QuoteReplyTopic: Hair colorists don't understand me Posted: December 22 2004 at 2:08am
I wonder if anyone else has the problem I have. I always end up with golden toned hair when I ask for beige/light blond highlights.
I seem to suffer from a severe lack of communication with hair colorists and I have been to many, many different colorists all over the world.
My hair is naturally a dark brown, full of red which I hate. I have my hair high lighted a light blonde along with low lights, apparently to make it more natural, but the low lights come out a completely golden color that dominates the tone of my hair. I always tell colorists I do not want brassy, golden hair, that I would like it to be more beige blonde, but every single colorist I have gone to has made my hair golden. I know it is very difficult to lighten my dark brown hair. My natural color doesn't lift easily without getting very brassy. I see all these other people with naturally dark hair mange to achieve a nice pale blond color, but I never seem to be able to. I'm beginning to think if I want blond hair I will have to settle for brassy gold.
I believe the low lights are to blame for the ugly gold color, since they a darker blond.
I was wondering if there was any way to achieve beige blond highlights in dark hair without the awful gold color. I'm afaird I would look alittle like a skunk if I highlight light blond next to my natural color (without lowlights), but I can't stand the color the low lights get.
What exactly should I say to a colorist so they understand I want light beige blond hair and not gold? And what color would work for low lights, without turning brassy? Thanx
Well, I never did highlights on my hair and most of my experience comes from hair dye, but I can tell you this. If your hair starts out dark brown, and has red in it, it has to go through a couple of stages before it gets blonde. First it goes orange, then yellow, then white. To counter the orange when you use dye, you use a blonde dye with a green base, which makes your hair go yellow. Then to counter the yellow and make it go white, you use a dye with a violet base. That would also work if your hair were already yellow and you wanted to go a little ashier or darker blonde, you would just use a darker color with a violet base on the yellow hair.
I don't know exactly what information highlighting kits have on them (no experience there), nor am I a professional, so I don't know if it will help you or not. It seems to me however, that if they tried to start with violet, it wouldn't work because you'd have to use the green to get past the orange stage (starting with violet you'd wind up too red), then violet is necessary to counter the yellow you hate after that. So, there may be no way around having two processes done because you'd have to switch in the middle to violet to really get it to look right. They're leaving you at the end of one process, but not willing to start another. If anyone knows another way around it without having to do it twice, please let me know!
This creates a problem for the salon because they'd have to do it twice to get it right, but they probably feel you don't want to sit there while they wash it out and start over, and they'd probably also have to charge you for two processes.
Maybe once it's done and you see it's too yellow, you could say, "This isn't right, can you make them less brassy and yellow?" If you said clearly in the beginning that you didn't want yellow, they shouldn't be surprised by that. I'd discuss all of this with them in the beginning and maybe they have some opinions about how they could do it otherwise, and make a beforehand agreement on what you'll have to pay per process, or whether or not they'll agree to make it "not yellow" if it comes out yellow and what they're willing to fix for free. If they sound like they're not willing to discuss such things and just try to rush you to the chair, tell them you want to think about it and leave.
If anyone with highlighting knowledge has any opinions, please do pipe up.
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I have very dark hair too and I too have a blonde ambition. I have gone to soooo many salons in hopes of that very light beige blonde color highlights. I finally found a hairdresser who could do it and it came out AWSOME!! Exactly how I wanted!! Then when I called to schedule my roots to be done, they told me she had a stroke and no longer worked there. JUST MY LUCK!!
When she did my hair, she used a cap and highlighted right on my dark brown hair. She used blue bleach and left me under the dryer for a LONG time. There are a few reasons our hair may be coming out golden:
1. They don't put strong enough developer (Always make them use 30 volume. 20 is just NOT strong enough for our dark hair.)
2. They don't leave it on long enough! All the hairdressers that made my hair golden never left it on long enough. It needs to process for 60-90 minutes UNDER THE DRYER. Make sure she puts you under a dryer because the heat will speed the process so you don't have to leave it in for 2 hours.
3. They don't use the right toner. The toner the colorist used on me was "White-White." And it worked awsome!
So next time you go to a colorist tell her these things so she knows you've done your research and you mean business, you know what you want and you know how to achieve it.
Unfortunately I tell hairdressers these things, yet they seem to not leave it on long enough still and it still comes out golden. Thats why I've decided to just do it myself once my colored ends grow out. I get the bleach at sally's so I can get the 30 developer and the blue powder. If you decide to do it yourself, don't use highlighting kits from pharmacies because they only have 20 volume and we need 30 or 40. Go to sallys and get it there. Use a cap and cover it with processing plastic while you blow dry it. Keep checking it after the first half hour to see when the yellow will turn to white. Remeber the longer you leave it on, the lighter it will get. Then wash it out when its white and use Clairol developer violet beige blonde.
Good luck!!! Let me know what you end up doing.And how it turns out.
Don't worry about the pale highlights on the dark hair. Mine didn't look like a skunk at all. As long as you have a combination of thin and thick highlights you'll be all set. It only looks like a skunk when you have it in perfect streaks or stripes.
Hi guy's...I just had to pop in and say that not all brunettes...or browns need 30 volume and/or 30 to 40 min under heat. Just keep in mind that MOST manufacturers of bleach DO NOT ever reccomend heat on Bleach. That's how we get Chemical haircuts.
Now Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that I never put bleach under the dryer to process...I'm just saying ...just because it's great for one head of hair doen't mean it's great for all. Cheers.
Amymusic, that's so terrible what happened to your colorist! And I know how hard it is to get someone who can color our hair, but I'm so glad you have nice pale blond hair now! I hope when you retouch it it continues to be that nice color, but I think you can do it because you know exactly what do.
Im not sure what I'm gonna do with my hair now, it's quite long and I had it colored a week ago and I asked for pale beige highlights and ended up with some of that and a lot of gold too. I'm overseas, so I'd have a nasty time finding all the products I need to color it myself and I don't trust myself anyway. It would be so wonderful to be able to color it myself. It's so great that many of you are able to do that.
I will wait till I get back to the states to fix it. It's really funny too cause a lot of the girls in the country I'm in now have naturally very dark hair and over half of them have it highlighted/dyed blond, you'd think the salons here could make my hair that way too. (unless all those girls are doing their hair at home..)
thank you sooo much for the info. I will definately use it.
Yes the best thing to do is wait. My hair isn't blonde right now. That was a year ago that she did my hair and I was coloring my own hair ever since. Then I ended up coloring it darker for the winter so now its dark brown again.
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This is what I did. I found a picture of the beige/light blond highlights I wanted. Then, I typed up a note to my hairdresser telling her exactly what I wanted and didn''t want. The same thing as you. The result I got was what I wanted. The reason why I did this is because 1. What is beige/light blond to one person may not be the same to the next person. 2. By having my note, she would know exactly what I wanted and didn''t want right in front of her. So, there would be no mistake.
I have the same hair color with red as you do. This is what she did. She mixed SoColor 8A 1-1/2 oz and 9A 1/2 oz with SoLite 10 V 2 oz and applied it as a base color for 15 minutes at room temperature. Next, she used three scoops of Kaleidocolors Neutral (this one is for beige highlights) and Clairol Pure White Creme Developer 20 V processing for 12 minutes under a preheated hair dryer. Since the base color was applied first, I didn''t need a toner.
Please keep in mind that just because it worked for me doesn''t mean it''ll work for you. Everyone''s hair is different.
I just happened on your comment as I was Googling for green base hair dye. I have been doing my own hair for years because of the same problem you're having. I finally found a product that gives me pale nonbrassy highlights, but it's been discontinued. It was Color Charm 1060 a high lift (level10 ) with a green base. I mixed it with part 20 volume and part 30 volume peroxide. I have never had so many people tell me how natural my highlights were. One woman actually stopped me on the street and asked who my colorist was! Clairol makes a green base (Moongold) but the lift number isn't high enough to get my dark hair up to highlight level. SO.. what we need is a level 10 green base.. if you find one, let me know!
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That's how we get Chemical haircuts.
