From dark to blonde – part 3
The 3rd part of my hair colour journey
- To go from darkest brown to pale white blonde
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Part 3
Yet another choice to make
Once again, I was faced with a choice:
- Do I ‘go for it’ and go completely blonde overnight or
- Do I experiment and take it one step at a time?
Scott advised, “The experiment approach is to immediately have fine bleach highlights weaved through the whole top section and then left to develop to go a pale yellow. Your re-growth can have the 6.0 applied whilst these foils are developing. Once the bleach had lightened the hair, the bleach is rinsed and lightly washed then rough dried and a 8.0/beige/ash is applied to the whole head (mixed with 10 volume peroxide).
“This beige-ash blonde colour will tone all the bleached hair a cool natural dark blonde, so once these highlights mix up with your darker base colour, your hair will look a cool tawny brunette. The benefit here is that your roots will not need doing as much.
“I have attached a photo of the ‘tawny’ brunette/blonde colour I spoke to you about which works for Winters. This colour is on the pop star Rachel Stevens, who is a Winter but like most young pop stars is covered in fake tan so she looks a bit orange. But if you look closely, you will see that her hair has a very mixed brunette-blonde tone which is achieved by highlighting (ash) brown hair and then toning the highlights beige blonde. SC.”
I decided to become the ‘experiment’ and take it one step at a time.
Scott and I agreed that I would aim for a ‘Tawny Winter’ colour as an interim look but, again, he warned me that I’d quickly get tired of it. He knows me far too well!
In March 2008, Richard applied a dark blonde (6.0) to the roots only and my hair began to gradually get lighter and lighter over the following 4 months.
Then we ran 3 hair colour and style training courses for image professionals in June and July. I just couldn’t get my notes down fast enough. This hair colour training is absolutely fascinating stuff and Scott gave everyone in the room some great ideas for their own hair – about how to change their hair colour or style, or both. He checked on how my colour changes were coming along and…
by August, Scott said it was time to go blonder
The first task was to start getting my white roots covered with a lighter blonde.
Scott recommended putting a 9.0 on the roots only. My hairdresser bottled out (get it? bottled out – oh, please yourself) and decided to put an 8.0 on the roots.
I wrote to Scott, ‘I was expecting a definite silver streak down the parting but that only appears when you flatten the hair out. It just seems to blend in right now. Around the hairline it hardly looks any different from the 6.0 / 7.0 mix they were applying before!’
Scott told me, “After the roots have grown down a while your hair will start looking a soft muted (mousey) blonde colour – which would be too dull for your colouring, so that’s why you might start wanting to applying even a 6.0 Colour Fresh* over the whole head to keep the hair looking deeper and more vibrant.
“Once you have a whole head of (ideally) 9.0, you can get Richard to apply tons of high lift tint ashes, platinums and pearls in foils and it will transform your hair to that Diamond Winter colour you are seeking. But keeping the contrast in the meantime with the Colour Fresh 6.0 is the best idea – see how you get on over the next few months and gauge the necessity of the Colour Fresh yourself. SC.”
* Colour Fresh is a semi-permanent hair colour product by Wella. It’s available in a variety of shades and fades out over about 6 to 10 washes. Your salon wil be able to supply you with this.
For another 5 months, the salon continued these root tints together with the Colour Fresh and my overall hair colour changed from mid brown to light brown to dark blonde.
Shocked at how dull my hair looked
Over Christmas 2008, some sneaky little person took this photo of me at a family gathering and I was shocked by the dullness of my hair colour.
I had slowly morphed into a Soft-muted blonde and I looked and felt very grey.
It was time to get rid of this awful, dreadful, vile, uninspiring colour. Now don’t get worked up here – it may look absolutely fine on you, or on someone you know, but on me, it’s absolutely ghastly.
Secret ingredient gets rid of the brown
The next task was to get rid of as much artificial dark brown as possible and in January 2009 Scott developed a brand-new product for me to try,
‘A permanent colour remover isn’t like a bleach or peroxide – it’s a formula that enters the hair and shrinks artificial colour pigments allowing them to be rinsed away. It then displays the real hair colour which lies underneath (so in your case this would be white). In the UK there hasn’t been a decent version of a colour remover which doesn’t contain bleach or peroxide.
However I have now created a colour remover called Colour B4 which is completely ammonia and peroxide free and will remove your permanent colour.’
In February and after much initial sceptism from Richard, my hairdresser, together with all his staff who investigated the box and its contents in absolute disbelief, ‘We used the Colour B4 at the salon, just on the brown from about halfway down to the ends. I’ve never had my hair washed so many times! Richard and Callie (the colourist) agreed that it had changed from a 5.0/4.0 to a 7.0. Callie used about ¾ of the bottle and they were all pleased but totally amazed at the excellent condition of my hair afterwards.
“They weren’t keen to try the whole process again just in case the condition deteriorated so put an 8.0 on the top with pastel through the bit that had been brown to blend it in. It is certainly blonde on top but still blonde-> caramel -> brownish at the ends. KB.’
And the results?
I sent Scott this photo, ‘This is about a week and a half after the Colour B4 treatment. I can certainly handle the current colour but I can see the caramel and would really like to be Dramatic again. I really want to go to full-blown Diamond Winter now.
“I’ve still not realised in my head that I’m no longer dark. I still refer to myself as the archetypal dark-haired, pale-skinned, bright-eyed Winter when I’m running training courses! And I found myself sifting through a clothes catalogue the other day with the same mindset. It is obviously going to take some time to get my head around being blonde! KB.’
Scott replied: ‘I can absolutely see what you mean. Your hair is soft muted which isn’t right for you at all. However, you’ve done really well getting through this awkward stage and I can see by the photos that you’ve actually shifted all the old brown colour. Looking at the top and front I can see all your pale blonde hair. My advice to you now would be go for it 100%. SC.’
Read the final Part 4
‘At last – I go completely blonde!’
How to remove unwanted artificial hair colour
Scott has developed his own branded haircare product range and you can buy Colour B4 colour remover that I used either online or straight off the shelves in Boots.
I recommend the extra strength version but if you’re in any doubt, book your own individual personal hair consultation with Scott Cornwall now – just like wot I did (sorry – I’m just a massive Eric and Ernie fan) See below for how.
Your very own personalised Hair Analysis with Scott Cornwall
This is exactly how my own hair journey began. Scott analysed what hair colour and style he thought I should be wearing to go with my colouring and my style personality. He’s so very clever that if you don’t get this done soon, you’ll regret it.
If you’re not an image professional and you would like to attend one of Scott’s amazing Hair Analysis Classes to discover your own hair colour and style, then contact him now for details of a class that you could join near you.
Are you an Image Professional?
We have a fantastic opportunity for you and your clients to receive personalised hair colour and style information from the man himself.
Book Scott Cornwall now to run Hair Analysis Classes for your clients on your own premises. You will:
- complete the service you offer to include client-specific hair guidance
- raise the prestige of your businesss
- earn commissions
- receive your own hair consultation absolutely free!
Download all the details here but beware! This opportunity if only for a limited time. The reason why is explained in this document.
Scott is already talking about a tour of Australia and New Zealand where he will be running these Hair Analysis Classes, amongst other things. Contact him directly for more details.
Pause for Thought
‘Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.’
- Anon -
What is YOUR dream, and why aren’t you living it right now?
