At Home Hair Color Gone Wrong

I was recently speaking to a group of women at a shelter on hair color where an important question came up. The question was why is it so difficult to get good results from an off-the-shelf box of hair color? Great question!

I asked, how many times have we seen our favorite celebrity running across the TV with bouncy, super shiny hair...happy as if she just won the lotto. These commercials claim that "this new revolutionized hair color is easy to use, foolproof and packed with ingredients fit for a juicer," leaving women feeling fabulous and secure enough for the runway.

Hmmm...

In real life, customers who purchase the same box of the hair color often experience dramatically differing results. After the color is applied, following the box directions, customers often find themselves sporting red roots, black ends and left feeling very insecure...wondering what the hell went wrong?

Ladies beware. Getting the perfect hair color is very difficult from a box that shows a picture of a color and contains two bottles. Have you ever seen a professional approach you about your desired color?

We ask questions like... Do you want more gold, warm or cool, ashy tones? Do you have gray hair? Have you ever colored your hair? Did you apply a permanent or demi-permanent treatment? How often do you color your hair? Have you ever had a relaxer or a perm? We then assess if the hair is fine, coarse, healthy or dry.  
Sadly most of these questions are not on a box of hair color.

As hairstylists we make lots of money fixing hair color for clients that first tried it at home. For the women fortunate enough to afford us, they can go to a salon in hopes of looking and feeling normal again.

But what about the women (like the ones in shelters) who have no way of getting their hair fixed? Usually their only option is to go and buy another box of color and make a bad color worse. What started off being a good idea has now left a consumer unhappy with no one to blame, while the parent company gets richer.

Ladies all I can say is, it's a case of russian roulette here. You may be very unhappy if you do, or left feeling dull if you don't.

Stay tuned for my next installment of, "How to survive a box of hair color!"

Posted by Unknown at 9:20 AM - 2 comments

Avoid Your Hair Color From Fading

There's nothing more annoying than getting your hair color done and having it fade on you. No matter how great your hair colorist is, there maybe things you are doing that can hurt your hair color.

Here are a few things to be aware of:

1) Shampooing your hair the day after getting your hair colored is a common mistake. You should always wait 72 hours after leaving the salon. This allows your color to oxidize. In most salons post-color shampoos are used to remove excess color and seal the cuticle. Ask your hairstylist if they use one.

 2) Tanning salons are a huge culprit that no one is aware of. Always cover your hair when tanning.

3) Salt styling sprays, if used excessively on fine hair, can fade your color....especially when used in the summer. So as you can imagine, beware of the ocean! Always rinse your hair with tap or bottle water after swimming in the ocean or pool. Be sure to rinse your hair at the end of the day rather than adding more product on dry hair.

4) Clarifying shampoos are designed to remove impurities and buildup. However on treated hair that tends to fade, it will make it even worse. If you need to use a stronger shampoo because of excessive product use, mix your clarifying shampoo with your regular shampoo. This will help dilute it, making it less aggressive.

5) All naturals oils, when used excessively can fade hair color. Think of your hair color as a fake pigment added to your hair. Oils can seep under your cuticle removing color. This is especially true for blonds that have had lowlights added.

I hope these quick tips are helpful and keep your investment (hair color) protected!

Posted by Unknown at 10:12 AM - 0 comments

Best Gray Coverage

Hello Antonio,

I'd be very grateful if you'd answer my question.

I've got a few premature greys, which seem very resistant to color. I've been getting my hairdresser to cover only the greys in my natural black-brown color, whilst applying highlights all-over. Despite my hair taking on both the various blonde and red colors used to high/lowlight, the greys don't seem to take on color at all! The only time they seemed to do so was when I was put under a heat lamp. I've been using permanent color all along. My hair type is fine, dry and frizzy, with a scalp tending towards oiliness.

Many thanks.

Thank you so much for writing. First of all, this seems like a lot of work for premature gray hairs. Not only is it an expensive process, it seems like it may not be the best approach...

Let me say it’s hard to give advice without seeing your hair but I can still provide some direction.

Generally, when we approach a "few grays" it’s with a demi-permanent color (maybe even semi-permanent) . With heat it can provide some coverage without being too harsh on hair. 

However for certain hair types even a few grays can be very hard to cover so permanent color might be the right choice.

The other challenge is transforming your hair so it’s as dark as your natural color. There's one problem, your hair now has some gray in it, so taking your hair dark is only making those few grays stand out even more. (I guess this is why you are doing highlights.) I recommend staying away from highlights for about four months and just making your single process color lighter. It will be up to your hairstylist to formulate a color that can control the orange tones, it can be done. The advantages are as follow...

1) It’s cheaper than highlights

2) You won't have to highlight as often because your hair will be lighter.

3) It’s way more gentle on your hair.

4) And your grays will be less noticeable.

Wouldn't it be great to just go in to the salon every 4-6 weeks for a single process and every 12 weeks for highlights?

Next the permanent color under the heat lamp concerns me.... It already has ammonia and peroxide so it should cover your gray, if it’s not covering it means the formula or color brand may need adjusting. Although some permanent hair color's can be used with heat, I just don't use them...

Overall the care of your hair is most important. So you may need to accept that your natural color may not be the best color to aim for. Let me know if you have any more questions.


Stay tuned for the responce and feel free to continue asking questions.

Posted by Unknown at 8:45 AM - 0 comments

Double Processed Blond

I want to share with you a color scenario challenge that I encountered recently. A beautiful girl walked into the salon, wanting to fix her color. She’d been getting her hair dyed blond for sometime and had been happy… until now.

After her last color application, she was left with one inch of a very obvious gold band of color, which was 1/2 of an inch from the scalp. 

We decided to completely remove the gold band by doing a double process blond.

I wondered…was this the right approach?

A double process color is two applications of hair color. The first step is to use a lightner to lift the hair followed by a second step of adding an additional deposit of color.

We thought about doing highlights, but there would still be traces of gold on the hair (that could not be foiled). She was very clear, no gold band. However she wanted very light golden blond hair color.

Using 7 stage by Clairol, we first targeted the gold band. 

We then applied the same color to her root area. Separating the two applications is important, because one targets colored hair (gold band) while the second takes care of virgin hair (roots). At the end we toned it with a DiaColor, a demi permanent gloss that had beige tones 

followed with a conditioning treatment.

The results - we ended up with a buttery blond and the gold band was gone.

Check it out!

Posted by Unknown at 6:59 AM - 2 comments