Cirrus Blaafjell (@CirrusBlaafjell) of Salon Alta in the heart of San Francisco specializes in low maintenance, lived in hair color. "I like for my clients to not have to come but every 3-6 months," she says. "I find hair painting and balayage to be the most effortless, organic way to achieve this."

When we saw this transformation on Instagram we had to know more. "This first time client lives upstairs from my salon but had not been here before," says Blaafjell. "She walked in at 8:30 pm almost in tears because her last colorist had tried to give her ombre. Her ends were so over processed and the last three inches were breaking off.  I did not have time to get her in for a week so I sent her home with Olaplex and told her to use it 3 times before we got her in. Her natural base color is level 5 cool. Her previous color design included a base break from root to mid shaft leaving her a level 6-7 warm gold with highlights of level 9 gold. From mid shaft to ends she was a solid level 10-11 and very damaged. She had curly hair and the lightener had pulled all her curl out. She remained the most optimistic happy client through the whole process, which took about 3.5 hours."

Here Blaafjell shares the HOW TO for this amazing color correction:

STEP 1: Fill from mid shaft to ends with Davines Mask Color 8NW (warm) with 7 volume developer blended with Olaplex. Process for 15 minutes and then rinse. Dry gently.

STEP 2: Adjust the base from 1 inch around face to 3 inches in crown to nape.  Around face apply 6-0 and 5-1 = parts Davines Mask Color and 5-0 /5-1  = parts 10 volume for the rest of the hair.  Olaplaex is added to each step.

STEP 3:  Reverse balayage from nape up 3 inch sections in between with the 5-0/ 5-1( natural and ash) melting with mid shaft to ends with 7-0 / 7 (natural and a warm color). "I wanted it cool still but not muddy."

STEP 4:  At the crown area,  every other inch, freehand paint in small horizontal sections with 30 volume and Mask Lightener and Olaplex. 

STEP 5: Reverse balayage with process 3  from base to ends.  Around the face place 12 "babylights" foils, slightly feathered over the base color. Precess for about 30 -45 min with no heat lifting to an even pale level 10. "I find it so important that it's not always about finding  the right toner but knowing when to rinse the lightener off. Otherwise you will always be fighting  the brass in the weeks to come." Rinse and apply Olaplex Step 2 for 20 minutes. Shampoo and condition with Davines Oi line.

STEP 6: Glaze from base to ends with Mask Color 9-32 (Sand) 7 volume for 20 minutes.

STEP 7: Base smudge with level 6-0 just an inch over the balayge base pieces "to soften the line of demarcation and for an easy grow out."

"She wanted to keep her length  but in some cases taking off  inches actually makes it appear longer because it is healthy.  There is nothing sadder then having gorgeous color and ends that are not happy...so we took off 3 inches. It still looked amazingly long!"
 

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.

Read more about