Going Blonde? Four Common Mistakes That Women Make

Blonde is classic. It’s feminine, youthful, and when executed correctly, radiates all that beautiful energy. When executed poorly, the result is a train wreck that begs the question, “Why did you ever go blonde?” But the idea that black women can’t do blonde is a misconception based on observances of too many failures.

However, when blonde on a black woman is done right, the results beg a different question from onlookers, “Dang, can I do blonde?” That’s where you want to be sitting pretty, queen, with your goldilocks. But to get there we have to face the most common mistakes for newbie blondes; the ones most apt to bring the first question out of everybody’s mouth:

Would you like fries with that?

We have all witnessed this blondestrosity. Both of these beautiful girls have successfully dyed their hair the color of the McDonald’s logo: straw blonde. No, these photos were not photoshopped. And no, this is not a real hair color.

Of course, if unreal is what you’re going for, then do you, but realistically, it is not flattering on any skin tone—even white.

There are plenty of hair extensions* in this color as well, so be very careful when purchasing a blonde to be sure it has enough toner to make it look realistic. The only way to “fix” these dye jobs is to change this base completely, first to something more realistic, and then go from there.

The case of the missing lowlights

Both of these girls did a slam dunk on choosing a realistic color. But they both failed in a small but critical way. The girl on the left incorporated only one shade of lowlights.

The hair is flat, looks clearly two-tone, and ends up unrealistic.

The girl on the right missed the complementary colors train altogether. Again if this is what you are going for then do you, but if you want a more realistic look the truth is nobody has just one hair color on their head. Both women would benefit from creating more depth by adding lowlights in contrasting deeper tones to these beautiful colors, which would result in a more flattering and natural look.

The girl on the left could benefit from toning down the golden color of her lowlight to a champagne ash that would match her platinum roots, as well as incorporating tobacco blonde wisps that echo the color of her eyebrows for realism. The girl on the right could add chocolate lowlights, and dark roots that would give her a rich, beautiful result.

Don’t let mismatched layers fool you

The thing about toner is you can have too much and too little, at the same time on the same head. This dye job has all the right elements to achieve realism: depth, contrast, and even dark roots.

But the contrasting blondes on her head: honey* ash, and golden straw blonde just don’t work together.

Ash requires complementary colors that are more cool, and the golden straw requires more complementary warm colors. In this case, the honey* ash is actually more flattering than the golden straw on her skin tone, and that golden color should have been toned down to a champagne ash that would have raised, rather than lower her hair game. Don’t fall victim to this mistake.