New Hair Coloring Techniques: Blonde!

Different styles of hair techniques Examples of what to ask for at your next appointment! Sometimes it's difficult to know exactly what you want or need when it comes to your hair color. We created this handy guide so you know just how to communicate with your stylist and get the color you want!

Summer is finally here and with the warmer months upon us, it's time to lighten up! Whether you're already a professional blonde or just getting ready to dip your toe in the blonde pool read on to find which kind of blonde is best suited for your lifestyle.

1. Highlights & Base: this is the highest maintenance blonde option (next to on scalp platinum). It includes a heavy full foil with a base bump. Foils are placed in a diagonal pattern with the heaviest concentration around the face. The bump is applied in between your foils if you get gray coverage, if not it's a bump at the bowl. 

Maintenance: 4-6 weeks

2. Highlights: traditional foil highlights and/or lowlights. Lightener or color is applied in either weaves (more natural) or slices (more dramatic).

Maintenance: 6-8 weeks

3. Foilayage: a combination of traditional foils and balayage, typically with a shadowroot at the shampoo bowl. Foils can be done just around the face for extra brightness, as balayage highlights will give you a more gentle lift.

Maintenance: 8-12 weeks

4. Color Melt: a soft balayage of the whole head that gradually melts from dark to light. Technique for a color melt varies. Some clients will just require a reverse balayage (their natural root color melted down into pre-lightened pieces) and some will require at times as many as three colors applied at once for a gradient effect. 

Maintenance: 12-18 weeks

5. Sombré: hand painted highlights blended to perfection, the ends are optionally all lightened or just highlighted. Take finer sections around the face for maximum lift for that bright face-frame we all love! Placement in the back of the head should start lower and not be quite as heavy.  Around the face lightener is painted in sections on a diagonal, and on the sides and back take  "V" or "W" sections. 

Maintenance: 3-6 months

6. Ombré: hand-painted lightened ends. Blended, and typically a high contrast of color between the roots and ends. Just like a color melt you could be applying just a root, just lightening the ends or both at the same time. Be sure to still keep some lightness around the face because the days of a harsh contrasted ombré are gone! A modified shortened "V" and "W" pattern are used, lighten the ends but still keep it blended with no lines of demarcation.

Maintenance: 6-12 months

Different styles of blonde hair techniques

This post is going to be all about BLONDES! All of the terminology I will be talking about below will be based on blondes who are already a level 9 or lighter (being as close to the lightest blonde as possible is the best way to achieve these requests). This post is meant to help you understand and be on the same page as your stylist, not to go into the salon and tell them you want a level 10 ash violet blonde glaze with level 7 lowlights weaved every 3 foil and then root shadowed for 5 minutes...you get the point. :)

Everyone's blonde is different and may require maintenance in between lightening sessions:

1.Shadow Root - A demi permanent color applied at the root and emulsified down to blend regrowth lines while still allowing for dimension at the root.

2. Toner - Typically a quick 15 minute appointment where your toner is refreshed at the bowl, add on a blowout and leave feeling refreshed and ready for a night out!

3. Root Retouch: Are you covering gray? No matter which option you go with, depending on the percentage of gray your hair is, you will still need your roots touched up every 4-6 weeks.

4. Haircuts & treatments - Even with all of the incredible products to help maintain integrity in the hair, lightening and daily life still take its toll on our ends. Love on those ends and see your stylist for routine trims and reparative treatments!

Still not sure? Ask your stylist for a consultation!