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Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid

Avoiding color ribbons, preserving depth with interior shadowing, depth distribution--it sounds complicated, right? Blonde and balayage expert Jamie Sea, @prettylittleombre, breaks down the why behind some of her favorite techniques.

Alison Alhamed
Alison AlhamedEditor in Chief, MODERN SALON
Read Alison's Posts
May 22, 2019
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid
Depth Preservation and Placement: Jamie Sea's Tips on Where to Place Lightener and Where to Avoid

"This small circled area on the head is called interior shadowing. The depth placement here decided wether someone has interior dimension or a solid color. This also depicts whether their hair has visible ribbons of color on the surface," Sea says.

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Hair colorist, educator and salon owner Jamie Sea has earned her reputation as an incredible color educator because she not only showcases the best techniques in lightening the hair, she also shares where to avoid lightening the hair.

These "pretty little placement" tips (she has a massive following on her @prettylittleombre Instagram page), will help give your balayage and lightened clients natural-looking impact, dimension and customized effects that will keep them coming back.

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“Specific depth distribution is just as important as where light should live on the head,” she says. "Your depth placement is crucial for the intensity of brightness you want to achieve."

When Sea educates, this depth preservation is a topic she dives into frequently, breaking down where exactly depth needs to go on the head to achieve different illusions and effects.

“When you know how to achieve looks by particular placement patterns, application time is sped up tremendously,” she says.

In the gallery featured here, see how Sea takes her salon experiences, paired with her actual research of where sun kisses hair, to best design her color decisions.

"Comprehending depth placement actually saves you so much time and gives your color WOW factor," Sea says. "Cheers to working smarter not harder!"

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Learn more about depth placement by attending one of Sea's Salt Society classes. and follow her on Instagram @prettylittleombre for daily motivation and education.

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