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Here are some questions that people recently asked me on my tumblr account at Fuck Yeah Fantasy Hair. These all pertain to lightening hair, toning, or coloring with semi-permanent color.
Q: How does one achieve pastel-colored hair? I have dark brown hair that gets dry easily. I would really like to be able to achieve some pretty pastel colored streaks :)
A: You need to bleach the streaks a very pale blonde, as close to white as possible (ideally you should tone it with a violet toner to get a nice white base) and then after washing and drying, you can apply a pastel color of your choice. I recommend getting the bleaching done by a professional. You can either have them do the color as well, or do it yourself at home, that part is safe. To get any semi-permanent color to be lighter, just dilute it with conditioner until it’s the desired color.
Q: I’m planning on dying my hair a silvery lilac color. I saw a tutorial of a girl who diluted a violet hair dye to make it look like that color, but I was wondering what I could do to achieve more of a silverly look rather than just a lavender one?
A: I think that a blue-violet gives a more greyish or silvery tone (when diluted down and applied to bleached hair) than a middle-of-the-road violet. Look for something with bluish tones or mix a violet and a blue. You’ll need to make sure that your hair is as light as possible first too.
Q: I have brown dyed hair but I want to go blonde, like Barbie blonde… I haven’t colored my hair in about six months and the roots are coming in a dish water blonde. What would be the best way to do it to?
A: As always, I recommend that color corrections and big lightening projects be left to professionals as they can be quite the undertaking. You can try removing the color yourself at home with an over the counter color remover, which will help remove the artificial color but should not affect your natural hair color. Once the color is removed, or is as light as possible, then you can go about bleaching all of it. There are some other (less harsh) methods of fading your hair color in this blog post: How To Fade Your Hair Color And Why You Might Want To Do That.
Q: I know that it’s probably asked quite a bit, but what sort of bleaching/lightener/other method would you reccomend using to go from a dark brown to platinum blonde?
A: If you are trying to use your natural color it is going to be much easier than fi you are removing previous color. I always use Paul Mitchell Dual Purpose Lightener for bleaching. Going from dark brown to platinum blonde is quite a process and I don’t recommend doing it yourself. Your best bet is to see a professional, at least the first time, and then do the root retouches at home if you want to. The way that I would take someone from dark brown to platinum blonde is to “platinum card” their hair, which is a foiling technique in which ALL of the hair is contained in foils. This offers the most control so that you can come out with the best lift and the most even color with as little damage as possible. If your hair is super resistant, it may take a couple of times bleaching and toning it to get it light enough which can be really bad if you don’t have experience.
Q: Just wondering what colour pink you have used in your pic? Thanks!
A: That was either Paul Mitchell Inkworks in hot pink, diluted with conditioner, or Special Effects in Atomic Pink, diluted with conditioner. They come out about the same but the SFX lasts longer. If you’re planning on changing it from pink to something else relatively soon, then go with something less permanent, as the stain that the SFX leaves can be hard to bleach out. However, I had pink hair for 10 years so the longevity of the SFX was pretty ideal.
Do you have a question that you’d like answered? Email me at hairbykelsi at gmail.com, tweet me @KelsiDoesHair or ask on my tumblr, Fuck Yeah Fantasy Hair.
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Note: The first two photos were found on Pinterest. They are linked back to the pin but I couldn’t find an original source. If anyone knows the original sources for them, feel free to let me know. The third picture is my hair.
Love this! I’m going back to my original color now, and it’s been murder on my hair! It needs some lovin.
Which color is your original color? ;)
This might be completely out of your area of expertise — but I’m beginning to worry that my hair is thinning as I age. I am 25, with extremely fine thin hair. I keep it short, because it won’t grow much longer. (If I let it air dry, I joke that it feels like a baby duck. It gets that soft and down-y.)
My mother seems to think it’s because I do dye my hair occasionally (only a shade or two darker a few times a year) because I also have grays. Is that possible? Do you have any suggestions to stop hair loss/ increase hair thickness?
-Maria
It’s more than likely NOT because you are coloring your hair. The only reason that coloring your hair could affect the way it grows out is if you are doing permanent damage to your scalp by chemically burning it when you color it or if you are allergic to the color that you are using. In either case, you would notice because it would be extremely uncomfortable or painful when you color it. The health of new hair that is growing out is only affected by what’s going on inside your body. If it has just recently begun thinning and you are losing a lot more hair than you used to, it could be stress or a change in diet or medications. If it’s been a very slow process, then it’s likely genetic, but it could also have to do with your overall health and diet, and any medications that you are on. In any case, if it worries you, you should see a doctor about it since it’s an internal issue. There is a line of hair and scalp care products called Nioxin that I recommend to my thinning clients. It’s made especially for thinning hair and helps create a healthy scalp environment to promote new growth and slow down thinning. I’ve also heard of Nioxin being prescribed to patients who have undergone chemotherapy to help with growing their hair back. It’s a little on the pricey side, but it’s worth checking out if you can find a salon that carries it. Another thing you can do which may help is to massage your scalp or get scalp treatments at a salon. It increases blood flow which brings nutrients to your scalp and can help stimulate growth.
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I will have to keep your tips in mind next time I dye my hair! I recently dyed it raspberry red with a Splat kit that includes bleach. It worked pretty well but I have short hair that takes dye easily.
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I saw your new hair color on your blog, it’s amazing!
OMG the conditioner mixed with the dye is such a good tip! thank you so much!
No problem, it works really well!