How To Lighten Hair With Hair Extensions

In this blog, we’ll teach you how to add hair extensions to lighten your client's hair without dying it. Sometimes a professional will advise against dying hair if the hair had been recently dyed at home.

When Not To Dye Hair

Home hair dyes can create a very stubborn base colour that is not easily lifted. Our client in this video was looking to add some lighter pieces and dimensions to their hair colour, therefore we performed an essential strand test first. This is to see how the hair colour lifts and to assess the quality of the hair after lifting. Our strand test showed us that the box dye was stubborn to lift and the strand of hair was very weak, meaning that if we applied bleach to their hair, it will damage it further.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this issue - hair extensions! By using hair extensions we can add colour and dimension to our client's hair without having to apply a drop of bleach.

Hair Extension Consultation

In order to fit hair extensions, a detailed colour match and consultation is needed. First, we need to establish what our clients' current colour is by using a SimplyHair Colour Ring. Our client Beth matched with a very dark 1b/2. With the base colour established, we can now talk through with the client what colours they would like to see in their hair and show them the colours available.

We recommended to our client that if they want to add dimension and keep the look natural and subtle, they need to pick colours similar to her current shade. With this advice, our client chose to add colours 2/4, 4/6 and 6. These colours are perfect, as the 6 is significantly lighter than 1b/2, but it is still within the brown tones, and we have also included some tones that fall between the shades of 1b/2 and 6 to help blend the colours together seamlessly, with lots of dimension.

Fitting The Nano Ring Hair Extensions

For our clients hair we are fitting nano ring hair extensions, with a couple of rows of tapes to add an extra boost to the top layer and to assist in blending the hair extensions nicely.

In order to blend the lighter tones with her natural dark colour, it is important to stay away from applying the colours in any form of pattern.

So as an example, fitting them in rows using the same pattern like below is likely to result in a very stripy, chunky finish:

1b/2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6 |1b/2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6
1b/2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6 |1b/2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6
1b/2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6 |1b/2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6

Whereas a much more random and sporadic approach as shown below will better mimic a natural look.

1b/2 | 1b/2 | 1b/2 | 1b/2 | 1b/2 | 1b/2 | 1b/2
1b/2 | 2/4 | 1b/2 | 2/4 | 1b/2 | 2/4 | 1b/2
2/4 | 6 | 4/6 | 1b2 | 2/4 | 4/6 | 6 |1b/2 | 2/4
6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
1b/2 | 2/4 | 1b/2 | 2/4 | 1b/2 | 2/4 | 1b/2

This approach can be used to add light colour to dark hair, dark colours to light hair, or a custom colour depending on the client's needs. It is a great way to add colour and dimension to a clients hair if their own hair is not up to the job of lifting or colouring safely without compromising the hairs quality.