Stevie answers your hair colour questions about how to transition to grey, when to use toners and how to lighten dark hair.
When I was last in the salon, I managed to grab a few minutes with my amazing hairdresser Stevie of Stevie English Hair to answer your hair colour questions.
I was lucky to catch him as he’s been travelling around the world doing colour education sessions and photoshoots for Matrix as he is an ambassador for the brand.
Stevie is also finalist for AHFA Colourist of the Year 2017 and you can check out more of his amazing work and that of #teamenglish over on Instagram.
Hair Colour Q&A with my hairdresser – Stevie English Hair
In the video, Stevie answers your hair questions including:
Sarah:
“How often should you get your hair coloured?”
Izzie:
“When do you need to use a toner?”
Juliana:
“I want to dye my hair with something more vibrant (basically, anything but brown 😉 ), but I’m so afraid to ruin my hair ‘cause I have thick dark Asian hair. Any tips?”
Leanne:
“I currently get blonde highlights and would like to transition to my natural grey hair. What’s the best way to do this?”
Definitely follow Stevie and the team’s work on instagram at @stevieenglishhair
You can also check out what happens at my hairdresser in this video!
If you’ve got any hair questions or video requests, please leave me a comment below xx
Hi, so I am 29 and really obsessed about my dark long hair.. but recently I was so excited about getting a balayage that I went in and agreed to bleaching my hair. I now regret my decision. I got my hair colored back to my original color that’s black.
I know I can’t get my original color any soon but I need help from you as to how I can maintain my bleached and colored hair. Thank you.
Hi Bhoomi, your coloured ends need gentle care and lots of moisture. They will be drier than the rest of your hair. I’d do a weekly moisturising hair mask and try to limit heat styling too. I’d also ask your hairdresser about a colour depositing conditioner as although your hair has been coloured back, it will fade and if you can top the colour up gradually it will be easy to maintain. Good luck! x
I currently have an ombre look going. My natural hair is near shoulder leangth (it’s light brown, close to level 7, with gold and red highlights). Three years ago, I dyed my hair dark brown. HUGE MISTAKE (the natural red and gold highlights in my hair turned the brown dye green!). Luckly, a different stylist was able to correct it. The color past the natural that’s growing is reddish in color.
Since then, I’ve been wanting to get back to my natural color, with a bit of a kick–more strawberry blonde. I’ve had my hair like that before and loved it!
The only problem, though, is that every stylist I’ve been to is always afraid to touch my hair. It’s either too long (i’ts past my hips), too thick, or the ombre is too much of a color change for them to handle. They always try to convince me to do highlights, but I don’t care for highlights. I’ve had them before; it just didn’t achieve the overall look I hoped for. I’d like to stick with what previously worked: an all-over color change with highlights added a week or so later. I’d like a golden blonde all-over color with red highlights.
Also, I much prefer to go to a salon than use box dye–too many accidents. Ha!
So, my question is: How do I amp up my natural gold and red highlights by playing with an all-over color change? Or, should I wait until the ombre look is completely gone?
Color stylists are so scared to touch my hair! It’s quite humorous actually. Like it’s out of this world or something!
Sorry for the long winded question! Thank you, though, for any tips/advice 🙂
Hi Lela, your hair sounds pretty amazing! I can’t imagine how much colour you’ll need to do an all over change! That could be what is scaring stylists… If your hair in in good condition, you can definitely change colour though it may take a few appointments to get it to just the right shade. Olaplex or a similar plex product will be key to lightening your hair. It’s hard to do an all over colour with ombre as it’s so difficult to get an even transition. If you’re really keen I would go back to the salon and ask them why they keep suggesting highlights and show them photos of what you would like to do. I’m wondering if they have another reason they don’t want to do it… Definitely get another consultation and really ask why. Good luck and let me know how you go! x
Hi Christina,
Thank you so much for the tips and advice! I’ll definitely do that. Good ideas!
Hi Christina,
I’m an Indian with curly (3b/3c type), thick and very black hair.
I tried both balayage and ombre style hair colouring.
I chose different shades. To say once dark shade of brown so i could not make much difference for the result. I thought wrong color chosen.
When i opted the ombre style i wanted to go for a lighter shade. But unfortunately resulted in dark brown shade.
My stylist from India said i have to do prelightening to get the exact colour because mine is thick, coarse and black hair. And she added prelightening or bleaching dries out or will make my hair more frizzy.
So she did not want to try that on me.
Could you help me out with this? Is there any other method i can opt to dye ma hair to a lighter shade that is obvious.
Or can i do prelightening? May be with some safety measures?
Thank you
Vyshnavi.
Hi Vyshnavi, your colourist is right and you do need to prelighten your hair or use bleach to achieve a lighter hair colour. It will dry your hair but I’ve found using Olaplex that the results are much better. Look into olaplex as I would never lighten my hair without a plex product. Good luck! x
also, Stevie mentions this in the video in answering Juliana’s question about how to go lighter without the damage – watch his answer for more tips xx