Customize your blonde: lowlights, toners, shadow roots

Your blonde hair has options with color and style

Contrary to what most people think, the biggest thing that differentiates one blonde from the next is not always the amount of highlights put into the hair, but the amount of blank space left in between, lowlights added in, toners, and shadow roots.  Blondes have become a lot more fun for me to do  after understanding and using more of these techniques.

Hair Color – Lowlights

Lowlights are typically a color that will be foiled or painted in to add some depth into hair.  A color picked for lowlights depends on the overall desired end result.  Some people will pick a color that is just slightly darker than the all over color they have going on, some like it drastically darker, or even more fun, we can add in some pops of blue, or green, or whatever fun color a guest may fancy!  Strategically placed lowlights can be very soft and subtle, or more dramatic for a noticeable amount of contrast.

Blonde Hair Color & Style – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇

Hair Color – Toners

If you’re someone who gets highlights, or bleaches your hair, you have probably heard your stylist mention they need to tone your hair, sometimes this can be done at the shampoo bowl in damp hair, some stylists will bring you back to their chair and dry you really well with a towel, or even blow dry before applying.  Tone refers to the color you want to see in your hair, and how much depth you want that color to have.  You may want a “cool” blonde, which refers to something with a violet, blue, or even silvery tone to it, but just a touch of that “tone” so it isn’t visibly blue per say to the eye.  So essentially what we’re doing with toners is neutralizing, which would be correcting unwanted tones in the hair color, or using a toner to add a desired certain amount of color to the hair.

Hair Color – Why Toners?

Blonde Hair Toners – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇

When we use lightener on hair it doesn’t lift right to a natural looking, pretty color right away.  It leaves the hair with raw tones that look yellowy to orange, and lack shine.  Using a color to tone those raw highlights either right after a lightening service, or in between lightening service appointments to correct any off colors caused by hard mineral deposits in our water, or from heat styling too much, gives you a prettier, desired color.  It has shine, the proper color, and overall looks so much healthier and dare I say natural looking as well, even those fun rose gold tones, or silvery/violety tones people are wearing a bit bolder lately!

Blonde Hair Toners – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇

A toner will not brighten your hair, so if your hair needs to be lighter your stylist will first have to apply a lightener in some kind of form if your hair is not light enough to pull of the tone you are looking to do.  This may have to be done in more than one step, or even appointment if you’re looking for a nice bright, icy platinum blonde end result.  If there is too much depth left in the hair you can only tone to that same level of lightness or darker.  So you may be OK with being more of a medium blonde, and in that case a toner usually to neutralize some orangey-yellow is necessary.

Hair Color – Shadow Root

Blonde Hair Shadow Roots – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇

A shadow root is another way to add depth to any hair color for many different reasons.  I like a very soft shadow root on my blondes to blend the line of highlights at the top, whether they be highlights right up to the scalp, or highlights that my guest likes a bit more “worn in.”  So as you can imagine some shadow roots will be very minimal, so these I don’t like to have much darker than my final color.  Some shadow roots can be more extended or dramatic, for this I may pick a color that is a couple of shades darker than our end color for a noticeable result.

A lot of pictures of bright blondes that have been circulating Pinterest and Instagram lately believe it or not feature a shadow root.  That bit of subtle darkness really helps the platinum blonde pop and look dimensional.

Blonde Hair Shadow Roots – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇

You can schedule a consultation, or chat with your hair stylist before your next highlight or color appointment to see how any of these methods can be used to elevate your overall hair color!  Or you can book online right here with Mallory Cook – MMC Sytle.