I've never had hair colour before | Abingdon | Didcot | Wantage | Oxfordshire

Before getting stuck in, you will likely see and hear a lot of popular buzzwords. These will initially seem overwhelming however they needn’t be. So what do they all mean? To get started we have briefly summarised some of the more commonly referenced hairdressing terms below:

• Bleach: Firstly, don’t be scared. When used in a controlled environment, bleach is perfectly safe and a tool to lighten hair. Colour doesn’t lighten hair, however bleach does. You will often see bleach referenced closely with the word ‘toners’. Very simply, bleach lightens hair but it doesn’t colour… This blog walks through how to make hair go lighter.
• Toners: Toners work with bleach to ‘add your colour’. The way to think about bleach is that it will only ever achieve; red, orange or yellow (none of which are appealing shades!), so our chosen toner (your colour) is applied and ‘grabs’ onto the bleach. For example if you are naturally brown and you want to be a gold blonde, the bleach is applied, allowed to process and once lightened it’s then washed off and your toner (in this case a gold blonde) is then applied to achieve a gold blonde. To achieve gold blonde you would need both the blend and the toner in this example.
• Full Head Highlights: The easiest summary of highlights is by how much of the head is covered. A full head of highlights starts from the nape (your neck) and works to the very top of your head.
• Half Head Highlights: The application of a half head is identical to a full head, however the first foil starts half way up your head leaving the section underneath without any hair highlighted.
• T-Section Highlights: A t-section is he same principle, but fewer foils than a half head and the first foil begins even higher than a half head.
• Balayage: When you go somewhere hot on holiday, if you have long hair, the sun lightens the ends of your hair leaving a ‘sun-kissed’ look. Balayage tries to replicate this in-salon in a much more obvious way. Hair is lightened from the mid to ends of your hair for a softer more natural look.
• Tints: Very simply a tint is one colour from root to ends covering every strand of hair in your chosen colour.
• Warm Toner: Warmer doesn’t mean ‘less light’, it means the overall shade. For example; gold, auburn and caramel are warm colours. Certain hair colour and skin tones suit warmer colours.
• Cool Tones: These include but aren’t limited to ash blonde, silvery blonde, champagne blonde.
• Brassy Tones: This usually happens during the bleaching process when you achieve an undesirable colour. Toners are applied to eliminate this issue, however toners do fade over time and if not reapplied you may hear the term ‘brassy tones’.