beauty

Tone Tone Tone.

Fixing your hair colour used to cost you loads at the salon but now there is a whole range of different toners and colour correctors out there in your drug store and even supermarket.

If you are a brunette you will most probably have a natural warm, reddish undertone. In the sunshine your hair may have a reddish copper shine. The problem is when you start to lighten your hair this reddish pigment becomes more prominent and this is why your hair can sometimes turn out an awkward shade of orange. This is perfectly normal though and with the use of a toner you can balance out the orange colour with a purple pigment to cool it down and give it a more ash finish, this can also make your hair appear brighter and healthier because it be a more natural colour.

Purple toners are most commonly used to help achieve a platinum blonde colour, they are also used on grey and white hair to fight against yellow discolouration. These products work really well on lightened brunette hair too because it is the same principle- you want to remove the warm orange and yellow tones.

Toners are less damaging on your hair than hair dyes and colourants as they generally don’t contain ammonia or other harsh chemicals.

I would recommend Touch of Silver Twice a Week Brightening Shampoo. It is aimed at really light coloured hair such as platinum blonde and grey so its vibrant violet colour can course a colour build up and a purple tinge to the hair if over used but on my brunette hair I use it almost every time I wash my hair and it helps maintain my ash tone perfectly. This product is great. It is priced about £3 which is perfectly reasonable, it leaves my hair feeling strong and shiny and my hair even stays cleaner for longer plus it smells great. I can not fault this product! A definite staple shampoo for lightened hair. 

A similar product is Silver Shampoo by Bleach London it is more pricey at £5 a bottle and if I’m honest, has an unpleasant chemically smell and the results were no different to Touch of Silver. The product still works really well but when others are cheaper and have a nicer smell they are going to win every time in a comparison.

When lightening your hair, I believe it is important to work with your natural colour, don’t force it or dye it a new shade just lighten what you have and use toners such as purple shampoos to keep your hair looking bright, healthy and natural.

The New Shade of Brunette.

Ombre or Bayalage- Once you’ve tried it you will never go back .

Ombre is the perfect way to lift and brighten your hair with a soft and worn in, natural finish. It looks great on all hair colours, it is easy to maintain and simple to achieve at home. I am a dark brunette and this post is mainly aimed at similar brunettes but can similarly work on blondes and other shads. Everyone wants what they don’t have! Brunettes wish they were blonde, blondes want to go dark, if you have curly hair you wish it was straight and straight wish it was curly. It’s just the way it is. Lightening my hair has always played on my mind, this technique allowed me to lighten the colour of my hair without the worry of going a horrible allover orange colour with dark roots showing through (literally every brunettes worse nightmare when considering going blonde).

The trick, in my opinion is to start off subtly and build it up over time.Casting Sunkiss Jelly with Doutzen Kroes I started with Loreal’s SunKissed Jelly:

The product can be used on wet or dry hair. I chose to work on dry hair as you can really see where you are applying the product and have more of an idea of the finished look. I applied a generous amount to my finger tips and ran in through my hair, starting 2 to 3 inches from my roots and running it right to the ends, you don’t need to be too neat and careful. You ain’t looking to cover your whole head, it’s best to leave some hair untouched to add depth of colour to your look, just be sure to frame your face and concentrate most the the product around the front sections but don’t forget to apply some to the back lengths as well.

This product is great because it is gradual, just apply and leave it in. This allows you to build up the colour to achieve the shade you are after without going too far. I used this jelly 4 times over the space of 2 weeks before i was happy with the result, i had lifted the colour on the lower two thirds of my hair while maintaining a subtle transition with no lines or hard edges from the brunette at my roots.

You could leave it there… But for a more dynamic finish I chose to highlight over the top to give more depth of tone to the hair. For this i used Loreal Preference Glam Lights Kit, again on dry hair i used the comb applicator to paint the product into my hair in narrow strips, I focused this mainly on the bottom half  of my top layers and throughout the whole lengths of the underneath layers. I kept an eye on the lightening process and rinsed the product out after 20 mins. I was now left with a subtle fade into copper with dynamic high and low lights throughout.

The most important step now is Tone Tone Tone. check out my next post on the best ways to keep your ombre look bright and fresh.

Thanks again for reading x

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