I’ve been excited for this Louis Vuitton ad to come out for months! The blonde model in the ad spent almost a whole day at my salon getting the most perfect platinum hair for this campaign with one of the owners, Victoria. My bosses are both color masters, and I love watching the process of their work. If you could have seen the color in person, your jaw would drop at how flawless it is. Not a single spot. It is so evenly white, it looks like it’s her natural color. So beautiful!

Have you ever had platinum color? I am too scared of the possible damage and upkeep, but I’ve always been a little tempted to try it. It’s so striking!

I recently talked about the reverse ombre and why it’s a bad idea. But there is another way to do it that looks good and isn’t so much maintenance.

Instead of painting the highlights on to gradually go from light roots to dark ends, you can do your highlights on top like normal, and do a single process underneath. By going a few shades darker underneath, you are actually creating a very natural look. Naturally the sun wouldn’t lighten that hair, because it’s not ever reaching it. If you have layers, even long layers, the darker underneath part will peek through the lighter parts, making a similar “reverse ombre” effect. There is actually very minimal damage with color like this, because you don’t have to do highlights underneath, and that saves your ends from a lot of grief! I had my hair like this for several years. I would do a 7N or 8N underneath, and do highlights on top every few months to keep it bright.

Here are a few pictures!

You guys, I don’t know why I just don’t enjoy J-Simps’ company. Her hair is a good example of what I’m talking about though.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s is my favorite!

Nicole always has great hair. Not because she has naturally great hair, but because she has a great stylist.

Way back in beauty school, we called this look The Shadowbox. We did a more severe look like Christina Aguilera though. Back in 2002, I loved the platinum blonde with red or black underneath. You couldn’t pay me to do it now. Ha.

Would you try this look?

This picture is so edited (Instagram!) that you can’t really see the true color, but I went pinker! This is definitely a semi-perm color, because it came from a shampoo! Niles from my work, who is a color assistant, asked me if he could try this pastel shampoo on me to see how my hair would take it.

It really really took it. The pink is beautiful, but it is so bright, that I feel like the natural looking roots don’t really marry with the bottom. It’s like Little Orphan Annie on top and My Little Pony Tales on the bottom. But I’m crazy and I’ll try anything so I don’t care. In fact, I really like having pink hair. And people on the street want to talk to me…well girls. This is definitely a man-repelling hair procedure. Which I don’t mind because Jake loves me for the crazy pants that I am.

I’m anxious to see how long this pink lasts. I’ll make sure to give you a full review of the process! And some better pictures soon too!

Tonight I’m going to pick a giveaway winner, so hurry and enter!

One commenter said she should win because her “hair is gross” and for some reason that had me laughing for 3 hours. I like a simple explanation like that.

Good luck y’all!

(I love this picture because it was around 11pm last night, I had been asleep for almost an hour like an old person, and I woke up dying of thirst. When I came out of the bedroom, I saw Jake in the midst of a full blown photo shoot with a guitar as his model. I walked over to say hi and Jake took this picture. So, this is what I look like with no make up and an hour or more of sleep under my belt/beastie boys tee.)

So, here is my hair! There is no trace of pink in it. I guess it’s been about 3 weeks, and I have probably washed it about 4 times since it was colored. The pink only lasted one or two of those washes. A few of my clients have been visibly upset to come in for hair cuts and not see any pink. Sorry guys! Maybe I’ll go pinky-er next time!

So, I wanted to follow up with my last post about preserving your hair color. I got a comment that was something I had never even considered, so I thought I would address it.

Q: “I have another question. So you said to not shampoo your hair right after it’s been colored, so do you rinse it with cold water to wash out the excess dye? Do you keep rinsing the next couple of days and then wash it with color safe shampoo/conditioner? Also how do you feel about box dye? I know it’s not as up to par with salon work but I’ve used box dye on others before, and they’ve always worked pretty well. What do you think? “

A: Yes, you rinse and shampoo/condition when washing out the dye. Preferably with cooler water, especially if you are doing a gloss (but a gloss probably wont be shampooed out!). There are chemicals in hair color that need to be shampooed out or they will continue processing in your hair until the dye has oxidized completely.

As for continuing to rinse the next few days, I’d say no. You are trying to avoid opening the hair’s cuticle which is what is locking the color in!

Box dyes. So this is the main reason I wanted to answer this question. I feel very strongly against box dyes. I really really do. There are two main reasons I say to avoid box dyes forever, and here they are….

~You most likely don’t know what you are doing. Even if you follow the directions on the back of the box, there is so much more to it than a list of 5 steps. There are colorists that assist for 3 years before going on to the coloring floor, it is really best to keep it to a professional. You could over-process, over-lap and/or cause breakage and damage. A professional knows things that you don’t (like all professions!). That is not an insult.

~The products are very cheap! I’m telling you, there is a huge difference in quality of professional hair color, versus grocery store hair color. In a salon, they will tailor the developer and color formula to what your hair type/base color/texture is. A box has no idea if you’ve had a Japanese relaxer before or if you’ve been previously lightened, or how porous your hair is.

Color is not easy. It might seem like it is, but there is so much to it! There are very few occasions I’d say it’s ok to do your own color, and at that point I’d still say to never buy it from a grocery store. Always use a good quality professional line.

Great questions!

It costs a lot of money to get your hair colored, so I thought I’d share a few of my tips to keeping the color locked in. You know, so you can look hotter longer and get your money’s worth.

~First off, wait as long as possible to shampoo after a fresh color process. I got my hair colored last Thursday, and I waited until Tuesday to shampoo it again.
~Try to use cooler water on your hair. Warm or hot water will open the cuticle, making the color wash out quickly.
~Always use color safe shampoo/conditioner. This is especially important for you rich reds and brunettes. Most non-color safe shampoos will strip your color right out!
~Protect your hair when you’re out and about. The sun will pull color out, so if you’re out for long periods of time, it’s a good idea to wear a hat or a scarf.

My pink is almost already gone in just one shampoo! We knew when we did it that it would just last 2 or 3 washes, so I’m willing to freeze my head in the shower so that I can have cool edgy hair for another week or two!

Pink!!

This is just a peek at what it looks like. I’m hoping Jake can get some photos in the natural light today sometime so you can see it better. It is a dusty rose-blushy pink. I love it! Charlie painted tons of highlights in my hair, but kept my base close to the red that I already had, then after shampooing out the color, she applied a toner to make it this pretty pink! We have two huge feathers at the salon in one of the back rooms that have a very antique look, and the feathers are the exact color of my hair. I love it!

This kind of toner really doesn’t last long, so I’m going to try and avoid shampooing as much as possible for the next few weeks. Once the pink is out, it will be pretty light again. Color is so fun.

So, thanks to the commenter, Sarah, who suggested I get pink somewhere..I hope you were serious, Sarah!

Thanks for your suggesties! Don’t be jeal of my pink hair!

PS, I answered 5 questions about hair over on Jana’s blog yesterday. Go take a look!

Hey guys!

I’m getting my hair colored today! I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet.

Any ideas? I think maybe back to blonde, but I do love the red!

(photo is a sneak peek at the next tutorial to come. taken by Jake!)

Last week at work I showed one of the colorists a picture of a beautiful golden blond girl. It was pretty light on the ends, but the roots were a rich dirty blond. It was hardly different from my current hair color, which is darker than usual right now. I just wanted more blond at the ends and ribboned into my bangs. We decided we would do it this week.

Yesterday when we were about to get start with my color, she said “I’ve been thinking about it, and i think we should do more reddish tones on your base”. I got excited about that, thinking of kind of a light carrot-y color. We had a totally different idea pictured in the two of our minds, because this is what the “reddish tone” came out as….

Lucky for my colorist, I love it. It is the prettiest red I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe how much it suits my skin. I always feel like I look terrible with dark hair, but maybe it was just the wrong tone? This will fade quite a bit since she used a semi-permanent color, and the pink highlights at the bottom (hard to see in the pictures) will turn more blond.  I love it just the way it is, but I’m excited to see it fade along the way into a new look each week!

I’ve never even thought about being a redhead, it’s so fun to do something so dramatic! Just one of the many reasons working in a salon is like having a sleepover as your career. Loves.

What about you? Do you go bold with your hair color changes?

PS I think I’m a bit Florence and the Machine?

Photography: Jacob Breinholt