Some things you just don’t try at home…
So we’ve been seeing commercials for do it at home ombre color kits, oh no! Now we know that all stylists will tell you not to color your hair at home, but in all honesty we understand sometimes you just need to save money. However, one thing we can never agree to allowing you to try yourself is at home lightening! In general lightening your own hair at home is bad idea. You’ll more than likely end up with orange or fried hair! Those boxes are pre-mixed with high developers, which will usually be too high for your hair and damage it, or your hair will be too dark to lighten with the color and will just end up fried AND orange! We’ve warned before about the dangers of coloring your hair at home, especially that while it may seem cheap at the time, if it doesn’t turn out right (which it rarely does!) you’ll end up spending serious $$$ to have us color correct it!
So back to this box ombre idea:
The idea is that you use the brush in the kit and it will lighten just your ends. It’s a simple enough idea, though if you look at the photo you really aren’t getting that subtle blend that a hand painted ombre is
really supposed to have! The idea of ombre from a salon is that we hand paint fading with multiple colors, melding highlights from darker to lighter throughout your hair, mimicking where the sun would naturally highlight it! We stagger the highlights higher to frame the face and lower in the back to make the ends look even brighter. In the salon you can also pick to lighten all the ends or blend them in with darker pieces, really creating more control over your look from subtle to bold. In the kit however, you end up with a noticeable line where your lightener has been applied, and will also have a brassy golden tone to it. I’m sure we can all imagine a few celebrities we’ve seen with an ombre that looks like this, but here’s a comparison from a blended ombre to a non-blended one:
You can see what a difference blending and tone will have on this look! There’s ombre, and then there’s beautiful ombre! We want you to look BEAUTIFUL!
So fair warning to you DIY hair colorists out there! If you want to try ombre hair, save yourself the time and let an experienced professional do it. It’s more money up front, but the best part is that it is a VERY low maintenance style! If done in a subtle fashion with different colors and developer strengths fading from dark to medium to lighter tones (again, something difficult to achieve out of a box), you could really get it touched up just twice a year, and that’s a LOT cheaper than a color correction! Please, for the sake of your hair, and not having to invest in a new hat wardrobe, if you’re considering the box, call us first and talk about your color options. Consultations are free, and can save you a lot of grief in the long run.