“Don’t” Do It Yourself Ombre

The image of a teenager with bald spots all over her head always pops into my head when a client asks me about doing their color at home. Yes, some people can pull it off, and a few even do a good job. But the majority of people are not able to get even close to the results they desire with at home color.

Now I see there is actually an “at home” ombre color kit. For those of you who don’t know, ombre is the French word for graduating hair color, or the English definition of hair color that generally begins deeper at the roots and gradually fades into a lighter hue towards the end. It is an incredibly specialized technique that takes a lot of practice to perfect, which is why I was very alarmed when I came across an ad for ombre color in a box.

The image of the teenager popped into my head again. She had colored her hair at home to save money. When it turned out too dark, she tried to correct it with another box of color. Repeat this action one more time to eventually connect me to a client that has large patches of hair missing from her at home disaster.  Several hours and hundreds of dollars later, my teenage client left with hair that was passable in society, but far from where we wanted her to be. The catastrophes that can occur from at home ombre color seem endless. The person applying it probably wont know how to manipulate the hair so that there aren’t choppy lines, the product isn’t strong enough to lighten the hair color to anything other than orange, there are not the proper tones to glaze the hair. Yes, the idea seems great, but the logistics seem impossible, and I can only imagine how many color corrections will find themselves in our color chairs as a result of this new product.

My personal advice, if you are looking for specialty color, go to a specialist! Don’t end up looking like this!

When you could end up with hair like this!