Robert Bryan is a freelance makeup artist with a background in animation. His position at Sephora and working on sets puts him around creative people constantly, feeling stuck in a rutt with his hair he was ready to change things up and stand out.
Working in the service industry we rarely pamper ourselves, so I turned the table on Robert.When I presented the opportunity to him in a simple question of, “what have you always wanted to do to your hair?” his eyes lit up! “I’ve always wanted to be Platinum” he said, “Growing up reading comic books and looking up to super heroes , one of my favorite characters was Storm from Xmen. Another big influence would have to be David Beckham and his iconic blonde hair, It made such a stir and set him apart.”. After explaining to Robert all that comes with being blonde we set up a date and documented the process.
When working on dark hair the blonding process can be time consuming ,using foil can help add an extra punch when lifting. I started the process on the front hairline applying the lightner 1/4 inch away from the scalp through the ends and laying a foil over the section
The hair closest to the scalp is warm due to our body heat which is why we keep the product on the ends first it allows for even processing. Once the ends are a yellow blonde we remove the foils and apply lightener to the root and rest of the hair.
Most lighteners can process up to 50 mins so we let that sit and washed when it was ready. Before I polished roberts hair with an overlay I anticipated we would see some unwanted warmth so I did a second application using a gentle non ammonia bleach. This level of lift would absolutely always need a second or possibly third application of lightner .
Once Roberts hair was at the perfect shade of pale yellow we were able to choose an overlay/gloss/toner to best compliment his skin tone and remove as much warmth as possible, per Roberts request. “No yellow!” Robert exclaims while mixing his overlay.
Once the gloss was processed and washed out I began to dry his hair, immediately Roberts expression and attitude shifted. “I LOVE IT! Im never going back!?”. Robert made the decision and commitment to the blonding process and after 5 hours in the chair it was so great to see how a change of hair color can help him project his most confident self.
