Colouring and Extending Fine Hair Types

 

Many clients will sit in the chair with fine hair types, whether that be genetically thin hair or hair that has been damaged over time. However, it's essential to ensure that clients can still have their hair styled in a way that makes them feel confident by adapting methods and techniques to suit their hair type. Our client is looking to have the colour of their hair lightened by adding dimension with highlights, extending the length and adding to the volume of her hair. To do this, we will be lightening her hair with the combination of an Olaplex treatment to help retain the quality of the hair, followed by adding some tape hair extensions and trimming them to a length that flatters and blends with her existing hair volume.

Step 1:  We will lighten our client's hair using Loreal Studio Blonde 8 Bleach, 20 Volume Developer and Olaplex.

Step 2: As our client has a heavy side parting, we will leave this in place for our sectioning, dividing the hair into a hot cross bun section and beginning work at the back first.

Step 3:  Take your first slice at an angle at the nape of the neck, and weave back-to-back baby lights for the first three foils.

Step 4:  Once you have three foils, take the remaining hair and use the tipping out technique to backcomb the hair, weave, and apply foil to the ends of the hair.

Step 5:  Repeat this process a the front, but this time angling the foils towards the face. Apply your foils around the hairline, using the tipping out technique after three foils.

Step 6:  Once you have added foils to the front section, you can return to the back section using a broken slice and tipping out technique.

Step 7:  Use the broken slice and tipping out technique on your front sections, parallel to the parting instead of angling towards the face, which we did for the face-framing foils.

Step 8:  Now, you can move over to the other side, repeating the process and keeping an eye on the development of your first foils to ensure they don't over process.

Step 9: As the second side develops, remove the foils from your first side, using your fingers to pull the bleach through the hair to the ends. Once these have been removed, you can rinse at the basin to prevent the bleach from developing further.

Step 10:  As the second half of the hair develops, remove the foils when ready and pull the bleach through the lengths of the hair before thoroughly rinsing and washing the hair in the basin.

Step 11:  At the chair, apply your toner to the roots with a tint brush, and use a hairbrush to pull through the mid-lengths. We used RedKen Shades EQ in 4NB with gloss.

Step 12:  Once the toner has developed, rinse and wash at the basin.
It is essential to fit hair extensions on a separate day to the lightening treatment, as the hair should be washed with a cleansing shampoo before a hair extension fitting to ensure that the hair is free from product and buildup. Please note, following her lightening treatment, our client returned to us one week later to have her extensions fitted; however, for this transformation, these are shown as back-to-back treatments.

Step 13:  As our client has fine hair, we will extend it using tape hair extensions in 4/22 and 8/22.

Step 14: Section your client's hair ready to begin fitting at the nape of the neck. We are taking a larger than normal section at the nape of the neck, as our client has expressed they like to have their hair tied back, and as the hair is fine, we must have enough hair to cover the hair extension bonds effectively.

Step 15:  We applied our first row of tape hair extensions, using a tape hair extension plier to apply even pressure across the tape for a secure fitting.

Step 16:  After fitting the first row, we lifted the hair to ensure suitable coverage with her natural hair when the hair extensions were tied back before continuing.

Step 17: Work your way up the back of the head and then at an angle towards the face, continually checking that the is enough natural hair to cover the tape.

Step 18:  We spotted that some of the hair extensions we had applied to the back were visible, and these were removed using tape hair extension remover.

Step 19:  Once all the tapes we fitted, we discussed with our client the length she would like to have the hair extensions. With finer hair types, you cannot apply as many pieces of hair, and therefore cutting the hair shorter will have the most natural and flattering finished look, which is what we did with our client today.

Step 20: Once fully applied, it's time to style and reveal the finished look!