Protein Filler

Hi Meli:  I recently added some blonde lowlights to my hair in some sections where I had put too many highlights.  Some of the hair was whitish in color so I needed to replace some of the lost pigments using a protein filler.  I used lock-in-blonde and mixed it directly with the color as directed (10 drops per 1 ounce of color).  It turned out great.  Make sure you test strand.  Maria

Hi Meli:  First thing I did was to study Kelly H's posts on getting her platinum hair back to a light ashy blonde color.  Some of the highlights I wished to darken were a platinum color so I thought her methodology would be successful for me.  It was -- thanks Kelly!  You can pull her posts by using the search mechanism and putting in her name Kelly H.

So what I did was to use a highlight cap and pulled through the overly highlighted areas that I wanted to darken.  I had selected a demi from the Clairol Complements line.  I used a 9N (I like a natural shade not too ashy) and to it I added the recommended 10 drops of lock-in-blonde.  Then I just applied it to the hair pulled through the caps, processed, rinsed and viola! - I had the desired dimension back in my hair.  Since I used a demi - I'll have to redo it at some point.  I think next time I will use the slightly darker 8N.  I used the 9N because I was concerned that my highlights might be too porous and would "grab" the color darker than a typical 9N.  That didn't seem to be a problem and so my decision to use 8N next time.

Also -- I strand tested before I started.  Make certain you do also!  Kelly H. put on the lock-in-blonde first and then as a second step put on the color.  She advised me not to freak at the orange color if I chose a two step method.  Remember the lock-in-blonde is adding pigment back into your hair.  Without the pigment, if you use an ash color you're likely to get a gray color rather than the ashy tones you seek.  Maria