Hair Care

There are lots of breathtaking hair colors to have on your hair color bucket list, from blorange to milk tea. But balayage and bleaching can take their toll on our locks and our wallets. And even the best nourishing hair masks can only do so much. So there may come a time when you decide to go back to your roots in an effort to save your strands.

Growing out your hair color is easier said than done, even though some people are cool with embracing the rock ‘n’ roll vibes of visible roots. Truth is transitioning to your natural hair color is a process and it takes time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun and experiment with new shades while growing out your hair color. So we asked hair care experts how to make the process as safe and painless as possible.

Do It The Right Way

You’ve been loving hair dye up to this point so don’t turn your back on it completely, especially when there are some clever and less damaging options. Larisa Love for Joico says transitioning back to your natural color all depends on your natural shade and current color. That’s where the pros come in. “There are different routes for everyone and it’s best to consult your colorist,” says Color Wow Global Creative Director Chris Appleton. “You want a look that can grow out well and you need to create that color while letting your natural [hair] grow out.”

Think Semi and Demi

L’Oréal Matrix Artistic Director Nick Stenson recommends trading in permanent color for semi- or demi-permanent options. Both formulations fade over time. (The difference is demi-permanent dyes require some kind of developing agent to make the color oxidize, whereas semi-permanent colors are “direct dyes” that can be used straight from the tube.) While permanent color grows out and leaves a telltale line of demarcation. Moroccanoil Artistic Director Kevin Hughes adds that true semi-permanent hair colors contain no ammonia and very low peroxide so they often make your hair feel healthier.

Another bonus is that you don’t have to match your natural color to your semi-permanent pick. Hughes says that it’s possible to choose a hair color that’s one shade lighter than your original color or one with a warmer tone. That way you can tone down the color you’re growing out, but the result isn’t one solid shade.

Hair glosses are another low-maintenance option. They add shine and bring life back to excessively dyed strands. Don’t know what semi-permanent color to pick? Manic Panic co-founders Tish and Snooky Bellomo suggest consulting a color wheel. Choose a hair color on the opposite side of the wheel from your present hue to neutralize said shade. For example, if your hair is dyed green, use a reddish-brown color, like auburn or chestnut, to help revert your tresses back to a natural brown tone. This concept may be more difficult, however, if you’re a natural blonde.

Highlights, Lowlights, and Ombre Are Your Friends

If your hair is dyed one shade, highlights can soften the line between your natural hair color and your dye of choice. Gina Rivera, founder and president of Phenix Salons, Inc., believes that balayage and ombre hair can be “extremely helpful” when transitioning colored locks back to their natural state. A stylist can strategically place highlights and lowlights so the color blends in a more natural way. And highlights can be toned to match new growth. Highlights can also give your tresses an all-over lighter look so the contrast of new growth and remaining colored hair is not as obvious. Stenson likes babylights (delicate, very fine highlights) for a natural, polished look.

But both Appleton and Love warn highlights and ombre aren’t the best options because they can grow out in an unnatural way. Still want something edgy? Shadow roots are a good option during the transitional phase.

Avoid Mistakes

Beware of box hair dye. Hughes cautions that box dyes might say that they are “semi-permanent,” but they usually contain more ammonia and tend to change your natural hair color. That means you’d have to continue dyeing your strands because it will always appear like they have roots (argh).

Rivera warns over-the-counter color removers can have disastrous results. They can damage your hair just like box dyes, making it take longer for you to achieve your regrowth goal.

Another mistake? Avoiding the salon. Rivera recommends visiting a professional stylist when going back to your roots. Professional colorists can blend your hair using the aforementioned color techniques, like highlights and ombre. Hughes points out that pros can create tone-on-tone lightening, leading to subtler results. Colorists can use weave and teasing techniques during the highlighting process to create a diffused effect with no hard lines. And salon color typically has an expensive-looking finish.

In terms of colors, Appleton warns picking the right tone and not going too dark on your ends is crucial. Professional colorists can help alleviate these issues and set up a strategy for the entire growing out phase.

Remember patience is a virtue. Justin Woods, color director at Shin Salon in Santa Monica, says trying to rush the transition process could potentially damage your hair beyond repair. Rivera agrees. “The biggest mistake people make is losing their patience and giving up too soon,” she says. “Going back to your natural color takes time and is a commitment. It’s important to remain focused on the end goal.”

Consider The Cut

Growing out dyed tresses can be awkward for all hair lengths. Appleton says short hair will begin to look blotchy and long hair can look too disconnected from its natural color. Making hair look intentional is key reports Stenson. That applies to both cut and color. He says that no matter your hair length, texture is good. Creating texture with layering and dimensional color makes the transition easy and produces the best-looking finish.

Those open to a total makeover can consider a chop. Rivera says the hardest but best way to return to your roots is to let your strands grow out and fade on their own. When your locks reach a certain point, go ahead and cut off the dyed sections. Think about it this way: it’s the perfect excuse to try that pixie cut or bob you’ve been admiring on Instagram.

Keep Your Hair Healthy

It’s not just about what your hair looks like. “Using good professional products is also imperative,” says Rivera. “It’s important that the hair is in optimal condition.” Look for shine-enhancing, vitamin-rich products and star ingredients like collagen and biotin. She recommends her own By Gina BioGen Complex range she describes as a “multivitamin for hair.”

Nourish your hair from the inside out with beauty supplements and from the outside in with leave-in treatments and masks, like Joico’s Defy Damage Protective Masque ($21.50). Hair products that strengthen the bonds broken during color services can also be game changers, like Color Wow Dream Cocktail ($18.75).

The Bellomo sisters recommend using a sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner to maintain your hair color. And there are at-home color products that keep shades true and prevent brassy or orange tones, like Matrix Total Results Keep Me Vivid collection and Redken Color Extend Care range.

We know that color is the focus, but don’t forget to get regular trims to keep your lengths in tip-top shape. Woods says hair maintenance rules should still be followed, including any instructions from your hairstylist or colorist. And don’t forget to add a heat protectant spray to your arsenal so you can use hot tools or stay out in the sun without worrying about your locks getting damaged. You also want to make sure to rinse away any chlorine or salt water after a dip.

Credit: https://www.thefashionspot.com/beauty/841689-seamlessly-transition-back-to-your-natural-hair-color/#OVur16AB4RRLWuaY.99

Gina Rivera

Beauty Icon and Expert

Gina Rivera skyrocketed to success when the company she founded in 2007, Phenix Salon Suites, became the fastest-growing salon suite company in the beauty industry. With more than 300 locations nationally and international expansion occurring in the UK, Entrepreneur Magazine named Phenix Salon Suites a Top 500 Franchise list seven years running.

Our first gray hair is more a cause for curiosity than dread. We’re still pretty young and, after all, it’s just one gray hair. Twist it around a finger and “bye, bye!”

Finding several, though, evenly distributed among our roots is more than just a sign that it’s time to color our hair again. Suddenly, anxiety swoops and we’re on the watch. This obsession rarely produces good news, but most of us successfully fight the tide for decades.

Some women do gray hair beautifully, and maybe that’s a good place to start: Gray hair can be very, very attractive, especially when it is healthy, full and soft with a lovely sheen. Paired with a beautiful smile, healthy skin and confidence, that silvery-platinum hair becomes more about self-determination and sophistication than fading youth. We choose this color, like we choose anything.

Youth is wonderful, but as the saying goes, it is wasted on the young, because kids usually don’t know how best to live ‘the gift.’ Silver hair on the right woman can be about illumination, an understanding of what she wants and the ability to get it.

Having said that, most of us don’t feel comfortable with ‘graying’ hair, especially when we look and feel so young otherwise. Also, in the early stages of graying hair, it is incredibly easy to cover and so many of us color our hair regardless. “We’re just coloring our hair, right?” – rich, deep reds in the winter, warm, lighter shades in the summer, endless variations, streaks and feathers of fuchsia and blue which, by the way, can look just great in silver hair!

Then a day comes when we ask ourselves whether we should let our hair go gray. We wonder what we’d look like. We’re tired of the treatments and the cost. The color looks fantastic when it’s fresh but then the roots begin to show again. What to do?

Here is my advice: take it slowly. You can do this gradually, and that allows you some options, including the decision to turn back. To summarize: gradually ‘color’ your hair gray. Transition with shades of blond, light brown and highlights of bronze or platinum. This can easily take a year or more, and that’s fine.

If you’re the one behind the chair and your client raises the possibility, suggest the gradual change, reach for magazine pictures of women with variations of beautiful gray hair. As always, support your client, be a great listener. Be cautious of your own resistance. You may look at your client and think, “are you crazy?” But don’t say it – that’s probably more about you.

On the other hand, she may want you to say, “no, you’re beautiful this way.” Maybe your client is afraid that she’s about to fall off a cliff, and it’s not that way at all. Or maybe her decision is hinged entirely on something else in her life – so much of our self-image is expressed in our hair.

I say this often: a tremendous part of our business is about relationships. As always, be open to change.

Gina Rivera

Beauty Icon and Expert

Gina Rivera skyrocketed to success when the company she founded in 2007, Phenix Salon Suites, became the fastest-growing salon suite company in the beauty industry. With more than 300 locations nationally and international expansion occurring in the UK, Entrepreneur Magazine named Phenix Salon Suites a Top 500 Franchise list seven years running.

Clients who want full-head highlights or just a blonde flavor will love these simple summer ideas.

Super-slim slices, face-framing foils, balayage and cooler highlights that anticipate inevitable sun-lightening are some of your best bets for summertime-natural blondes that allow easy color changes come fall. Here, Abby Morganstein, who gets raving Yelp reviews for her Concierge Hair Services studio in Rockville, MD, shares her secrets to smartly summerized blondes:

Curly Blonde Balayage

Moderately curly or wavy hair can be a challenge when summer humidity makes it frizz. On top of it, Level 4/5 brunettes just can’t wait for highlights, which could abrade the cuticle even more. For beautiful, sun-kissed highlights sans damage, Morganstein always adds Olaplex to her formula. For the curly girl shown here,

When hair is naturally curly, too-fine highlights won’t get seen. Think wider, bigger and bolder. Hair by Abby Morganstein.

She mixed Wella Blondor Freelights with 40-volume developer and Olaplex, then processed for 45 minutes.

“For fast, natural-looking highlights, I use a 1½-inch wide balayage brush with ends cut on a diagonal,” says Morganstein. “First, I blow-dry the hair smooth for control. Then, working from the bottom up, I take zigzag partings that are 1½ to 2-inches wide, hold my brush vertically—parallel with the hair—and apply the formula at the midshaft before sweeping down to the ends. Below the parietal, I use wider sections and diffuse the lightener to avoid any demarcation lines.”

For a better hairline blend, start at the midshaft as usual but after sweeping downward, blend upward, closer to the scalp. “Hair that is brightest at the ends is always the most natural-looking,” she adds.

Style curl looser and darker roots become more obvious, acting as a reminder that post-summer shifts to darker Autumn hues will be easy. Hair by Abby Morganstein.

Tip: For super curl, hand paint right on the curls to accent and define natural movement, texture, key curves and dynamic shapes. Foiling looks unnatural with this hair; tri-toned highlights looks best, and color, not bleach, helps tighter curls and coils stay healthier.

Foiling for Control

Special-occasion clients, like June brides, want guarantees that their highlights will showcase their face and be perfectly placed. In this instance, reach for foils. “I always make sure my slicing is paper thin and leave enough free hair on both sides of the foils,” says Morganstein.

Predetermine highlight sizes based on the hairstyle. Here, wider blonde pieces appear near the face and are reiterated behind the ear. @abbymorganstein.

When a natural Level 6 wants a full head of foils, start with lightener, 30-volume developer and a bonder. Morganstein adds 40-volume developer to the mixture as she works, so that all the foils complete processing at the same time. For consistent work, the lightening formula should be creamy, not runny or thick.

For special occasion blondes, keep darker roots to a minimum at the more visible part line. @abbymorganstein.

For the bride shown here, Morganstein alternated macro- and micro-slicing. “I followed the part line as I worked,” explains Morganstein. “First, I applied the lighter about one inch off the scalp down, then I gradually worked my way up to the root area. I also kicked the ends of the hair out of the foil. After folding it, I positioned the tail of my comb underneath the lip and gently pushed up before folding the sides.”

Tip: For clients who want more obvious highlights with contrast, rely on foils but keep the overall feeling natural with balanced placement and wider pieces near the face.

Your Secret Summer Weapons

When your client wants to go full-on blonde just for summer and you don’t want to do a double process, reach for hair extensions. For a natural Level 5 with some highlights, Morganstein adds a dozen or so sliced foils on top to facilitate blending. Then she adds platinum blonde and beige Cinderella hair extensions.

Longer hair extensions can overwhelm the natural hair so much, you just need a few top foils for a blonde transformation. Don’t forget to take a photo! @abbymorganstein.

“They’re great for creating a strong blonde look without using chemicals,” she says. “Using individual extensions with an organic protein-molded bond can also protect the natural hair because all you need is a medium heat setting to get the bonds to mold around the hair.”

Tip: Smaller attachment sites around the face and on top make wearing individual extensions more comfortable. Where needed, cut the extensions in half before you install them and apply heat for less time—a count of four instead of six.

“When clients want highlights before summer, keep in mind that they will be in the sun and most likely, extend retouches,” says Morganstein. “To accommodate the warm undertones that will be exposed within a month, lift slightly higher than your desired goal. If you are working in air conditioning, which can affect processing times, put the client under a dryer for a few minutes. Also, when working with lightening products that contain blue, don’t be fooled into thinking brass has been eliminated—before rinsing, dry the first foil and double check it.”

Gina Rivera

Beauty Icon and Expert

Gina Rivera skyrocketed to success when the company she founded in 2007, Phenix Salon Suites, became the fastest-growing salon suite company in the beauty industry. With more than 300 locations nationally and international expansion occurring in the UK, Entrepreneur Magazine named Phenix Salon Suites a Top 500 Franchise list seven years running.