Color Correction

I recently met a  woman who had a very unfortunate hair experience.  Her name is Stephanie.  Prior to this experience she had been coloring her hair  a rich dark brown.  While it was a very pretty color she decided she wanted to go back to her natural color, a dark blond.  Rather than go to a salon she went to a friend of hers who is a professional stylist working from his home.  (Please don’t take my mentioning working from home as an indictment.  I also work from home and have no issue with the practice.)

To go from brown to blond Stephanie’s friend needed to lighten her previously colored hair.  To achieve this he put bleach on her head, root to end, all the same strength and VERY strong.  Unfortunately many problems arose.  Here are the reasons for concern:

1)  When additional root has grown in it doesn’t need to be lightened.

2)  Lightening hair as a whole makes it very difficult to get even processing.  Some areas come up quicker due to body heat rising from the head.  Also, color saturated areas don’t lift as easily.

3)  Using a very strong process is tedious.  A stylist needs to watch it like a hawk or risk hair breakage.

Now I will show you the photos of Stephanie that were sent to me by a mutual friend the very next day:

The above photos do not reflect the desired result.

1)  Stephanie had about 2 inches of natural hair grown in.

2)  Stephanie’s hair was clearly lightened as a whole.

3)  I don’t believe Stephanie’s hair was watched during processing.

Note the bright white of the root and regrowth areas in the first 2 pictures.  They are definitely too light.  It is a result of her natural color being processed when it should not have been touched at all.

In the 1st and 3rd pictures you can really see the difference in color from root to end.  The ends are dark and brassy.  Actually the mid-shaft to ends are the very example of brassy:  they are various shades of gold and orange.  There is no uniformity to the color, no rhyme or reason.  That is because, as I stated earlier, some areas come up quicker due to heat coming from the head and color saturated areas don’t lift as easily.

The last photo shows the magnitude of damage done to the hair from the heavy processing.  Her hair was falling out in tufts on her shirt at work that next day.  According to Stephanie, her layers were not originally this short.

You can see the problems.  Now for the correction.  When Stephanie and our mutual friend contacted me Stephanie was  hoping to get her hair fixed as soon as possible.  My schedule was full so she was going to have to wait a week.  During the week of waiting this very smart woman slept with conditioner in her hair every night and wore a bandana during the day.  This helped to protect the hair from further damage.

The day of Stephaine’s appointment finally arrived.  Due to the extent of the damage I was skeptical of how well the color would adhere.  Would it last?  Only time would tell.

We use Goldwell products in the salon where I work.  Their process for a color correction is to fill the hair first to put back the lost pigment and then add the color directly on top.  Thankfully the color did adhere.  With that behind us the damage that was done by the original process needed to be addressed.  I had to cut 3 inches of hair all around.  That took care of some of the worst areas but the hair was still fragile.  She knew she would have to baby it for a while.  Nevertheless, I think we did pretty well.

Take a look at the results:

We were both very happy with the results.  It is not Stephanie’s exact natural color and she was ok with losing some of the length.  Now she is happier with her hair and knows it will take time for it to heal.

This is an extreme case but it is one that never should have happened.  If a professional stylist does not have the tools to finish the job they should not begin the job.  I do not believe the project should have been taken on by her friend in the first place.   Stephanie was left to feel like every day was a bad hair day for a week.  That’s disgraceful.  I hope her friend learned from this experience.  In the future he should be better prepared or not take on such a large project without access to additional supplies.

Fast forward to the next visit.  As I stated before, Stephanie’s new color was not an exact match to her natural so her roots needed to be processed to match.  To my elated surprise her color held fantastically!  It had faded slightly but no where near what I thought it would with all the damage that had been done.  Stephanie deserves some of the credit for conditioning every night.  I believe that helped with the hair’s porosity, allowing it to hold on to the color molecules better.  To my surprise:  Stephanie wanted to go darker.  That was easy compared to the correction!  She also requested a new haircut, short in the back to long in the front.  She has a completely different look – and she looks GOOD!

Don’t try this at home…

We’ve all been there.  Whether it’s the bangs your mother gave you when you were 5 or the bangs you gave yourself when you were 25 most women know the terrors of home hair cutting.  Most of us go little snips at a time.  But then no, it’s not even.  Back to the other side.  Nope, not even again.  Eventually your eyebrows are standing alone, naked on your forehead with no wispy coverage.  We all know hair grows back but it always feels like forever until that actually happens.  Well, be happy it was just your bangs.  I have had a few people go shorter due to similar mishaps in larger sections.  They just needed a few more wisps here or a little more texture there and then a chunk of hair is on the bathroom floor.  All I can say to anyone reading this who knows what I mean by your own trial and error is that you are not alone.

I have a friend who has been gracious enough to let me share her story.  Her name is Val and she is a culprit of the chunk of hair on the floor.  Val had a haircut where we took the back up short to a super stack and left the side angles and front extra long.  Think of that famous soccer players wife that everyone needed the haircut of a few years ago but make it better because it was shorter in the back thus more dramatic on the drop to the front, just lower than her chin.  Then we made the long front angles kind of choppy,  texturized.  It was cute and edgy at the same time.  Val looked GOOD.  She left my chair happy.

After a week or two of doing her hair herself Val thought she needed more texture on the sides (this is the moment you pick up the phone and call your stylist asking for just that!).  Simple, right?  Well, everything in your mirror is reversed.  Keep that in mind when you pull out your scissors and try to do a little touch up.  She went for it and yes, there was a chunk of hair on the floor.  Now she needed to make the other side match.  Another chunk on the floor.  But now they’re not even.  Back to the first side.  So on and so forth until the sides are running just about to the cheekbone.  Yikes!  How to fix it?!  Now is when she calls me.  Here is where we are at this point:

Fortunately for Val this is a case where the errors brought on something completely new and wonderful.  We added a few caramel highlights to the top and sides to help show off texture and then went pixie short!  She was bold and it paid off because she looks even more beautiful!

I’ve seen her since with the bangs brushed off her face completely and that looks excellent as well.  I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for my friend.  And thanks for letting me show how a negative turned into a positive Val 😉

This situation had a good ending but we all know stories that didn’t turn out as well.  Sometimes you have to wait it out.  That’s like torture.  So I leave you with something to keep in mind: a hairstylist has to go to school for hundreds of hours and pass a test before they are allowed to be a professional in the industry.  Even while working on actual people in school there are instructors around every corner making sure things go right.  In the end, we are licensed professionals.  So please, don’t try this at home.