@vanessayvonnehair
@vanessayvonnehair

Vanessa Yvonne @vanessayvonnehair, a hairstylist in Phoenix, AZ, has THE MOST beautiful "before-and-afters" on her page, and she has taken some of her clients through gorgeous hair journeys. Truly, check it out.

This post stopped us scrolling because of the magic term, "box color" knowing that working through at-home hair color can be a real challenge. "Her hair had so many different levels of color in it, darkest at the bottom and with about three-to-five inches of her natural ashy level 6/7 grown out," says Vanessa. "The goal was to have the opposite; a deeper base and lighter ends."  And here's how she realized that goal:

STEP ONE: "I started by doing a heavy full head foil starting with 20 volume and Schwarzkopf BlondMe Lightener and bumping up to 25 volume half on the front half of the head. I saturated the lightener on the ends and midshafts and just feathered it up into her natural. Processed for about 40 minutes.

STEP TWO: "Rinsed, towel dried, and painted on a root shadow of equal parts 3n,5n,6wg in Redken Shades EQ and comb down to blend. Re-saturate BlondMe Lightener with 40 volume on midshafts and ends and feathered up into root shadow. Process for 25 minutes.

STEP THREE: "Drink one glass on wine! 

STEP FOUR: "Rinse everything.  The color was still very orange so I toned with equal parts 7n, 7t, 6av Shades EQ for 15 minutes.

STEP FIVE: "Cut, dry, style, boom! It was a fun and difficult transformation. And we were pretty happy with the results."

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