Makeover: Why $8 at-home hair lightener can turn into a $500 colour correction

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Sometimes, what seems like a quick at-home fix can create a much bigger colour challenge in the salon.

One of my recent colour corrections involved my client, Ana, who had previously lightened her hair and wanted the darker brown roots to blend more closely with the lighter lengths. She decided to use Sun-In Hair Lightener on her roots, hoping it would gradually lighten them to match.

Instead of turning blond, her dark brown roots developed a strong orange tone. This is where that $8 at-home fix can sometimes turn into a $500 colour correction.

Sun-In can seem like an easy, inexpensive way to brighten darker hair, but lightening isn’t quite that simple. Dark brown hair contains underlying warm pigments, and when it is lightened, those red, orange and gold tones are exposed. Instead of lifting the roots to the blond she was hoping for, the product revealed a strong orange undertone.

My goal for this colour correction was not to simply cover the orange. I wanted to create a colour that looked intentional, dimensional and much more natural. I started the correction by placing highlight foils throughout the hair using a silk-infused decolourizer. The foils allowed me to selectively lift pieces of the darker, warmer areas while maintaining dimension and avoiding an overly solid result.

In between each foil, I applied a dark brown colour to match and blend with her natural base. This helped break up the contrast between the darker roots and the previously lightened mids-and-ends, creating a much more seamless transition throughout the hair.

The finished result was a softer, blended colour with natural-looking dimension. Instead of trying to make every section of hair the exact same shade, I worked with Ana’s existing colour history and strategically added depth and brightness where it was needed.

This correction is a great reminder that colour corrections aren’t always about simply covering an unwanted tone. Sometimes, the best result comes from understanding what the hair has been through and using multiple techniques to bring everything back into balance.