THE BLONDTOURAGE

Welp.

I’m sure you all can guess a lot of the points that I’m going to make in this post.

However, if you can’t, or can, it’s still good to hear it from the mouth from a professional.

Instagram. It all starts here because Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter all have mostly shared posts and videos. Okay, YouTube too… but I think we are all mostly getting fascinating ideas without seeing the processes it takes due to editing of videos (because who would watch a 12 hour correction) and still images. (I’m looking at you, “before and afters”.)

First off, I think we should all remember that maybe only about 1% of before and afters get shown to us because the other 99% are NOT posted. It’s not that hair colorists don’t want to show them to help their audience understand it’s not all rainbows and sheets of platinum healthy hair as the result- but more so the fact that we are posting work to get LIKES. Even the most educational, realistic, and difficult jobs that we would like to share to help our clients understand will NOT be simply because Instagram is a tool for our business. To attract followers and likes. Add to that the constant change of algorithm; we are posting what we think will be liked the quickest, pull in others to our page and get a follow, or to get a share or a bookmark.

Everyone’s hair is vastly different and has a separate history and biological response to each and every hair service.

This includes not just the bleach- but the hair color remover, the pre-treatments, the technique in which all lightener is applied, and the toners or any pigment put back in. Especially especially the toners or pigments put back in.

Really there is NO way to know how anyone’s hair is going to react to a color service. Even a regular clients hair can go AWOL some times and do some weird shit.

When you learn about hair coloring, the class is called THEORY. We all remember what a theory is, right? It’s an educated guess of an outcome. A GUESS.

This is why when we do get that exact color the clients wanted, we are all: “LOOK AT THIS BEFORE AND AFTER I AM RULING THE HAIR GAME! 👑🥳🙌🏼!”

Hair is photographed in different lighting. The best possible lighting. This included studio lighting, bouncers, strobe flash bulbs, ring lights and perfect daylight.

Although daylight is by far the best lighting, it is not always available. We try desperately to recreate it when it is not possible, however this ends up still not giving you a straight up idea of what it will look like in your office, bathroom, rearview mirror with your sunroof open, etc. (If I could have 5$ for every pic sent by a client of their hair in the bathroom of a restaurant or even at their house then I probably would only cruise into work a couple times a week since I’d be a millionaire lol the salon would be a passion project, second to my ranch of older dogs and other various animals I’d rescue with all my heaps of 5$ bills LOL.)

Yes. Your blonde hair will look different in EVERY LIGHT. It will not always look like your after pic at the salon or the selfie on a cloudy day at the beach. Or when you were super tan after Coachella last year. These pictures create havoc in your mind because if you look at them and then your current hair- it will never match! I mean- if I did it- then it should always look fucking amazing lol but it still varies- constantly!

This is just the start of unsteady expectations. We haven’t even gotten to editing or FaceTune-ing yet.

Now if you are comparing your results or if before the appt, comparing what you DO want to other’s hair that isn’t even YOU- then you have started another whole situation lol. Now we are talking about someone else’s hair completely. And almost 70% of the time, the hair is 100%-200% thicker, and almost never the same length.

If you are one of my clients that brings in a pic of someone who has the same type and natural color of hair like you do, and the same length and thickness- then you know who you are! I probably got very excited, told you that you were client of the month (or year!) and made a huge deal about how you conquered the inspo pic game!!!

A inspo pic that is way way off from your hairs length, type, and thickness is the start to unrealistic expectations. It’s not that we can’t get your hair that exact color- but it’s going to LOOK different when it’s done!

DISCLAIMER:

🤷🏼‍♀️ now that I’m going on and on about this, I should probably also mention that a lot of you are amazing and have Insta pics simply for inspiration. Some of you even bring in multiple images and let us find the common denominator and give you that look! For all of you who do this, we love you we appreciate you and there may have been some talk about going ring shopping even lol! 💍👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

SO MANY TIMES I answer a client’s or follower’s question with a factual explanation and as soon as it comes out of my mouth I think: This is something I should actually let everyone know.

It happened today.

I was doing an email consult- we were on about the 17th email and I had asked for pics of the future clients hair and a brief history of any chemical services. One of the images showed the bottoms of her hair and underneath she said, “I don’t know why but after the damage, my ends that were over processed and super blonde ended up shorter and thin, and went super brassy!”

My immediate thought was, “well yes… because the light blonde broke off and you have the lowlights/hair between highlights left, and then the blonde that was only lifted one time”! I had already asked at first if she used hot tools and she said not all the time but she HAD to flat iron sometimes because the ends were so crunchy that they couldn’t be smoothed any other way.

FIRST.

When the blonde breaks off- what is left? The hair between the highlights. And the hair that was only lifted once and then the highlights were rinsed because the overlapping of bleach was going to break off the ends which were somewhat blonde before but NOW were white blonde. (Of course they didn’t break THEN. But they will and did later on.)

We all know that flat irons and other tools that get super hot break your hair. But what we don’t realize is that after that hair breaks off what’s left is darker hair that wasn’t lifted up as high!

SECOND.

Any hair that has been lifted up to a blonde and then toned down to get rid of the brassiness in the salon is not only a darker shade of yellow, but when you use hot tools it literally “cooks” the hair! Everyone knows with the crust of bread looks like right? When things get heated up, it “toasts” the thing that is getting hot. 

The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen is to make sure that your hair is safely lifted in the first place. However adding heat to what’s left, makes darker hair lighter (orangey) by taking out all the pigment of a toner or any natural pigment.*

*When hair is lifted with color, it is first lifted with the ammonia product in the color and then the pigment is deposited over the lifted hair which is never a light neutral blonde or light brown for that matter. Also the flat iron can oxidize your natural hair faster- it’s like how the ends of virgin hair are always lighter than the new growth. The ends have been exposed to sun and environment and air, but hot tools speed up that process in a harsher way.

And let me tell you— purple shampoo is NOT going to help any hair that isn’t already on the lighter side of blonde. It certainly isn’t going to help the leftover brassy natural hair or darker blonde that wasn’t lifted enough!

Stuff like this is common knowledge to A Blonde Specialist! And it takes a while to explain, so I find myself telling clients who it pertains to- but realize this is a problem I see a lot and I figured I should at least give you guys a heads up!

Basically—- find a colorist who will not overlap the lightener using the same strength of product from roots to ends.

I wish I had better advice or solution but also remember that fixing your crunchy ends with a flat iron is not going to do anything good for your hair in the long run. 😭😭😭😭

OTHER STUFF THAT PURPLE SHAMPOO WILL NOT FIX:

– Hair that has lighter and darker areas of blonde- it will only showcase the yellow or orange by placing a violet hue on the light blonde next to it. (Including too light of a base color or base break/bump that has gone orange with the lighter blonde highlights in between it!)

– The top orange parts of a balayage in a lived-in look. If the top of the balayage was not lifted high enough and then toned down to create the depth and the darkness of a shadow root, the purple shampoo will not cover up the orange

– Hot roots in general. (When your hair by your scalp is kind of glowing brassiness from a too-light base color that won’t hold toner, or that toner can’t fix.

– The leftover “temporary dye” or pigmented conditioner (I’m looking at you, Overtone) in any color besides a very light yellow.

– Your relationship with your sister-in-law after you may or may not have told her what you thought of her parenting over your last family zoom meeting… LOL

THAT BEING SAID.

Ya’ll know I would drink purple shampoo for breakfast if I could.

When you ask how often to use purple shampoo I’m like– um. Every day?

Purple shampoo is the amazing at home tool you can use to keep your blondeness as icy a humanly possible and I am a HUGE FAN of its benefits!!!

I hope this wasn’t too much of a Debbie downer!!!!

Just wanted to share a regular thought/answer I always think of as common knowledge but DUH you guys aren’t hair colorists!!!! It’s literally my job to let you know what’s up!!!!!!

XOXO

CAITLIN ❤️❤️❤️❤️