AF Blog — Periwinkle

Image Credit: chris0712

Pastel hues have had us all in a chokehold for as long as we can remember. And with summer right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to go for a shade that looks oh, so pretty even when it fades. From blues, to greens, to purples and pinks, the color options are truly endless! And don’t worry, Fox, we’re here to help you safely get your dream head of pastel from start to finish.

Image credit: @mynameislanes

Step 1: Bleach, Please

The first step to going pastel, is to completely strip your hair of any color. Pastel will only show up on a level 10 platinum blonde or lighter! Depending on your current shade, you might need a few bleach treatments to get your hair to the appropriate level. You can safely bleach at home with our Bleach, Please Lightening Kit, but if you don’t fully trust yourself, or your hair is already fairly damaged and contains previous color treatments, you’ll want to head to a salon first! We don’t recommend using Bleach, Please to remove color from hair - doing so can cause unexpected color results or permanent staining of the hair! If you do need to remove color, please use a color remover formulated for the type of hair color in your hair. 

Bleach, Please can lighten your hair up to 8 levels and includes a 35 Volume Developer. Its 3 oz tube of violet-toned bleach is packed with tons of ingredients that help protect and repair your hair during the bleaching process. Although we’ve formulated Bleach, Please to be as safe and healthy as possible, bleaching will still damage your hair to an extent. Bleach opens up the hair cuticle to remove pigment from the strand, which can result in a dry, rough feeling on your strands. Before and after treatment, nourish your hair with our Resurrected Shampoo and Conditioner, which is color-safe and sulfate-free, to keep your strands as moisturized as possible. 

Carefully follow the instructions on the Bleach, Please kit to safely color your hair, or read our Bleach, Please spotlight here, for more detailed instructions. Once you’ve let the bleach sit for 30-45 minutes, rinse it out and see if you’ve reached your desired result! If your hair is dark and you need several treatments to get to a level 10, make sure to space out your lightening sessions at least a week apart.

Image credit: alexis_hair__

Step 2: Do or Dye 

Now comes the fun part! 

Arctic Fox hair colors are formulated to be a bit thicker due to their conditioning properties, so you want to make sure that you divide your hair into small sections and fully saturate each with color to achieve your desired shade. 

Arctic Mist Diluter is your BFF when it comes to going pastel. Start with Arctic Mist as your base, then add in your shade little by little until you get the color of your dreams. The lighter you’d like to go, the less your color ratio will be to Arctic Mist. Remember, you can always add more Arctic Mist to lighten your mix to get that perfect pastel hue, so go slowly! 

If you want a one-step application to a pastel, check out our very own pastel formula favs, Frosé, Neverland, Periwinkle, and Girls Night! The best part about going pastel is how truly endless the possibilities are. You can mix, match, lighten, or darken, and as long as your base is at the appropriate level, you’ll see those light hues shine through! 

Image Credit: neutraljacqueline

Step 3: Color Care

Now that you’ve got the pretty pastel, hair care is a must! Care for your color in the shower with a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner duo (try our Resurrected Formula for color-safe treatment), and cool water. 

One thing to note is that pastels are not as pigmented as other dyes, so in the coming weeks, give your locks a quick refresh by adding a few drops of dye to your conditioner in the shower, or giving your entire head of hair another coat of dye for a more pigmented look. Pastels fade in the most stunning way, so you can let it go or touch it up, depending on the look you’re going for. 

Shop our Perfect Pastel Starter Kit, find your next color, and show us those hues, pretty please!

Image Credit: princessmei        

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By Thuy Pham

Happy New Year, AF hunnies!

A new year always calls for a fresh look! Every year, I always like to ring in the new year with a new look and this year is no different. When considering my next color, I had a couple choices that would have worked well for me. Taking into consideration that I had Arctic Fox Neverland in my hair, I thought my best choices were to go to a pink tone or violet tone color. 

Neverland is a beautiful soft mint color that was so fun to have for the holidays. It complimented all the red I was wearing for the season. With the green tones in Neverland, I decided that pink or violet tones would be best for my hair right now because I love having sunny and bright oranges and citrus color tones for the summer. Since we are a few months away from basking in the glory of summer sunshine, I needed to decide on a color for the spring. Since violet and pink tones live next to reds, oranges and yellow on the color wheel, they made the most sense to be my transition color.  

After deciding on my next color, I always come up with a formula or recipe for how I’m going to achieve this new color. I was having a really difficult time deciding between the violet and pink. I even took an IG poll that was split 50/50! 

A few days before I was planning to change my hair color, I was helping Kinsley clean and organize her room. I picked up a little velvet bag and emptied the contents into my hand. It was crystals! One was a beautiful amethyst looking stone. It had reflections of purple and sometimes pink and magenta. That’s when I thought, why not do something similar to this crystal? Purple with some pink undertones! Now, I had to figure out the formula. Had I wanted to do a true purple color, I could have easily applied Arctic Fox’s Violet Dreams over my Neverland hair and I would have gotten a beautiful cool toned purple. Since I wanted something with a little warmth to it, I had to color correct the green tones from my hair, otherwise the formula I create will reflect much cooler than I want. To do that I mixed a color correcting shampoo and shampooed my hair 2-3 times until the green tones became an ash/cool blonde. Once this is done, I apply my new color formula. 

Oftentimes, as a chef I am always looking for inspiration in daily life and my new hair color can inspire my desserts such as my butterfly pea flower limeade and purple ube whoopie pies. I believe that your hobbies can inspire you in so many ways. 

Directions to achieve my look from green to purple: 

Color correcting shampoo formula:

1:1 ratio of Arctic Fox Resurrected shampoo and electric paradise

Mix and shampoo. Repeat shampoo until the hair is a cool blonde. 

Final color formula:

2 parts violet dream

1 part periwinkle

1 part girls night

Arctic Mist diluter for ends of hair

Application instructions:

Mix color until well blended. Apply starting at the root of hair and work your way yo about 1/3 down hair shaft. Do this until entire head is complete. Mix equal parts of Arctic Mist diluter into remaining color mixture. Use this diluted formula to cover the rest of your hair. Process for 40 mins. Shampoo and condition with Arctic Fox Resurrected shampoo and conditioner.