I'm a second year university student and, with it being January, I had exams. All thoughts of my appearance ended when we broke up for Christmas and revision started. I lived, breathed, ate and slept microbiology for six weeks so I didn't pay any attention to my hair. I emerged from my isolation after the final exam a couple of days ago, blinking at the light outside, breathing in fresh air and caught sight of my hair and saw how tired it looked (it must have been reflecting my own fatigue - those six weeks were incredibly challenging). My roots were very visible and the blonde had yellowed. I'd used a funky reddish-pink semi-permanent on the ends (La Riche Directions in Rubine) the previous weekend for a cousin's birthday meal and even that looked tired.
I'd noticed a very small amount of breakage after my hair was highlighted in November so I pondered whether I did want highlights again. The ladies at the salon my mum's a regular at are fabulous but it would be a while before I could go again and I decided I didn't want it highlighting again. I didn't want to get into a pattern of highlights, damage, highlights, damage, etc. I decided to sort it out myself and just hoped I wouldn't make an absolute hash of it. I don't know why I was so worried about doing my own hair again, as I've been home-dyeing it since I was 14, but there was a bit of worry I'd end up with vivid orange roots. But I couldn't wait any longer and I felt a kind of desperate urge to take care of my appearance after having abandoned it for a while so decided to go ahead.
I decided to use a high-lift blonde dye to lift my roots, then use an ash blonde over the top to even the whole thing out. I would then tone if necessary and I also equipped myself with some new silver shampoo that I'd read rave reviews about to keep the brass at bay. I wasn't naive enough to think the high-lift dye wouldn't damage my hair but at least it would be less damaging than bleach.
So. This was my hair before I started The Process:
Rooooooots! I'm naturally around a level 7 dark blonde and it's ashy as HECK. Sadly, whenever I lighten it it goes really warm (which is unsurprising but still disappointing). It really does look tired here :( I soaked it in coconut oil (100% coconut oil, no additives) for a few hours a couple of days before I did this to prepare it. Coconut oil is absolutely fabulous and it's been a life-saver for my hair. My hair itself isn't fine but I don't have a great deal of it so it's kind of thin (it was lovely and thick when I was younger, I blame ageing and also The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013 - entirely my own fault on that front).
Step one was the high-lift blonde. I settled for this one as I've used it before on darker hair with some success:
Garnier Nutrisse Truly Blonde 101 - ultra light beige blonde
It claims to lighten up to 4.5 levels, which was fine for me as I only wanted to lighten it around 2 levels. I didn't want to go any higher than a level 9 because, as much as I love really light blonde hair, my roots would have been more obvious more quickly. I've been a level 10/11 blonde before and it was lovely, but the roots! I pasted it onto my roots and the underside of my hair first for around 15 minutes, then spread it throughout the rest and left it for another 15. This was the result:
It definitely lifted my roots which I was happy about, but left them very brassy, which wasn't at all surprising. Perhaps I should have added heat/wrapped my hair during the process but ah well. It nicely boosted the rest of my hair where it had been highlighted before to a lovely ashy blonde. It also faded the pink ends, which was fine because I was planning on re-pinking them anyway. I kind of liked the faded look to them.
I got a better picture in the daylight the next morning:
Next was the ash blonde dye. I went with L'Oreal because their dyes seem to dump a lot of ashy tones which is exactly what I wanted:
L'Oreal Recital Preference 9.1 Viking - very light ash blonde
Again, I painted the roots first for around 15 minutes then pulled the rest through the rest of my hair for a further 15 minutes. The result:
It took away the orange but was still slightly brassy, as I saw the next morning:
I'd probably use their other ash blonde series in the future because this one didn't seem to make my hair as ashy as I'm used to. Not bad, though. The rest of my hair looked like this:
The highlighted parts were stunning, a silvery ash shade that I adore. The warmer parts running through, as can be seen on this pic, weren't too bad. They seem to make a huge contrast on this pic but weren't that bad in real life. I also re-pinked the ends.
Toner time! Glad I invested in this, I had a feeling I'd need it. The one I chose was this:
Wella Color Charm T14 - pale ash blonde (previously Silver Lady)
I opted for this one rather than T18 because this I think has more blue tones in it, which I figured I'd need. I mixed it with 10 vol developer (not 20 as the box recommends. I didn't want to lighten my hair any further, just wanted to tone it and 10 vol is colour-deposit ONLY). The box says to apply it to towel-dried hair, but I accidentally missed this instruction and applied it to dry hair. It didn't seem to have any adverse effects but I would recommend following instructions where applicable (pay attention, future self). I applied this to my roots only, I didn't put it anywhere else on my hair. I left it on for 25 minutes, washed it off and this was the result:
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Brass GONE. I'd read rave reviews about the Color Charm toners online and it didn't disappoint. The brass is gone. The roots and some parts of my hair are a slightly warmer tone than I was after, but at least there is no brass and I can work on the warmer parts over time.
I also invested in this silver shampoo:
Bleach London Silver Shampoo
I tried it during this process but can't give an honest review of it yet as I used it alongside all the other stuff I was doing. It is the most heavily pigmented shampoo I've ever seen and there were so many good reviews online for it. I went to Boots where it seemed they didn't have any in (none on the shelf!) but luckily another customer had asked a staff member if they had any in and she brought some out! So I nabbed some and will give a review of it once I've had the chance to test it properly. It smells good and it didn't seem to dry my hair out, unlike Provoke Touch of Silver, which I find quite drying. I've also used Shimmer Lights in the past, which has a gorgeous smell (I think so, anyway! A lot of people seem to hate it - it is very floral) and leaves my hair soft. So, we'll see.
So yes! It was a long process (couple of days) but I'm happy with where it's at now. I may use a stronger high-lift dye the next time I do my roots, but, as my hair condition isn't too bad right now, I might just do this again. The ends of my hair are a bit dry but other than that, it seems fine. Which is a huge relief, as I didn't want to damage it too much (this process is damaging, there's no avoiding it to have lighter hair, but it's nowhere near as bad as bleach). I'll keep conditioning and coconut oiling it. I rarely use heat to style it (apart from my wayward fringe which needs straightening nearly every day) and dry it on the lowest hairdryer setting to keep damage to a minimum, so yeah. It should be fine.
I hope this helps anyone who is looking to go lighter! I realise for a lot of people that bleach is the preferred (and sometimes necessary for very dark hair out there) option but this may be of some use to the lighter-haired ladies and gents out there.
Note: No, I am not a professional hair person and I do this entirely at my own risk. I've probably done some things wrong, there are probably easier ways of doing this, etc. But this works for me and my hair feels fine, so yes.
Bonus cat photo! Meet Tiger. Isn't he gorgeous?
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