I get hundreds and thousands of questions about my hair every day (obviously exaggerating) so here is everything you need to know about my hair.
Obviously I always change my hair.. as you can see from my previous blog posts.
I will show new readers how my hair has changed in the years.
April 2009
When I had blonde highlights on a medium brown base and a straight fringe cut (no hair extensions)
November 2009
When I was really into my “gyaru” style and loved Nana Suzuki
December 2009
Similar hair but with hair extensions. Base colour was the same. Medium brown with a straight fringe cut
November 2010
Side fringe, medium brown hair and hair extensions
May 2011
Ash blonde base with blonde highlights. I was growing out my fringe and had hair extensions
December 2011
Back to brown hair and rocking no more hair extensions!!!
March 2012
Settling with a middle parting and my grown out long dark brown hair
April 2012
Experimenting with red hair
June 2012
Brown base (medium brown) ombred -> gradually bleached to blonde at the ends
Ok now answering questions for my current hair colour/style!! I can’t really answer questions about my other hair colours since it’s been such a long time already!!
Just keep in mind though, that my hair has been processed over and over again, so if you are dying over a different shade, or over natural hair, it will not turn out the same!
So speaking from my red hair in April 2012. In April, I was sick of my hair being boring, I had grown it out – finally to my desired length (or getting there somewhat) and so I decided to do something different to it!
In 2000, during highschool, I remember red hair was a huuuuge thing and since mid 2009, I’ve been wanting to dye my hair red after Rhianna came out with her perfectly hot red hair.
After rocking it for about a month or two, I realised that the colour was too high maintenance (reason I dyed my hair darker after being a blondie for so long) and dyed it back to a natural brown.
During May to June 2012, I let my hair grow out it’s natural colour and in July, I got sick of looking like plain Jane. I mean, I’ve got nothing against girls who have naturally gorgeous dark locks, but I’ve always enjoyed standing out. :(
I eventually decided to “ombre” my hair which I had actually done previously in September 2011 when I was transitioning from a blonde to brunette. You see my post on it here and a tutorial on how I went from blonde to brunette is that’s what you are after.
Okay.. so here is step by step and products listed on how I ombred my hair from a medium-dark brown.
In fact, I’ll start with how I went from dyed Red to Brown first.
I think one of the biggest fears of someone with red hair is the fact that they’ll never be able to return to a blonde. It’s hard, infact almost impossible without somewhat severely damaging your hair. Let’s be honest, whether you choose to go to a hairdresser or DIY, your hair will somewhat be damaged. Going to the hairdressers will not “stop” your hair was being damaged – the main difference is that they are more knowledgeable on what to use on your hair. If you do your research and use the right products, the results will be exactly the same.
Now, before starting, let’s just say I’m not a hair professional. Please seek advice from your hairdresser before continuing because I will not be responsible for how your hair turns out.
Step 1
This step is really important because if you are not a natural red head, you can remove the red tones in your hair. I used a product called MyHD DIY Permanent Hair Colour Remover. The set comes with two tubes that you mix together in a mixing bowl and then apply it section by section all over your hair from the roots to ends. It does not need to be evenly coated but make sure you coat every strand of your hair.
An important thing to note with this product is that it will not remove bleach. It will only remove the last hair dye you put into your hair. If your hair is bleached, it will most likely bring your hair back to blonde (or a stained orangey/reddish blonde). I’ve used this product many times before and I know it works wonders. There are other brands out there on the market which I’ve tried but this is the most easily accessible one to me. So feel free to use any other “hair colour removers”.
Step 2
Now that you have gotten rid of most of the red tones in your hair (you can repeat Step 1 if you don’t feel as though you have successfully removed 90% of the red in your hair), it’s going to look patchy. This is normal, do not freak out. If your hair was bleached and looks like there is a large area of regrowths, you may want to bleach your regrowths at this point to make sure you have an even colour later.
Step 3
Dye your base colour. For my hair, I used L’Oreal’s Sublime Mousse in 60 Pure Light Brown. This is one of my favourite hair dyes because it hardly damages your hair (since bubble/mousse hair dyes contains no bleach) and it’s extremely easy to apply!!! Apply this colourall over your hair. In this step, you don’thaveto apply it to the ends of your hair if you had bleached hair. I didn’t apply it because I didn’t want to be bleaching my hair after hairdye, but if you feel like it’s confusing to leave the ends untouched, you can just focus on the roots, then just feather it lightly onto the ends of your hair.
Step 4
Bleach the ends of your hair. Now, I start from the ends of my hair.. about 20 cms from the bottom to begin with. This will all depend on how long your hair is and how much you want to ombre. I just looked in the mirror and started with a little and gradually moved my way higher. Once you are done with bleaching the ends of your hair, you would want to bleach some random sections too!
I took small sections of hair around the sides of my face (your bangs if you also have a middle parting) and I bleached the ends of those as well. I also then took some shorter layers of hair and bleached the ends of those as well. Bleach only takes about 20 minutes to process and if it takes any longer, it could be very damaging to your hair.
I used blue bleach and a 30 vol cream developer. Again, depending on your hair colour, results can differ for you. Blue bleach is good for asian hair because the blue cancels out the orange/brassiness tones in your hair when you bleach it – leaving your hair as “yellow” as it possibly can be. If you do not know how to bleach your hair, there are plenty of instructions online, but the basics is to mix one part bleach and one part developer together. Apply to your hair in sections and fold “square pieces of foil” to secure the strand. The foil will assist in heating up your hair and allowing the bleach to process.
If your hair does not lighten easily, you may need to repeat the bleaching process. But.. I suggest you do it over several days, or even several weeks to avoid damage to your hair.
Step 5
After the bleaching, you are finally almost there!!!!! I waited until the next day to do this step because this whole process takes about 5-6 hours (think: washing your hair about 3 times and blowdrying it to apply the bleach and leaving protein treatment on in between to hopefully help your hair stay strong). Apply a toner. A toner is basically like a semi-permanent hair dye. You can apply a silver toner such usually comes as either a shampoo or a small tube of cream colour.
I used Schwarzkopf Live Colour Silver Toner. I love this product because it literally takes my hair from brassy to ash blonde!!! I’ve used it so many times before and I swear by it when I loved the gyaru ash blonde.
Congratulations. You have successfully ombre’d your hair from brown to blonde!!!!
I’d much rather sit through hours and hours at home with cling wrap and foil around my head than to have to sit at a hair salon flipping through magazines I don’t even want to read and chatting to the hairdresser about topics I don’t even want to talk about #antisocial
I really hope this blog post helps some of you in do-it-yourself ombre. Do not let anyone tell you it’s impossible! :)
Inspirations
