In need of an at-home hair color intervention? Help is on the way! Celebrity hairstylist Harry Josh has an impressive lineup of celebrity clients on speed-dial: Gisele Bundchen, Priyanka Chopra and Karlie Kloss — just to name a few. But even though the beauty pro works with the biggest names in the game, he’s no stranger to the magical powers of a $12 box of drugstore hair dye.
At-home hair color is quickly becoming one of the nation’s top panic-purchases during the COVID-19 quarantine. To help educate consumers and encourage them to take charge of their beauty routine, the hair pro teamed up with John Frieda to give ten lucky winners a virtual one-on-one hair consultation. During the Zoom call, the celeb go-to will answer any questions you have about maintaining your hair at home.
To enter the giveaway, head to John Frieda’s Instagram page for more details. Winners will be selected and contacted over the last week of April.
Thankfully, the Harry Josh Pro Tools founder answered some of Us Weekly Stylish’s biggest questions free of charge. “I have fortunately spent almost a decade of my life as a professional, high-end celebrity stylist working with drugstore brands,” the stylist tells Us over the phone. “So I have very good knowledge of what’s possible from a drugstore when in a pinch.”
First of all, it’s important to know what you should expect from your hair dye. In Josh’s pro opinion, drugstore formulas are ideal for covering grays and changing the tone of your hair. It’s not ideal for trying to give yourself foil highlights from the comfort of your bathroom. Save that for your post-quarantine hair appointment.
“When it comes to picking hair color, you will be less apt to run into issues if you go slightly lighter than what you think your hair color is,” he explains. “Keep it off every inch of your hair that is already covered and focus on what needs to be touch up, which is your roots or regrowth.”
He continues, “When you are going lighter, it’s very easy to make it darker [at the salon]. But once you make the choice of making your hair too dark, it becomes very difficult — and costly! — for a professional to lift it out.”
It’s also important to keep in mind that you can’t make any major hair changes without paying a visit to the stylist. “Boxed color does not have the capabilities of what salon color can do in terms of radical changes,” says Josh. “A salon can take you from brown to dirty blonde, but a boxed color cannot do that. A boxed color can only lift you two levels lighter.”
Take this, for example. “If you’re someone who has dark brown hair and wants to go blonde, a box of blonde hair dye will not do what you think it will do. It can only lighten it a certain amount.”
Moral of the story: if you’re a natural brunette with platinum blonde hair (or any other drastic combination, really), the stylist advises that you “just give your hair a break and do treatments, but don’t color it yourself” during quarantine.
“There’s so much that can happen from products that aren’t permanent, say, you’re a blonde that needs her roots touched up,” he concludes. Shampoos and conditioners also have the capability of changing the tone of your hair and are superiorly less intimidating than hair dye. Consider scooping up purple shampoo and conditioner from the drugstore to brighten up hair color that’s losing is vibrance.
The final takeaway? Don’t panic and so something you might regret. This, too, shall pass.
Listen on Spotify to Get Tressed With Us to get the details of every hair love affair in Hollywood, from the hits and misses on the red carpet to your favorite celebrities’ street style ‘dos (and don’ts!)
