What are my hair colour options for black hair? | Abingdon | Didcot | Wantage | Oxfordshire

There are some fundamentals of hair colour that are important to recognise and the approach to colouring black hair is dependent upon whether it’s virgin hair (natural hair) or coloured. Coloured hair will in most cases prove more challenging and the approach to colouring virgin hair is more straightforward. Here are some considerations before we dive in:

• Colour can’t lift colour: For example if you have coloured your hair black, applying a much lighter blonde won’t deliver your desired result. Only bleach followed by a toner will. If you’re unsure why colour can’t lift colour in most instances, this blog can help.
• Bleach isn’t a hair colour: Bleach removes pigment, it isn’t a colour. If ever you have got bleach on your clothes it isn’t something that can be washed out, rather it has permanently removed the colour of your clothes. The same applies to bleach.
• When bleach meets toner: Toners ‘grab’ onto bleach. Think of toner as a gentle colour designed to introduce colour to bleach hair only.
• What if I don’t tone my hair after bleaching?: Bleach on black hair will likely turn red or orange. The toner offers better balance, removing any visible ‘red or orange’ replacing with a likely choice of reds, violets, browns and in some cases dark blondes.
• Processing time: Bleach can only be left on for ‘up to’ one hour. Once that time has elapsed, the bleach needs to come off. Consider this as ‘health of hair’ above ‘desired colour choice’.

The balance to strike is desired colour against budget, frequency of appointment, ongoing maintenance, what looks great that also offers consistency. For example (to offer an extreme viewpoint), any colour is largely achievable in-salon, it just might require more appointments and a greater budget. We have clients that visit looking for a white blonde and if the starting point is already naturally blonde hair, typically this client might entertain a visit every two months to achieve their desired hair on a relatively modest budget. If the same were to be said for black hair, the same end result might require three times the number of appointments every two months for three times for the same end result. Ultimately the darker the starting point, typically the more patience that is required. That’s not to say that all appointments are unachievable (they aren’t and I have detailed these below), however lighter hair colours usually represent a greater challenge than warmer shades. If you do decide that you want to go much lighter and are exploring the option of lots of appointments, visit this blog about how to go much lighter.