THE LOOK
Courtesy: Google image & fashiontoast
So, for the last…9 months or so, I’ve been completely and utterly obsessed with ombre hair. Now, if you guys have been living under a rock, you might not know what ombre hair is. First off, ombre is a color effect where the color goes from light to dark over an item of clothing, which comes from the the French term for “shaded”.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, ombre hair is where ones hair goes from dark to light, usually from the roots to tips, respectively. Usually, it just looks like “Oh, I’ve been too lazy to color my roots so I sort of just let my blonde hair grow out…” Although that sounds sort of trashy, the look provides more of an “effortless” feel.
Ombre hair has been seen on the likes of Drew Barrymore, Rachel Bilson, Rumi Neely of fashiontoast, and model Lily Aldridge. It’s been a super popular look for a while, but I’ve never really had the balls to actually do it to my hair. First, I was just too scared to do it to my own hair. I was terrified that I would ruin it and my hair would look like an orange mess. My other dilemma was that I didn’t have enough money to get it professionally done. Nor did I really feel the need to do so, since I rarely spend a lot of money on my hair anyway (my haircuts usually cost about fifteen dollars, the beauty of tiny Asian salons).
So finally, I had the perfect amount of boredom mixed with courage to actually attempt to ombre my hair. The process wasn’t hard, but mostly tedious. For me, since my hair is so dark, it took me about 4 hours to get the ombre effect that I was going for. Despite the large amount of time it too me to get the look, I absolutely love the results and I’m glad that I decided to do it myself.
THE PROCESS
FIRST STEP: Go to your local drugstore or beauty supply store and buy a lightening kit. I went with the L’Oreal Super Blonde Creme Lightening Kit which looks like:
Courtesy: Google image
And cost me about, twenty dollars or so? It’s basically like a regular hair dying kit, where you have to mix the ingredients and shake up the bottle until your arm hurts and whatnot…except this one smelled a lot worse. Like, toxic. Like, I felt like the fumes were going to burn my eyelashes off or something.
SECOND STEP: Follow the instructions given to you from the kit. Basically, take the bleaching powder packet, pour the entire contents of the packet into the little bottle, mix the liquid and the powder until the consistency is thick.
THIRD STEP: Take the bottom half of your hair, or wherever you want to start, whether it is 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down, and basically start applying the bleach to your hair. Focus more of the product on the ends of your hair. Also, don’t make a really harsh line between your un-dyed hair and the bleach. The look is supposed to be messy and effortless, like it grew out naturally, so you want it to be a bit uneven. Sounds scary, but looks better.
FOURTH STEP: Next, let that sit for about twenty minutes, rinse out your hair, and dry it with your dryer on the coolest setting. It should look a bit lighter than your natural hair color.
FIFTH STEP: Then take some more bleach (the bleach comes in a small container, but it actually lasts a really long time) and apply it to your hair about 1 to 2 inches below where you applied it earlier. Once again, you want to be a little messy with this so on some bits, you can go a little higher, and on others you can go a little lower. Also, focus more on the ends. That’ll help with the ombre effect. Keep this on for about twenty to thirty minutes.
SIXTH STEP: Once again, rinse out your hair. Blow dry on the coolest setting.
Now, if you’re satisfied with the way your hair looks, then you can stop now. Wash your hair and apply a deep conditioning hair mask since your ends will hate you from all the bleach. However, since my hair is hard to dye, I had to keep going…
SEVENTH STEP: Repeat the fifth step, except another 1 to 2 inches below the previous line. Focus it more at the ends. Be messy. Yadda yadda yadda. Keep this on for thirty to forty minutes.
FINAL STEP: Rinse your hair and dry with your dryer on the coolest setting. If you’re satisfied with the way it looks, I suggest hopping back in the shower wetting your hair, and applying a deep conditioning hair mask to your hair like the Argan Magic Restorative Hair Mask, which I bought from CVS for something like fifteen dollars. Your hair will be dry from all the bleach and the hair mask will basically be your savior.
THE RESULTS
STYLING TIPS
In my opinion, this look is best when your hair is a bit messy or wavy. It looks a bit awkward on straight hair. Textured hair will add to the effortless, bed-heady look to the color. An easy way to achieve the perfect bed-head look, especially if you don’t have any natural curl to your hair, is to:
1. Wash your hair at night, right before you’re about to go to bed.
2. Once you’re out of the shower, spritz your hair with a sea salt texturizing spray, the best one is probably the Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray. Beauty and fashion gurus swear by this. Rumi Neely recently posted a picture of the contents of her purse and, surprise surprise, this was in it.
3. Scrunch up your hair a bit and mess around with it. You’ll instantly see that you’re getting a bit of added wave with the surf spray. If you have naturally wavy or curly hair, you can probably skip this step.
4. Go to sleep and wake up looking impossibly cool and gorgeous.
April 6th, 2011 at 11:00 PM
It looks great on you!
And just a side-note: I love your nails too!
April 14th, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Thank you! The color is Turquoise & Caicos by Essie. xx
April 21st, 2011 at 2:26 AM
You shouldn’t leave the bleach on for lighter colour hair 20mins, and then 10mins for the re-apply works for lighter brunettes
April 21st, 2011 at 7:24 PM
Thanks for the tip. It’s just what I did since my hair is really hard to dye. It made my ends a bit dry but I’ve been using hair masks and it’s been working pretty well for my hair.
If people have hair that’s easier to dye than mine, then feel free to leave the bleach in for only 20 minutes. The steps I listed are just the steps that I did. It’s definitely open to interpretation!
May 1st, 2011 at 1:20 PM
ahhh youve almost convinced me to do this on myself, so scared i will totally screw it up though haha, thanks for posting this!!
May 1st, 2011 at 6:06 PM
If you do decide to do it, definitely email me pictures!! I want to see how it turns out :]
Good luck! My email’s in my “About Me” page!
May 1st, 2011 at 8:41 PM
My friend and I just did this to my hair, thanks to your steps. it looks GREAT! it really is easy. thanks
May 1st, 2011 at 9:14 PM
No problem, love! Send me a picture, I’d love to see how it turned out!
May 8th, 2011 at 6:47 PM
I think your hair looks soo great! I am thinking about doing the ombre look on my hair as well but am going to have it professionally done because I NEVER color my hair and am super nervous. I have an olive complexion and do not want to look washed out. Any suggestions? Thanks!
May 8th, 2011 at 7:57 PM
I honestly don’t think that ombre hair will wash you out, as long as you keep a good portion of your dark hair visible, since dark hair compliments olive skin so well. Start the ombre further down your hair. Also, by starting the ombre lower down, you should make the fade a lot more gradual, so there isn’t a start contrast between the dark hair and the light hair. Also, too blonde at the ends might not compliment your skin tone as well, so maybe try to warm it up a bit. I know that ThePersianBabe on youtube has olive skin and has ombre hair. I suggest watching a couple of her videos to get a feel of how her hair looks. Good luck!
May 10th, 2011 at 3:23 PM
HEY:)
Thanks for posting.
I have been thinking about doing this for the longest time!
I’m so scared it’s going to fail!
I love Rumi Neely’s ombré hair though! I want mine exactly like hers. But i’m a bit anxious about her blonde tips because I might be a little darker than her…
And I have the asian hair so it’s going to take me a million years (just like you) to dye it!
May 10th, 2011 at 3:43 PM
Yeah, I had your same exact concerns! It’s definitely scary to do something drastic like this, but it’s definitely worth it! I’m darker than Rumi as well and I think as long as you keep the blonde more focused on the bottom, it’ll look great!
P.S. I checked out your blog and I love it! :]
May 11th, 2011 at 4:19 PM
THANKS 😀 I love yours too !
yeah well I’ll try it this summer 🙂 atleast if it fails, I won’t have to show my face at school..
If I actually do it, i’ll send you pics!
May 11th, 2011 at 8:56 PM
Haha good idea, definitely! It’s a great summer look, too. Definitely keep me updated, girl! :]
May 15th, 2011 at 11:22 AM
OOOh, i LOVE YOUR HAIR, and your nails too.
May 15th, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Thank you very much!
May 20th, 2011 at 12:06 AM
Wow! Thank you for this ombre hair tutorial! I am so happy to find one that proves that its possible for an Asian girl to get the ombre hair. I am dyeing my hair right now. Your hair turned out so beautiful!
May 20th, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Aw thanks so much! I’m glad I could help! Send me pictures of how it turned out, girl!
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:08 AM
I did your tutorial! I kind of did… the opposite of what you did, though. I put dye on the tips for ten minutes, then added dye a few inches up ten minutes later, then added a few more inches ten minutes after that. Just figured it would be easier then washing it out and blow drying it :). But I really like it. I’ve been itching to dye my hair, but not wanting to touch it up later. My head looks like it’s on fire now, heh. http://i52.tinypic.com/2h3v5me.jpg
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:20 PM
That looks awesome on you!! You definitely did a smart alternative to my steps cause it took FOREVER to do it, hahaha. It looks amaaaazing on you. I love seeing the results! And it’s funny that you mention that your hair looks like it’s on fire, because my boyfriend always tells me that since I ombred my hair. Hahaha.
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:48 AM
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July 27th, 2011 at 7:47 PM
HEYYYYYYYYYYY
I did it finally!
See the result 🙂
August 6th, 2011 at 11:07 AM
I adore it! It looks so great on you :] I love the length you put the ombre at in comparison to the length of your hair, if that makes sense. I’m also glad you got the surf spray!!! Isn’t it the BEST?! I couldn’t live without mine.
August 18th, 2011 at 7:31 PM
haha yeah I get what you mean 🙂
thanks!
and yeah the surf spray is awesome (and expensive haha)!
August 19th, 2011 at 2:25 PM
I know, it’s so pricey. But mine has lasted me a while, actually. I use it every so often now. Now my hair has gotten long enough for me to just throw my hair and in a bun and still get the wavy/beachy effect.
July 27th, 2011 at 7:48 PM
and I got the bumble and bumble spray! 😀
the picture isn’t tooo accurate, it’s more blonde on the tips 🙂
August 6th, 2011 at 1:17 AM
does this bleach turn your hair orange? i have asian black hair and was wanting to achieve a brownish blonde color, but im scared it will become a brassy orange
August 6th, 2011 at 11:06 AM
It does definitely look a bit orangey, but there are some bleaches that I saw in stores recently that advertise not making the hair brassy, and I tried it when I redid my ombre hair, and it worked really well. Give it a try. You can always dye the ends the color you want them to be once you’re done with the bleaching. That’s what I’ve been doing since. I just dye the ends blonde, and it works pretty well! Hope that helps!
August 6th, 2011 at 3:15 PM
Can I ask for the name of the bleach you used to make your hair less brassy? Thanks !
August 6th, 2011 at 7:19 PM
Eek! I don’t quite remember. I just saw at Walmart, I think and it just said so on the box. It’s a pretty generic hair dye brand, though, so you shouldn’t have a hard time finding it, but I think you’d need to go somewhere with a bigger variety or selection for hair dye, like Walmart or Target.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:10 PM
That looks amazing! I’ve been wanting to do this to my hair, but I’m worried it’s not long enough. It goes past my shoulders but not my boobs. I still really want to do it, and I’ve even dreamed about it! What do you think?
August 12th, 2011 at 8:55 AM
I totally think you should. If you want to do it, do it! I’ve seen tons of girls with bobs that have ombre’d hair and it looks incredible on them. GO FOR IT!! 😀
August 13th, 2011 at 4:05 PM
I’m very pleased with this product. My hair is graying and this color matches my hair much better than the previous product I was using. With that product I had to use two different colors (gray and brown) to get the same effect as gray with Super Million. It also shakes out more easily. I will be buying more.
August 14th, 2011 at 2:34 PM
my hair’s dyed a medium brown, but it’s the same brand. will it make my hair orange? i’m just terrified for messing up my hair! thanks soso much! (:
August 19th, 2011 at 2:24 PM
It might make your hair orange to begin with, but you can just dye your ends blonde, which is what I’ve been doing!
August 18th, 2011 at 11:13 PM
i really want to do this!! it looks amazing on you :O my mum doesnt want me dying my hair coz apparently the chemicals give u cancer at such a young age and when applied so close to ur scalp..but as for ombre…doesnt it only start from about halfway down ur head?
also is it possible to have 3 colours? as in keep my natural black hair, fade to a really dark brown then nearer to the tips, fade to a really dark red? 😛
August 19th, 2011 at 2:23 PM
Yeah i don’t see why it would affect you if it’s halfway down your head but don’t quote me on that! But I feel like SO many people use chemicals on their hair, that it can’t be too tragic. Haha. You can definitely do three colors! As of right now, my hair is my natural black on top, fades into a dark brown, and then it’s blonde at the ends! I was thinking of adding some purple here and there just for fun. Just do the bleaching/blonde ombre first and then just dye your ends red! 😀
October 9th, 2011 at 1:52 PM
Hiii, your hair looks so good! I was wondering if you could post a pic of the hair from further away so I can see the full effect? 🙂 x
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:41 AM
I think I may do a new blog post with my current ombre hair because it looks quite different from the pictures I put up for this post. Keep an eye out for that :]
November 2nd, 2011 at 6:35 AM
Hey your hair looks amazing..I havedark asian hair but im really keen on doing this but just wondering did u just use this hair die? No actually bleach? i want to do it tomorrow! Thanks
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:40 AM
I used a bleaching system. I didn’t use STRAIGHT bleach on my hair but they have lightening systems in drug stores along with the other hair dyes. Hope that helps! Just look for lightening kits. If you use a blonde hair dye, it won’t be as effective.
November 6th, 2011 at 6:10 AM
Thanks i did it! it went really orange so i had to dye it dark blonde.. but im really happy with it. Thanks a lot 🙂
November 6th, 2011 at 9:41 AM
Yeah, definitely my hair first started off very orange when I first did the bleaching, but I’ve been lightening it more and more ever since. I’m glad you tried it out! Enjoy it :]
November 18th, 2011 at 8:03 PM
Hey
Love your hair. Just wondering how long did you wait before dying the ends blonde after bleaching?
Thanks
November 18th, 2011 at 8:24 PM
I waited a couple months or something. But if you just use a regular blonde dye you could probably do it sooner. I use a bleaching system every month or so now to maintain the ends. Hope that helps! I feel as long as you just put your hair in hair masks and deep condition it, bleaching your hair again shouldn’t be too damaging.
November 18th, 2011 at 10:07 PM
Thanks for that. I have black hair and ombred it just this week and of course its gone quite orange and I want to put an ash blonde color through it but didn’t know how long to wait or if it was OK to do it straight away because I can’t put up with this orange hair.
November 18th, 2011 at 11:33 PM
Hahahaha, yeah the orange is bad at first. My hair was definitely orange when I first ombre’d it. Just warning you though, the ash blonde color won’t really do much at first. Especially if your hair is naturally black, the color isn’t going to show up much on your hair. I suggest maybe using another lightening system on just the ends of your hair. It’ll help get rid of the orange. There are also lightening systems that get rid of the brassiness so try looking for that, too! Let me know how it goes!
November 19th, 2011 at 4:33 PM
OK so I put the light ash blonde through it today and now that its dry its still pretty orange : ( Its looks horrible and I don’t know what to do.
November 19th, 2011 at 7:11 PM
Well the best thing that got rid of the orange in my hair was just using another bleaching system on just my ends. It really helps to strip the orange out. Try looking for one that specifically says that it will get rid of brassiness. I know I found one at Target that did that.
November 19th, 2011 at 8:25 PM
Ok thanks. I think Im going ot have to wait before doing anything to it again as its pretty fragile at the moment. Im in Australia but we do have Target here so I’ll go have a look.
November 19th, 2011 at 9:07 PM
Yeah definitely give your hair some healing time, hahahaha. But I promise that lightening the ends more with a bleaching system like you originally used will work for sure! I tried dying my hair the ash blonde the first couple times and it didn’t give me as good of results as the bleaching system. Best of luck! Let me know how it goes! Ombre’ing sucks with black hair, hahahahaha.
November 20th, 2011 at 1:43 AM
Hey is are the pics above how your hair looks now?
November 20th, 2011 at 2:04 AM
I meant “are the pics” not “is are the pics”!
November 20th, 2011 at 11:57 AM
No, my hair now looks really different! I’m going to make a blogpost soon about my current ombre hair. It looks really different. It’s much blonder at the ends!
November 20th, 2011 at 3:50 PM
Cool. I’d love to see the new pics of your hair. Also, how do you keep it looking so healthy??
November 20th, 2011 at 10:18 PM
Deep conditioners like Aussie’s 3 Minute Miracle or hair masks. I just get pretty generic, drugstore kinds and they work really well. I also use little to no heat on my hair and I let my hair air dry after I wash it. If you have to use heat, use a heat protectant.
November 21st, 2011 at 3:06 PM
awhh your hair looks really cute! Im seriously considering this for christmas! ♥
November 21st, 2011 at 5:38 PM
Do it, you won’t regret it!
November 21st, 2011 at 4:39 PM
OK so I’ve decided I REALLY hate my hair like this and I don’t want to re-bleach to get it lighter as its super damaged and Im really depressed now cuz I used to have really soft hair. I am going to dye it with a semi permanent to get it close to my original color and wait until it recovers a bit and dye it with a permanent color. Damn, I wish I never tried to do this : (
November 21st, 2011 at 5:39 PM
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you Maybe your hair is much more fragile than mine is. I hope it all works out!
November 21st, 2011 at 9:02 PM
Thanks. Will let you know if I manage to fix it. Thanks for all your help.
November 22nd, 2011 at 9:07 PM
I fixed it! Put a semi permanent dark brown through it and its all good. Will probably fade very quickly but I’d rather keep doing semi permanents for now rather than a permanent that will really damage it further. Phew! Happy again : )
November 22nd, 2011 at 10:37 PM
Glad to hear it! Definitely wanna keep trying to protect your hair if you want it back to its original condition!
December 4th, 2011 at 11:52 AM
hi, that’s a fastidious post. There is some mistakes but the primary is here.
December 4th, 2011 at 11:55 AM
This was my first attempt at ombreing my hair so there were bound to be some minor mistakes. I think it worked out well for me, though! Thanks for the honesty.
December 15th, 2011 at 12:40 PM
Hey:) the middle part of your hair is a little darker than the bottom part. Did you bleach the bottom part twice to look blondeish?How do you get the bottom part to look like yours? Btw did you ise a dyeing brush?:)
December 15th, 2011 at 3:23 PM
The point of the “ombre hair” is to have the lightest part of your hair at the ends. I just did the steps that I listed in the post to get the hair in the pictures! In those pictures, I had not done any other treatments to make the ends lighter. And no, I didn’t use a dyeing brush. I just used the applicator the bleaching system came with and used the gloves that came with the kit.
December 17th, 2011 at 10:18 PM
Whats your natural hair color? cause I’m thinking about doing this but I’m afraid it wont go well with my dark brown almost black hair & my tan skin
December 18th, 2011 at 11:13 AM
I’m Chinese so my hair is naturally dark brown, almost black as well. And my skin tone is tan with yellow undertones.
April 16th, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Your hair looks amazing! Did you bleach it on top of Ur natural hair colour? Would the results be different if this method was tried on dyed hair? My hair is naturally a mousy brown, but I died it a dark brown about 2 months ago and it’s now faded to a slightly more auburn (not too auburn tho) version on my natural colour. I want to try Ur method but I’m worried it will end up too orange!
April 16th, 2012 at 10:15 PM
I’ve been dying my hair for about 6 years now, so the hair that I bleached as all dyed. I have naturally dark brown, almost black hair. But at the time that I ombred my hair, I had dyed it a brown color. So, I’m not quite sure how the bleaching will work on hair that’s been dyed darker, I think that you can still try the method I used. It’s going to end out a bit orange to begin with, but the more you lighten the ends, the less orange it’ll be.
April 29th, 2012 at 9:42 PM
[…] in under five minutes. second cool thing which i am personally debating on doing; an easy diy ombre hair tutorial! i’ve been thinking about doing this to my hair for a while, and kinda have already done so […]
May 17th, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Wow! Awesomee! I need help though , I wanted to get ombre hair forever! But since I have a light brown skintone and black hair im going for the red ombre… Will the ombre ever fade? I want to get it professionally done but I dont have the money to keep touching it up . If it fades, do I bleach it again? Or just add the colour and go. IM so confused!!
May 17th, 2012 at 11:38 AM
If it fades, just re color the faded parts red. It will most likely fade after a few weeks, but there is no need to bleach it again, especially if you’re doing a color. Just re dye the ends red, and that’s it!
June 24th, 2012 at 9:32 AM
i want to do exactly what you have done to your hair, awesome job! thing is my hair has never been dyed and my hair is super black. so will the blonde dye you bought still work on my hair?
June 24th, 2012 at 12:08 PM
The bleach should work on your hair. But, I can’t guarantee it will look exactly how you want it to when you first do it. You’ll need to rebleach the ends a couple more times to get it truly ombre.