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Taking a deep brunette into the blondes may seem like a daunting challenge, but a challenge is one thing Mike Petrizzi, AGEbeautiful Artistic Director, never shies away from.  “The trick to blonding a very dark base color is to emulate the way the sun would naturally brighten the hair.  Focus on really sun-soaked, super saturated splashes of lightness on the ends that gradually deepen towards the base.  Keeping the richness at the root, grounds the color and makes it look like the hair just came back from months being bleached in the Costa Rican sun!”

Petrizzi employs a few variations of balayage techniques to achieve his goal.  “This is sort of a everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach to balayage," adds Petrizzi. "We use a lot of back-combing in the nape and back of the head to diffuse the lightness at the root, and lessen this as we approach the face and top.  I also alternated putting the ends of each lightened section in foil. This gives you some super pale bits varying with more golden pieces.”

PRODUCTS:

AGEbeautiful Crème Lightener

AGEbeautiful 40Volume Developer

HOW-TO:

Step 1: Begin in the back of the head and take small triangle sections, teasing the hair up to the root. Focus on back-coming more hair in the areas where you want more depth at the root.

Step 2: Apply the lightener in V patterns up towards the root, concentrating on saturating the ends.

Step 3: Alternate every other section with foil-wrapping the ends to retain heat and provide even more lift.

Step 4: Work your hair towards the face-frame and top of the head, easing up on the backcombing and bringing more of your lightener towards the root area, just as the sun would naturally brighten.

Step 5: Process until the hair is pale yellow, rinse, shampoo and deep condition.

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