It's Too Light!

Following on from my piece about going platinum, it would be unfair of me to tackle the opposing issue – ‘light out’.  This is an occurrence whereby someone has permanently coloured their hair blonde and discovered the result to be a garish artificial light colour they just didn’t want nor expect - unless they were going for the Draco Malfoy look! 

The most common reason ‘Light Out’ happens is seen when someone (who usually goes to the salon for highlights) decides (for whatever reason) to tackle their regrowth at home.  They select a light blonde colour, but do not realise the roots will lift up quite significantly and the darker (non- highlighted) areas will also lift to create an overall light blonde shade.  In addition, this shade is often brassy or yellow due to the levels of natural darker colour which were still present in the hair upon the application and lifting of the colour.

‘Light Out’ is actually a very easy issue to rectify quickly and requires a principle of attempting to duplicate the look of a natural blonde.  In general, natural blondes will not have one block hair colour, the base tends to be an 8.0 (light blonde) which will then lift with the sun and become a multi-tonal shade.  

Therefore, if you have found ‘Light Out’ in your hair, follow these simple principles:-

1.       CLARIFY THE HAIR

Home colourants contain conditioners in their final stage which will close the colouring session and put a seal on the hair to allow the new shade to settle.  If you want to rectify a colour result, you must immediately clarify the hair to remove this conditioner and re-open the hair.  If you do not do this, a subsequent treatment applied may sit on the hairs surface and not work effectively.

2.       CREATE YOUR BLONDE ROOTS  

This tip may seem incredible, but a natural blonde does not have even lightened hair up to the scalp.  To eradicate the ‘Light Out’ look you are going to have to create natural blonde (looking) roots.  With this technique you buy a base shade permanent colour of an 8.0 level and apply it only to the root area (not the mid-lengths and ends).  You must use a tint bowl and brush to do this and the best product I can recommend is Clairol Root Touch up Medium Blonde 8.0.  On dry hair (only), you must apply the colourant to just your pale root areas.  If your roots appear coppery pale blonde, go with a cool based 8.0 shade.  After you have applied the colourant (to just the root areas), you can pick out very fine strands of hair and colour them (downward) throughout some random sections across the head.  This will create additional depth in the block blonde colour and take away the artificial look.  

  

3.       TONE

The hair will also need to be toned (after creating your natural blonde roots as outlined in point 2).  You can use Colour Restore Iced Platinum to create an even crisp blonde (and remove yellow) or if you just have mild yellow tone wash the hair several times in a blue shampoo such as Lee Stafford Bleached Blonde.  

4.       BATISTE IT!

If you don’t have the time to deepen your regrowth and tone, an immediate quick tip for ‘Light Out’ is to reach for Batiste medium and brunette coloured shampoo.  If you lightly spray this dry shampoo into your lightened out root areas plus along and within the length of your hair, it will create a shadow effect and disguise the block blonde result and instead create a more natural blonde look.  This tip is particularly good if you intend to go to your salon and get the hair colour corrected or if you just don’t have time to rectify it yourself on the day of your home colour application.   

Above all, if you have found your hair has lightened out due to home colouring, you must act quickly and within 10 days.  If you leave it for longer than 2 weeks, you will begin to get a very dark root strap appearing and you will need to either lighten this out or go darker to disguise it.

However, if you rectify the unwanted blonde shade quite soon after you achieved it, the additional depth you subsequently apply to the hair (as outlined above) should reduce the appearance of the subsequant root strap and you can either continue using your previous method to retain blonde or simply apply a medium blonde (8.) hair colourant to the new regrowth to lift it to a shade which matches the 8.0 shade you applied to cover the 'Light Out'.

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