Color Correction…OMG! A Cautionary Tale
Once upon a time at BTC headquarters, we came across a picture that made us laugh. So we turned it into a meme and shared it with our members. A million views and 15,000 likes later, we received a message in our inbox.
“Embarrassingly enough, this before picture was NOT done at home,” the message read. “This poor girl, who is now a client of mine, came into my salon as a walk-in EMERGENCY.”
As it turned out, not only was the color not done at home, it was done by a licensed stylist! Even more horrifying—the client’s hair was previously virgin! Luckily, the client found Brittany Fritchley, owner of Exclusive Beauty Salon in Stockton, California.
“She took down her hair, and my jaw dropped,” recalls Brittany. “The other stylists in the salon stopped what they were doing. It was like a scene from a movie.”
Brittany only had a little more than an hour to fix the “ombré” (it was a walk-in, after all). But she knew she couldn’t let this client leave. “I said, ‘I have to help you. I don’t want you to think this is the way it’s supposed to be!’” Brittany remembers. “I don’t think she knew how bad it was.”
So how did Brittany achieve the color correction of a lifetime? First she colored the client’s base with a combination of Matrix SOCOLOR 506 Light Natural Brown + 10-volume developer and PRAVANA ChromaSilk 6N Dark Blonde. “I generally use Pravana, but I am familiar with Matrix SOCOLOR gray coverage, and I knew it would work great for covering and filling those harsh sharp bleach lines,” Brittany says.
Next, Brittany used Framesi DECOLOR B Diamond Powder Lightener and hand-painted alternating diagonal back ombré slices and highlights, pulling the base color down in some areas. She let the color process for 35 minutes, then toned with PRAVANA 8.22 Light Intense Beige Blonde, adding ash and 0-volume developer. After processing for five minutes, she rinsed and conditioned.
But Brittany wasn’t done. “Her cut was God awful,” she says. “So I dry cut and blended. I think given the time I had, it turned out amazing.”
Moral of the story? If you’re a client looking for a change, don’t go to the first salon that comes up on Yelp. Do your research to find a hairdresser who knows what they’re doing, so you can all live happily ever after.
