Have you ever sat in your stylist’s chair and aren’t sure what to say about what you’re looking for? Your stylist and you are trying to figure out the right solution but you are like a deer in headlights? We’ve had clients showing us photos of golden highlights while they were stating that they needed ashy tones. We also encountered situations that client mentioned that they wanted a balayage even though they showed us photos of a double-process platinum blonde. Don’t worry about it because it happens every day and it’s not your responsibility to be able to ask for the correct technique.
Please be sure to follow along to understand the correct terminology and techniques to get the desired results from your hair colour services! This post will be all about blondes! The terms we’ll discuss here will be built upon blondes that are level 9 or lighter (being the closest to the lightest blonde possible is the best method to meet these requirements). This blog post is designed to make it easier for you to understand and stay in the same page with your colourist, and not enter the salon and inform them that you’d like an Ash Violet level 10 blonde glaze that has lowlights at level 7th woven every three foils and root shadowed for five minutes…you know the point. 🙂
The most important thing to keep in mind when looking at the pictures below is that each hair colour results and finishing will be different, even though at times the exact same formulas, tones and techniques are utilized. This is because every hair type is unique, reacts differently and has an individual unique hair history and background that will yield different results for every person.
COOL BLONDE
If you prefer blondes with pearl, gray, ashy, icy tones, this means you like those cool toned blondes. If your skin tone tends to be more of blue, pink or red undertones, cool blondes will look the best for you! When you’re seeking a “cool” toned blonde, inform your colourist that you prefer your shade to be in the more ashy side. This colour typically requires a few appointments to attain even if you are just starting on blonding because you need to remove any warmth from your hair.
For cooler-toned results, we will use heavy highlights to lift the hair to a 10th level blonde, without any remaining warmth or pigmentation. After rinsing the highlights, we prefer on using a toner like an ash level 10. This kind of colour may damage your hair since you’re trying to make your natural colour as light as possible.
The post below are about “ash blonde”
To achieve this pearly blonde hue as abovementioned, you need intensive highlights, and a natural ash base toner.
This demonstration as above is slightly ashier than the first colour. For this kind of finishing, request for highlights using an ash-toner.
The above photo is even more ashy than the two images above. This client has the level 7th ashy lowlights with intensive highlights. To achieve this tone: request your colourist to over compensation and make your hair more ashy, nearly towards gray side.
WARM BLONDE
In the beginning, we would like to clarify that warm blondes don’t need to be brassy. Many clients are nervous about wanting warmer toned blondes due to fear of negative experiences or fears of getting the undesirable yellow or orange hair colour. Golden-toned blondes are stunning and appear more radiant and shiny than the ashy blondes. If you’re drawn by golden, honey, buttery or bronze hues, you’ll love warm blondes! This colour is perfect with peach, gold and yellow skin complexion.
If you’re hesitant about getting a blonde that has warmer tones, request your colourist to help you blend your hair into the colour. Begin with a more neutral shade, not having warmth or ashy tones and these are at the mid-points. It is then advisable to add the tiniest bit of gold to blend in. You can add more gold as you go. Another suggestion is to use the purple shampoo at least once per week or once every two weeks with blondes that have warmer tones blonde to avoid the colour from appearing too brassy!
Below are some instances of “warm” blondes. Beginning with the least warm to the warmest:
The above is a stunning illustration of buttery, sandy blonde. This colour falls in the centre between cool and warm, but still not extremely golden. This colour was created by using highlights, turning them up to a level 10th, yet not white. After that, we glazed the hair with a level 10th natural blonde and a little ashy tone was added to avoid any brassiness in the colour in the long term.
This gorgeous model has slightly more gold tone than the earlier colour. Highlights are blended in with lowlights using the level 8 golden brown colour. Then we glaze her with a gold toner at level 10th.
The hair of this client definitely appears significantly more golden brown! We use a lot of lowlights in order to create various tones and shades, using a level 7 golden with some highlights and a root stretch. We then apply a glaze using level 10th “brown” golden!
NEUTRAL BLONDE
Neutral blondes fall in between both warm and cool shades. We prefer to associate neutrals blonde with creamy, beige and wheat shades. This is the ideal way to achieve a balance between warmer and cooler tones! Try adding lowlights with neutral shade on your current lighter or platinum blonde. So, you’ll have the appearance of a blend of tones which is an excellent technique to get comfortable with the new shade of colour!
These are some neutral blondes examples:
The client has a neutral tone blonde with blends of lowlights and highlights ! The colour is a mix of tones, with highlights of brighter blonde pops as well as lowlights of a level 7th. The overall glaze was a level 10 ash to block excessive warmth from her prior colour.
This is an excellent example of a neutral light blonde! This shade has beige tones and was made using highlights. Then, it was glazed over with a level 9th neutral blonde!
DOUBLE PROCESS BLONDE
In all honesty, the double process blondes aren’t our top choice. The process requires lightening of hair all over using bleach on the scalp and without foils (scalp bleach). This kind of shade can be as light as blonde is possible to be. The bleach is applied on the scalp. We believe it may cause damage, and creates the appearance of single colour tone, and leaving no trace of your natural colour. The result is usually a harsh line of demarcation as it is grown out, and seldom appears natural. Personally, we don’t think that this is the ultimate type of blonde you should request due to the damage that it can possibly cause.
If you are seeking this desired colour, make sure that the hair is in the healthiest and well-maintained condition and be ready to experience breakage in the future.. particularly near the hairline. Make a plan to visit the salon every four weeks and spend at least $200. Ensure that your colourist isn’t overlapping bleach. We’d recommend using cotton in between every section to prevent the colour from overlapping each other. The double-process platinum blonde works perfectly when paired with fair skin or lighter features. But, other skin tones are able to complement too. Consider the time when Kim Kardashian rocked with platinum blonde.
Personally, we don’t perform this type of service due to the possibility of damage. Alternatively, to achieve a more healthy version of this finishing results, our colourists will apply very heavy and intense highlights in order to get rid of most of your natural colouring between foils. Then, glaze it with an ash-based toner. It’s likely to require a couple of sessions.
This abovementioned colour was achieved with very heavy and intense highlights, with a minimal dimension remain and a ash glaze of violet-based.
HIGH LIFT BLONDE or BASE BREAK
High lift or base-break blondes are comparable to double process blonde but instead of employing bleach, the hair dyes are used in order to “break” up the natural hue that’s left in between highlights processes. The base break/high lift colour process is gentler on hair than double process procedure that requires scalp bleaching. However, it isn’t able to provide natural out-growth effect. This procedure involves highlighting of hair, processing it and then rinse out the highlights follow by towel drying the hair. Lastly is the application of the hair colour at the hair’s root for a couple of minutes to further lighten the hair that weren’t highlighted by foil. Sometimes this causes the undesired warmth since hair colour is not as effective in hair lightening as compared to using the bleach. This also isn’t our preferred method due to the results of harsh outgrowth that can be quite a nuisance. However, there are still clients who require this type of service!
You may prefer a base break/high lift colour process if you’re an avid fan of the double process blonde or aren’t keen on seeing any of your natural colours after having highlights. This colour is ideal for you only if the natural hair colour is a level 7 or lighter. Personally, we would not recommend any base break on anyone whose base is darker than level 7 and wishing to go blonde, to avoid exposing undesired warmth on the hair.
Here’s an instance of the first photo of a client who has a high lift blonde versus the second photo of a client who receives highlights and gets dimension remains at the hair root from the natural shade. Look at her hair’s roots, she has none of her natural hair colour. You can notice that all the pieces of her hair were lightened. Her natural hair colour is level 8, and we lighten her hair with an ash violet level 12th high lift blonde. Highlights are added every 3rd visit. An amazing example of a hair colour with a high lift that yet still looks healthy and natural!
The client also has a natural level 8 and highlights were performed all over the hair. As we can observe, the various different in tones at the root. No base break of high lift colour.
BABYLIGHTS
Babylights are one of the newer hair trend that we are a huge fan of! One way to think of babylights is to imagine the hair of a girl in her early teens. Mainly with their natural colour coupled with the ideally cleverly placement of natural looking highlights near the face and progressively lighter towards the hair ends. This is a great technique to use if you love your natural shade, but you just need some sunkissed highlights or fine baby highlights all around. Babylights are created by weaving extremely fine delicate highlights ribbons all over the hair and then place brighter pieces of highlights around the hairline and hair ends as if the hair has been sun-kissed. To enhance the naturality effect, we usually apply the root shadow and then leave out the pieces of brighter sections around the face as well as the hair ends. This creates a very natural look with a lower maintenance grow-out.
Before and after babylights! It is evident that there are fine ribbons of highlights and also some of the natural colour, while maintaining the brighter pieces blonde at the hair ends.
Another example of babylights. The photo before is a seventh month babylights outgrowth, and the after photo was created with placement of extremely fine highlights all over!
A darker version of babylights. However, it is an excellent example of lightness around the face and the ends while maintaining the natural shade of the base. It is possible to add more highlights ribbons to the roots to create a more blonding appearance.
DIMENSION
Dimension is the one key aspect that we believe most clients have some difficulty explaining to the colourist. They recognize that the hair has something missing, however they don’t know the cause and cannot describe it. This is a great option for those who clients who wish to see more colour variation. Dimension is a perfect choice when you want to see varying colours of blonde, contrast or tones in the hair. Also, if you don’t prefer your hair to have one uniform solid shade and we will advise maintaining and controlling the varying shades on the hair within three to four levels at most to ensure that its naturality.
Many clients are scared about asking for lowlights since they’ve had negative experiences with chunky stripes and the lowlights will turn brassy as time passes. Lowlights aren’t a guarantee that you’ll get an exact early 2000s Kelly Clarkson’s hair shade. Our little secrets and tips for lowlights are usually to use an ashy lowlight and the important rule is do not spread the lowlights all the way to the hair ends.
To achieve these looks, request your colourist for multi-dimensional blondes using one to two shades to create the lowlight and performing lowlighting at every 3rd or 4th foil. There are various shades of blonde and all performed with both lowlights and highlights!
PARTIAL HIGHLIGHT VERSUS FULL HIGHLIGHT
A full highlight typically commences the highlighting process at the nape of your neck and going all the way near to the front of the head. Whereas, a partial highlight process will start at the top of the head and moves to the front. Having a partial highlights or full highlights are not related to the blondeness of your hair but rather the colour consistency of your hair from the top to the underneath. If you’re feeling that your hair’s underneath is dark or dull, it is likely that you require a full highlight process. As for a partial highlight, it can be performed every 2nd or 3rd time once the hair colour is to your preference.
Abovementioned are some comparison of of clients having full highlights and partial highlights. As you can see, the client with partial highlights has more dimension underneath.
ROOT SHADOW
Root shadows are another popular trending service at the moment and one of our favorites! The technique can be achieved as dark or light as you’d like and it requires all over hair highlights and follow by shadowing roots or tapping down with a darker hue in order to soften the root highlights. A few pieces of blonde are “USUALLY” left out near the hairline and face to maintain the brightness pops on the face!
The clients depicted above have root shadows of varying levels and different blonde shades! Some are more striking than others. For a transition similar to these techniques, request your colourist to begin slowly applying darker shades every time conservatively. We usually begin the transition by the addition of lowlights four inches away from the hair root and then perform a root shadowing at the shampooing bowl station.
TRADITIONAL HIGHLIGHT
If you’re one of those blondes who just passionate on the traditional highlight looks then you can just request for it! There aren’t base breaks, no root shadows, and it is just an old school good highlight to the root, topped off with a glaze and the tones matched to your preferences. What to look out for when you want the perfect old school traditional highlights.
- Tight foils
- Brightness and radiance around the face
- Highlights covering near the hair line
- Highlights are positioned all along down to the root
- A seamless harmonious blending of natural colour
- An appropriate tones, not too cool and not too warm.
TONER or GLAZE
A glaze or toner is professionally utilized to create all the looks we’ve discussed. It’s utilized to create warm, neutral or cool tones. It is used when performing a root shadow as well as it will also prevent hair from becoming brassy between appointments. Please consider a toner or glaze as a top coating for the hair. It gives your hair a soft and shiny appearance while also having the cuticle sealed.
BOOK YOUR BLONDE HIGHLIGHTS APPOINTMENT WITH US NOW!
Look no further, visit our Hera Hair Beauty salons and have a consultation with one of our talented international hairdressers to discuss how our different blonde highlights techniques will work for you.
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