Springtime brings sunshine, warmer weather, and a reintroduction of brighter colors into our wardrobes. Easter in particular sees an abundance of pastel shades everywhere from clothes to candy. In honor of the holiday weekend, we wanted to feature some of our favorite pastel hair, and talk a little bit about what it takes to reach the elusive shades of lavender, periwinkle, mint, and coral. The steps to attaining pastel hair are extensive, so stylist Aspen Teal helped break it down simply. According to Aspen…
Step One: Any piece that you want to be pastel must be lightened to white or almost white. This requires a bleach application, and depending on how much hair you have or want to be pastel, this first step can be quite extensive.
Step Two: The first round of bleach often requires a toner (not quite a full hair color, toner removes unwanted tones from the hair… often used on blonde hair to remove the brassy/yellow tones).
Step Three: The hair must be blow-dried before the color can be applied.
Step Four: If the hair was lightened enough with the first bleach out and toner, then the chosen pastel color can be applied. If not, Steps One through Three must be repeated.
Step Five: Haircut. If you don’t want to cut your hair, you should probably reconsider going platinum/pastel. The bleach can sometimes compromise the ends of hair, and a trim is almost always required with this extensive process.
All of these steps add up in time, and achieving pastel hair can often take several hours in the salon. Aspen says, “minimum four!” but she stresses that depending on the length, thickness, starting color, or if you have box dye on your hair, that it could take much longer and may even need to be broken up into two sessions.
Pastel hair is gorgeous, and once achieved, we love the look, but anyone considering pastel should also know that it requires quite a bit of upkeep. If your hair is not already a very light blonde, you will need regular root touch ups, and if you want to keep the color, pastels fade within approximately three weeks. Plan to get to know your stylist really well, as you will probably visit them at least once a month.
If you're considering platinum or pastel hair, check out this awesome article from BuzzFeed about the process of going platinum.