Ombre Hair | The No Damage Way

Ombre hair has been doin’ it’s thang that last couple of years and I love the way it looks.  When ombre is done right, it’s a real head turner.   I wants it bad!

In case you are confused about the difference between balayage and ombre hair, (I was), Balayage refers to the type of highlights that start a few inches down from your scalp and are a little heavier at the bottom.  Think, Giselle.  It looks as if you spent a lot of time vacationing.  Yes, vacation as a verb.  So you’d always have fresh highlights coming in, but the majority of the highlights would be near the end.

Ombre is a color technique where the bottom of your hair is a shade or two lighter than the hair on the top of your head.  I know this sounds terrifying, but done right, it can look beautiful.  Think when Rachel Bilson did ombre.

Both processes usually involve bleach or a serious developer.  Coloring my hair/touching up my roots every 4 weeks for the past 12ish years makes me SCARED to do more to it.  I don’t want to damage my hair with extra bleach, especially on my ends.

I had a set of platinum blonde hair extentions from my days as a blondie.  Just sitting around in a drawer, waiting to be loved.

SO…my little brain thought, why not try to color the top of the extensions and leave the bottom blonde and then you will have clip in ombre hair for whenever you want it which is exciting just to type. 

What I used:

1.  Set of extensions.  Again, I used my old platinum blonde set that no longer matched my hair.

2.  Coconut oil.

3.  Hair dye.  I used L’Oreal Excellence in Reddish Blonde.

4.  A long plastic bag.  It’s gonna look a little Dexter-but-for-hair up in here for a minute.

5.  Gloves.  Mine came in my boxed color.

How to Ombre your extensions:

1.  Go piece by piece, don’t do them all at once.

2.  Put a dab of coconut oil on the bottom 3 inches of hair.  You won’t be coloring this area and the oil with help keep it healthy.

3.  After mixing the color, apply it from the clips down to the mid shaft of the extensions, leaving the bottom 3 to 4 inches without dye.

4.  Repeat for each piece, stacking them on top of each other while they are processing.

5.  Leave the color on for the recommend time, rinse color out until the water runs clear.

6.  Shampoo and condition the extensions as you would your regular hair. I would recommend using products for dyed hair.

7.  Spray a light detangler in the extensions, comb through them gently, hang them or lay them out to dry.

How to style into your hair:

1.  Style them how you have styled the rest of your hair.  Curl them, straighten them, you get it you get it you get it.

2.  Clip them in so that the bottom inch or two peeks out from your hair.

3.  Style them together so the extensions blend seamlessly with your hair.

YAY YOU OMBRE’D!!  Sorry for all the pics, this is just kind of my life’s work right here.  My thesis if you will.

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Stay Glam!