I tentatively bought a voucher from Living Social to get highlights, a cut and blow dry. I say…read moretentatively because it is always risky trying somewhere new, and a part of me wondered if a salon doing vouchers was quality enough. However, I looked at Blonde Ink's Facebook page and the majority of the reviews seemed to be great, so I threw caution to the wind. I'm fair skinned, and highlight my dark blonde hair with cool blonde tones, any hint of gold or brassiness in my hair looks terrible against my face. I had been doing my own highlights (pure bleach in foils) for some time, but it's VERY awkward to do yourself, hence my search for a hairdresser. I write this not to sing my praises as a do-it-yourselfer, but to give an example of how easy it is to get a cool blonde effect in my hair.
My appointment was at 9am. I showed up on time and waited until 9.20am for Tatjana Vaune to arrive. This wasn't a big deal, stuff happens. I find from experience that showing a picture of what I want is smarter than trying to explain in words, so I pulled up a picture of the cool shade that I was after on my i-phone. Tatjana seemed to know exactly what I meant, making promises which I gladly lapped up of 'natural' and 'cool'. I felt maybe I had made a good decision after all. She then suggested a demi-permanent for the rest of my hair, which came at an additional cost of $40. I have always found that anything other than bleach on my hair tends to come out orangey, brassy, gingery - all those adjectives which make me want to cry when describing my hair. I told her this, and she confidently told me that was because no hairdressers could do it properly, and it would actually bring out the cool tones of my highlights and break them up so they looked more natural. Sounded like she knew her stuff, so I agreed.
She did the highlights. After, as I was in the bathroom, I inspected my hair and was alarmed. The foils were quite loose, and they were open at the top, around my hairline. This affects the effectiveness of the bleach and causes it to not lighten as much where exposed to the air (=brassy/orange hair). I went and told her, and she moved and tightened them - after asking me if I had moved the foils. She painted my hair with the demi permanent and I waited for 2 hours.
Fast forward to the moment of truth. I looked in the mirror, and all my worst fears had been realised. The blonde highlights were brassy at the top, and although not too bad, the lengths of the strands, were definitely not the clean, baby blonde I had requested. But what really upset me was the rest of my hair. Brassy, gold, orange - all those adjectives that are in my bad books. I made no attempt to cover up my dismay. Tatjana's reaction was "that's your natural hair colour, I didn't touch those bits". She then tried to console me by telling me it would settle down in a few days (although if it was my natural hair colour - why would it settle down?). To her credit, she offered to let me come back and she would fix it. I declined - I just wanted to get out of there, plus I simply did not trust my hair in her hands by then. I left and went straight to a deli up the road to buy lunch (and chocolate, as I was on the verge of tears!). I asked the man behind the counter what colour he thought my hair was, to which he replied, with no suggestion on my part, "kind of orangey". If that's not an objective opinion, then I don't know what is. I then spent $100 at another hairdresser to correct the foils and try to bleach out some of the orange. It will take time and more money. The haircut was actually not too bad and I was happy with the trim and subtle layers around my face. She may claim to be 'Stylist to the stars', but I'm pretty sure 'stylist' means clothes and hairstyle, not colour.
Oh, and if anyone has any good recommendations for hair stylists in Sydney that know how to get that clean, cool blonde, please let me know!
