Can I Lighten Already-Coloured Hair?

If you have any colour in your hair (including an all-over colour or highlights), and you want to lighten your overall colour, your options are:

1. Apply our Vitamin C Colour Pigment Remover to remove 1-3 levels of oxidative colour pigments
2. Add some highlights to soften your overall colour.
3. Do an all-over bleach wash lightening process and apply a colour lighter than your natural colour level

1) Remove added oxidative pigments (permanent, semi or demi-permanent colour pigments) with our Vitamin C Colour Pigment Remover. Powered by Vitamin C, our bleach/peroxide free antioxidant formula will lift and remove colour pigments, without damaging your hair or lightening beyond your natural colour level.

2) Adding highlights will give you a lighter multi-dimensional finish. Our Highlights Kit let you create highlights, babylights or foilyage to soften your overall colour and silhouette. Highlight applications can vary to suit your needs. You may want some subtle, super-fine babylights to add dimension and to lighten your finish, or a balayage effect. We include illustrated instructions for these different techniques in the kit. You can read more information about the highlights and order them here.

3) If you wanted to achieve a significantly lighter colour result (2-3 levels) than your natural, then you would need to do a lightening process.

You can lighten your base colour by doing a bleach wash at home, which is quite quick, easy and effective. We offer Bleach Wash Kits which include everything you need to bleach wash your hair.

The bleach washing process will lift out all the darker pigments which are currently in your hair, giving you a lighter base colour level. You can then apply a lighter colour. Please remember that colour selection post-lightening process is critical. Lightening always reveals natural warmth, so choosing a colour with cool tones after lightening is almost always essential.

We always recommend that you consult with our colourists if you are considering a lightening process. They can help advise on the process, colour and care your hair will need to achieve your colour goals.

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