Fashion and Hair Style Category

For a gradual change in hair color, hair lighteners work excellent and are easy to use. Lighteners are the most natural way to add dimension to your hair color, without putting in an extreme amount of effort. In addition to this, lighteners are ideal for someone with dirty blonde-to-light brown hair; plus people with darker hair can benefit from hair lighteners too.

Now some might say that people can just visit a salon or buy a cheap hair dye kit. However, salon visits are expensive, and the chemicals in cheap at-home dye is extremely harsh on your hair. So if at-home dye kits and salon visits don’t appeal to you, perhaps some store-bought or do-it yourself hair lighteners will do the trick! That being said, here are some of the most common hair lighteners.

Hair Lightening Methods

Sun

The most basic, natural hair lightener is the sun. You have probably noticed how your hair is lighter during the summer months after being outside, sun bathing and/or swimming. This is because it’s the opposite of your skin since your hair gets lighter instead of getting darker.

All you need to do is lay out in the sun with your hair fanned-out above your head to soak up the rays. Don’t forget to wear sunblock on your skin, and if you have ever experienced sunburn on the scalp, try investing in an oil-free sunblock to apply to your scalp. Assuming you’re planning on swimming or exercising, reapply the sun block frequently throughout the day.

If your hair is dark, try swimming in a pool treated with chlorine before sunbathing to speed up the natural lightening process. You can also try swimming in an ocean, lake, pond, or any other body of water to have the same effect over a slightly longer amount of time.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide can be used as a bleaching agent, as well as a hair lightener, and has been used for many years. It’s not the chosen method for everyone, but it isn’t as harsh as a do-it-yourself box of hair dye, or costly like a visit to the salon (Salon vs. At-Home Hair Color). If you’re inexperienced in bleaching hair with hydrogen peroxide, there are peroxide-based bleaching kits at local beauty stores that include directions for you to follow.

Before spraying a bottle of peroxide onto your hair, do a strand test on a small section of hair located on the back of your head. It’s important to perform a strand test 24 hours before bleaching the rest of your hair to avoid allergic reactions, and to also know how long to let the peroxide process on your hair. Always use hydrogen peroxide in well-ventilated rooms, and the same goes for every other hair coloring treatment. Also, never use any kind of home cleaning bleach product on your hair because it could severely damage your skin and hair.

Tea

The women of the world have been working hard on unique ways to change their hair color and enhance their natural beauty. A product of this effort includes tea, which is amazing because it can be used to lighten dark hair, as well as darken blonde hair. To use it, all you need is the average, run-of-the-mill tea that you drink. Steep your hot tea and allow it to cool; then apply it to your hair with a sprits bottle, and allow your hair to dry under natural sunlight. Be sure that your hair has been shampooed and conditioned prior to using the tea.

Lemon

Using lemon is the most common way to lighten hair naturally at home. Lemon juice needs to be diluted with water before it is applied to hair because it’s very acidic, which causes hair to become dry and brittle. Also, it has been known to cause some women’s hair to appear gray when not diluted enough. For a safe way to achieve a naturally lightened hair color, add one tablespoon of lemon juice to one gallon of water. You can either use this solution as a standard rinse, or combine with other ingredients for more effective results.

If you choose to use the diluted lemon juice solution alone to lighten your hair, rinse your hair with the solution once a day; you will gradually see a change in your hair’s color. Once you’ve noticed your hair becoming lighter, reduce the amount of lemon juice in the water.

Lemon Juice Concentrated

For a more abrasive approach to lightening hair, use concentrated lemon juice contained in a spray bottle. Whenever you go swimming outdoors, make sure to have your spray bottle full of concentrated lemon juice handy, and spray your hair every time you step out of the water, then let your hair dry. Once your hair is dry, get back in the water and repeat the process as many times as you want. Just remember that lemon juice is acidic, and can cause hair to become dry and brittle.

Lemon Juice and Olive Oil

You can throw in some nutrients while lightening your hair when you add some olive oil to lemon juice. This way, you will be fighting off damage at the same time you are lightening your hair.

Chamomile Tea and Lemon

Use Lemon juice in combination with chamomile tea for a bleaching effect. Use the two ingredients together as a rinse for best results.

Lemon Juice and Conditioner

If you have 20-30 minutes to spare, use hair conditioner to dilute lemon juice, and apply the solution to your hair using a comb or brush. Let it process on your hair for 20 or so minutes, and then shampoo as normal. Do this a few times to get natural-looking, lighter hair.

Rhubarb

Rhubarb isn’t just for pie anymore! Use it to lighten your hair by taking a 0.5 cup of freshly chopped rhubarb, and mix it with 2 cups of boiling hot water. Let the mixture cool and strain it into a container; then use this as a rinse on your hair.

Once you’ve lightened your hair, it’s important to use color-treated-specific products to maintain the health of your hair.

Going short is becoming popular these days, but once you’ve chopped all of your hair off, what do you do with it? If you have the basic hair tools like a straightener, a curling iron, a blow-dryer, mousse, hairspray and anti-frizz serum, you’re off to a good start already. But even with the right tools, it can be challenging to pull off a short hair style no matter how easy the women on TV make it look. Since you don’t have a team of stylists following you around, you need to take matters into your own hands. This being said, here are some hair styling tips use can use when styling your short hair.

6 Tips for Styling Short Hair

Choose the Right Shape

The first thing to think about when getting a short hair style is the shape you want to have. There are a variety of short hair styles to choose from, and you should talk to a stylist about what would look good on you before taking the scissors to your strands. Take into consideration your face shape, face size, and hair type to avoid getting a hair style that is totally wrong for you.

For example:
You shouldn’t get a pixie cut if you have a long face because you’ll look too much like a boy! And remember: unlike a new blow-dryer, you can’t return the haircut you’ve purchased.

Body and Lift

The blow-dryer is one of the most versatile tools for adding body and lift to short hair, but not everyone knows how to use it. Just by using a round brush in combination with a blow-dryer, you are able to achieve more body and lift. A round thermal brush will give you the same look, but is sometimes troublesome if you get it stuck in your hair.

Use products designed to give more body, in combination with your blow-dryer and fingers to create a messy, but classy just-woke-up look.

Volume and Texture

For more volume and texture, dry your hair; when it is about half-dry, apply a dime-sized amount of styling gel, balm, or mousse to your hair. Work the product through starting underneath the hair, and begin blow drying using your fingers to tousle, lift, and tease your hair (or use a finger diffuser attachment on your dryer).

To get more fullness, section off small parts of your hair and blow dry your hair working from the tips up to the roots. To make the style more put-together, try using a curling iron to touch up the tips, and then add styling paste to add texture.

Smooth and Shiny

To get a smooth and shiny short-haired look, begin by using a towel to dry your hair as much as possible. The closer your hair gets to being dry, the closer it gets to its natural form. Plus, you will avoid stressing and damaging your hair by removing the bulk of the moisture, and you’ll save time by drying it too.

Once you’ve taken the extra moisture off, apply a styling product evenly throughout the hair, and begin sectioning your hair off with clips.

Clip the top layers so that you can start blow drying the under layers. Aim the dryer downward starting from the roots, and moving toward the tips using a bristle paddle brush; this will give you the smooth finish you want. Be sure that your hair is fully dry before starting on another layer of hair because if the hair isn’t dry, it will go back to its natural form.

Complete the style with a shine spray to take care of any frizz, and avoid brushing your hair once you’ve finished styling.

Hot Rollers and Curls

Dry hair thoroughly before using heated rollers; along with this, most stylists will suggest using hot rollers when hair hasn’t been washed recently. Cover your hair in hairspray before dividing it into even sections using a fine-toothed comb.

Start at the crown of your head, then work your way down the back, and finally to the sides. Comb the first section of your hair; then spray again before rolling it onto a roller.

You will get the best results by using sections that are smaller than the roller being used. Using a section of hair that is too big will lessen the tension, and make the curl less likely to hold. To help the hair stay in place, put a piece of paper between your hair and the roller, then roll your hair around the roller, and pull the ends until you don’t see the ends; this eliminates those annoying fish hooks.

Try twisting your hair before putting it on the rollers because this gives you more of a spiral curl than a bouncy curl.

Coloring Your Short Hair

Coloring your short hair is another big decision, and there are several things to take into account here like the color of your skin. When using skin tone to measure hair color, people divide skin tones into two sections: warm and cool.

Warm skin tones are olive, brown, or gold in color. Someone with a warm skin tone should avoid using cooler hair colors like black or dark brown because the contrast can sometimes be too harsh. People with cooler skin tones include those with blue-white, rose, or pale skin. Cool skin tones who use warm hair colors like red or light brown will also have harsh contrast.

If you decide to dye your hair or get highlights, it looks best when you go a shade or two darker (or lighter) than your natural hair color, so that you don’t have unattractive contrast.

In any case, short hair can be just as versatile and sexy as long hair, so don’t be afraid to change your hair length, color, and shape. You can play-up your new look by changing makeup and accessories to draw more attention to your face.

The best part of having short hair is being able to show off your neck, shoulders, and ears. So put some body shimmer lotion on your shoulders to highlight them, wear some big earrings, and wear a shirt that will show off your neck.

Successfully recoloring your dyed hair depends on a number of things, including the type of hair color product you first used, the health of your hair, and how long ago you dyed the hair. Of course, there are quite a few other factors you should consider before choosing to undergo a second dyeing. This being said, here are some tips and guidelines that will improve your chances of recoloring success at home.

Current Health of Hair

When you’re looking into recoloring your hair, you should make sure that your hair is going to be strong enough to handle having more chemicals added to it. After all, the last thing you want to do is wreck the health of your hair by recoloring it too soon. If you’ve gone to a salon for professional coloring, you can revisit the same salon and ask them to perform a recolor two weeks after the initial job.

Assuming that you’ve done your own color at home, wait two weeks between performing another dyeing. If your hair is breaking off easily, dry and/or or has an increased amount of split ends, do not perform a recolor. Instead of recoloring, opt to use a hot oil treatment, or quality deep conditioner to help repair the damage first.

Timeline For Recoloring

If you’ve picked a hair color that looks completely unattractive on you, or you simply want a different look, there are a couple of options to choose from. Assuming you used semi or demi-permanent hair dye, you should first shampoo a few times to see if your color fades to a lighter, more appealing shade.

If this doesn’t work, you should wait two weeks before attempting to fix the bad dye job. The reason why is because choosing to re-dye your hair too soon after an initial color treatment risks further damage to the hair follicles – leaving your strands severely dry and brittle. A couple of other things to worry about with hasty recolorings include purchasing the wrong color for your hair, and your hair absorbing too much or too little color due to the condition it’s in.

The at-home hair dyeing systems suggest waiting four-to-six weeks between any big changes to your hair; this rule also includes perms and highlights. The four-to-six weeks between color or other chemical treatments is the amount of time that your roots typically need to grow back out. You don’t want to use too many chemical treatments on your hair in a short amount of time because it can cause major damage to your hair.

Semi-Permanent Product

You can recolor hair after 6-to-12 washes when you use a semi-permanent hair dye. To help the color last even longer than 6-to-12 washes, use products designed for color-treated hair. But please use caution when recoloring your hair before the color has washed/faded out since this can put your hair’s health at risk.

Demi-Permanent Product

If you’ve used demi-permanent dye to color your hair, you need to hold out on recoloring your hair for 2 or 3 weeks to protect its health. If you’re experimenting with new hair colors, using a semi or demi-permanent hair color is the best option; once you’ve found a color you’d like to keep, begin using a permanent hair dye for longer-lasting color.

Permanent Product

The reason permanent hair dye won’t wash out or fade is because the chemicals used are able to penetrate the outer layer of the hair shaft. Once the hair has been penetrated, the natural pigments dissolve, which allows them to be replaced with pigments in the color solution. For better or for worse, this process permanently changes the color of hair strands.

If you’ve found a color that you like, and want to continue using the product, a permanent hair color is the best way to go because it won’t wash out of your hair. Permanent hair color allows you to go 4-to-6 weeks without coloring your hair again. And the nice thing is that you’ll know when you need a recolor as soon as the roots begin to grow in.

If you choose to recolor your hair before the end of the four-to-six week waiting period, you will have to use deep conditioning treatments to replenish the moisture taken away by the chemicals in the hair dye or chemical treatment. Deep conditioning products aren’t always the solution for keeping hair healthy after multiple color treatments, so be cautious not to over-process your hair.

Root Touch-Up

If you’ve colored your hair with permanent color, you’ll have growth showing in your roots. And this means that you’ll want to perform a root touch-up in between hair colorings.

But remember, don’t use anything other than products designed for root touch-ups since the root touch-up products only affect the surface of hair strands. Instead, try using root touch-up pens like the one made by Oscar Blandi called Pronto Colore Root Touch Up & Highlight Pen. It comes in a variety of shades, and is easy to use. Other options for root touch-ups include the following: Clairol Root Touch-Up, TouchBack (in a variety of shades) or L’OREAL Feira Excellence to-go.

Basic Information

If you’ve found a home hair coloring product that you enjoy using and offers good results, continue using this product according to the directions, and also keep your hair’s health in mind. It’s easy to damage your hair, but it isn’t easy to repair the damage.

Along with this thought, some hair dyes are more harsh than others, and you might go months before noticing hair damage. To keep from exposing your hair and skin to harsh chemicals too often, wait as long as possible between recoloring your hair.

Don’t continue using products that cause skin burning, rashes, or other forms of allergic reactions from ingredients in the hair dye. As long as you keep all of the aforementioned advice in mind, you should be safe to start recoloing your hair.

While wearing your hair as long or as short as you want is a decision that’s totally up to you, sometimes your hair has other ideas.

And when your hair is fine, those ideas mean lank, volumeless locks stopping you from styling your hair how you want to, and causing lots

of frustration.

Rather than forcing your hair to be something it’s not, however, why not try working with your fine hair characteristics to find a hair length that will suit you and give you a great look, every time!

The Best Length for Fine Hair

The best length for fine hair is short to medium.

Fine hair is very prone

to knots and fly-away strands and naturally lacks volume so anything longer than your shoulders is going to r

eally hit you hard when it comes to styling.

We recommend taking

your hair to a length that is as short as you are comfortable and confident with, and to opt for hairstyles that add vol

ume and promote the illusion of thickness.

Short Hair Length Ideas

A short look for fine hair should have plenty of volume and promote a thicker look. Add curls or waves

(right) with a curling iron or hot hair rollers, or go for a straight look with plenty of piecey texture thanks to som

e hair gel (left).

Medium H

air Length Ideas

As for a medium length look, add thickness with heavy blunt cut bangs (left) or volume filled waves (right), and keep your length hovering around your shoulders so you get just the right amount of weight and balance.

If you’d like to see more short and medium length hairstyles to suit fine hair, try our Find Your Perfect Hairstyle Consultation. It will allow you

to choose your fine hair texture (as well as other personal attributes) and then recommend hairstyles from our range that will suit you. You can then try the hairstyles on in our virtual hairstyler with your own photo!