Tweaking My Hair Color: A Change for Fall

Do you ever feel like you need a change? Especially with the change of season, I like new things. New clothes, new shoes. New hair?

For a while now, I’ve been asking my colorist, Laurel, at Vidal Sassoon to try something a little different. I told her I wanted to try strawberry blonde color rather than the deep copper that we usually do. She has never been enthusiastic about it. For one thing, red hair fades so easily that starting out a lot lighter, especially during the summer, could be a disaster. I’d be blonde in a couple of weeks. I said let’s wait till fall.

Malibu Hair Treatment

Today I came in early for my hair appointment to get a Malibu hair treatment. What’s a Malibu, you ask? Malibu is a brand and type of hair treatment that removes excess buildup of hair color, of minerals from hard water, of chlorine from a swimming pool. My coarse hair is very porous, and it absorbs the hair color that’s applied every month. After a few months, the color looks muddy. A Malibu hair treatment helps return it to a fresh state.

How does it work? My colorist mixes the Malibu treatment with hot water. An assistant applied the Malibu to my shampooed, wet hair with a paint brush and then with her gloved hands. She puts my saturated hair in a plastic shower cap type thing, and then I sat under the heat for a half hour.

The process removes the color/excess buildup from my hair. When fresh color is applied afterwards, it looks more vibrant and the color is more even across all of my hair.

Changing My Shade of Red

But since the Malibu removes color, when I looked in the mirror today, I noticed my hair was almost but not quite the strawberry blonde that I wanted. So I asked Laurel again about tweaking my color and trying something a little different. This time she agreed. She remixed my cream color dye to alter the shade. She applied the cream color to my roots for a half hour. Then she mixed up a new “rinse” (a color conditioner) that brightens and adds shine, and that was applied to all my hair. Then I sat under the heat for 15 minutes to help the rinse get activated and absorbed. Finally, it was rinsed out and a regular hair conditioner was applied. Then it was dried and styled.

My hair is definitely a different shade of red that is quite visible in person. In photos, I’m not so sure it looks so different from my usual 😉

I love the new shade for autumn. It is a lighter shade and much more orange, but it reminds me of maple leaves that have changed color. In the sun especially, it was quite striking. I like bold hair color so this made me happy.

I am afraid it will fade because this time Laurel didn’t pull the cream color dye through to the ends of my hair, she just applied it to the roots and later applied the bright rinse on all of my hair. But I’m eager to see how well it will last. And next month, she’ll apply the cream dye all over before finishing with the bright rinse. We’re going to give it a couple of months and then decide whether to do this shade for a while or go back to my deeper copper shade.

From time to time, we all need a change whether dramatic or subtle. Have you changed anything up for autumn?

Allison Cohen

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