She came in feeling like one all over blah blonde that was just too much blonde with no dimension. She said she felt unnatural. It looked like she had been getting partial after partial after partial because the bottom half of her head from her occipital bone down was all natural. The contrast was harsh and the colors did not flatter each other well. Her natural color however, gorgeous. As most peoples are.
Here is an image she sent me of the before. (I know I suck I forgot a before picture, so thank my client <3)
She wanted to stay a blonde but she wanted a much more natural feel. No more feeling like a bimbo or an over-processed blonde with no depth. She needed a change and we needed some time. Luckily, we had that. She was my last client of the day and open to whatever needed to be done.
Her hair was very porous and much lighter than what it appears in the picture. I knew adding lowlights would be risky considering there was very little warmth for the color to grab onto and I had no idea what or how it would match her gorgeous natural level 6/7 brunette underneath which was our goal: to break up her pre existing blonde with lowlights that matched her natural while simultaneously breaking up her natural underneath with highlights/teasy lights for an overall cohesive look. But, of course, with a nice money piece in the front because she didn’t want to leave feeling too dark.
I don’t have an actual photo of the color the initial lowlights turned out after we rinsed and rough dried them but this was after the first blow dry and the initial lowlights had been added. They were very strawberry blonde almost quite subtle, not even close to the color I was hoping for. They basically grabbed the warmth from the color and that’s it. In the end what it came down to was the initial lowlight application acted as a fill.
I showed her the back and how beautifully the solid color was broken up with gorgeous highlights that blended wonderfully with her natural color. She asked me what I thought, so I was honest with her. I said I will be honest, the lowlights did not turn out the way I wanted them to be. I was hoping for a more cohesive overall look that would match the back (i.e. reason for the above picture) and the strawberryish lowlights, although did add dimension and at no fault were they not beautiful, they just didn’t match her natural. Meaning her grow out wouldn’t be seamless. And that was how I felt. Not satisfied. I explained her what it meant to fill a blonde. How the underlying pigment is removed and you need to reapply the warmth to the hair cuticle so the darker pigment has something to grab onto. She understood and said let’s do it.
I offered to weave through, pick out those strawberry pieces, and reapply lowlights with a very similar color combination To the original, I just tweaked it to be a bit ashier because I knew on top of the warm lowlights I didn’t want too warm of a brown since her natural was more on the neutral to ashy side.
We chatted, we laughed, she learned a lot about hair as I nerded out over peptide bonds and keratin chains and how the cuticle opens and what pigments live where and she was amazed. She said she’d never had a hairstylist explain to her in such an educated way the process of hair structure and hair coloring. I said science baby 🧐
After a double process, a lot of meticulous weaving a deep conditioning treatment, and a quick blow dry, we achieved what we wanted. The lowlights blended in with her natural beautifully. She was happy. I was happy. And tired. And walah!
This was such a learning experience for me. I had never once thought to fill a lowlight?? But what is the difference between a lowlight and an all over color? When adding depth back into hair that is two or more levels lighter you always need to add warmth back in first. I just never came across anyone talking about filling their lowlights. It was very interesting to me. I would love some feedback from someone who’s experienced the same thing, or if anyone has a trick to achieve the perfect level and tone of lowlight on over processed light blonde hair without filling, I’d love to know your secret!
Thanks!
Maison
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