Ready for a hair makeover? Maybe you want to trade your brunette locks for beachy Florida blonde waves. Maybe you’re transitioning from a solid, flat home hair color in search of something less harsh and more dimensional.
We can help! BUT before we touch one hair on your head, there's an important step that separates hair magic from hair disasters: the test strand.
A few reasons why test strands are vital for major color changes OR on hair that’s damaged.
A test strand is done to tell us the entire story of your hair history (from root to end) and most importantly, what result we can realistically (and healthily!) expect. Gone are the days of just throwing some highlights on your head and keeping our fingers crossed. This is a sure fire way to damage hair and give you a result you do not want.
A test strands allow us to account for SO many factors:
your current color
the color you WANT
how damaged or porous the hair is
mineral or hard water deposits from our Land O’ Lakes water
if you ever had other bleach on your hair or old hair color (yes, that color you did last year is STILL on your hair)
what color it might turn (green, anyone?)
We’ve seen it ALL and since our goal is to give you the very best outcome WHILE maintaining that integrity and health of your hair, we want to know all we can before we start the process.
Here’s how it works:
During our complimentary 15 minute consultation, we’ll section out a very small piece of hair from an inconspicuous area of your head. We’ll apply a small amount of AVEDA lightener onto the entire strand and let it process inside of a foil. (SOMETIMES we may opt to cut out a small piece of hair so we can let it process for a longer time). Once we open up the foil, we’ll be able to see the end result. We’re looking for how light it was able to get, how evenly it lightened AND if the hair still seems healthy.
This allows us to show you the result and give you more realistic options. It also tells us if we should decline the service (and sometimes we do!)
If a guest really wants to be platinum blonde but has been using dark box color for years, we wouldn’t be able to achieve this in one sitting (and not even in three sittings most likely!). That situation is a process that takes time, patience and maintenance appointments. It can be done by the right salon with the right approach and commitment from the guest.