Want new color and style - what do you suggest?

by Pam Hesse

Dark ash brown hair color

I want blond highlights, but at the salon, the highlights turn out looking grey. You can see my natural color is dark ash brown, almost black. The highlights you see in the photo are natural gray and my hair is very straight.

I need a makeover with hairstyle and color, something more youthful. I'm 58. Any suggestions?

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Soft look with lowlight highlight
by: N.F.

You will look great with highlight. The best color solution for you is to have a mix of lowlight highlight effect. With 5/1 (light ash brown) as base color and 8/1 (light ash-blonde) as highlight. This will create a natural look with a nice transition from your base color which is dark to light. Any lighter than level 8 could create too much contrast and I really don't recommend it.

Your stylist can place the colors in a way that blends nicely with your natural hair color even when the roots start to show after couple of weeks. You still need to touch-up, but it wouldn't be that obvious with this method.

I also think you should change your stylist or ask your salon for a more experienced colorist/stylist to color your hair, because your highlight shouldn't turn grey after color application.

White (grey) hair is normally a little coarser in compare to naturally pigmented hair and sometimes very resistance to hair coloring and this often create problem. If stylist not take this into consideration while preparing the color application, the resulting color could look faded and you still see the ashen grey color underneath. This could be the reason for what you experienced!

I think you look great with short hair.