Hair column: Successfully go from dark to light hair for summer

Look, not even Kim Kardashian has black hair anymore. This spring, the blondes are coming out! It feels so refreshing, doesn’t it? You know what isn’t so refreshing? Damaged, brassy and broken blonde hair. Here are some professional tips to getting gorgeous, light, healthy hair.

Have patience

It’s not going to happen overnight. Have patience with the process. Less drastic changes won’t take nearly as long, but if you are trying to lighten truly dark hair, give it at least four months before you reach your ultimate goal.

Pick your colorist carefully

This is a big task that should be left only to the most talented professionals. Want to know what’s directly underneath that silky dark color? Bright brass orange. Needless to say, you want someone who can handle that situation with care. It will need some toning and just the right amount of processing to not fry your hair to smithereens! In other words (and I can’t stress this enough), this is not an at-home treatment. I am all about DIY, but going from dark hair to light hair is not the time to play stylist in your bathroom. I know this because I suffered the orange damaged consequences of this myself!

Avoid flip-flopping

If you want your hair to be healthy, you’ll definitely want to commit to a color for a while before making a change. I went dark and left it dark for years before I went back to light again. I think if I changed my hair color every time I felt the urge, it wouldn’t exist at this point. So fight the urge until you can’t handle your hair color anymore — then make the change.

Update your makeup

Now that your hair is lighter, a whole new world of makeup opens up to you! It’s amazing how much less makeup you can get away with now. Have fun experimenting with the new colors and tones, and be sure to change the shadow color you use for brow filling.

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Tags: hair color