Blonding: 5 Tips You Need If You Prefer To Hand-Paint
5 Tips For Perfectly Hand-Painting Blonde Blends
Balayage, hair paint or hand-paint—which technique is your preferred method when taking clients blonder? If you’re like Rochelle Golden (@rochellegoldenhairstylist), then you often trust your hands to get the job done. So below, the BTC Team Member is dishing her top five tips for ensuring your hand-painted blonde blends are bright, seamless and dimensional. From choosing the right lightener to deciding when to open air process vs. foils, here’s what you need to know.
Products Used
1. Can’t Be Done In One Session? Let Her Know
You know that if a client wants to achieve maximum lightness, remove previous color or shift from a warm to a cool tone it’s going to require multiple sessions. But most people think they’ll be leaving with their dream hair that same day, so it’s super important you explain that breaking it up into many appointments will give both her hair and her wallet some extra love in the long run.
2. Use The Right Lightener For The Job
Rochelle’s fave lightener to use when hand-painting is OYA Lightening Powder because she says the consistency is spot on, it’s extremely efficient, never swells AND it always gives her the result she’s going for without any guesswork or surprises.
3. Open Air Vs. Foils
At Rochelle’s salon, House of Gold Salon, they live by the following rule to help them determine when to use foils:
- A Level 7 and up is a green light to process in open air.
- Anything below a Level 7 will require foil.
“A Level 7 will not lift nearly as warm as a Level 5, ensuring you a successful painting session,” shares Rochelle.
4. Enhance The Results With Additives
An easy way to give lightener a more whipped effect is to mix in an additive. Rochelle’s go-to is Elixir, a gel-based reconstructive additive from OYA. It can be mixed with lightener to enhance the process without reducing the result or it can be combined with conditioner to help penetrate the cuticle and reveal healthier-looking hair.
Pro Tip: Incorporating Elixir doesn’t require extra processing time, but when she mixes it with conditioner, Rochelle says she lets it sit on her client’s hair for about 10 minutes.
5. Incorporate Some Lowlights
Every colorist has their go-to technique and Rochelle says she prefers to saturate an entire panel with a lowlight placed behind it. Why? Not only is dimension super on-trend right now but a blonde will always appear blonder and brighter next to neighboring depth.
