Your Personal Best/Favourite Hair Color~

Hi everyone~

I just thought it would be interesting to see where everyone has gotten their best or favourite hair colour results.  Whether they were done at home by yourself, at a salon or elsewhere~ Please add to the poll!

Would love to hear how and why the colour turned out so well too!

Cheers~

 

Blondie197238722.6163078704

Oh I forgot to post mine~

My best hair colour was a year ago December~ so December 2004.  It was done at a local salon in Barrie, Ontario, Canada called ID Salon.  At the time I thought the colour was a bit too light~ very platinum, but since looking through photos of my hair colour over the years (hence the idea for this poll), I saw that it seems to be the best colour I have had.

Because of that, I made an appointment for this Saturday at the same salon to have my hair colour corrected from the nightmare lowlights that were done a couple weeks ago.

Wish me luck!~ I just want my blonde hair back to the way it was *sigh* :)

 

I also meant to add a poll choice for doing your hair yourself at home~ darn it!  Sorry, I screwed it up and can't seem to edit the poll to add the additional poll choice in.  Lets just call 'Doing it Yourself at Home: the "Other" choice.

Blondie197238722.6179398148

I like doing my hair myself the best.  I use an all over medium ash blonde base (green on my warm warm lightest golden brown hair) with 30 vol. peroxide and then use L'Oreal Excellence Creme Lights to bleach golden and light golden highlights into my hair.  It's best for me to do my hair because I never have been able to get what I want done at a salon.  It seems every stylist, at least for the past 5 years for me, has their own interpretation of what my hair should look like.   

My Before Pic (top 6 inches or so are virgin color)

http://tinypic.com/jre6w1.jpg

My After Pic

http://tinypic.com/jre4jc.jpg 

Rebekah38722.678275463

I voted for "colorist at salon" because I know I must have been happy at one time. I never am anymore. I would LOVE to be able to do my own hair but I have (heavy) bleached highlights (which is what I want -- the color is just never right) and I am too afraid to try to do anything myself. Plus, I don't think I have the patience for it. If my hair was all one color, I might try it. I wish somebody would "acciddently" make MY highlights platinum because that's what I want. I'm just not getting through to anybody. It's very frustrating. In the very least I wanted to keep the brass at bay but no luck there either. I'm getting my hair done Saturday so I may try to tone in between then and next time it needs a touchup. I have gained a lot of useful information here but by the time I was ready to try it, my hair was ready for a touchup so I thought I'd just wait.

Rebekah should do the world a favor and become a professional!
Alayney38722.7186458333

Alayney, I would LOVE to become a professional, but my heart truly belongs to teaching. 

Just curious Alayney, does your colorist tone your highlights, and is she bleaching them to pale yellow?  I know you can bleach to pale yellow, inside of a banana, and tone with Wella White Lady, or a platinum toner to get those highlights to look platinum.  Where are you at in the US, maybe you're next door to me and I just don't know it!  Wouldn't that be a gas!? I'd help you for sure!   Have you tried any of the Born Blonde Toners?  You could try the extra light Platinum 323 D, but only if your highlights are pale yellow.  Also just tone the highlights.

http://www.thecreativestudio.com/dispensary/swatches/toners_ swatches.html

I can only say the home job, because I've never had my hair dyed at the salon.  To be honest I avoid the salon ad much as I can, because I HATE going.  I hate someone being in charge of my haircut while rabbiting on about what I did for the holidays etc etc...I guess I'm not a typical girl in that way!!

I trust my mum or boyfriend with my hair dye application, but I pick the dye.  They always do a wonderful job on the coverage.
aubergine38722.7469444444

My hair has never been the color I really want, but the colorist at the salon has alway been the closest. When I do it myself I just hate it, I'm just unhappy when the colorist do it. I think what I want just changes too much and never looks right no me. 

You know Alayney~ you are right~ Rebekah SHOULD become a pro ~ then we all could get her to do our hair as well as she does hers!

Rebekah~ what a great job.  Incredibly natural looking and very healthy and shiney.  Great hair!

Aubergine~ I actually have gotten my Mom to do my hair with good success as well.  I too, always pick the colour and she does a great job~ and doesn't try to do what she thinks would look good (LOL).  Only thing is, she has a bit of hair training (years ago), but she doesn't take special care not to overlap and I actually stopped getting her to do my hair because of that (I feel bad saying that because she really does try to do the best job possible~ I just don't think she realizes exactly what will happen with all the overlapping).

And I do have to say~ those of you who distrust salons/colourists~ I so agree!  Same reasons too~ too many people have either messed up big time on my hair or did what "they" thought would look good~ and it just so happened what they though would look good was so not what I wanted.  (Why, oh why do they do that???? UGH!)

I have decided to go back to the salon though because I love being so light blonde that I really don't want to risk the lower quality products that are available to me (no decent beauty supply places nearby).  I also don't trust my own ability to lighten my hair without too much overlapping.  No problem doing the front and sides, but I just can't seem to get the back lightened without missing spots~ let alone avoiding severe overlapping as well.  At least the salon I am going to on Saturday DID get me close to what I wanted so I am hoping that I can get them to repeat that again and through good communication we can hopefully tweak the colour to a shade that makes me happy :)

(Will post a photo afterwards!)

T.

BTW Rebekah~ I think our natural hair colours are quite similar.   I have always guessed that mine is a natural 5 or maybe even a 6 with loads of red undertones (I have to guess because it has been YEARS since I saw more than an inch of that natural colour *laughing*!)

Rebekah, you do such a beautiful job on your hair!

As for me......I think the happiest I was with my hair is the very first time I used an OTC product as an all over color. Up to that point I had only been getting highlights for a couple of years to try and offset my new darker natural growth. I have mentioned before that I was naturally platinum until about 6 years ago. I got highlights every 8-10 weeks until 2 years ago.

I had just left my 2nd hubby and couldn't afford Salons. I bought a wonderful Garnier color that perfectly matched my new natural color. It came out even and beautiful. Dingbat me decided to go back to platinum almost a year after that. I guess it was a grasp at looking like I did in my youth.  I haven't been completely happy with it since. It's a major pain in the butt to maintain roots all the time! THAT'S why my current goal is to get back to my new natural color.

Rebekah, Honestly, I don't know what the heck she's doing! LOL! I don't know how far she's bleaching the hair because I can't see what's she's doing. Just curious, is this pale yellow supposed to be how it looks when wet or dry? This will be about the fourth or fifth time I've been to my new color person. The first few times she did NOT use toner but then the LAST time she did because I asked her to. I said "It's just so brassy. Could we maybe use a toner?" She had said I wouldn't need one (to achieve my white) when I first started going to her. I showed her pictures of my hair when it was the WHITE blonde, that I liked, and told her my frustrations of how everybody THINKS they're making me white but they are clearly NOT. First TWO times she did my hair it was wonderful. I felt so great, like a million bucks, I swear. I had to keep looking in the mirror to see if I really looked that good; was such a wonderful feeling. Then after that, I do NOT know WHAT happened. That's what ALWAYS happens to me at any salon I go to. I TRY to keep the lines of communication open.

No, I have never tried to tone my hair myself. I want to start though, so I can do it in between salon visits, THOUGH my cut person told me NOT to when I mentioned it to her. She said "... because of what we use ..." I don't know what she was talking about -- probably didn't want me to mix or something (???). All I can say is, it's MY hair, don't tell me what to do! LOL! Hopefully, I won't wuss out and I'll SPEAK UP tomorrow when I have my hair done. I've got a big mouth; I'm pretty good about speaking up about 70% of the time. I'm just not at 100% YET. Ha, ha. Anyway, I started Googling the Born Blonde and Wella White Lady last night since I saw you mentioned it on another thread ... . I'm really not stupid, but it has taken me FOREVER to just BEGIN to understand all this info about haircolor. It's taken years for me to figure out this toning thing and I'm JUST starting to understand it. (One thing, HOW do you tone only the hilighted pieces. Isn't that like trying to find a needle in a haystack?! A colorist once told me that it wouldn't affect the other hair -- you know, the hair that wasn't bleached all the way to that pale yellow you're talking about.)

I feel a little apprehensive about TELLING my colorist to make sure she's bleaching me to pale yellow. Like I said, I can speak up, but if she gives me a look of disgust or raises her eyebrows I might chicken out. (DUMB, I know! I don't know what's the matter with me!) And I know she ought not do that or she's probably not a good person. But they ALL do it!

And FINALLY, Rebekah, I'm sure the fact that you're a teacher is what helps you to understand and "teach" us all.

P.S. I'm from Ohio. Also, the "purple" shampoos and conditioners don't seem to do ANYTHING for my hair, incidently. So I would assume it's not being bleached as far as it should be. I even left my purple conditioner on for an hour once, and I tried some purple treatment by Hask -- nothing. (I've been crying about that all over this board. You all are probably sick of me. Maybe I ought not show my face for a while. )

Alayney~ Good luck with your hair tommorrow~ let us know how it goes!

I'm getting mine done at the salon tomorrow too.  Lets hope for some fab results for both of us!

I've only ever done mine myself-- too poor to afford to have it done by a professional :-( .

"is this pale yellow supposed to be how it looks when wet or dry?"  I bleached my highlights to pale yellow--you gotta dry it and look at it in the SUNLIGHT. 

"HOW do you tone only the hilighted pieces"  I really think the best way to do this is to pick out as much of the highlighted pieces as you can, put them in little pony tails or something.  Then take the rest of the hair and tie it up with more pony tails in some fashion.  Knot them up or something, you know little balls.  Then take those highlighted pieces out and let them hang, add the toner, process, rinse, condition entire head and dry.  I think this might work. 

Funny every job I've ever had up until I decided to become a teacher, I ended up TEACHING people! 

No, not sick of you, just understand how frustrating it can be to not have the color hair you want.  If purple shampoo doesn't work, I bet your hair isn't bleach to pale yellow.  Another thing I mentioned that is a problem is these new bleaches that are used--called toning bleaches--they come in blue, purple, gold, etc.  It's really hard to tell what level and tone the hair is when using those bleaches.  Especially because they tone down the brassiness and leave the hair a "nice" color.  Make sure they use a WHITE non toning bleach for your highlights and that they do tone them.  Hair should NEVER be bleached to WHITE.  It's in danger of breaking off at that point. 

Good luck ladies with your hair! 

Rebekah I love you blonde....So healthy looking...I cant believe you arent a professional!  Great job! I love my current blonde...it is a bit lighter but still gold.  Sometimes I find my hair can go to pale or yellow/white.  I am not a big fan of that color on me.    Here are some pics of it currently

Since I found this site, it is the color that I do myself.  I just cannot make my point across to the colorist and it never has come out what I want.  My hair pulls red and most colorist that I have gone to did not use bleach.  NOW I know this but I just cannot put out another 100.00 for a weave and not get what I want, so I do it myself.

Last week, I used a "cap" with very thin pulls through.  Bleached using BW2 for about 15 minutes.  Then used Redken EQ 6N for a toner and I am almost there, where I want to be. 

Rebekah: Your hair is lovely.  After you bleach do you use a toner? 

Can you tell me how to use Born Blonde as a toner?  The one at Sallys does not come with instructions and I cannot find them on the net.  I would like some dark blond highlights around my face but I don't know how to use the toner. 

thanks,

Braelyn

Tinkerbelle~

Your hair ~ and hair colour is absolutely gorgeous!

(As is the little girl in your photos too~ she's adorable!)

T.

Want2b6n--I don't use a toner after I bleach, but am a fan of a toning bleach, L'Oreal Excellence Creme Lights.  I usually bleach highlights to lightest gold and pale yellow.  I currently tone with Igora Toning Mousse, shade Lightest Golden Blonde.  It really cuts the brass and makes my highlights shine. 

Sorry, I forgot what shade is your hair color?  If you aren't bleached to yellow or pale yellow, Born Blonde isn't what you want for lowlights.  I think the EQ shades is what you should use. 

Are you going to bleach those highlights framing your face to an orange color and then tone with a dark blonde shade? 

Anyway, I think Born Blonde is pretty simple, just apply to towel damp hair and then process for about 20 mins or so.   

Tinkerbelle, I LOVE your color! I love GOLD!  Thanks for the compliment on my hair. 

[QUOTE=Rebekah]

I like doing my hair myself the best.  I use an all over medium ash blonde base (green on my warm warm lightest golden brown hair) with 30 vol. peroxide and then use L'Oreal Excellence Creme Lights to bleach golden and light golden highlights into my hair.  It's best for me to do my hair because I never have been able to get what I want done at a salon.  It seems every stylist, at least for the past 5 years for me, has their own interpretation of what my hair should look like.   

My Before Pic (top 6 inches or so are virgin color)

http://tinypic.com/jre6w1.jpg

My After Pic

http://tinypic.com/jre4jc.jpg 

[/QUOTE]

I love your hair!!!! Where do you get 30 vol of peroxide!?

Rebekah

This is what I am looking to do.  Right now, my highlights only go to orange, but I am working on that with BW2, which seems to give me the best results.  I would like to bring my highlights to a yellow around my face and then tone them to a blonde.  That is why I asked about Born Blonde.  The bottle at Sallys does not come with instructions.  Do I just use it as is?  or does it mix with developer? I cannot find instructions anywhere. 

My hair is about dyed to about a 5 and I keep adding highlights and tone them with Redken EQ 6N now and I like that for my base color, but I want blonder around my face.

thanks for all help...

braelyn