“I want to prevent my color from turning red! What do I do?”

Today we had a high school client that came to us hating her red hues that came from a box color that just kept getting darker and darker. She wanted a lighter color “without the red!” she said.

Of course I understand and a lot of work comes from us understanding what our customers want and what is realistic. She was sweet and adorable and had the biggest blue eyes staring right back at you looking for some help to her dilema. The stylist explained what removing old box color is all about and sometimes that box color does not want to budge no matter how many times we try to remove it in the healthiest manner.

Well, needless to say, our lovely beauty said that get the red out. The red she is talking about is the red that comes from being out in the sun, washing hair with that cheap ass shampoo from the grocery store that has tons of waxy polymers in it that actually coat the hair and make it hard to color the hair after its been coated so many times and then throw some box color on that mess and whallah and genuine color mess for us to fix. I LOVE IT!

I love a challenge. Honestly I do. So, our job is to figure out, how are we going to get the dark out of her hair without taking it to light and prevent the red from being more exposed. Damn nearly impossible since brown is made up of red right? of course you know that. So as we lift the box color off the hair, a new story emerges which she forgot to tell us that she had some previous highlights and some low lights. Nice. This is like peeling an onion that has many layers to discover. A treasure hunt. I am a good huntress. How did you like that – huntress!

We take this remover that we use that is so specialized to prevent damaging the hair. It has no ammonia, no peroxide and makes the hair feel better than when the client comes in. It takes a good eye to really see where the pigment is lingering before we put the actual color on that we want it to be. So as I’m sitting here typing my fingers are a beautiful shade of blue grey. Kind of like the dawn of the dead movie.

Our lovely client with long light brown hair with NO RED in it loved her hair. She was a pleasure to serve her and I expect we will see our friend again for some maintenance in the future.  We recommend that anyone sporting brown hair that hates to see any red in it come into the salon every three weeks during the summer to have a glaze put on it or a color balance applied which will make the red go away. No it’s not cheap and yes you have to be committed just as a blonde would be committed. Yes you have to use good shampoo to keep your hair healthy and preventing split ends. I have for you a couple of tips to keep the red or brassiness from emerging from your hair:

• try to keep your hair out of the sun – throw a hat on it or baseball cap
• apply a spray silicone such as the Brazilian Blowout Spray Shine that prevents the hair from taking in the UVA UVB rays
• use the Essential Repair color Max from Pureology that you apply on damp hair before you hit the lake, pool, beach or gardening for the day. This has an ingredient in it called Helinogenol which is made from the seed cake of the Sunflower. You know how the sunflower is so shiny and bright all during the summer? This is why. The seedcake has an essential oil that is extracted and refined and put into this product. You can feel totally safe that this product will prevent your hair color from fading. Awesomeness!

Have a great rest of the summer!

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