Winnipeg's Downtown Aveda Spa Salon
Frequently Asked Questions - Hair Care
Why is it so difficult to get consistent blond highlights on my long hair?
This can be a real challenge with clients who have dyed and/or bleached their hair in the past, especially when different products have been used over time. The ends of the hair may have been dyed or bleached numerous times and will react differently to highlighting than hair at the roots that has never been treated at all.
To begin, I will ask what your hair colour history is, looking for
- previous dye colours,
- previous highlights,
- previous use of "box colours" (retail hair colouring products), and
- how long ago each of these was applied.
Enzymes, peroxide, or ammonia are present in every colour, even semi-permanent dyes. Box colours contain components of red and yellow. The effects of all of these will fade out but remain in the hair to some degree so they need to be factored in. In the end, I'll have a "map" of your past hair colours.
The first step is to apply an overall solid base colour. Before this, however, a filler may be applied to porous sections of the hair, such as previously lightened hair or hair that has faded on the ends. This will equalize the porosity of the hair along the entire shaft, allowing the new colour to be absorbed more evenly and last longer without fading.
To achieve a uniform blonding, I customize a lightening agent suitable for each section of hair that has been coloured in the past. After isolating the strands of hair to be highlighted, different strengths of lightener are applied along the length of the hair shaft. A weaker strength of lightening is applied to lighter coloured hair or hair that hasn't been treated before. Hair that has been dyed in a dark colour or that has been dyed repeatedly needs a stronger lightening agent. The objective is to end up with highlights that are the same colour from root to tip.
Red tones used in past hair colouring are the hardest to eliminate and sometimes it is best not to try. If the overall hair colour has red tones, the highlights will blend in better. In cases where the client wants the red eliminated, I apply heat to the section in which red dye was used to accelerate the lightening action.
Gold tones are much easier to eliminate than reds. A heat application may be required to achieve the desired lightening.
The easiest shades to lighten are dark blond to light brown. The lightening agent alone is sufficient to highlight the hair to an ash blond shade without the use of heat.
