Balayage on darker hair. Experiences please!

[Skinniesandconverse]

Hello

Basically I'm beyond bored of my long dark, now slightly greying hair and want a change, without being too drastic.

I've had my consultation and the test strip came out "a little bit warm" apparently, which basically means orangey

The hairdresser said that toner would fix it, but a friend of mine had hers done a couple of years ago and it stayed quite orange. I'm not sure if they used toner or not and I would feel rude asking now, like your hair is what I don't want

So has anyone had this and got the desired results?

Before and after pics very welcome!

Hairdresser here, so hope I can help with a few pointers.

If you're just having balayage, a couple of hours is plenty of time. 6 hours must be for a full blown colour correction plus cut?

When bleaching brown hair, the orange and then yellow raw undertones are exposed as it lightens, this is completely normal.
However, you should always tone afterwards to neutralise the excess orange/yellow tones but a toner isn't meant to be a permanent colour so it will wash out. You can tone with a semi or a demi colour. There's too much ammonia in permanent colour and this will cause unnecessary damage. Never, ever use a highlift tint to tone bleached hair.
Any hairdressers that do this are obviously incompetent numpties.
You need to re-tone every few washes to maintain a professional colour look. Sometimes a good quality purple shampoo will be enough (osmo, fanola and fudge are all pretty good), to tone down the excess yellow tones as purple is opposite yellow in the colour wheel so cancels it out. For orange, you need a more blue based toner.

You can often tell when someone has done a home diy bleach as they rarely get the toner part right, if they bother trying at all.

If you want to save money, look for model sessions at a salon or contact your nearest hairdressing college as they usually have a college salon. Book in with an advanced class.

mumma, gorgeous! 😍 Does it still look that good?. Your hair is much lighter than mine naturally though.

sewing, thanks very much for all that. Ah, I didn't realise the toner was a temporary measure. Can they tone more than once in one session? I'm clearly clueless

I went with a red bayalage.

My hair is only a couple of shades off black.

You could try that?

If the hairdresser is a decent colourist, they will mix the right toners for your hair, even if it needs 2-3 different colours to neutralise unwanted red/orange/yellow undertones and do it during your colour service. A good colourist can easily do it, whereas a hairdresser that's only completed basic colour training might not do such a good job.

If your hair is very dark brown, you will start off with revealing red undertones, before orange then yellow.

I'll add this YouTube link to help you understand about how quickly your lovely new balayage colour can fade if you don't care for it properly.

Also, to point out that the temperatures quoted on that iron in the video is in Fahrenheit which is about 230 degrees centigrade so to be safe, don't let it heat to above 160 centigrade.

If your straighteners don't have a temperature setting, chuck them out!

Just a little word of warning, I've had my very dark brown hair done a few time and each time I hate the colour fade and the faff of having to go back to get it toned.
Now that I've gone back to my natural colour, I hate that my bleached ends don't hold the colour as well as my natural hair.
I've had the same results from paying £300 in a really good salon to £90 to a at home hairdresser.
Both applications looked amazing for the first few weeks but then the toner faded and my hair was left so dry.

Thanks again, sewing

Mrbay, yes, I'm definitely worried about drying it out, as it's already a little heat damaged. I'm having an olaplex put through, followed by and sos mask (I think it's a Tigi one) and I'm going to try to keep on top of the masks etc, afterwards. I guess all that can only do so much though.

Haha @Skinniesandconverse thank you 😊 None of the hair you see in that before pic is my natural colour at all!) My roots (barely in the pic but there were a good few inches) are dark brown naturally and the salon lighting definitely made my hair look lighter. I think something I've really liked about balayage (and kept me going back) is that even as my hair grows (I had it cut to shoulder length the second time I went as my then 8 month old liked pulling my hair all the time) because it's a graded colour it still looks pretty good. Also means I don't have to style it as much as even with just normal natural wave the colours make it look like I've put effort in (when I definitely haven't!) 😂

mumma, does your hair feel dry and/or damaged? It doesn't look it! I'm just wondering, given you say you're naturally dark, so there must have been a fair bit of bleaching.

I've dyed my hair every 6-8 weeks since I was 17 so my poor locks have been through it! In that sense my hair is always a tad dry left naturally but I haven't noticed it any drier compared to my usual dye jobs to be honest if that makes sense. I use S factor serum with sunflower oil if my hair is really dry and it not only smells lush but does wonders for my hair. I'm still loving balayage and your thread has actually reminded me I need to book in again (my dark and grey roots are now at the shameful stage!) I'd be tempted to say go for it and worst comes to worst if you hate it you can always dye over it yourself? X

Thanks for that, mumma. That's good to hear! I'm happy to spend a bit more time looking after it.

Actually, my sil (who just so happens to be model level gorgeous, so I don't stand too close to her ) has just had one, but more ombre and her friend who was training did it and she hates it! Awkward. It's very blonde and she's naturally very dark, but tbf, she could pull anything off. I certainly couldn't pull it off but my hairdresser seems to prefer the natural look, so hopefully we're on the same page.

Wednesday is just around the corner! Can't believe I'm so nervous about having my hair done

I really hope you like it OP! I always give myself at least 72 hours with any new style as sometimes I just need time to adjust to myself 😂

Me too, mumma ! Yes, I suspect they'll be an adjustment period. I'm not good with change