DIY ombre steps

Ombre!

Now of course, being a professional, I recommend that you go to your hairdresser but a lot of people do this particular trend themselves. Take it from me, most hairdressers won't give you what you want when you come in wanting this. The salon I worked for had never heard of it and thought it was the dumbest thing.. until they finally came out from under their rock and saw celebs with it. Ombre means shaded or graduated and is a huge trend both in hair and fashion and now, even nails. I believe it is here to stay. :) This is a very recession- friendly trend because if your hair is natural and you get the blonde on your ends, you don't have to get touch ups at all. Even if your base isn't natural, once you get the lighter portions done, you only need touchups :)

What you will need:
towel or cape to protect your clothing
bowl and brush
gloves
clips to section (never metal)
comb if you do highlights that way
foils
bleach
developer
toner if necessary


Before:

First, get yourself situated. Towel, cape, etc. Put your gloves on and pour your bleach into the bowl. Blue bleach is generally more effective and what I always use. I find that when I use regular white bleach, my hair turns out EXTRA brassy because there is nothing cutting out the unwanted colors. The blue really does help, trust me. Pour your developer in and mix. I recommend 20 vol but if you must use 30, work fast because that bleach will be doing the same. (developer post to come later) I've been doing it for so long that I just mix until I am comfortable with the consistency but I would suggest mixing one part to one part. I then section my hair because it just makes it easier and more organized to work with. STRAND TESTS ARE ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA.

Taking diagonal partings helps prevent harsh lines and backcombing prevents from bleaching too much.

After you have sectioned your hair the way you are most comfortable with, take a half inch diagonal section starting from the bottom up with your extra hair clipped out of the way. Leave that part out. Take another diagonal parting and backcomb.

This will be taking hair out your bleaching zone and will remain the base color as opposed to leaving out a whole section in between. Grab your comb and foil, place under the hair you want lighter and start brushing bleach on. Make sure you don't cause harsh lines with your brush by using it the normal way. Feather it when you get to the top which is using the brush vertically rather than horizontal. This will soften the line and sometimes I'll go in and free hand paint a little highlight up to the top (think Rachel Bilson). Repeat these steps until your whole head is foiled and you look like a freak. :P
Long haired ladies: This process is much easier for you, seeing that you just grab both sides of your hair and bring them to the front then bleach what you want. Short haired girls, sorry, but it's more difficult for us. Worth it in the end. Once you've checked your strands and made sure they are the desired shade, time to rinse out! Whenever I have any kind of blonde in my hair, I always use a blue or purple shampoo to maintain it. They can be a little drying so make sure you use a good conditioner! A professional blue shampoo I recommend is Goldwell So Silver. Amazing, but if you don't want to spend the money on it, I use Clairol Shimmer lights. You can get this at any beauty supply store. Always rinse highlights or any kind of bleach with COOL water. This will prevent bleeding (getting bleach on other pieces of your hair). Time for conditioning. Grab a good one! I always keep a wide tooth comb in my shower and comb through any conditioner. This gets out your knots and smoothes your hair while still in the shower. (Learned that in the salon) A must!

If you still need toner, first, pick out the color you will need to cancel out however you pulled. Sometimes I can't get to CosmoProf so I just run to my image beauty and pick up a demi color. This will damage your hair less than permanent color and the developer is less harsh. After you apply this where needed, listen to the bottle/ box. Don't keep it on longer than instructed. Mine is usually 20 minutes. but I also keep an eye on it. After the timer goes off, it's time to rinse! If you did choose to use a demi, do NOT shampoo. Just condition. If you shampoo you hair immediately after, you will wash out what you just did.

Style :) To each his own but I would definitely recommend It's a ten leave in conditioner. It works miracles. Last but not least, enjoy your on trend ombre locks :)

Please let me know if any of you use this guide and if it helped at all! Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Questions too :)

Picture post to come next!

xo chels