Experiment 1: Box Blonde VS Professional Blonde

As a professional Hair stylist, people constantly ask me what the difference between box color and professional color is... and the answer? There is no ONE difference. There are several things that affect how hair color turns out when done with a box or when done professionally. Thus, I decided to do some experiments.

This is my friend Miss Suzie-Kins. She lets me do whatever I want to her hair. Including these crazy experiments. She came to me with a picture of how she wanted her hair.... (and I also talked her into a trim)

 Alright! Suzie-Kins is going for a big change! She wants to be blonde. So, here are some things that I, as a professional, consider before I even mix up color

-Has her hair been colored before? No
-Does she have any gray hair? I think I saw one...
-Is her hair resistant to color? Yes.... it's real hair but doesn't color quite as easily
-Will that shade of blonde work for her skin tone? Yes
-Does she want dimension or just one color? She wants subtle dimension
-What does she see when she looks at the picture? Everything is blonde
-What do I see when I look at the picture? I see a golden base color with a lot of beige highlights
-What is the texture of her hair? Thin, yet coarse and frizzy

From a box's point of view, here are some things that are considered


.......

....................

....................................Blonde.



Basically, the point that I want to get to is that there are so many factors to consider before changing the color of your hair and to put it bluntly, boxes just can't think for themselves. Now, on to the experiment...

Our left side is what I'm doing with my professional product and the right side is with the box color. The hair in between is to be left unchanged for comparison. Keep in mind that I put on the box color first to give it more time to develop. I followed the instructions and it gave me a max time of 35 minutes so I left it on the max time.

As I was doing this experiment, I thought, "how funny would this be if the box blonde actually turned out?" However, I didn't have to worry about that for long cause it didn't seem to be doing any changing as I let it sit. I took a close up picture so that you guys could actually see that I really did put on the color... and I drenched the hair in it. 

And my side :) You can see that it is already changing

And the results? Honestly, I was pretty shocked.... I labeled Suzie's forehead for your convenience:). P for professional and B for box

Say what!? Did the box color even do anything to the hair??? Ha! No surprise there, really. I tried to take some close up pictures because actually, the box side was tinted just a little bit. But even for my trained eye, it was hard to see.

Honestly though, it really doesn't look any different. If that was me, I would be kinda bugged that it didn't lighten my hair like it was supposed to. I even noticed on the box that it had pictures of how the hair would turn out, and it was supposed to be blonde but just a darker blonde than is indicated on the main picture.  Luckily though, it didn't turn out some funky green color.

Yay! Just what Miss Suzie-Kins wanted! I gave her a light golden base with even lighter beige highlights, but how natural does that look? Needless to say, I think she was much happier with the "P" side than she was the "B" side. And look how shiny it is. Plus, if you could touch her hair, it feels like a dream. I didn't put any product in her hair so that you could all see it with just the color.

And my baby was just a little fascinated with the head that I had sitting on the carpet so I had to take a picture. I just love that little chunk!

Next to come.... I'm thinking I'll play around with red cause I LOVE red hair. Will it work? Stay tuned!