Question about Professional Hair Color

I have a question for those familiar with Professional Hair color &
highlights done at salons, and would very much appreciate comments or
advice:
I have had an all over color and highlight process done to my hair for a
long time (blonde base, with highlights to slighlity lift and warm color,
cover gray and keep some color variation).... sounds like high maintenance,
eh?
I recently changed jobs and can no longer travel 70 miles to my favorite
salon to get this process done every 6 weeks or so. My question is – does it
matter that the Salon I used to visit used Schwarzkopf permananent color,
and those in my local community seem to use either Redken or Cadas (a Wella
brand). Does the Professional Brand matter from a blending or 'quality'
perspective... or are the chemicals similar enought to blend, cover gray and
keep good condition?
I have been tempted many times to just buy a box of L'Oreal Hair color, do
this process at home, and donate the difference to charity! But, vanity and
habit prevail. My hair has always been high maintenance, from my
frizzy–haired youth, to my 'Farrah Fawcett' locks of the 80's. Way too much
overhead, but still a habit hard to break! I'm in commercial banking, so I
need to keep a professional appearance – which makes it difficult to
experiment.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Ellie

I'm surprised you have to go to the salon so often to maintain the
hightlights. I suspect your colorist is using permanent hair color to
cover the gray?
One option which you may want to consider is getting a semi–permanent
hair color to cover the gray. That way you wouldn't need to go back to
have the roots done so often. Of course this suggestion will not work
if your base color is different from your natural hair color.
If you use your own natural color as the base––or with a semi–permanent
same color rinse to cover the gray as in your case––your hightlights
should last you a few months without any need to re–touch.
I'm not a colorist so my advice is strictly from my experiences getting
hightlights.
Good luck.
––Maria

I have blonde hair (now kind of dishwater at my age). I get my hair
professionally "foiled" about 4–5 times a year. Where I live that
costs about $150 with a cut and blow dry. It seems to work well and
covers up any grey that might be coming in (I can't see it but it must
be there). So my hair is a blend of several shades of blonde all
harmonized together. I love the color and get many compliments on it.
I can't answer the questions regarding the brand of color but it would
seem as if a good professional salon would be able to do something like
this. Its not high maintenance and you don't have to religiously get
it done if the roots grow a little because it all blends in. My salon
is 3 miles from my house –seems like a long way you are driving.

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 22:32:14 –0600, "LeL" <...@starband.net>
coughed and sputtered, and managed to choke out these words:
one may have different characteristics than another, but they're
all basically the same, IME. Redken's great for covering gray.
http://www.redken.com/consumer/products/index.cfm?action=colorfaq
david
––
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/derbarbier/
(ebay sales)
http://shops.half.com/derbarbier
ten tod labolgcbs ta reibrabred

LeL wrote:
great. I'm
more
I can't afford––either time–wise or money–wise––to have my hair
colored/highlighted more often than once every two months. I was very
direct with my stylist about this, and she came up with something that
always looks great with no obvious roots; toward the end of the
eight–week cycle, my hair is brown and black and auburn and gray {its
real colors} and red and warm blonde and strawberry blonde and platinum
{highlights}, whereas at the beginning of the cycle it's more red and
less gray.
I know that probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but my guess is that
your stylist has other clients with similar constraints and has his/her
own approach to low–maintenance multiple–process color.
Good luck!
T.

Thank you for your comments and advice. And, the Redken FAQs were great. I'm
sure they will make me a better client!
I have gotten to the point where I have enough gray to cover that the
demi–permanent color that was once used (and, I might add, provided a more
seamless outgrowth) did not cover the gray or sustain the color like
permanent color does. I will ask the new stylist for ideas on how to
minimize maintenance.
Thanks again.
Ellie


"Richard Hunter" <returntosen...@ddressunknown.com> wrote in message
news:pue3v018afk4p2ptkn7tpta3o6144g2...@4ax.com...