Need some advice with colour, L'Oreal

[AllanJudge]

I've got a client who wants to go from dark brown hair, that has faded from black box dye. She's got about an inch of regrowth and describes her natural as being 60% white hair (the pic is deceiving).

How would I go about achieving the colour in the 2nd pic? In terms of colour choice and application?

The base colour in this pic is darker than she actually wants it, she wants it like Caroline Flacks latest colour. Basically she wants the base colour to be around a level 7.

What I was thinking is bleach bath the hair to the Level 7 undertone, dry the hair, applying a Level 7 (we will choose from the shade chart) with a level 7 base, then applying the target shade without the base on the rest of the hair.
Then wash it out, dry it, do a little balayage with the freehand bleach, then do an all over gloss or just tone the lightened hair.

I say this all the time, i'm not great with colour. I just wanted to give a suggestion of what I might do so people don't just think i'm being lazy and coming on here for all the answers.

Just a bit of advice on what tones and techniques they think I should use would be much appreciated

.

 

[adamlea87]

Although the box colour has faded, in my experience hair coloured will black will always lift with a stronger orange tone. The photo does look a lot darker than a level 7, if she wants that amount of contrast with the balayage I would consider maybe taking the base to a level 6. It would also help to counteract the warmth that you will expose considering her skin tone is cool. I would add the extra lightness with your face framing balayage

After you cleanse the hair, unless it is very sensitised you need to add the neutralising tone to the mixture though to the ends.

She looks like she is a natural level 6?

 

[Lukas K]

I would say you don't even need to lift her base. Her natural level looks like a 6 already and needs to darken to a good level 5, even 4 to match the root shade in that picture.
I would deepen her regrowth and stretch it down with 3% and a level 5 with some 4 and leave her ends out. After processing and shampoo I would go in and do a fairly heavy backcombed ombre with foils and bleach and try lift her up to a good level 8 at least, making sure to paint the face frame higher. At the sink, I would use 2 different toner formulas to leave some of those front pieces lighter around the face to achieve that multidimensional look and neutralize any brasiness with a neutral shade in level 8-9 with the dialight series.

 

[AllanJudge]

Thank you, Adam.

The base in the pic i've provided is probably darker than she wants really, even though it would probably be easier to achieve this colour than a lighter base.

Yes I will definitely use the right tones to neutralise. If her hair lifts to an orangey level 6, what do you suggest I use? And if it lifts to a Level 7 orangey gold, should I use a blue/violet toned Level 7 to completely neutralise? Also, would you use Majirel as opposed to a quasi/demi?

 

[AllanJudge]

Right, ignore the original pic I posted.

This is more what she's after. I said in my first post the base colour in the first pic is darker than what she prob wants. I should have just posted a pic of Caroline Flack.

This is more along the lines of what she wants contrast wise and depth/tone wise.

 

[Lukas K]

That second picture is definately way lighter. I would do a bleach bath first for the ends and lift them up to a good orange level 7 if possible and do her roots for the last minute to bring them up.
If she lifted well I would apply a shadow root of 6.1 and 7.1 mixture to cancel out the warmth cause she will be pretty brassy most likely and I would recommend doing the balyage after you shampoo out the root color, as I find that it you are new to color and not confident yet that it can get messy if you balayage and do a root shade at the same time.
If her hair doesnt lift well I would incubate it with foils for better lift and do some backcombing to get a softer transition.
For toner I would do 9.0 or 9.03. Hope that helps

 

[AllanJudge]

Aw Lukas thanks so much for this.

She's got 60% white hair on her regrowth, will I need to apply the bleach bath to that though?

She said her hair lifts really well aswell, which is good.

So obviously do the bleach bath when shampooing, then dry and apply the 6.1 and 7.1?
Then shampoo, dry and balayage, wash out the bleach and tone after shampooing?

 

[adamlea87]

Ok this is what I would do if it was my client assuming she is a level 6, 60% white.

Cleanse ends to level 7 yellow orange. Tone excessive warmth at backwash with dialight 7.12+9vol (npw discontinued so equivilant mix)

Dry hair and use tipping out method to create lived in colour effect using foils and prelightener (check out justin anderson and johnny ramirez)

In between foils apply diarichesse 7.8+7 to regrowth, 7.8 to mids. after rinsing glaze with dialight 9.12 or 9.13.

If the initial cleanse lifts to orange you will need to drop down to a level 6. The photo has a cool brunette tone so you really need to lift enough or the final tone will be warm or neutral at best.

Lengths and ends with quasi is best, If the hair is strong you can use majirel and mixtones.

 

[Lukas K]

I would still apply the bleach bath onto her regrowth, even if she has got gray. But make sure your ends are already where you want them to be lift wise. As her regrowth is already so light and has got gray it will lift super fast almost instant. It just makes it easier to color balance the regrowth and mid shades instead of mixing a foundation neutral shade with an ash and 6% as that will bring up warmth in her roots again and the mid lengths shade with the ash may not match if you leave the roots out completely. Just makes it easier.
For her root touch ups in the future, I would probably mix like a 3/4 6.00 and 1/4 7.1 and 6% in majirel.
Let me know how it goes!

 

[AllanJudge]

This has helped me out so much. Thank you both.
I've screen capped these comments to keep my memory fresh. I don't know why colour theory just does not sink in for me, it's like a blank.

Thanks again x