Isn’t it crazy how in the blink of an eye, days, weeks, months and even decades can pass you by! It’s only when you finally stop to assess it that you realise how short and sweet life truly is. And thats precisely the conversation that I had with my hairdresser every six weeks when I popped in for a cut and colour to hide my dark blonde roots with peroxide hair – “Surely I only saw you the other week? Has it been a month and a half already!?” How time flies!
At that time, and for many years beforehand, dark root regrowth against light blonde hair was seen as a negative thing, perhaps a sign of not keeping up with hair rituals and maintenance, or the presumption of not having enough money to go and get your colour done, because why on earth would anybody allow their natural roots to show?
Fast forward to having my hair transplant in 2022, and after years of damaging and distressing my natural hair with chemicals, dyes and relentless hairstyles, I decided to embrace my natural hair colour by thickening and infilling my hairline, temples and scalp which had thinned and receded after many years of torture in the name of beauty.
Being a number 7 on the hair colour scale, classified as a dark blonde, my roots always appear dark when I have highlights and light if I try to dye my hair brown, as I’m the precise middle point between blonde and brunette. But I vowed to be kind to my hair and stay away from heat damage, unnecessary colouring and chemicals now that it’s fully regrown after my hair transplant surgery two years ago.
My natural hair feels too dark to me, after spending so many years being bright blonde, and so I decided to have highlights instead, predominantly around my t-section, in order to preserve as much of my natural hair colour and condition as possible whilst still having a lift in lightness.
The only problem being that every six weeks I still returned for a half or full head of foils in order to chase out my root regrowth with highlights to remove the harsh lines of colour – but surely it was better than being peroxide blonde, right? Well, kind of, but being half as bad as having peroxide hair still wasn’t good.
And so I discovered balayage, which is basically free-hand painting highlights onto the hair to create a soft and natural gradation of colour predominantly towards the tips, much like dip dyeing by more subtle. So I stuck with balayage for a couple of years, telling myself that any dryness or damaged caused to my hair from colouring would be reserved for the ends of my hair which I’d have trimmed off routinely anyway. Only, in time balayage also makes root regrowth obvious because the contrast from dark to light is too extreme. Cue hidden lights!
I visited Jimena Lemck at her appointment-only exclusive Surrey studio for my first ever hidden lights treatment and love the natural results that have been achieved to lighten my hair whilst being sympathetic to my root regrowth, removing the need to schedule more than two colour appointments in a year. Jimena Lemck has over eighteen years of experience as a hairstylist and makeup artist, with her work published in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle and Design Scene.
Having my head shaved for my hair transplant surgery in 2022, I’m now confidently in my regrowth era and wish to enjoy growing out my hair to perhaps my bra line to lower back in length, before I’ll more than likely go for a cute crop when I reach my forties. So for now, all that I want is a natural, gentle and zero-fuss hairdo that I can tie up for the gym each day without leaving me looking unkept at the end of each month from root exposure. Pretty soon I’m expecting grey hairs to come creeping in -and that’s a bridge that I’ll cross when I come to it – so I’m going to make the most of loving my natural roots now for as long as I’m blessed to still have them!
Unlike having traditional highlights, this hidden lights treatment didn’t use any foils and is completely undetectable for colour lines. I’ve gone from having a darker crown with light ends to a beautifully soft and subtle mix of multi-tonal blondes that compliment my natural regrowth which I adore! How had I never heard of this treatment before?
To the untrained eye, my hair may look incredibly similar in colour and style, but to me the attention to detail and results are absolutely poles apart and speak for themselves. Not only did this treatment take less than half of the time of having traditional highlights, but it will also save me around £1,400 each year on colouring appointments, not to mention reducing around 26 additional hours spent sitting in a hair salon chair reading magazines to kill time as my colour develops.
This bonus time and money that I’d have spent at the salon every six weeks can easily translate into treating myself to a free weekend getaway, multiple spa treatments, funding a new hobby or paying for my gym membership and still leave space for new trainers – all whilst I get to enjoy my healthier, stronger and more natural looking hair!
Ladies, if you’ve never had, nor heard of, hidden lights before, now you know just who to call!
