COLOR CORRECTION: Going For A Lovely Melt

"Our salon guest had been coloring her hair in the salon for years with a level 1 artist," says Jen Dozier Horter, owner of Bombshell Salon (@bombshellsalon), Ellicott City, Maryland. "The result was blue black hair. After years of layering on color, she decided that she wanted to go platinum blonde. We used color removers, and eventually did a platinum card highlight - back to back foils, leaving no hair untouched. We were able to lift her to a level 10 . She then Left for college  and returned to the salon 8 months later with her new growth and the blonde ends. Our goal was to be able to get her back to a more natural color while still keeping the color in the ends lighter."

Next steps:

Step 1. We first began by determining that the blonde needed to be warmed up and agreed on a level 8 honey with level 10 rays of light running through. We also made the determination that her natural level 4 needs to be present in the mid shaft to break up any hard lines.

Step 2.  We started by hand painting (balayage) the natural color back in. We went heavy handed from the mid shaft and began to feather it down to 2" from the ends. All sections were vertical. Formula: Paul Mitchell Color XG 4NN with 10 volume developer.

Step 3.  Our next step was to go in between the foils from the natural formula, and pick up sections slightly diagonal vertical. Using small weaves paint the ends (very heavy) creating V shaped strokes moving toward the mid shaft just above the line of demarcation. Formula: Paul Mitchell Color XG 7NB with 8NN equal parts with 10 volume developer.

Step 4.  The hair that was left out was then treated with Paul Mitchell Color Craft using  8oz of water and three pumps of the Ash Walnut pigment. To help fill in any holes  before to final step was applied. Processing time 35 minutes.

Step 5. Rinse foil by foil in the shampoo bowl then shampoo all together using Paul Mitchell Color Protect Post Color shampoo. On towel dried hair we applied Paul Mitchell The Demi 9PN 1oz Clear 1oz and Processing Liquid 2oz  from root to end. Process for 20 minutes. 

Step 6.  Shampoo with Rare Marula Oil Shampoo and treat with Rare Marula Oil Masque for 15 minutes with no heat .

Step 7.  We cut off 1" from the length and added in diagonal layers. We then Used Rare Marula Oil Stylers and round brushed.

Maggie Mulhern

Maggie Mulhern

Beauty and Fashion Director, MODERN SALON

Read more posts written by Maggie

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