At home highlighting advice for brunettes.

Feb 11, 2013

Lydia L.

I've been wanting to touch up my highlights (I had them done at a salon, but they've grown out, leaving me with about 3 inches of dark roots). I will probably use a kit from the store, but the thing is, I don't want it to look streaky. I prefer the natural sun kissed look.

Does anyone have any advice on how to achieve this look, and not the streaky one?

Feb 11, 2013

Lia K.

I can honestly tell you... If you were a blonde I'd say maybe try it... But brunettes throw red and usually need a toner to look natural... My advice would be to let the salon do this or it may end up costing you way more to fix it.  :)

Feb 11, 2013

Lia K.

Ps. I've been a Colorist for 25 years...so the at home stuff scares me cuz I've seen disasters... :)

Feb 12, 2013

Lydia L.

Thanks for the advice. Will consider the salon!

Feb 12, 2013

Selina M.

Another option is using revlons frost and glow, I find it to be a really good bleach that doesn't leave much brassiness, however that can either be fixed by a toner or a good purple shampoo. Too avoid bold streaks you could try the balayage technique which is basically just painting the highlights where you want them. I think it would help you with the look you want, and would definitely look into it before you go to the salon, good luck :)

Feb 12, 2013

Stephanie D.

Noooooo...no, no, no, no. Don't do it.

The only way to get a natural, sunkissed look is to do a fine weave and maybe a few well-placed slices in foil. You're not going to find all the previously highlighted bits and it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to match the color exactly.

What you can do is "break the base"...which is a sort of arcane lazy-arse technique. But there's a time and a place for everything. Basically, you very slightly lift up the whole hair color by 1 to 1.5 levels and that will blend out the highlights a bit. It really works best on natural blondes because, as Lia mentioned, brunettes tend to go red when lifting.

The most foolproof way I can think of is to soapcap it. Get a packet of bleach, 20vol. developer and dilute that mixture by half with shampoo and conditioner. Apply the mixture to wet hair and WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK. It can literally take less than 5 minutes to get the desired amount of lift.

You might want to proceed using an ash toner after that. Do NOT tone it with drugstore dye because it will inevitably go way darker than you want it to. Pick some up at Sally's with the bleach and developer you buy.

I see that as being your cheapest, least damaging, most foolproof option. It should blend out your roots a bit until you can have the highlights redone.