Hair Highlighting Tips

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.joytonight.com/other-stuff/women-corner/hair-care/are-hair-colors-safe/hair-color-ideas-blonde-hair2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.joytonight.com/other-stuff/women-corner/hair-care/are-hair-colors-safe/hair-color-ideas-blonde-hair2.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 423px; height: 351px;" /></a><br /> Remember when you had the spare time to lounge on the beach, spraying lemon juice from a mist bottle into your hair to create natural highlights? <p>If you’re like most women, those days are gone. But while your schedule is incredibly hectic, you can still get the look without basking in the sun (which, as we all know, is bad for you, anyway).</p> <p>Ride the wave of light with highlights or lowlights—two techniques to create stripes of contrast throughout your hair. They can be subtle (reddish tones on brown hair) or dramatic (blonde highlights on brunette hair). You can have thick chunks of color, which continue to be popular, or a carefully selected number of thin highlighted strands for a more restrained look.</p> <p>Highlights are easier to maintain than all-over, or single-process, color. They require minimal maintenance (every eight to 16 weeks), which can be desirable for women who have trouble booking long salon appointments due to time constraints. </p> <p>By definition, highlights lighten and brighten your hair. Lowlights, by contrast, darken and deepen hair color. Many salons are using multi-tonal color, not limiting their palette to a single color when highlighting or lowlighting. Blending colors provides a more natural look. </p> <p>Of course, other stylists use today’s technology to create much bolder statements. Joico, a Darien, Connecticut-based professional product line, teaches stylists how to create color creations like the “UV”—an abbreviation for ultraviolet light. The UV color concept features four super-dramatic highlighting colors, with vibrant shades of lavender and purple. It sounds extreme—and it definitely is daring—but it’s also a gorgeous mélange strong shadows that blend fluidly together.</p> <p>For more mainstream highlighting, the process is relatively simple: Hair is sectioned by an experienced stylist, who applies color from the roots down to the selected strands. While there are many application techniques, many stylists rely on foils, folding color-treated strands into foil sheets to prevent dye from spreading. The stylist sets the timer for a designated period (depending on your natural color and the shades chosen for highlighting or lowlighting), and the strands are allowed to “process.” </p> <p>Using a professional stylist is advisable, as she can mix colors, understands coloring chemistry and knows how to avoid overprocessing your hair. While stylists recommend having highlights or lowlights applied in the salon setting, there are new consumer lines that allow women to apply highlights at home. If you’re on a budget, you can try a product like L’Orea Couleur Experte, which consists of two steps:</p> <ol><li> <div align="justify">Application of all-over color, for a translucent base, using a permanent gel crème. Color is applied to dry, unwashed hair, over the full head, with an applicator bottle and left on for 25 minutes. (If you have resistant gray hairs, color should be left on for about 10 additional minutes.) When the color is set, rinse it out and towel-dry hair.<br /> <br /> </div> </li><li> <div align="justify"> Once the first step is completed, you add illuminating highlights with a special wand. For hair of one length, choose strands that frame your face (but don’t forget the back of your head). For layered hair, follow the layers’ angles, paying special attention to top layers. If you have bangs, apply highlights to wispy strands, and vary the spacing to keep the look natural. If you have curly hair, you can use the wand or even your fingertips to apply color to curls; the texture of your hair requires a bit less precision.</div> </li></ol> <p>Always read all directions before using any highlighting or lowlighting products. Experts recommend wearing an old button-down shirt when coloring, which protects your neck and shoulders from any color drips.</p> <p>To help you choose the right shade, L’Orea offers an online questionnaire, as well as instructional videos that demonstrate product application.</p> <p>Clairol offers a similar product, Herbal Essences Highlights, but it does not include the base color—only the highlighting agent. The product is applied to dry hair with a highlighting comb.</p> <p>If you have any concerns about home highlighting, or if you’ve never colored your hair before, take the safe road and book an appointment with a colorist.</p>

Hair Highlighting Tips

Remember when you had the spare time to lounge on the beach, spraying lemon juice from a mist bottle into your ...

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Hair Coloring Tips

<a href="http://www.madrasi.info/henna-hair-dye.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.madrasi.info/henna-hair-dye.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 211px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 190px" /></a><br /><div>1. Don’t Try This at Home…<br />Many women choose to color their hair at home to save money. It’s a viable option—but only if you know exactly what you’re doing.<br />“I don’t recommend this unless you’ve already had lots of experience with the use of these chemicals and do not have damaged hair,” writes Dr. Susan C. Taylor, a Harvard University-trained dermatologist, in her book, Brown Skin: Dr. Susan Taylor’s Prescription for Flawless Skin, Hair, and Nails (HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York).<br />“To avoid damaging your tresses, it’s worth it to see a licensed and experienced hair stylist,” Dr. Taylor advises.<br />2. Henna Hazards<br />Henna is a natural vegetable stain that has been used for more than 6,000 years to color hair, but perhaps it’s time to take full advantage of modern technology.<br />“I love the idea of using a nature-made color on my hair, but I must confess, henna scares me,” writes New York City beauty and health journalist Stephanie Pedersen, author of the K?I?S?S Guide to Beauty (Keep It Simple Series, DK Publishing, Inc., New York). “That’s because, while henna generally produces some shade of red, you won’t know exactly what shade until after you’ve completed the treatment.”<br />And you’re truly stuck with the color, she warns, because henna cannot be removed or combined with conventional hair color (your hair will turn green or greenish-black and quite possibly break off altogether).<br />3. Sexy Silver, Gorgeous Gray<br />Even if you choose to go gracefully gray (or, shall we say, stylishly silver), your color can use a boost to avoid flatness and yellowing.<br />“Any shade of gray, or any stage of graying, can benefit from the boost of a special color process,” writes former Vogue marketing director Diana Lewis Jewell in Going Gray, Looking Great! (Simon & Schuster, New York).<br />With salt-and-pepper hair, “the effect will be subtle, emphasizing natural light and shadow,” she notes. With completely white hair, tone will be enhanced and become more dimensional, without adding streaks. And with hair that Jewell describes as “just plain blah,” it will take on a silvery sparkle and be revitalized. Your hairstylist can advise you on specific options that meet your needs.<br />4. Hair Guacamole<br />Colored hair can become brittle and damaged if exposed to too much sun—so what do you do when you’re on vacation at some secluded island resort and your hairstylist is a thousand miles away?<br />Turn to Mother Nature, advises British Hairdresser of the Year and product manufacturer Charles Worthington in The Complete Book of Hairstyling (Firefly Books, Buffalo, New York).“Mash up an avocado and work it into your hair after shampooing,” he writes. “Leave it on for at least five minutes to let the moisturizing oils penetrate the hair shaft, then rinse it off thoroughly.”<br />5. Chemistry Set<br />Never have two chemical processes—such as coloring, perming or relaxing hair—performed at the same time, according to Drs. Fran Cook-Bolden, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University in New York City, and Dr. Jeanine Downie, director of Image Dermatology in Montclair, New Jersey. Together, they have </div>

Hair Coloring Tips

1. Don’t Try This at Home… Many women choose to color their hair at home to save money. It’s a viable option—but only if you know exactly wh...

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