So, I’d been looking at my hair in the mirror for ages. Just plain black. Same old, same old. Felt like I needed a little something, you know? Not a crazy change, just something to break it up a bit. That’s when I got the idea for highlights.
Didn’t want anything too loud, like blonde streaks. That’s not really my style. I thought maybe some dark brown bits woven through could work. Subtle, but still different. I spent some time scrolling through pictures online, trying to find examples of what I meant. Found a few that looked pretty decent, not too harsh against the black.
Decided I wasn’t brave enough to try this myself. Messing with bleach and dye on black hair? No way. Sounded like a recipe for disaster, ending up with orange patches or something. So, I booked an appointment at a salon I’d been to before. Felt safer leaving it to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
Went in and showed the stylist the pictures I saved. Tried explaining I wanted it subtle, just dark brown, so it blends nicely but catches the light a bit. She seemed to get it. She nodded, grabbed some color swatches, and we picked out a shade that looked like a deep, chocolatey brown. She warned me that because my hair is so dark, they’d still need to lift the color a bit first, which means bleach. I was a bit nervous about damage, but she said they’d be careful and use a lower strength developer.
Then the process started. She sectioned off my hair, taking really thin strands. Then she painted the lightener onto these strands and folded them up in little foil packets. This part took a while, just sitting there while she meticulously painted and folded. Felt like my head was filling up with tinfoil. The smell of the lightener wasn’t exactly pleasant, kinda chemically, you know?
After all the foils were in, I just had to wait. Sat there reading a magazine, scrolling on my phone. Felt like forever. She checked a foil a couple of times, scraping off a bit of the lightener to see how the color was lifting underneath. Apparently, black hair can be pretty stubborn about letting go of its color.
Finally, she said it was ready. Went over to the sink, and she took out all the foils and washed the lightener out. My hair felt a bit rough at this stage. Then she applied the actual dark brown color, worked it through the lightened strands, and let that sit for another chunk of time. More waiting. Then another wash, and this time she put in a conditioner that felt much better.
She towel-dried it a bit and took me back to the chair. This was the moment of truth. As she started blow-drying, I could begin to see the brown streaks appearing. They weren’t super obvious when wet, but as my hair dried, these warmer, brown tones started showing through against the black. It wasn’t stripey or chunky at all, just like she’d woven threads of brown through my hair. It looked… actually really nice.
Stepped outside afterwards, and in the natural light, you could see the dimension it added. It wasn’t a massive change, but it definitely made my hair look less like one solid block of black. Felt softer, somehow. Took a few selfies, obviously. Yeah, pretty happy with how it turned out. Just enough of a change without being totally different. Maintenance hasn’t been too bad either, just using sulfate-free shampoo like she recommended. It’s been a few weeks now, and the color is still looking good.
