Autumn and Winter Hair Trends E-Magazine

Instead of a blog post today, I would like to invite you to download my Autumn and Winter Hair Trends E-Magazine for free. Have a read to find out what will be a hot trend this season and read some of my tips on how to achieve them, you can find my product recommendations and some information on my consultation classes.

12 Tips for Colour Removal and Correction

1. A hair colourremover and a hair colour stripper are very different.  

A colour remover contains a sulphite agentwhich works only on destroying the artificial colour molecule so it can beflushed from the hair, it cannot affect natural pigments present.  A stripper contains a peroxide agent and isdesigned to gently remove both natural and artificial pigments so you canre-colour immediately to a different or lighter permanent shade.

2. Fading unintentionally dark hair colour.

If you haveapplied a colourant and it’s too dark wash it in baby or clarifying shampooseveral times immediately.  Most homehair colours contain an after colour conditioner which is designed to help thecolour molecules settle inside the hair. If you are not sure if you are happy with the colour, washing it willremove any barriers (from the conditioner) and unsettle the new permanentcolour.

3. Removing colour sooner rather than later.

If a colour istoo dark, try to remove it immediately or within 48 hours.  The fresher an artificial colour the quickerit will remove from the hair (especially if you have already washed andclarified it several times with baby or clarifying shampoo).  New unwanted darker hair colourants onlyrequire a hair colour remover, they shouldn’t need a hair colour stripper. 

4. Fixing hair colour that is too light.

If a colour hascome out too light (for your liking) try to do the opposite as to darkercolours and wait at least 48 hours before attempting to re-colour, ideallywaiting one week.  Lightened hair canlook brighter when first coloured and will often calm done over the followingdays, so judgement should be reserved before attempting to go darker.

5. Balancing warm tones in hair colour.

If a shade hascome out too warm, golden, coppery or gingery work out if you have applied acolourant which contains (gold, copper or red) as one of its tones or whetheryour hair has lightened in the colouring process and ‘kicked up’ your naturalwarmth.  If you have applied a neutral orash based colourant and are seeing warmth it’s because your own shade was toodark for the colourant applied and possibly needed pre-lightening or strippingfirst.

6. Use colour remover to remove unwanted tones.

If you haveestablished a shade applied and it has caused your hair to go warm, golden, copper orred due to the secondary tones featured in the product applying a hair colourremover should rectify this issue.

7. Options for covering unwanted shades.

If you haveestablished a shade applied has caused your hair to go warm, golden, copper orred due to the lightening of your natural shade you need to make a choice as towhether you want to strip the hair and apply the desired shade again (onto alighter base) or whether you wish to go to a slightly darker shade which wouldcover the unwanted warmth.

8. Do not apply aperoxide based colourant immediately after using a hair colour remover

Thechemistry of colour removal and peroxide contradicts - so you need to leave thehair ideally 1 week (to normalise) before attempting to apply a peroxide basedcolourant.  You can (however) use nonperoxide temporary colourants and toners after using a hair colour remover.

9. Stripper creates a blank canvas for recolouring.

Hair that hasbeen stripped has seen both natural and artificial colour pigment removed fromthe hair, therefore you should always have your selected subsequent colourantshade at hand to achieve your desired result after the stripping process.

10. Retaining a good base shade.

The key to asuccessful hair colour is mostly achieving a good base shade.  If you are looking to go blonde, obtaining adark blonde base shade can prove a good canvas for highlights.  If you prefer darker (brunette hair) alwaysensure you apply colourants only to your re-growth and do not apply throughoutthe hair.  This will prevent buildup.  Using toners and colour enhancingshampoos will also retain your shade and do not attempt to use severalpermanent colourant processes on your hair within at least a one monthperiod.  Very frequent exposure toperoxides, ammonia and PPD’s can cause the hair to become very porous anddamaged.  Once hair becomes damaged it isthen difficult to achieve a good colourant result as the shade could grabinitially and appear too dark (or patchy) and then fade fast over subsequentwashes. 

11. Fashion colours can be difficult to remove.

Be aware thatfashion colours such as pink, blue and purple (and often bright red) do notwork on oxidation (peroxide) technology to evoke a long term result; insteadthey are a ‘direct dye’ which stains the hair. If the hair is bleached these direct dye molecules can stain the hairand make the shade impossible to remove. A hair colour remover is not designed to remove direct (fashion)dyes.  A stripper may have more successbut always give a strand test first.

12. Clarifying hair to improve results. 

Prior to anyhair colour removal, stripping or correction clarify the hair fully.  Even if you have just conditioned the hair,there may be a barrier on the surface which will prevent removal, stripping orcorrection working effectively.  If yousee absolutely no hair colour change from a removal or a stripping treatment theremay be a chance your hair has silicone damage. Here the hair has been encased in a silicone which quite often has beenmoulded to the hair by heat.  In theseinstances follow the blog advice for ‘Hair Clarifying’.  

How to Create Vibrant Red Florence Welch Hair

So many people want to display a vibrant permanent red shade but often find this particular colour a difficult one to achieve for a whole variety of reasons.

The biggest problem with red hair colourants (in my view) is a lack of understanding as to the level of depth in the actual colourant.  If a red shade uses a brown as its base (such as deep auburns and mahogany's) and is subsequently applied to hair that is already fairly brunette the result will be much darker than expected

Remember, red is a tone not a base – meaning the more base which is presented in the hair (or added to it) the darker it will become and the less the (red) tone will be displayed.

The Perfect Base for Red Hair Colouring

In order to achieve a true vibrant red shade (in a natural brunette) the base colour must (initially) be a medium blonde or copper.  This will allow for the red pigments to fill the inside of the hair and display the colour 100% accurately. 

The key to retaining a good redhead shade is to try to avoid pre lightening with traditional bleaches (designed for blonde results) and use only non-ammonia products to lift up the base.

In addition, very bleached or pale hair should always be pre-pigmented before applying a permanent red shade.  Pre Pigmenting will fill the empty hair with additional red colour molecules and these pigments can form a layer underneath the permanent shade (applied) which not only reduces fading but also add to the vibrancy of the overall shade.

The Florence Welch Red Shade

The Florence Welch shade is a really popular example of the ‘vibrant redhead’.  Florence’s colour is prone to changing in intensity from being a more muted auburn to a fiery pure red.  This demonstrates that Florence (herself) has issues with both getting the vibrancy right in her colour and finding a shade which doesn’t slip out too aggressively during washing.

I would imagine that Florence’s natural base is a medium blonde to auburn, for this reason she would be able to apply a colourant directly onto her hair without prior stripping.  However, for the purposes of this how-to I am explaining how to achieve the shade on darker light to mid brunette bases or for those with lighter (natural) bases who have been previously colouring to achieve the look.

You will need

• ·         Decolour Remover or Stripper (depending on camouflaging shade desired)
• ·         Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Colour Fiery Red  - 6.60
• ·         Colour Restore Deep Red (if using Decolour Remover)

Step 1 – Removing or Stripping

Remember, this how to is designed for brunettes (who wish to achieve a vibrant red) or lighter bases who have overlaid previous red colourants and achieved a darker than expected result.

Step 1 - For natural and artificially coloured dark blondes to brunettes

The key is to firstly strip the hair of both base shade and artificial colour molecules.  In order to obtain a true vibrant blanket of red you must start with an even lighter canvas that will display the colour effectively. I've outlined my step by step instructions for stripping hair colour below, or you can watch my tutorial.

To strip the hair

·         Firstly wash several times and towel dry. Comb the hair smooth and make sure it’s parted correctly.

·         Now mix the Decolour Stripper as instructed and apply firstly to any areas which appear heavy or dark.  These will typically be the mid-lengths and ends.  Once you have applied to these darker areas leave for 10 minutes.

·        After 10 minutes, apply the remainder of the Decolour Stripper to the damp hair and comb through evenly from roots to tips, the hair should be damp as this will enable the stripper crème to work evenly throughout the hair.

·        Once the crème is combed through the damp hair (as you would a conditioner) leave to develop for a further 20 minutes and proceed to rinsing and applying the conclude balm.

·         After stripping you should notice your hair is a lightened coppery shade.  This is good as you now have a base on to which to apply the Fiery Red hair colour.

Step 1 - For natural but previously artificially coloured medium blonde shades

Repeat the above steps using Decolour Remover, but ensure you give a full development (once the crème is applied throughout the hair) of 60 minutes.  A full development of remover will ensure all the artificial colour molecules are eradicated and the natural (light) base is exposed.

After using Decolour Remover you cannot apply a peroxide based shade for 7 days.  Therefore, to achieve your desired ‘Redhead’ effect, follow the removal immediately with an application of Colour Restore Deep Red.  This will create a short term ‘redhead’ result and will also act as a pre-pigment.

After 7 days (or so) I would recommend applying a second Colour Restore Deep Red application (to further pre-pigment the hair) and then proceed to applying the permanent colourant as outlined below.

Step 2 – Applying your permanent redhead shade

Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color Fiery Red 6.60 would be my recommendation for achieving the Florence Welch shade at home.

REMEMBER: If you have used Decolour Stripper to create your new canvas you can proceed to the colour step immediately, however if you have used Decolour Remover (to expose a natural lighter base), please ensure you immediately re-colour with Colour Restore Deep Red (as outlined above) and wait 7 days before applying this permanent colour.

I would recommend you apply the Fiery Red shade to slightly damp (non-dry) hair as this will ensure the colourant goes onto the hair smoothly.

When applying, use a tangle comb and work the colourant evenly into the hair and develop for the instructed development time.

Step 3 – Maintaining a vibrant red shade

It’s crucial to maintain red shades with appropriate haircare products.  Using a red enhancing shampoo will ensure the hair is cleansed but the artificial red colour molecule is not depleted in the hair by the regular washing.  I would recommend using ‘John Freida Radiant Red’ shampoo as your home care solution for this purpose.  It is also worth giving your hair a weekly (or bi monthly) ‘Colour Restore Deep Red’ infusion to retain the overall red shade and vibrancy.

 

Step 4 – Regrowth Application

If you are a natural brunette, I would recommend a monthly (to 5 weekly) re-growth application of the Garnier Ultra Colour Fiery Red 6.60, as soon as the hair demonstrates a very small amount of re-growth close to the scalp.  Scalp heat will accelerate the strength of peroxide and offer more of a lift in the base shade.  If the dark roots are allowed to grow through too much, this scalp heat will be less effective and not lift the overall base shade to a level which will display red vibrancy.  Therefore, subsequent red applications may start appearing too dark at the top sections as the hair grows.

Whenever you conduct the ‘redhead’ re-growth application, always apply with a tint bowl and brush to the new growth only.  This will ensure precision of application.  Try to keep your head as warm as possible and this will also aid lifting of the base shade and a good overall display of the red colour.

Do not pour the entire contents of the colourant over the head, as you will subject the previously coloured hair to unwanted chemical treatment.  However, 10 minutes before the end of the regrowth development, wet a tangle comb and begin working that root colour through to the mid-lengths and ends.  This will ensure the old hair colour is refreshed and the red shade remains fully vibrant. 

Pre-pigmenting Hair with Colour Restore Deep Red

Pre Pigmenting is a method commonly used in salons to prepare very blonde, pre-lightened or bleached hair that is going to be coloured to a much darker or red shade.

When hair is bleached, heavily highlighted or lightened the centre of the hair can be empty and contain no pigment, this means that any subsequent colours to be applied to the hair are likely to fade quickly, requiring a lot of maintenance.

Hair that is void of any natural pigment (due to bleaching or pre-lightening) can cause hair colourants to take a much darker colour result than expected or create a odd translucent or unwanted green/grey tone.

In the above instances pre-pigmenting hair with a red temporary colour molecule (prior to permanent colouring) will fill the hairs centre and duplicate natural warmth (within the hair).  

When either a much darker or permanent red colourant is then applied, the hair will display depth, appear more lustrous and see a reduced amount of fading due to the new level of pigment molecules contained.    The new permanent molecules tend to sit on the outer layer of the hairs centre and permanently ‘link up’ trapping the pre-pigmented (temporary) red molecules inside the hair.

How to pre-pigment with Colour Restore Deep Red

If you are currently a lightened blonde and wish to go to a much darker brunette or red shade, you can pre-pigment your hair very easily with Colour Restore Deep Red.   

Colour Restore Deep Red

In addition, if using Colour Restore Deep Red immediately prior to application of a permanent red colourant you will also fill the hair with additional molecules which will not only produce a more vibrant red shade, but also aid against fading through subsequent washes.

1. Firstly clarify the hair well to remove any surface build up and towel-dry.
2. Apply Colour Restore Deep Red to the damp hair and comb through to ensure each strand is fully covered.  Pay particular attention to lightened or porous ends.
3. Leave the Deep Red to develop for 20 minutes and rinse out fully – do not condition the hair.
4. Dry the hair 100%. At this point you will see the strong red undercoat in the hair.
5. Mix and apply your chosen dark brunette or red permanent colourant as per manufactures instructions.

If you have applied a very vibrant permanent red colourant after pre-pigmenting with Colour Restore Deep Red, you can continue using Colour Restore Deep Red as a regular treatment to encourage vibrancy and lustre.

If you have pre-pigmented your lightened blonde hair in order to apply a deep brunette or very dark shade, you should find the new colour remains permanently within the hair and displays a rich true brunette.

What Does Ash in Hair Colour Do?

Unless you are naturally quite fair it’s a fair assumption to say that when you attempt to lighten the hair by any level it will display some of the hairs natural red and yellow pigment – creating an overall orange shade.   This can even appear when you have attempted to remain the same colour due to the peroxide contained within the colourant causing some degree of lightening of the natural base.

Rachel Stevens Ash Blonde Hair

For many, a warmer hue in the hair (when intermixed with the new artificial colour) can create an appealing warm or golden shade. However, some people really dislike this warmth and seek to banish it.  Selecting colourants which contain an ash (within the formulation and box description) can remedy this issue.

Ash colourants use a green and/ or blue molecule which neutralise the orange tone.  Whereas  platinum colours which use a violet colour molecule and designed to neutralise yellow tone – which can only be seen on light blonde hair. In addition, a beige tone is a deeper violet molecule that is effective at neutralising warmth in medium blondes.

Positives to Ash         

                                                                                   

Ash will create a neutral or cool tone in hair colours which are displaying a coppery hue.  Using an ash colour will be more effective at producing realistic light brown to medium blondes.   The darker a colourant the less required pigments can be (as the hair colour deepens and covers warmth and natural cool tone).  The lighter a hair colour is - the more likely the hair will be to display yellow for which a violet pigment is required to neutralise (such as platinum or beige).  If an ash is applied to very blonde hair it will appear silver.

Elle McPherson Ash Blonde Hair

Negative to Ash

Ash will tend to display as a matte finish, so on blonder depths the colour can appear slightly flat.  Ash is also a neutraliser and has to fight against the natural warmth in the hair; therefore it can require building up within the hair to display.  

You also need to be realistic of ash, if the hair is showing bright orange or red the ash pigment will sometimes be limited in its ability as the base shade is too dark to be neutralised.  If ash won’t display in currently red or orange hair it means the base needs to be either lightened to accommodate the ash pigment or darkened to cover the red or orange entirely.   

Victoria Beckham Ash Blonde Hair

Colour Restore Cool Ash

Colour Restore Cool Ash is simply pure ash pigment which you can infuse into the hair to balance warmth.  It can be used immediately after lightening, general colouring or hair colour removal.  For best results make sure the hair does not have conditioning barriers on it, so clarify prior to applying.  If you like super cool results (on any base) use a blue shampoo with every wash and a small amount of Cool Ash as your regular conditioner.  Leave for 2 minutes and rinse. A more intense 20 to 30 minute development of Cool Ash weekly will build a stronger ash tone in the hair.

How to Create Cool Lights with Colour Restore Cool Ash

Creating Ultra-Cool Toned Highlights with Colour Restore Ash

For deeper and more brunette natural bases highlighting the hair can evoke several tonal issues.  Many people find - as darker hair lightens - a substantial degree of heavy warmth can be revealed which can have a rusty or carroty hue which is often hard to disguise with blue shampoos.

A great deal of brunettes have an underlying cool skin tone (this is irrelevant of ethnicity) which can clash with strong (unwanted) warmth within the hair, often making the skin tone look sallow or buttery.   If you are a natural cool toned brunette and wish to have highlights you should optimize the presence of ash within your shade.

Often applying a permanent ash toned colourant to the whole head (after highlights) can cause the darker (non-highlighted hair) to lighten and expose further warmth.  The best approach is to highlight darker hair with bleach and then use a high ash toning product such as Colour Restore Cool Ash.

Colour Restore Cool Ash contains a deep level of neutralising ash and silver pigment which will turn lightened coppery or warm blondes to a solid neutral to high beige tone.  These cool toned highlights will intermix with the natural (darker) depth and created an overall ash shade which harmonises with skin tone and any (original) natural hair colour present.

There are two methods you can apply and work with Colour Restore Cool Ash:-

Using Colour Restore Cool Ash for Cool Lights At Home

You will need:-

• Jerome Russell Highlighting Kit (including a highlighting cap)
• Colour Restore Cool Ash

1. Always start with dry and clarified hair. Put on the highlighting cap and pull through a mixture of hair throughout the top and side sections of the head.

2. Mix and apply the bleach and leave to develop (as instructed in the Jerome Russell kit). Darker natural bases will often require around 70 minutes to lighten the hair sufficiently.

3. Once the hair has lightened sufficiently, leave the cap on and begin rinsing off the bleach with warm water. Do this for around 5 minutes.

4. With the cap still on, apply the Colour Restore Cool Ash to the highlights and work through the hair. Leave for around 5 to 10 minutes and remove the cap. The Colour Restore Ash contains a conditioning base and will enable the cap to be removed smoothly.

5. Apply a small amount of the Jerome Russell tone and condition throughout the hair and finish.

Colour Restore Cool Ash will work relatively quickly to tone freshly bleached areas of the hair. However, if you desire a deeper ash you can re-apply the product and leave for a full 20 minutes. Colour Restore Cool Ash can then be used as part of your regular hair care regime in conjunction with a blue shampoo to keep your highlights ultra-cool.

Using Colour Restore Cool Ash At the Salon

If you have your highlights undertaken in a salon with bleach and foils, you can take Cool Ash to your appointment.   

The colourists will just need to highlight your hair with bleach and foils in the usual way.

At the backwash, after removing the foils and rinsing for several minutes, your colourist can firstly shampoo with their regular Colour rinsing cleanser and then apply Cool Ash throughout the hair (as a conditioner) and leave for 10 minutes.   

The hair will then be toned and conditioned.   You can then intensify the cool tone (at home if you choose) by applying Colour Restore Ash as either a 2 minute conditioner (following application of a regular use silver shampoo) or a once weekly for a 20 minute intense tonal application.

Some Pointers for using Colour Restore Cool Ash

• Colour Restore products work exceptionally well on newly highlighted and bleached hair. However if you apply a conditioner immediately prior to Colour Restore it will create a barrier on the hair which will prevent the pigments from entering. For Cool Lights methods always apply Colour Restore immediately after rinsing the bleach..

• Colour Restore Cool Ash can be built up in the hair with regular use as a standard conditioner. Be aware that very silicone rich shampoos could also create a barrier which prevents the product working, so for best results use a blue or clear shampoo for deep tonal absorption immediately prior. 

• If you have achieved an unwanted warm result from an artificial permanent hair colourant. Remember many colourant products include a sealant conditioner to prevent the artificial colour from fading. Therefore, this sealant conditioner must be removed from the hair (with a clarifier) prior to using Colour Restore. 

• Colour Restore Cool Ash will not damage the hair and contains no peroxide or ammonias and has a conditioning base. You can use as much or as little as you wish, if you find the tone is becoming too cool or silverized simply use a clarifying shampoo several times to reduce the pigment.

Clarifying Hair and Silicone Damage

What are Silicones?

Many people still don't realise that many hair care products contain polymers (including silicones) which sit on the outside of the hair shaft and can create a barrier.  Silicone molecules can be the worst for this because many are not water soluble so cannot just be 'washed off' in one go. You can spot silicone ingredients in products by looking for ingredient names ending in 'cone'.


Silicone Build Up in Hair

If you are using different shampoo and conditioning brands and then following with another styling product - which again contains silicones you could have three different types of silicone molecule on the hair.  Washing the hair with another silicone based shampoo will then add further silicone molecules onto the hair and result in the hair suffering heavy build up.

What is Silicone Damage?

If you use heated styling products such as hot irons you can seal this build up onto the hair, gluing down the cuticle layer, trapping in the silicone and making it difficult to remove.

In some instances a straightening iron can reach such a high temperature that the silicone molecule actually reaches boiling point and melts onto the hair shaft.  Please be aware this is the fault of the straightening iron and not the silicone and quite frankly if you are using a devise which gets so hot it can melt silicone imagine what it's doing to your hair fibres and proteins!

When hair suffers build up and/ or silicone damage, the surface is closed off to hair alteration meaning that colourants, perms, colour removers and even bleaches might not work on your hair.

If you are worried about silicone build up, hair should be clarified once a week to enable the hair to breath and function in conjunction with the products you are applying.

Hair Clarifying Tips

1.  Try using a baby shampoo on every third wash to prevent build up.

2.  Keep conditioner use to only the mid lengths and ends of the hair and use sparingly.

3.  Once a week use a Clarifying product such as Pin Up Clarifying Shampoo.  It's designed for use prior to perms and chemical services but is great for removing weekly build up  finish with the Pre Perm 'Leave In' conditioner as a light hydration product.

4.  For a deep clarifying treatment put two spoons of bicarbonate of soda into a mug of warm water.  After using a Clarifying Shampoo, pour the Bicarb rinse through the hair and comb through.  Leave for 10 to 20 minutes and rinse off.  The bicarb will help to break down any surface residue and over time can help with severe build up.

5.  If you have suffered silicone heat damage, clarifying the hair may not reverse the situation.  I would recommend you refer to Philip Kingsley products for your hair type for at least six months. Philip Kingsley products will not coat the hair any further and (overtime) will hydrate if the residue begins breaking from the hair.

Remember, if hair is very damaged from heated build up, the middle of the hair could be highly fragile.  Whilst it may look shiny on the outside, this shine is often synthetic and if a chemical product is successful in breaking through the build up the hair and entering inside, the hair could break due to its fragile state.  Always strand test before undertaking such treatments.

Home Balayage Step by Step Tutorial: Medium to Light Brown Bases

Balayage is a technique which has been used for nearly 40 years in many of the top salons in Paris and Beverly Hills.  It involves the direct brushing of either a colourant or lightener onto the hair without the use of a cap or foils.

This Balayage technique works best on natural (non colour treated) hair.  However, using Decolour Stripper, the Balayage method can now be used on colour treated hair to partially strip hair colour prior to recolouring to effectively create a multi-tonal base in a soft, natural way.


DIY Balayage Tutorial for Medium to Light Brown Hair

This tutorial is designed for current medium to light brown bases who want to achieve a natural medium blonde base (either cool or warm). Please refer to the end of this blog post for my notes on DIY Balayage on brunettes and black hair.

You will need

• Tint Bowl
• Brush
• Decolour Stripper
• Permanent Colourant (see colourant recommendation chart)

How to Create Balayage Hair at Home

Make sure the hair is clarified (washed with a sulphate & silicone free shampoo such as baby shampoo) to ensure it's 100% free of styling products and conditioning residue, this will allow the treatment to work fully. Most importantly dry hair into your usual hair style, this is crucial to ensure good positioning of your balayage. 

Home Balayage Tutorial Preparation 

1. Mix only 50% of your Decolour Stripper elements in the tint bowl and ensure only the tip of the tint brush is dipped into the product. You can keep the remaining 50% of product in their separate containers and save them for another treatment at a later date.  
2. Working on dry hair, use the pointed end of the tint brush and segregate a thread (about 1cm wide) of hair from the front of the parting.  Pull the thread outward and starting at the end of the hair section, begin coating in the Decolour Stripper, working up the section and applying slightly less stripper at the root area. Go Along the parting and continue creating these streaks.
3. Once you have applied the threads along the parting, begin using the tip of your tint brush to pull out and coat slightly thicker sections of hair in the stripper (1.5cm-2cm wide) from underneath your parting. Again, apply the stripper to the mid lengths and ends of the section first and apply less to the root area.
4. When choosing chunks to coat on the underneath of your hair, you can coat sections as wide as 3 cm if you wish.
5. Work through the hair taking these slightly wider sections from both the sides and the back of the hair.
6. Once you have applied the stripper to your sections, do not comb through as you want to leave a lot of your darker base intact.
7. Once applied, leave the Decolour Stripper to develop on the hair for between 45 minutes and 1 hour before rinsing as instructed.
8. Once you have developed and rinsed off the Decolour Stripper, fully towel dry the hair.  You will now notice the overall colour looks streaky and the tone may be warm, this is normal.

You have now created the base for your balayage look, next, you need to select the correct shade of permanent hair colour for your desired look, below are some suggested colours that you might like. Further instructions are below.

TOP TIP If you are prone to warmth and do not want to display a golden tone in the finished result always select a colourant with ash tone as your ‘camouflage’ shade.


What is a Camouflage Shade?

Camouflaging is a method of applying a permanent hair colourant to a pre-lightened, highlighted or Balayaged base to deepen the lightened areas but retain any deeper (unlightened) parts. Camouflaging mutes the overall colour and creates a richer multi tonal result without hard edges as seen when the hair is just lightened and left.

DIY Balayage Selecting the Correct Shade


Blonde Hair Colour Suggestions

DIY Balayage on medium to light brown shades wishing to go blonde with their balayage, might want to take inspiration from one of these fabulous ladies from Elle's honey blonde to J-lo's ash blonde.

Red Hair Colour Suggestions

If you want to be bold with your colour, why not go for a red shade? Here's my colour recommendations for auburn to vibrant red shades.Whether you want a subtle, Isla Fisher red to a vibrant, striking Rhianna red, here are some suggestions.

TOP TIP: If you need a hand choosing the right hair colour for your requirements, this is an easy way to understand what that shade aims to achieve in your hair colour. 

Natural = will mute warmth but retains tones already present in the hair.
Ash = neutralises warmth and creates a natural looking blonde.
Golden = Adds to the gold already present to create a soft copper effect.
Copper = Creates deep, warm copper shades.
Red = Creates vibrant red.

DIY Balayage Tutorial: The Hair Colouring Stage

1. Mix and Apply your camouflage colourant as per manufacturers instructions, apply to towel dried hair as this will enable the product to cover the hair evenly. 
2. Comb the colourant through the hair to ensure your whole hair is fully covered in colourant.
3. Leave the product to develop as per manufacturers instructions, rinse and finish.
4. Dry and Style your hair as normal. 
5. Your Balayage Stripping is now complete!

If you wish to build a lighter base and create further multi-tones in the hair, wait 4 to 6 weeks and repeat the process.

DIY Balayage on Dark Hair Colours

If you apply this technique to a deeper medium or darker brunette or natural black shade you need to remember to re-colour only with brunettes shades with a 6.0 (dark blonde), 5.0 (light brown), 4.0 (medium brown) and 3.0 (dark brown) base level.  If you are currently very dark and attempt this method with the colourant shades outlined the result will appear streaky as the chosen colourants applied will be too light for the level of pigment removal you can obtain during your Balayage Stripping.