Box Color for hair or Professional highlights? What To Do?

CULTURE LIFESTYLE

BOX COLOR OR PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS? WHAT TO DO?

If you know anything about me and my hair, you know I’m in the “lazy natural” camp. I wear my hair in protective styles more than I wear my hair out just free and flowing because my hair in a protective style means I don’t have to comb it, twist it, braid it or do much of anything else to it besides keeping it clean. And protective styles can last anywhere from a week to a few months depending on the style.

All of that being said, I suddenly got bored with my protective styles, (braids, puffs, twists, buns, wigs) and I decided I wanted to wear my own hair out this summer. Why you ask? No reason in particular, you know us women get bored with our hair literally all. the. time. So I wanted something different… something new. And this is what led me to want to color my hair because if I’m going to wear my hair out this summer, then I needed it to POP! Enter the drug store color which was called “Honey Blonde” by Clairol Textures & Tones which turned my dark hair a sort of sandy red (see above left, get it here if you’re interested). Now listen, in the box color’s defense, I was fully aware that I wouldn’t get full blown blonde highlights on my hair because your hair has to be lifted several shades to get to a super light color which box color won’t really achieve on dark hair.

@chanelnbr5 how this new hair looks in outdoor light. Plus my poncho turned kimono 📷🎥 #hairtok #diytok #pov ♬ lil wayne - ㅤ

The sandy red color that I achieved from the box color that you saw above was… not what I had in mind. My husband assured me that you could see the color really well.. outside in the daylight. Or in really well lit spaces. But I wanted to be able to see my hair color in low light! When it’s nighttime! So that’s when I got myself online and did an inquiry on the New Orleans Facebook Group, WHERE BLACK NOLA GETS STYLED and found Kelly White with Kelly White Hair. And long story short, we did a hair consultation a few days before I booked with her and she got my color vibrant and beautiful with an additional deep condition and trim (I got partial highlights since I only wanted blonde color in the front of my hair and not the back). She even color-corrected a small area that I told her I didn’t mean to color. She paid attention to the smallest details. Now she wasn’t cheap, but her expertise on coloring hair was worth it to me and I’m happy with my results!

Now to answer the question on whether or not you should use box color or go to a salon professional to color your hair? Well if you have dark hair, you can look at my experience, but it’s going to come down to your own personal situation. Maybe you have experience with coloring your own hair and you’re comfortable with doing it yourself, or you’re someone who isn’t as confident doing it yourself and just want to get the results you’re after the first time around. In my situation after trying to color my hair myself, then not being fully satisfied with the results, doing a hair consultation before booking a hair color appointment went a long way towards putting me at ease. So I’d say just do your research before embarking on any type of hair bleaching treatment and make sure your hair is healthy enough to go through that process. I hope sharing my experience helps someone else! Now I want to know, have you colored your own hair before? Had it professionally done? Let me know your hair coloring experiences in the comments!