Looking for some colour advice

[scottydolly]

hey u guyzzz. . . now im erring on side of caution here as it is my little cousin and it is her first ever colour as she is goin up to secondary school so wants to look a little more grown up. . now she has beautiful strawberry blonde THICK hair. . .i have roughly matched it as closely as i can on a koleston colour chart so u can all see what i mean, it is roughly like 8/03. . . mabye close to a 9.
so she wasnt sure bout going lighter and neither was her mother, but they didnt wanna go dark, they just kinda want a few scattered foils in it to break it up so i went out with heaps of tubes of colour to do test pieces and also some bleach. . .
so as they didnt really wanna do much to change it completly and dont want to much commitment, i kinda dont wanna go gun hoe and go much darker or lighter, so i tried a 9/1 in 9% and it turned out way to greenish, NOT GOOD, i also did a test piece with a 12/89 just to see what they thought of a slightly lighter colour ( i knew it wudnt alter it too much because of the warmth in her hair and i was right) it barely touched it.
i then tried a sample piece with 7/73, now this one came out really nice, just seemed to take to her hair colour amazingly well, so i am thinkin that for the lowlights.
I managed to sway them to the idea of very low peroxide highlights wit bleach, which i did on a test piece and only used 3% and after bout 15 minutes it lifted enuff to notice but not to look well bleached, u know like sunkissed, still really warm but not too tangy. . . .

onyhoo, my main question is, in these circumstances where someone is like quite red, but doesnt want bleach, and wud like subtle tones through their hair, what would u use? like i mean 10's and even highlifts barely touched this hair. . . and this has happened to me before with my aunt (on the same side may i add) who has this reddy blondie hair, nuthing touches it unless it going wit bleach or going darker. . . HMMMM scotty not impressed. . . x

 

[Roxi]

Did you try any lof the 10's at all? I find 10/1 can lift up higher on 12's on some bases. Otherwise, perhaps matrix colour graphics or loreal maji meche. Both more gentle than bleach, and of course they add a tone to it too.

 

[scottydolly]

yeah sorry i tried 10/0, cos after seein the 8/1 i didnt want to put ash on it, and it jus didnt lift and that was 10/0 in 12% x

 

[Roxi]

Well tbh, I'd just use the bleach. I have a few clients who were wary of it, but they are converted now!

 

[Jeni Giles]

onyhoo, my main question is, in these circumstances where someone is like quite red, but doesnt want bleach, and wud like subtle tones through their hair, what would u use? like i mean 10's and even highlifts barely touched this hair. . . and this has happened to me before with my aunt (on the same side may i add) who has this reddy blondie hair, nuthing touches it unless it going wit bleach or going darker. . . HMMMM scotty not impressed. . . x

I'll try not to bore you with a chemistry lesson, but it is rather interesting...

Red/red blonde hair has a slightly different type of melanin structure than brown, blonde or black hair. With hair that has a red cast or a gold/red cast, often considered strawberry blonde, when lightened turns more coppery or golden and usually will not come to up to a pale yellow or light blonde with out aggressive bleaching.

There are two main types of melanin, Pheomelanin predominately brown or golden, and Eumelanin which is a brown/black color. Red hair has Trichosiderin, which gives it the red/gold color in addition to the other 2 types of melanin. The red/gold pigment takes longer to break down because it is larger in size and stays more golden as it breaks down.

Test strands are your best bet when working with this color of hair, so that you can control more of your result.

 

[liana kay]

that kind of strong reddish hair it tricky . to start id always keep the colour neutral ( for less red ) or warm - not a strong ash because if on the remote chance it grabs , it will never suit the skin tone .
And the fade! dark shades probably need to be a shade darker , because they fade like mad ( i think the cuticle may be more tightly packed and harder to penetrate )
I think even with hi lift you will be lucky to get one shade lift . Have you noticed how many people with red /reddish hair there are that either have their hair dyed black or bleached and i always thought omg they need a hairdresser because that doesnt suit their skintone , i never realised that there was a reason for it!
So , always go one shade darker , always use low peroxide bleach( you can always reapply) and about red shades - ive never really used them on red /reddish hair so i dont know.
Great tip i picked up completely unrelevent- when trying to blend grey on a client with reddish /red hair its imposible to match it to natural, go one shade lighter with a semi and use intense gold , so a base 7.4 approx (wella) with say 30% white blended try a 8.33 colour touch .

 

[scottydolly]

lana i completly agree about the black or white thing with red heads, i always thought the same because it was always the colours they went. . . and also the grey hair from red hair, i agree too and i will keep that tip in mind, resistant red hair that goes grey seems to always be a pain in the ass too. . .
well i have decided to do low lioghts using 7/73 with a spot of 6/0 to take the depth down a wee bit, she has told me she is too scared to try blonde and doesnt want a big change, so im just gonna scatter some foils throo the top with 6%, hopefully ti will just add some depth to her natural colour xx

 

[liana kay]

sounds loverly!

 

[minky]

Hi scottydolly , I think if she is wanting some nice little little glimmers in her hair even if it turns a little bit golden , it should look really nice,
what about the wella sunlights ?
and for any one who may want to know about Sunlights....
Wella Sunlights shades gently lighten your natural hair colour without covering it, making hair look as if it has just been kissed by the sun ,

they have Natural shades and some pearl shades which may be just enough ,
perhaps these used in meches/ slices in foils, under the partings
then you can re pick up real easily again in the future ,

for lightening up a bit more here and there I would lean toward a mild bleach like you said especially if wanting a cooler shimmer,
I would be inclined to add some very fine meches of mild bleach lightener under the fringe area and around the front
like peek a boo but in finer slices and avoid the top part so you wont see it growing out

also what about a 6/73 for the lowlights ? as liana says it will fade really easily so a shade deeper may last a bit better

funny.....my cousins hair is also this colour,
but the hair wasnt very long,
and my cousin wanted a slightly cooler blonde look, so I did very fine bleached highlights , pulled through the cap which really cooled the whole head down ,
but I had to use 9% with basic blue powder bleach
and once it started to shift those strawberry blonde tones , it didnt take long

I didnt use any toner though as I thought it looked fine without ,

but as Jenny said test peices are the way forwards with this hair shade

just my little two pence worth :hug:

Ps....will you let us know how you go on ?