I finally did it!After two long years of being positively platinum, I’ve taken the plunge and embarked on the treacherous journey toward natural hair. It’s hard to fathom what I’ve been willing to put myself through. Two long years of consistently tolerating the cruel scalp scald that inevitably accompanies platinum locks. Two long years of being tethered to bleach and toners and latex gloves and occasional orange hues that have no place on my agenda. For the last 6 months or so, every time I’d get my roots bleached (by my longsuffering boyfriend—MAJOR kudos to him!), I would say, “OK, after this, I’m done.”

But it’s like sliding down an icy hill, my friends, and realizing halfway through that it’s not as easy as it looks. You’ve already got momentum, so you figure you may as well keep on going. You are fully cognizant of the painstaking efforts it took to arrive where you are, so calling it quits and, in essence, throwing all that work away is difficult to do.

There’s a line between beautiful two-tone (call it ombré call it balayage, I don’t really care) hair and just plain grown-out roots and frankly, it’s not so fine. I knew I wasn’t willing to just grin and bear it as my roots creeped up on me and made a statement to the world. So I decided to accelerate that process while slowly weaning myself away from lavender by doing a root stretch.

I hadn’t heard of one either, but I figured if people with dark-all-over hair can get light tips, people with light-all-over hair can get their root color extended. So I did a little research and saved about 7 pictures for my girl to mimic (I’m pretty sure one of the required skills that make a hairdresser successful is the ability to take nebulous, seemingly contradictory instructions and make magic out of them anyway). Though I was perfectly prepared for a disaster, I'm pretty pleased with the result. And I'm pretty sure my hair follicles are ecstatic!

Here's to making transitions as smooth and un-awkward as possible.

Root stretch on lavender hair before and after

photo by Benjamin Vargas

So now that I’ve been lavender on and off for about a year or so, I feel that I’m capable (if not qualified) to write a tutorial on how to obtain this coveted color. There have been periods of trial and error, but if I can’t learn from my mistakes and use them to help somebody else out, I am really not mastering this thing called life, am I? So, here in a nutshell, is an effective and fool-proof way to dye your platinum blonde hair lavender. If you are more into watching videos than reading and looking at pictures, I’ve got that covered as well. Enjoy! And remember, nobody decides what works for you except for YOU yourself.

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Hace más de un año ya me teñí el cabello lavanda por primera vez. A estas alturas finalmente me siento capaz y quizá hasta capacitada para hacer un tutorial al respecto. Por supuesto que he pasado por periodos de ensayo y error, pero de eso se trata ¿no? Y si no puedo sacarles provecho a mis errores para ayudar a los demás, ¿como se supone que voy a avanzar en la vida? Asi que, aquí les presento, en resumen, los pasos para obtener cabello de color lavanda. Si te late mas ver videos que leer y ver fotos, no te preocupes, también pensé en ti. ¡Disfrútalo! Y recuerda, nadie decide lo que te queda bien mas que TU.

1. For best results, start with the lightest possible platinum blonde hair (you'd best let a professional do this) / Para los mejores resultados, empieza con cabello decolorado (este paso es mejor dejárselo a un profesional)

2. What you'll need: latex gloves, conditioner, semi-permanent hair dye, mixing bowl and brush, hair clips, and a brush / Lo que vas a necesitar: guantes de latex, acondicionador, tinte de pelo semi-permanente, recipiente y brocha para mezclar, clips, y cepillo

3. Three dyes that I recommend: Ion color brilliance in rose, Ion color brilliance in lavender, and pravana chromasilk in violet / Tres tintes que recomiendo: Ion color brilliance en rose, Ion color brilliance en lavender, y pravana chromasilk en violet

4. Lightly tint your conditioner (the pink is mostly to keep the blues at bay) / Tiñe tu acondicionador ligeramente (el rosado es para evitar tonos azules)