Pravana’s Best in Blonding and Balayage class at America’s Beauty Show in Chicago gave attendees first-hand education on how to expedite all your blonding services and techniques you should be doing every time.  

Here are some Blonding need-to-knows from the class:

Make sure your foils are long enough! If you’re working with really long hair, and you’re using shorter foils, you won’t fully saturate the entire hair strand by “swirling” the hair up into the foil. Make sure your extending your foil length to fit the hair.

Avoid the “origami” folds. Realistically, this technique only works with really short hair. The reason why you don’t want to do this is because it can cause creases. Also, it makes it harder for you to check the hair when it’s processing. The answer to this is just to fold the hair upwards.

Go low and slow. Opt for a low volume and slow processing time for a nice blonde. You will see the difference.

Does your toner fall right out of the ends? This is caused by a porosity issue in the hair. Apply Pravana Silk Degrees Shine Treatment - it’s like filling potholes on a street...but with hair!

When lightening or coloring a client use Pravana’s Artificial Hair Color Extractor. This product gently removes any artificial oxidation type hair color without lifting the natural base color. Use it on damp hair, up to two to three times in one session. You can go in with a lightener on top of it. Try using this for color corrections. The product minimizes the color molecules so when you take your client to the shampoo bowl, they will wash right out. Finish with a 10 volume rinse at the end to make sure all of the color is out.

Try babylights! This technique will give your blondes a better blend. It’s a little more tedious to do, but when they come back, you’ll do less work! Simply pop in 10 foils around the face and you’re good-to-go.

Make sure you’re toning your blondes. Toning is the ultimate top coat. Think of it like a manicure - what’s the last thing you do? Apply a top coat. Don’t let it be an option, just do it.