Hair Adventures : Going from Blonde to a Silver/Lavender Gradient !

Getting to this hair color was a learning experience... in terms of what products do & do not work for certain things... Today, I'm going to be a "What I did to reach my desired hair color" kind of post, just in case any one out there would like to venture into the lilac / silver / gray hair color. I'm thoroughly loving the gradient effect my hair has gotten!

I want to first start off saying that if you have naturally blonde, virgin hair, this color will be so easy for you to achieve. If you have a darker hair color [ red, brown, black ] you are going to need to bleach your hair. With bleaching comes damage. Back when I first started my blog, I decided to go back blonde from a brown-ish red color. It's been a very long time since then, & throughout those months, I've only been bleaching my roots. However, I've been dying my hair since I was in my teens.

Let's start off with the bleaching process :

I currently use N Rage's White-Out Kit. It has everything you need in there to bleach : A 40 Volume Developer, conditioning toner, bleach powder, gloves, & a small applicator. 

I had to use multiple boxes to get my entire head of hair bleached blonde. For me, it takes about 3 1/2 to 4 boxes of this to bleach my hair. There are plenty of other options for bleaching, but I've been using this kit on my BFF's hair for years, so I trust this kit.

I cannot repeat myself any more that bleach is damaging, so I highly recommend a good hair mask after bleaching. My top two picks are :

Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Masque

 If you can really splurge on a hair masque, I'd go for this one. I haven't been able to purchase it in awhile, but from previous experience, it's amazing & does wonder for my curly, frizzy, coarse hair.

But if you'd rather a cheaper option :

One n' Only Argon Oil Restorative Mask

I keep running back to this mask since it also works wonderfully. Fairly inexpensive.

Getting into how I went about achieving my hair color.

Around my roots & a little more down, I was a very bleach blonde, towards my ends, got a bit more orange blonde. For some reason, my ends just looked odd to me.

I read & watch a whole mess of tutorials on how to successfully achieve the hair color I wanted. My first stop into Sally's Beauty Supply, I bought these :

Shimmer Lights Blonde & Silver Shampoo & Conditioner

Super effective toners. These two are normally used to just get the brassy, yellow colors out of blonde hair colors. Since purple cancels out yellow, these two, in unison, work amazingly well. I applied this ALL OVER MY HAIR, from ROOTS TO ENDS, for about 2 or 3 hours. You can leave this in as long as you'd like, but be forewarned, this WILL tint your hair lavender if left in too long on the lightest of blonde hairs. 

After the 2-3 hours I left the shampoo in, I rinsed it out, applied the conditioner for another 5 minutes, & rinsed that as well.

The roots & a good amount of my hair took to this method, HOWEVER, a lot of my hair did not. The toners just wouldn't allow those hairs to budge, so I was left with silver, lilac, & ash blonde hair. 

Next day, I just took the conditioner to my ends & allowed that to sit for about 1-2 hours.

Still no signs of budging. 

At this point, I knew that toning my ends wasn't going to do me any good. I needed a dye to help me out. In search, of a gray hair dye, I remembered that Ion came out with a Titanium hair dye that was semi-permanent. Of course, every Sally's store was completely out. I spoke to one of the ladies at the store near where I live & she pointed me towards a new product that hit their stores not too long ago.

Blonde Brilliance Toner in Lilac & Blonde Brilliance 25 Volume Developer

I was hoping when purchasing this, it would be the answer to all my prayers. That wasn't the case at all. I tried using this with the developer as well as just using the toner straight from the tube. Nothing was making that ash blonde color budge. I would assume that if you had just white blonde hair or light ash blonde hair, unlike mine, you'd be able to use this, no problem.

Calling more Sally's stores around my work, trying to find the Titanium hair dye, I was still coming up unlucky. I knew there are other toners/dyes I could use, but I would have had to purchase them online. I didn't want to wait. So I did more research & made a final purchase at Sally's.

My original idea was to use these items first :

Wella Color Charm 050 Cooling Violet & Salon Care 20 Volume Creme

I read a lot of great things about this toner. YES, ANOTHER TONER, but I bought it with good reason. I also did a bit of research on this toner & watched a few youtube vids on how well this toner worked. I was going to use this first, but ended up not. I didn't want to use another toner if it wasn't going to work & I wanted immediate results. Which led me to...

Ion Color Brilliance Brights Lavender Semi-Permanent Creme Hair Color

I read somewhere that the lavender dye could also give you that silvery color I wanted. I opted to try this method out before slapping another toner into my hair. This dye is supposed to be used directly, but I chose to dilute it with a hair mask. Any conditioner will work as long as it's a white color. I mixed about half a tub of hair mask along with half a tube of the hair dye & applied it only to the hairs that needed to be dyed. I then blended the dye up so that the gradient would look good. Surprisingly enough, the mix did WONDERFUL on dying my hair EXACTLY how I wanted it. I still have a tube & 1/4 left of the hair dye, so I have enough for later touch ups.

I washed & conditioned with the Shimmer Lights duo & used an after-color care packet from Ion to seal the color in. 

FINAL RESULTS!

With flash on phone.

 With flash on camera.

I'm overjoyed at how my hair came out. The lavender dye actually did give me the colors I was going for. I plan to use the Shimmer Lights duo to upkeep my silver roots & use the dye mix to touch up my ends when needed.

& I was feeling extra cool & took photos.

SELFIE TIME!

I was feeling super cute with my hair.

Of course I had to spruce up my two favorite photos!

<3 <3

Hope you've enjoyed adventuring with me. If you have any questions about my hair & how I got it to the color it is now, please leave a comment!

Have a wonderful day my lovies!

LUBYOU <3