Highlight Help, Please?

Hi Everybody.

Hi Hal,

Thanks Rebekah! :)

Alright. So, I did the highlights (with the clear "foil" sheets - which, by the way, was very difficult to attempt and ended up being too difficult to bother with further). For once, they came out ok even though I did it all

I agree, I'd just go over the same pieces again.  Test strand of course, but from the photo it doesn't look like its going orangy, so you are working with a nice ash shade (that is, if the photo is true to life...sometimes lighting can trick people). 

I think it looks nice now, nice light brown highlights that go well with your dark brown hair.  Jennifer's highlights are blonder, but then her natural color (or at least her base color) is dark blonde.  She does have some brown on the underlayers, but that is normal for a natural dark blonde, and her upper layer is still dark blonde.  You may get more of a stripey look if you go lighter since yours is dark brown, but that is your choice (some of us like stripes, others don't, depends on you).

I don't think I'd buy a blond box and do your whole head (I think that's what you asked?), mostly because you said in the first post you wanted to keep dark brown.  If you don't want to keep it, its still kind of hard to go from dark brown to dark blonde using dye and not bleach, even with high lift dye.  If your hair is not your natural color and it had been dyed dark brown, it will definitely not change anything just to buy blonde dye.



Edited by Susan W - July 18 2007 at 9:31am

Well, I see I forgot to mention that I'm not a pro, so I don't know the answer to stuff I haven't personally encountered.  I don't know if people mix conditioner with bleach (maybe someone else knows), and I don't know anything about what the the O'Real stuff is. 

It didn't look orangy to me in the photo, but you say its redder than you wanted....I'm not sure if that means it had a green base, (in which case you could do it again, it wouldn't go more orange than it already is, even if it didn't make it to blonde...and it might make it to a dark blonde), or if it has some other base that is not countering the red that comes out when dark hair is lightened (in which case it might just go more orangy and not come out a satisfying un-orange color until you get it to medium yellow).  I just can't say. 

What I can say is if you do bleach, do your ends first because your scalp heat will make the roots go faster, and if your bleach goes yellow, you can use something over it that has a violet base to counter the yellow.  You can either choose a dark blonde dye with a violet base to counter the yellow and get it dark blonde (and use it with a low volume developer like 10 volume so it won't be as damaging), or use a toner made to counter brassiness. 

You should still test strand everything. If you do, you should be able to get your bleach timed right so it doesn't go too yellow - which would be more damaging than you need anyway, and also to make sure toner if you use it doesn't come out too purple or gray looking, and to make sure you don't hit a breaking point with chemical damage.).  As long as you test strand, you know you won't go wrong with your whole head's worth of highlights.

I'm glad I could help!  If no one else answers, maybe posting a new topic called 'can you mix conditioner with bleach?'  would help.  Good luck!