Tips on successfully rocking pastel hair colors
MOST of us feel a little reckless at times. We see a picture of a look that we think is awesome, and from that moment the thought won’t go away.
Urban Turban gives you the lowdown, the pitfalls, and how to avoid tears.
Looking at the pictures, you will find that most pastels are on Caucasian hair. This not because Asians are less adventurous. It is because it is much, much harder to strip dark hair of its pigments to reach the required level of lightest blonde, which is the required basis for pastels.
Dark hair lightens in stages of red, orange and yellow before becoming almost white. If the hair is not light enough and still looks yellowish, the pastel shade will not look clear, say if you apply blue over yellow, the result will look dirty green or petrol.
Lightening your hair really means bleaching. It’s a lengthy and costly process. This is where most pastel attempts go wrong. Bleach needs to be applied fast and precise to ensure an even result. It should be applied to the ends first, then mid-lengths and lastly the roots. If not applied evenly, you will end up with patchy looking hair, which cannot really be fixed. Kneading, squishing and combing the hair will help to distribute the bleach but also cause damage. In most cases the bleach needs to be applied, left to develop for up to 60 minutes, then rinsed and re-applied to achieve the right level. The faster it works, the greater the damage.
This is probably the most delicate and difficult work in a salon and should only be done by experienced professionals.
There are no bargains for bleaching. Save a little money by going to a cheap salon and you will surely regret it. We recommend using Olaplex treatment for bleaching. Used correctly, it will insure your hair against damage. (for more info on Olaplex, search Google)
Pastel shades by nature are not permanent. They last for 12 to 15 shampoos. After that they fade out leaving the hair blonde again.
This is good and bad. It’s bad because your favorite shade is gone; on the other hand it’s good because we tend to get tired of seeing the same pastel for a long time.
So, the fading away of the original gives you an option to either re-apply your pastel shade or try a new one. Of course you don’t need to go through the lengthy and expensive bleaching process again.
This is also where creativity comes in as you can blend, mix and transition several pastel shades.
Even in a best-case scenario, bleaching your hair is not possible without stress to the hair. For that reason we recommend full head pastel only on short-ish hair. For long hair we suggest pastel accents, pastel Ombré and pastel Balayage as a gentler yet sophisticated alternative.
When your hair grows back dark after bleaching and pastel, you can bleach the roots, which can be done in one application. If you’re done with pastel and want your “old hair” back, it can be re-colored with a special toner that has minimal chemicals and therefore no additional stress-impact.
Now go and be crazy awesome with your hair—just be smart crazy.
Your hair will thank you for it.