before you book
Can my hair handle lightening?
How dark your hair is now matters less than what it's already been through. Virgin hair that's never been coloured can often take more lift in one sitting than hair that's lighter now but carries a history of bleach, keratin treatments, or box dye. Before I lighten anything, I look at your hair's colour history, check how it feels and stretches, and look for existing breakage. That tells me more than the colour on your head does.
K18 goes into most of my lightening services. Applied cold, it rebuilds the internal bonds that lightening breaks down, so hair holds strength and elasticity through the process instead of just feeling coated on the outside. What it cannot do is reverse hair that's already snapped off or reattach split ends. If your hair is at that point, a trim alongside the treatment gives you a more honest result than the treatment pretending to fix it alone. The full detail on that treatment is on the cold hair restoration page.
If your hair has already been through heavy processing, colour correction is often the right first step rather than more lightening on top of what's already there. That work is priced and explained on the colour correction page.
Where I say no
If a strand test or your hair's history tells me it cannot safely take the lightening you're asking for in one visit, I'll say so before anything goes on your head. That usually means scaling back what we do today, or splitting the work across two or three appointments instead of one that risks breaking your hair off.
Questions
What does K18 actually fix?
K18 rebuilds the internal bonds inside the hair shaft that lightening breaks down, so hair holds strength and elasticity through the process. It does not reverse hair that has already snapped off or reattach split ends.
When will you refuse to lighten my hair?
If a strand test or your hair's history shows it cannot safely take the lightening you are asking for in one visit, I will say so and either scale back the plan or split it across multiple appointments instead.