My Ombre Hair Experiment + How I Achieved It!

I've been wanting a change with my hair for a while now, and after procrastinating for months, I decided to finally "ombre" or "dip-dye" my hair. 

The ombre hair trend has been really big these past couple of years among celebrities, bloggers, and well - what seems like everyone. It's in fact so popular, that there are countless tutorials on blogs, Youtube, etc on how to achieve the look yourself with a couple simple tools.

What does ombre mean? Ombre (a french word) specifically means "shadow" or "shade". If you own a lot of French cosmetics, you may have spotted the word here and there - such as Chanel Ombre Essentielle Eyeshadow or the lovely Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadows. When referring to clothing, hair, etc, it simply implies a "gradient", a graduation of a color from light to dark, or vice-versa.

So it makes sense to name this hair trend "Ombre hair", as it's a gradient of hair color. 

Here's are a few examples- 

Here's how my hair turned out-

My hair from the back

Overall, I really like it, but I'd still like to make some minor changes. I'd like a little more blond, and possibly additional highlights throughout my hair to blend it all together. I'm going to let my hair breathe for a few weeks, and by that time, I'll see what I'm going to do. 

In the meantime, I wrote out how I achieved this look to my hair, and provided the names of the products I used from Sally's Beauty Supply.

The Tools Used:

These are the products I used to achieve my hair color. They are all products I've used in the past, and have liked.

I've used the Beyond The Zone Bleach Kit several times to highlight my hair, and I've always had good results with no visible damage (of course bleaching your hair is damaging, but it was never in any worse condition than I started out with.)

I definitely recommend all of these products. 

• Beyond the Zone Radical Bleaching Kit
• Clairol Professional Creme Demi Hair Color 10N Lightest Neutral Blonde (Used as a toner)
• Ion 20 Volume Developer
• Foil

Step 1 [using bleaching kit and foil] : Divide the powder bleach and developer included in the kit in half. I will be doing two applications of the bleach.

Step 2: Since the bottom of the hair will be the lightest, decide how far up your hair you want the lightest shade to reach. (I covered roughly 4 inches of my ends) Divide your hair in sections. I divided all of my hair in six sections- three sections on each side of my head.

Step 3: You can use a brush (included in kit) or your gloved hands to apply the bleach mixture to the ends. Cover the ends with bleach mixture. *They key to making the ombre look natural, is that you don't want to apply the bleach in a precise line. Where the color ends, use the brush sideways and paint several small brush strokes, and then rub it in between your fingers, envisioning that you want the newly bleached hair to diffuse softly into your unbleached hair. You want a natural gradient. 

The lines represent brush strokes. The image on the right shows the correct way of applying the bleach. (I apologize if it's not easy to comprehend in writing)

Apply the bleach to each strand of hair.


Step 4: Then, wrap foil around the area where the bleach was applied. It's not completely necessary, but it makes everything cleaner while you're waiting for the bleach to process.

It depends on the color of your hair for the time you need to keep the bleach in. Open the foil every now and then to check on the progess.


Step 5: You should see subtle blonde tones before removing the foil completely. After around 25 minutes, I took the foils out and rinsed the ends. You may require more or less time.

Step 6: After rinsing/washing your ends, blowdry (or air dry) the ends with low heat.

Step 7: Now, repeat, but this time, we are going to apply the bleach higher up. I used my hands for this - I put some bleach mixture in my palm and rubbed it in my hands and applied it to my hair as if I was applying a finishing cream to my hair. Starting from the back of the middle of my head, I brought the product down my hair, very lightly coating each section. To further blend the product, comb through the hair with a brush/comb. Then, saturate the ends as done previously, and wrap the strands in foil again.

I wanted to add a few lighter strands near the frame of my face, so with my hands, I grabbed a couple of strands that fall on the sides of my face and lightly coated them with the bleach mixture. I also pulled a couple strands through my bangs for color.

Step 8: Leave the bleach in for around 25 minutes again (periodically open the foil to check the progress.) 

Step 9: Wash your hair. 

Step 10: Mix equal parts of the semi-permanent dye with the Ion 20 Developer. Saturate your hair with the mixture, concentrating the product on your ends (the areas with the most yellow/orange-brassy tones). Leave it in for around 25 minutes. 

Step 11: Wash hair. I used Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo to further reduce brassy tones. Apply a deep conditioner, concentrating on the ends. I used a sample pack of One n Only Argan Oil Moisture Repair Conditioner and left it in my hair for about 10 minutes and rinsed with cool water. 

That's it!

Here's a breakdown of what I was wearing on my face-

Face:
Revlon Colorstay Whipped Creme Makeup in Warm Golden (Review soon to come!)
MAC Studio Finish Concealer & MAC Pro Longwear Concealer
Guerlain Meterorites (to set foundation)
MAC Nude on Board Pro Longwear Bronzer
MAC Crew Highlight Powder

Brows:
Maybelline Master Shape Eyebrow Pencil

Eyes:
Nars Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base
MAC Satin Taupe Eyeshadow (all over lid)
MAC Soba Eyeshadow (blended in crease)
MAC Handwritten Eyeshaow (define crease and outer-v)
Bobbi Brown Black Ink Gel Eyeliner (top and bottom lash line)
Covergirl Lash Blast Mascara

Lips:
In some of the photos I'm wearing Revlon Strawberry Shortcake Lip Butter (light pink) and MAC Morange Lipstick (neon orange)

*As a disclaimer, I'm not a hair stylist, I just like to experiment a lot with my hair! If you're interested in doing the same thing to your hair - do lots of research! Bleach is damaging to your hair, so you have to be very careful when using it on your own. Getting it professionally done is your best bet, unless you have experience with hair dye, etc.

This style isn't for everyone, so I won't be offended if you don't like it! I think it's a fun look for the time being. :)

Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you all soon!

xoxox