What you need to know before embarking on a bright colour

This is coming from our training, literally hundreds of clients and what we have personally experienced from taking all those clients on their journeys to acheiving bright hair. Which Vamp does a lot of. Which colour are you going to choose?

Firstly, with the majority of cool colours (Blues/Teal etc) we will need to bleach your hair to almost white blonde to achieve these colours.

Pastels have to be lightened to a white blonde because there is only a small amount of pigment in the colour that it will only show on very light blonde hair. You can relate it to painting pastel colours over dark paper - they don’t show up.

Warm colours such as bright reds, pinks and oranges, they are a lot easier to achieve. When going a bright red, the red pigment is a strong colour. It is a lot more compatible with yellow so you do not have to bring it down to white like you ideally do with the cooler tones. Orange is the same, if you add yellow to orange when painting, it just turns a brighter shade of orange right? It works in the same way on your hair.

We use the “banana rule" - reds/pinks/oranges - aim for the shade of the outside of the banana skin. (Reds hold a lot better the more yellow remains in the hair.) For blues/greens - aim for the shade of the inside of the banana skin.

How easy is it to go light blonde?

If you have hair that hasn’t been coloured before (and we mean ever - or has grown out rather than washed out), and unless your hair is naturally very dark or black, then it is usually achievable. This obviously depends on the condition of your hair, as even natural hair can be too damaged or dry to bleach (from straightening or poor care.)

If you have supermarket colour in your hair - it is very hard. It takes a lot longer to get out, it takes multiple visits to the salon, a lot of patience and looking after. Sometimes it will only lighten one or two shades at a time and not be very noticeable. You will also have to look after your hair with professional strength salon care and treatments. We will not lighten your hair otherwise. We don’t care if the product wasn’t bought from us, we just care about the hair and want it to stay attached to your head! It makes our job easier and makes your life a lot less painful, not wasting time trying to make your damaged hair look good. There are a lot of affordable salon only products out there and they are so much more beneficial than watery supermarket products.

If you have professional colour in your hair, it is easier to lighten but will still take time. It isn’t as ‘sticky’ as supermarket box colour and is easier to remove from hair, but you still have to have patience and look after your hair with professional products.

Bright colours are expensive! To maintain you will need to get your regrowth coloured every 4-6 weeks. Bright colours only retain their pigment for a short time. Depending on your hair and your at home routine, it may be anything from a 2 to 4 weeks. With reds and coppers, we have colour shampoos for you to use.

Don’t use unprofessional bright colours!

Unless you are the colour you want to be already then don’t try and use bright box colours (this includes chemist and ones sold in certain ‘hair shops’). They contain a waxy coating which is very hard to “lift” out. Shampooing The less you get your hair wet, the longer your colour will stay. A dry shampoo will be your best friend……

Swimming? Find a stylish cap. Chlorine strips all colours out of the hair and dries and damages hair. It also turns blonde hair a nice shade of khaki green.

You WILL need a haircut Because powder lightener is damaging to a certain extent and drying, you will need a haircut (even if its just a wee trim) after each service. This will keep your hair in a better condition, because there is no point in having hair that is blue but the ends are so naffed that the the blue is refusing to hold.

Hair is different! You may receive the same treatment as the person next to you but the outcome will always be different. Due to texture, health, depth and at home care.

We aren’t magicians! We are hairdressers!

We can use our knowledge and skills to predict the outcome of your hair but it isn’t an exact science, everybody’s hair is different and everybody does different things to their own hair at home that we can’t see. We never like to let someone leave without the perfect colour but sometimes you will just have to be paitient and understand that your hair has to go through the process.

Lastly...

If you have any questions, just ask. We will tell you the truth but the one thing you must do is LISTEN! All too often we find that our more determined clients are wishing for a different outcome - that their hair will be the magic exception and they will be transformed from black to platinum blonde in one visit. We want to give you a realistic view of the process so as not to disappoint and make every body’s lives easier.