Want a fresh, sexy approach to color to spice things up but it’s gotta be low maintenance?
Want to be trendy but not sporting a “me-too” look like everyone else?
Want some inspiration to update your tresses without limiting how you can style your hair?
Well thank the hair gods for giving us ombre coloring. It’s hot, trendy, with seemingly endless variations all at once. Best of all you’ll find it’s insanely low on the upkeep scale.
Ombre color has been a hot for some time now. While it may not be as hot in Hollywood as it once was, it’s still a low maintenance way to change your look and give you serious “notice me” hair.
So if you’re ever thought about going the do-it-yourself home Ombre coloring route but are nervous about the outcome the two videos included here should help walk you through the process and give you the confidence you need to do it yourself.
DIY Bombshell Ombre
This video makes some common sense points.
The claim stated early on here is that this is super simple to do at home. So there is no need to pay what a salon colorist charges, otherwise known as an arm and both legs, to get ombre for dark hair. Seems reasonable enough provided you are brave enough to give it a go.
Naturally there are the typical warnings we are given whenever we color at home.
- Depending on how long your hair is be sure to get enough dye. Which is a pretty common warning since it is never good to run out of solution mid-dye.
- Use a tooth brush to help with the color transition from your natural color to something lighter. In other words you don’t want a severe or harsh looking color line where your natural color stops and the ombre begins. Using a tooth brush will better blend the color for a more subtle, natural looking gradient effect.
- Actually there is no need to buy foils at the beauty supply store. Regular aluminum foil will work just fine as long as you don’t mind cutting them ahead of time. And you can re use any that you have in each of the three stages of coloring involved.
- Wear something throwaway and cover the exposed spaces to avoid disappointment should coloring get on walls, that cute bathroom carpet you love so much, etc.
- Obviously there is the risk of creating hair that feels remarkably like straw. But if you condition properly and so forth this may not be as bad as it might. Clearly there will be some damage as a result of your coloring adventure, but it is for the most part manageable. And no matter where you have your ombre hair done, there will be some damage that results – as is the case with any coloring you do.
Next she lays out her approach to DIYing this step by step. But since I’ve laid out many of the same steps in Ombre Hair: The Lazy Girls Way to Lightening Things Up I won’t repeat those here.
What is referenced in this way of doing it is stages which is how she achieves the gradual lightening the further down each strand you go. What wasn’t mentioned is you want to determine where you want the ombre coloring to start on your hair. Would that be at the jawline, between your jaw and your shoulders, lower still? You’ll want to settle on the start point before you begin.
For the first coloring stage you want to leave the bleach in for 30-40 minutes. After removing the foils you want to wash your hair and dry it with your blowdryer.
Stage two involves lightening the middle section of your strands. This time you want to leave the color in for 20-25 minutes.
Stage three then focuses on the ends. Again the idea is to lighten them the most giving you a nice transition from dark to lighter to lighter still to lightest at the tips. This is left in at most 15 minutes. But the time frame suggested is 10-15 minutes.
I would hasten to add doing things this way may not produce the best subtle fade or transition from darkest to lightest. In fact I’m not so sure this three stage approach is the best way to go and may account for the dryness she noted because of the repeated exposure to the coloring solution.
Here’s another ombre video that offers a somewhat different approach.
How to Do Sophisticated Ombre Yourself
In this case the hair is divided into three parts. Bottom, middle and top.
As you can see you want to use different colors (light, lighter and lightest) and paint the darkest on first on the section of hair nearest the scalp that you’re going to color. Then the next lightest on the middle section. Followed by the lightest color on the ends. Doing ombre coloring this way lets you blend the colors more uniformly.
Also working with smaller sections of hair gives you more control and perhaps a more even application of the color.
The other trick I liked was the wave approach used on the middle third of the hair to select which strands get colored. This way only half the hair gets exposed to the solution. Which again helps with the seamless blending.
The teasing technique used on the top most section means you are coloring even less hair. That’s a trick I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere so it’s probably a good pointer to pay attention to.
Using heat from your blow dryer to bump the processing along is another good idea but not all the new.
While the gorgeous salon quality results speak for themselves just not sure how DIY this approach is. You may need to enlist a friend to help out with this method.
Ombre Aftercare
Most will use an ash toner to brighten the desired degree of blondeness and to avoid ending up with orange or brassy colors. In this case an Ion product was used just on the color treated sections of her hair. Using her regular shampoo/conditioner on the rest.
Then like you would with any colored hair you’ll want to intensively deep condition to rehydrate your strands.
Quick Thoughts on the Revlon Frost and Glow Highlighting Kit
Yes, a few insights to share about the highlighting kit used, Revlon Frost and Glow. You do not want to be in a hurry to wash off the coloring solution. It needs time to work. And since the solution is a purple color from the get go, that tells you there is toner in this product already which will ward off any brassiness.
The term used to describe this kit that comes up over and over again in reviews online is “foolproof”. So even though you aren’t using it for its intended purpose, highlighting, you should relax and set any fears and trepidation aside.
Remember too it doesn’t contain ammonia. So while coloring in any way will leave your hair less healthy than if you didn’t color at all, being free of ammonia is a plus. Of course if you care to read reviews, these from makeupalley.com might put your mind at ease.
Anyway, these are two DIY ways to make this look for dark hair happen in your bathroom. One is a nearly foolproof way to ombre your dark hair with lovely blond shades yourself. The other may require an assistant. Either way doing it at home offers the benefit of being much cheaper than having it done professionally. Yet you should be able to come close to a salon quality outcome even if you’ve never done it before.
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