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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

DIY Super Blonde Using Drugstore Products

If you follow my twitter you know I've been on a mission for super blonde hair for about 2 weeks. I've been going slow so as not to fry my hair and I would not recommend that you do this in a 2 week span because it was not awesome for my hair. Buuuutttt...I got the color I wanted at home for about $30. So, that's a win in my book. As always, I'm not a professional. OBVIOUSLY. This is just what worked for my hair to get it the color I wanted.

I have never been this blonde. I've never done an all over blonde before, just highlights which can only get you so far. I just decided to be brave and try something new, which is hard for me. Mostly because I am impatient and I hated the idea of walking around with hair I didn't love while going through the process. But I did it and I think it was worth it for me!

ROOTS!!!! The horror.
 
I started with DIY highlighted hair with about 2 inch roots. I decided that I wanted to lift the base and then highlight to get it all over blonder without going platinum. I still wanted some highlights. So, basically I bleached my roots out with powder bleach and 30 vol on the scalp developer, washed, dried and then covered my whole hair with an all over high lift blonde (ION High Lift Ash Blonde) to get a uniform base. I then toned it all and left it alone for about a week to calm down. It was definitely blonder, but not a pretty blonde in my opinion. Kind of a dingy blonde. Which was fine, it was just the base color.


After All Over Color and Toning
Way blonder, but blah...
 
I used 2 boxes of the High Lift Ash Blonde with 40 vol developer all over my hair, processed about 45 minutes
1 box of T18 (formerly White Lady) Wella Toner with 20 vol developer, left on about 8 minutes
 

I then went back in and had to highlight twice. First, I used Revlon Frost n Glow and it looked like this. Good, but not quite there yet. It was still a little too brassy for my liking.
 

 
I was going to use the same kit the second time but the store I went to was out of it so I tried a different kit, which I kind of fell head over heels in love with. I have never used this kit before and am kind of kicking myself over not trying it. It's the L'Oreal Frost and Design kit in Champagne. It's about $4 more than the Revlon kit but it has a lot more products in the kit. It contains a lot more bleach (I have to buy 2 Revlon kits for the length of my hair and 1 L'Oreal kit did my whole head with leftover product). It also has a protectant cream that goes in the bleach which makes it this almost creamy whipped texture that is super easy to work with. It has a toning rinse included which I think is just genius. It left my hair feeling soft and not fried and also a perfect shade of blonde. I will definitely be switching to this kit from now on.


Holy Grail Drugstore Highlighting Kit. For real.

Anywhoo, after several different processes I basically went from dishwater blonde with highlights to all over blonde with platinum and honey strands mixed in. I couldn't be happier with the results! I am trying to minimize heat tools for a while to let it recover from this crazy blonde ambition, so please excuse the boring, straight hair. But you can see the color results pretty clearly. Love, love, love!

 



 
 

5 comments:

  1. Hey Erika, your hair looks great can't believe it is DIY! I just found your blog when I was looking for some reviews on Revlon Lip Butters, going to take a look next time I'm in the make-up section, you seem to really love them! Although it seems they're twice the price over here (England!) - ah well so many things are! Looking forward to your next post :)
    Candice x

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    1. I've read that a lot, that the things we get for cheap here in the US are more expensive overseas. It's about $6 for a lip butter here. If you can find them cheap, I'd highly recommend them :) Thanks for reading!!

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    2. I might have a look on eBay after I check out the colours in a store! But I'm making a list too as I'm coming on holiday to California in the summer so will hopefully pick up a load of things that are cheaper there :) x

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  2. So the highlight kit is what pretty much made you achieve that beautiful color?

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    1. Thanks for reading! Eventually, yep. The highlight kit helped me get that color. After (probably too many) other things, it got me there. It's a very easy kit to use and gives great results!

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