At Ginger & Maude, our goal when it comes to lightening services is to maintain the integrity of your hair while also making sure you leave feeling happy with your look. It is a delicate balancing act, one that we want to make sure we’re all on the same page for, so we caught up with Lead Stylist Reegan to break down exactly what goes into a lightening service and what influences how light we’ll be able to get our hair during each session.
Q: What really happens when you lighten your hair?
When you come in for a lightening service (these include: Allover Bleach, Babylights, Balayage, Foilyage, and Highlights) and have bleach put on your hair, what is actually happening is that the bleach is going into your hair and essentially dissolving the pigment there, whether it is your natural color or color that has been added in. This can be inherently damaging to hair, which is why we need to make sure that we are not only achieving the client's goals, but achieving them in a way that prioritizes the safety of their hair.
Q: What factors influence the rate at which hair will lighten?
There are two major factors that a stylist will take into consideration when deciding how much lightening your hair can truly withstand during a service.
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The hair you’re coming into the salon with:
This has to do with what you have previously done to your hair—what is often known as your hair history—and includes things like coloring services, lightening services, and straightening services (things that chemically alter the hair itself). These are all going to impact how your hair lifts and the strength of lightener we can use. If you have routinely dyed your hair a darker color, for instance, there is going to be more pigment for the bleach to work through than if you didn’t have any color added into your hair. If the integrity of your hair has been compromised from previous services, we’ll have to proceed with more caution to protect it. -
The hair that grows out of your head:
This has to do with your hair as it is naturally. Hair color, texture, porosity, cuticle size, and thickness are different factors that affect your hair’s ability to lighten and how far you can get in each step of the process safely. If your hair is naturally super dark, getting super light is going to take more of a journey to get through all the pigments that are sitting naturally in your hair. If your hair is finer or more porous and lifts really easily, we have to play it safer with the lightener we use so we don’t damage your hair.
Q: So how light can I safely get in one session?
As much as we don’t want it to be, the answer here really is, “It depends.” It is so individual to the client and their hair, and with so many factors in play, it’s impossible to say exactly how much someone’s hair can be lightened in one session without knowing that person’s hair.
If you are new to lightening your hair or have a more complex hair story, my biggest recommendation is to call or text the salon and book a consultation with a stylist. It’s fifteen minutes, it’s free, we love to chat with people about their hair and their goals. We can also do a test strand if needed, which will give us more information, and from there, we can set you up with realistic expectations for budget and how many sessions will likely be required to reach your goals. Sometimes it can happen in just one service, and sometimes it can take multiple.
Ultimately, for us at Ginger & Maude, taking the integrity of your hair into account and making sure it is safe and healthy is the priority. We want to make sure we are setting you up for success, and sometimes this will call for having an in-between color as we work toward your end goal (which, don’t worry, will still look beautiful).
To schedule a consultation with Reegan, call/text 971.267.4080. Ready to book your lightening service with Reegan? You can call, text, or click the link below!