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

Can You Get Great Hair Color from a Box?

While visiting a friend in Sparta, NJ (a lovely town on the water), my friend’s niece asked if I could give her a few highlights. I said yes so we started the day by picking up some hair color. Off to Pathmark to see what they stocked!

Of course there were tons of hair color products, all showcasing beautiful models boasting shiny, lustrous hair on their boxes. Staring at those images of healthy, damage-free hair, I wondered how many women who  bought the color actually achieved those results? The color I chose was by L’Oreal Superior Preference (LB01- Extra Light Ash Blond Cooler.) It is one of the few brands that offers an ash blonde, high lift tint. Choosing a color that was ash based was important to achieve more beige highlights.

My friend’s hair is a level 4 with faded ends (about 1 shade.) Her hair was mainly all natural, apart from the leftovers of a relaxer on her ends that was done over a year ago. Sporting virgin hair, she only wanted to add a few natural highlights, to keep it very natural. This product is meant to be used as an all-over color. But since I was working with virgin hair, it could be easily used towards highlights.

I mixed the color (which was very easy) and quickly foiled her hair while sitting in the backyard. Within 10 minutes I began to see results. I closely watched the color become lifted and 20 minutes later…we were happy.

She is as sweet as she is pretty.

Let me say that this is not a "do it yourself post." I do not encourage readers to color their hair at home themselves using an off-the-shelf product (especially for highlights).  It's almost impossible to guarantee good results, as there are too many “what if” scenarios to consider. And as a professional, I’ve seen too many clients with damaged hair (and egos) sit in my chair. The product maybe high quality, but without an expert’s knowledge, it's a recipe for, well, not great hair color.

If you know someone who does hair and you are looking for a product in a hurry, I would say this L’Oreal product may be an option once used correctly.

Remember the biggest ticket for a hairstylist is a color correction, generally caused by someone trying to color his or her own hair.

Posted by Unknown at 2:25 AM - 0 comments