using the PINWHEEL pattern for chunky highlights

March 16, 2018

this week, veronica is back in the chair. her hair grows very fast, and she’s got mad roots coming in! what we are going to do today is a chunky highlight look using a PINWHEEL pattern.

we are going to be retouching her chunky highlights and showing you the step by step process. we’re also going to show you how to properly section the hair and lay the foils in a PINWHEEL pattern.

the last time we did veronica’s hair was about 6 weeks ago, and we only re-touched the pinwheel since veronicas hair takes so long to foil.

these roots are in need of some serious TLC.

with her hair sectioned out, we are ready to begin the process.

the LIGHTENER

hair lightener differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, but usually you can mix it anywhere from a 1:1 to 1:3 ratio for developer. today, because of the process we are doing, we don’t want it to be too runny, or the foils could slide right out. we are going to be using schwartzkopf BLONDME with a 1: 1½ ratio. this will prevent the foils from sliding out and bleeding.

here you can see that we are feathering in the lightener to eliminate any harsh line

If you want to see how to lay the foils for the bottom of the head, check out our video on how to do CHUNKY HIGHLIGHTS.

creating a DARK VEIL

veronica’s natural hair is jet black and she has noticeable roots in 2 weeks. in this next step, we will be leaving about a half a centimeter for a veil of dark around the edges of her hair to help camouflage her regrowth between retouches.

for this step, we use the same formula as the rest of her dark pieces. we are also going to use a higher developer on her roots to get the lift and a lower level developer that just deposits on the end.

with the dark veil done, we are going to continue the process until we get to the top section, we want to visually pick out each section so we maintain our color transition. last time, we did a 2 dark slices to every 3 slices of light.

PROTIP: remembering the sectioning pattern and the number of slices of each color will make doing the retouch a lot easier

after an hour and 45 minutes, we are finally done laying in the foils around the sides and back of veronica’s hair. we are not joking when we say she has a lot of hair! since we are freshening up the brown, we are going to keep the foils all organized to make our lives easier. we’ve put the blonde ends on one side and the brown ends on the other.

keeping the ends separate by color, we can easily freshen up all the brown without making a mess or getting dark color on the hair that we want to keep light.

next up we are ready to move onto the top of the hair.

sectioning the PINWHEEL pattern

we’ve got the top of veronica’s hair sectioned into 4 parts, 2 in the back and 2 in the front.

we are going to start with the front section because we want to lay these foils first, so that the front has longer to process.

for our PINWHEEL pattern, we want to start with the front right quadrant. working our way forward from the part we want to angle each section slightly to create a pie shaped section.

PRO TIP: the key to a perfect pinwheel is that the center point stays the center! to do that for your blonde sections, your 2nd and 3rd foil have to be a little shorter than your previous foil. the second foil will be about 2/3 of the way down from the center point, and the 3rd foil will be about ⅓ of the way down from the center point. THEN, for your 1st brown foil, it’ll go all the way to the center point again and the 2nd foil will be 2/3rds of the length.

the reason we do not extend each section into the center point is because if we do that, the center will begin to shift away from its original point and you won’t get a seamless blend.

with the first section going all the way up to the center point, we are going to lay in our first foil.

applying the bleach to the first section of the PINWHEEL.

notice the second section does not extend all the way up into the center point.

the 3rd foil for this blonde section is going to be even shorter. we are going to continue to stagger each section using the same method as we work towards the front of the head.

PROTIP: make sure your foils are tightly secured by folding the foil tightly around the comb. this will prevent your foils from sliding and any bleach from bleeding onto the hair.

drape the brown ends back with the rest of our dark ends and keep it separate from the BLONDE.

again we are going to incorporate another section of dark veil.

as we move around to the next section of blond, again we use the “thirds” method and angle each part so that our center point does not move.

with the first quadrant in foils, we are going to add another centimeter of dark veil to the other section.

we are going to continue this same process until the pinwheel is done.

now that her hair is all foiled, we are ready to color the faded ends of the brown hair.

applying the brown color.

after we have applied the color, we want to use a wide tooth comb to make sure that the hair is evenly saturated with color.

here you can see a bit more detail of how we have laid the folis for the PINWHEEL pattern. it is important to make sure to keep your sectioning perfect, or the center point will move, and you will not get the desired result.

quick rinse and we are almost finished with this fabulous look.

with the color rinsed out, we are ready to tone veronicas roots and get rid of those yellow hues.

we will be using a mixture of half 8.11 and half 8.22 in j beverly hIlls. this is a combination of a little bit of blue and a little bit of ash to neutralize the yellow color.

for her ends we are going to be using half of a level 8 and half of a level 9 to tone.

after we have allowed the toner to process, we are ready to rinse.

the STYLE

after a rinse and a power dry, we are going to prep the ends veronicas hair with a bit of nvenn ‘replenish’ hair restoration oil.

we are also going to use a bit of nvenn ‘protect’ heat shield throughout the hair. we want to layer the heat protectant in everywhere to make sure it is evenly distributed throughout the hair.

we are also going to be using nvenn ‘smooth’ hair defrizzer to tame the baby fly-away hairs that she has. this is an amazing product because it won’t weigh down the hair or leave any residue. this is an all natural and light weight product made from kelp extract and essential oils. like all of our products it is also 100% CRUELTY FREE.

the finished result is a beautiful diffused color pattern with beautiful chunky highlights and no “stripiness.”

if you would like to try the amazing products featured in this weeks video, we are going to give you ten dollars off these products for a limited time only.

if you have any questions or comments, leave them in the section below, and remember to like and subscribe to @nvennhairbeauty on facebook and instagram. stay tuned for a new video every friday.