11:06pm
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Borne blond, do you choose the toner color based on the effect that you want to achieve? If there is too much brassyness after bleaching, would you choose a more violet or blue tone? Or do you choose the toner based on the color that you achieved with the bleach and try to match it? I am sorry, but I have no clue about toners. Can I apply a toner days after bleaching, or is it something to be done immediately after? Thanks for giving us the breakdown of the colors, that helps. One more question, what is drabbing vs. gold?
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307 Champagne Ice / Almost White / Blue-Violet 311 Towhead / Light Ash / Blue-Violet 323 Extra Light Platinum / Lightest Pearly Platinum / Blue-Violet
315 Extra-Light Blonde / Delicate GOLDEN / Yellow
You can change effects by having 1pt toner to 2pts developer or Combining toners. Can leave on 15 to 45 min depending on desired effect. They smell kinda good. They are definately NOT brassy. You will notice they have D for Drabbing or G for Gold I think. Somewhere Clairol has Mixes for discontinued toners too
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I agree, I'm not very familiar with toners either. I am still reserching that part.
I found two different types of toners on the Sally Beauty Supply website. One is semi-permanent, the other is permanent. They are placed in the same category as hair dyes so I'm assuming that they function similarly.
I don't really know how to select the color of a toner though since I've heard that they come in shades of blue, violet, green, etc... but the ones on the SB website are labeled by number (i.e. 301, 303, 323, etc). They do show the shade of blonde that they produce, so I'm assuming that you would select a toner based on the shade of blonde that you want your hair to be.
And from what I understand, toners are typically applied during double-processing - after bleaching and shampooing your hair (at least that's how my stylists did it every time). But I'm pretty sure that they can be used any time you want to alter or refresh your shade.
The purple shampoos are supposed to eliminate brassiness (unwanted yellow shades). The girl who first did my hair told me to do this. Though I don't use a purple shampoo currently since I bought a different one that is also for blonde hair and is supposed to wash out chemicals and residue. It's not purple but it is specifically for blonde hair so I figure it's okay. I'm gonna continue using it till I run out, then I'll be getting the purple Stay Blonde shampoo I saw at Sally Beauty Supply. A lot of people say it works wonders.
Edited by ThisGirl0 - October 17 2008 at 6:35pm
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This thread is very informative. I am new to color too, so any information is helpful!
Fakeizme and others, could you please touch on toners, and the purple shampoos that you mentioned for brassyness? Are toners to be applied immediately after coloring? Are there different types of toners? I saw color only deposit toners, is that for brassyness? Any information would help. Thanks!
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Haha, yea the info is really good. I'm glad people responded. It really helps a lot. My roots right now are maybe half an inch long (in about 5 weeks) and thought it's not that bad it's starting to bug me. So I think I will be rebleaching mine sometime next week.
I just gotta go to the store and get all the supplies. I'm kinda excited to learn to do this myself.
I also have to look into some deep conditioning treatments, or preferable even leave-in treatments. My hair is so long and so so extremely thick that it's always dry, especially now that it's been chemically treated and the weather is getting cooler.
I drown my hair in serum, leave-in conditioner, and even jojoba oil (that stuff works so great for my hair) every time I wash it. And when I do that my hair feels so soft and manageable even though it's only for a couple of days.
I'll have to find something that produces those results for my hair. Though I use a deep conditioner once a week it doesn't really seem to do the job. I need something to leave in.
I'm considering just going to a health store and finding a big bottle of jojoba oil. But then Sally Beauty Supply has so many of these products. I'm sure I can find something that will work.
I have to say I always HATE what my hair looks like when I bleach my roots! It's just not 'natural' to me to have blonde roots --- I like a darker root. That's another reason why I like to have Roux mousses and rinses on hand, so I can just apply them to my roots after a wash. It gives me the neutral blonde root look I like!
I'm also new to blonde hair but, like you, have noticed that having slightly darker roots looks more natural. My hair is naturally light/medium brown and is bleached to about level 9. I'm curious about the products you mentioned, the Roux mousses and rinses. Are they anything like the Shimmer Lights shampoo I've been using?
When do you rebleach--at some point, the roots must get too long for you, what do you do then?
Sorry to horn in on this thread, but the information is so good, I've learned a bunch just from reading what you all have had to say.
thanks!
jc
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Yes, you expect a pro to know what to do since they do have to go to school for that kind of thing. But they mess up so easily. The girl that did my hair had no clue and had to ask the others what to do since she tried every toner and nothing worked. Weird but I learned from her I guess.
I will definitely get a toner just in case, but I will probably need it since all the girls who have worked on my hair have used it. And I have shampoos and conditioners for this already. I'm pretty confident that it will work out just fine.
I personally hate roots. Can't stand them so as soon as they start coming in to maybe half an inch it starts to bug me. So learning this is going to eliminate frustration and save hundreds.
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A lot of people do suggest professional and that mistakes can be made. But I did go to a pro and even she didn't do it right the first time. I learned from her mistakes... plus I did a lot of research of my own. It's not rocket science - I'll be able to figure it out. I've witnessed a friend bleach his hair in 30 minutes and then dye it blue. He is definitely no expert when it comes to hair atall and it worked just fine for him.
.....
Ummm...EXACTLY!! I totally agree. It's going to professionals (no offense) that ultimately started me on the road to DIY hair colour! A lot of them do NOT know a lot about hair colour much less bleaching and are afraid to do it. If you read any professional hair websites/forums, you will quickly realize that they have to ask each other every day HOW to mix and apply colour. I mean, I think it's awesome they are still learning, but I don't want any mistakes I have to pay for done on MY head!!!
I think the trick for you too, will be to have all of your supplies on hand, just in CASE things don't work out perfectly the first go-round. Like, have your purple shampoo/conditioner on hand if it's a little brassy or have a couple of semis or toners for that reason. You MAY even want to get an ash or neutral blonde hair colour that you could apply to your roots just in case the bleach doesn't lift enough the first round.
I have to say I always HATE what my hair looks like when I bleach my roots! It's just not 'natural' to me to have blonde roots --- I like a darker root. That's another reason why I like to have Roux mousses and rinses on hand, so I can just apply them to my roots after a wash. It gives me the neutral blonde root look I like!
OK, I'm rambling! Good for you for taking your time and reading. Your patience will pay off.
Love clip-ins and tape!
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Yea, Clairol 7th Stage or Born Blonde are the only two at Sally Beauty Supply (on their website) that I considered getting since I read about them on different websites and they seem to work well.
Wella has good reviews as well.
Thanks for the conditioner trick. That will help a lot since my hair has been processed so many times already (due to the highlighting). It wouldn't be good to get more bleach on it. Plus it does tend to dry out occasionally so conditioning can't possibly hurt. I have a good deep conditioner for this.
A lot of people do suggest professional and that mistakes can be made. But I did go to a pro and even she didn't do it right the first time. I learned from her mistakes... plus I did a lot of research of my own. It's not rocket science - I'll be able to figure it out. I've witnessed a friend bleach his hair in 30 minutes and then dye it blue. He is definitely no expert when it comes to hair atall and it worked just fine for him.
Thanks so much! Love encougraging words cuz that way I'm not as nervous about it.
I'm glad that my roots haven't even started to come in much yet (maybe they're like 3mm long, which is not notceable at all) so I still have plenty of time to read more about it.
Edited by ThisGirl0 - October 01 2008 at 2:54pm
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I think you would be wise to use something like Clairol 7th Stage Cream lightener or Wella Wellite cream lightener for your first time. I use Wella Blondor and mix it all by myself --- it lightens fast and non-damaging. Go with your instincts and try it on your own.
I wanted to add, that it helps if you cover all of your hair (that is blonde) with a heavy/thick conditioner before you start the process. I always do this as any bleach that may drip onto that hair won't affect it.
Breaking the base can be great, but you still have to do it every month AND it often lifts warm, which is what many want to avoid!
Don't give up or get scared. A lot of people will tell you you can't do it yourself. If I listened to everyone who told me that, I would not have ever coloured my hair at all. My hair is long and blonde and in pretty good condition. You can only TRY!!!
Love clip-ins and tape!
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It's just not 'natural' to me to have blonde roots --- I like a darker root. That's another reason why I like to have Roux mousses and rinses on hand, so I can just apply them to my roots after a wash. It gives me the neutral blonde root look I like!
I totally agree. It's going to professionals (no offense) that ultimately started me on the road to DIY hair colour! A lot of them do NOT know a lot about hair colour much less bleaching and are afraid to do it. If you read any professional hair websites/forums, you will quickly realize that they have to ask each other every day HOW to mix and apply colour. I mean, I think it's awesome they are still learning, but I don't want any mistakes I have to pay for done on MY head!!!
