Soft-Dimension Brunette Without Any Lightener: Here’s How
“Highlight” Your Brunette Client Without Any Foils or Lightener
You either are or have had the brunette client that wants a bit of brightness without any ribbons or caramel highlights. Laura Gibson (@lgibsoncolorist) Joico Global Artistic Creative Director shares her two-color formula and techniques to take your brunette client from dull and monotoned to naturally striking in just one visit.
The challenge: Making a visible difference in dark hair without lightener
The easiest looks seems to take the most finagling—we’ve all WAY over-foiled a brunette only to put two toners on top, right?
Instead of working backwards from the light-to-dark stage, reframe your thinking into using the base shade as your “middle” shade. This way, you can utilize a high volume developer to make the natural tone pop and a lower volume developer to deposit a deeper tone.
Here’s how to manipulate permanent hair color for a dimensional look
We promise, you will not need to grab the foils for this. Laura’s answer to the age-old problem of lightening a brunette just to put a deep tone on top is simple: Two permanent color formulas that act as a mid-tone and highlight tone.
“I love using permanent hair color for a brunette,” she says. “It’s perfect for someone who doesn’t have a ton of hair history but wants depth and dimension.”
Here is Laura’s two-part formula:
Mid-tone color
- Joico LumiShine Permanent Creme 6M (Mocha) + 20-volume LumiShine Developer
Highlight color
- LumiShine Permanent Creme 10NB (Natural beige) + 40-volume LumiShine Developer
That’s it! To watch Laura’s full demo, click here for a quick tutorial
How to ensure blended dimension & how to charge for a two-formula service
Each section is going to be hand-painted in W-shaped sections. When reaching sections at the front of the head, the closest stroke to the face is the lightest formula shade.
“The NB shade is going to be the shimmer right against the face,” Laura says. “The Mocha shade is going to bump up against that lighter shade to make a pop with a visible blend.”
How are we charging for this quick but transformative service?
Laura says, “I would charge this as a full balayage, because that is what we’re doing! In total, this service would take me less than two hours for color, a haircut and a blow-dry.”
