Easy DIY Root Shadow – Blending Blonde Hair Into Natural

If you’re looking for a way to make your blonde hair or highlights become lower maintenance, than a root shadow will be your best friend. In this blog post I cover everything you need to know about root shadows from best practices & products, to how to do it yourself from home.

Lower maintenance hair colors have been trending since the beginning of the pandemic. We’ve all been looking for ways to save money with the rising costs of life and lower our maintenance frequency. So as a hairstylist, my specialty was creating lived-in and low maintenance hair color for my clients. Now in this post, I’m going to teach you how you can do this yourself from home.

What is a root shadow?

Let’s first talk about what a root shadow even is. This is a hair coloring technique that will seamlessly blend your natural root color into your blonde hair or highlights for a much softer grow out. This will enable you to push your blonding appointments out further because your hair still looks good after many months.

I’ve had many clients tell me that they were still receiving compliments on their hair 6-12 months after their appointments! And I have to give credit where credit is due, and that is to the wonderful technique of the root shadow.

The technique is performed by adding a demi or semi permanent hair color to the root of the hair. This can be performed on a full blonde or on hair that’s been highlighted.

This darker color is essentially a toner that will marry the highlights into the natural hair for a soft grow out. Since demi or semi permanent color is used, it will still be easy to lighten through in the future when it’s time to bring the blonde back up.

What are the differences between a root shadow, root smudge, root melt, and root tap?

Depending on who you talk to, the root shadow does have several different names. Ultimately each name does have a slightly different meaning, but some stylists use these terms interchangeably.

• Root Tap: A root tape is where the color is only tapped right at the root of the hair. This means the color is not applied any further from the scalp than half an inch.
• Root Smudge: A root smudge is where the color is pulled down slightly further than a root tap, in the range of one inch to one and a half inches.
• Root Shadow: A root shadow is pulled down further than a root smudge, right around 2-3 inches.
• Root Melt: A root melt is pulled down even further, melting the darkest root color into the lightest blonde ends. There is normally at least 3 colors used for this method.

Is it better to do a root smudge on wet or dry hair?

You can perform a root smudge on wet OR dry hair.

When doing a root shadow on wet hair, the color will be diluted slightly by the water. This will make the overall appearance of the root shadow slightly more translucent. That being said, it generally will produce a more blended and seamless transition from the dark color into the light.

When done on dry hair, the color will take better providing more coverage and longevity, but it may not blend quite as well as it would on wet hair. Ultimately this comes down to the technique and skills of the application.

What products should I use to do a root shadow?

As I mentioned earlier, it’s best to do a root shadow with demi or semi permanent hair color. For those that are doing this themselves from home, I highly recommend using a semi-permanent color as the safest option.

Semi permanent color will fade completely out of the hair and won’t alter the natural color at all. This means that it can be lightened over in the future with bleach, hi lift, OR regular hair color. The theory that color doesn’t lift color doesn’t apply here because semi permanent color was used.

Also, if you don’t like the color you can just wash your hair several times and the color will fade away. See my post here for how to remove semi permanent color from the hair.

When using demi permanent color, this can hinder your ability to use hi-lift or regular hair color to lighten the hair in the future because it can penetrate and slightly alter the natural pigment of the hair. This depends on the color used, as well as the texture of the hair. Fine hair will be more permanently altered than coarse hair.

Products

No matter what product you choose, I highly recommend performing a test strand so you know what to expect before applying the color over your whole head. Below I’ll give a description of the different colors to help you in your choice of which one is best for your situation.

***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***

Celeb Luxury Gem Lites

Shampoos are a better option if you want to shampoo the color into your root instead of applying it with a bowl and brush. This is the easier method if you aren’t super skilled at coloring the hair with the bowl and brush method.

Although you can still apply the conditioner to the root the same way you would the shampoo, the conditioners are best if you are somewhat skilled at applying color with a bowl and brush. This way you can be more targeted at what areas you’re applying the color to.

Star Sapphire is my general go-to choice, but be sure to check out both the shampoos and conditioners as they have different shades in both categories.

That being said, I actually love to mix the colors together to create custom tones.

Shampoos

• Brown Tahitian Pearl Shampoo – This is the darkest and coolest toned color. It is technically used to remove red tones from brown hair. That being said, if applied to very yellow hair it can turn the hair a greenish hue. So only use this if your hair is past a yellow stage or if your color is darker.
• Brown Diamond Shampoo – This is a lighter choice and won’t turn the hair green if you have yellow present.

Conditioners

• Brown Tahitian Pearl Conditioner – This is the darkest and coolest toned color. It is technically used to remove red tones from brown hair. That being said, if applied to very yellow hair it can turn the hair a greenish hue. So only use this if your hair is past a yellow stage or if your color is darker.
• Star Sapphire Conditioner – This is my general go-to choice as it replicates a natural brown color. It is relatively cool toned, but not so much as the Brown Tahitian Pearl and isn’t as likely to take on a greenish hue when applied to warm tones.
• Cocoa Quarts Conditioner – This is the lightest color I would use when it comes to the conditioners, and it is best if your natural color is a level 7 or lighter. This will not turn the hair a greenish hue if yellow is present.

Demi Permanent

When it comes to demi permanent options, you can use any demi permanent line in your favorite hair color line. My favorite is Pravana, so that’s what I’m recommending below.

• Pravana 7.22 – This will deliver a level 7, beige hair color to the hair. This will marry the natural color into the blonde hair.
• 5 Volume Developer for Demi Color – This is the developer you can mix with the color above for a demi permanent coverage.

How to do a root smudge from home

Below I’ve linked two of my Youtube videos to show how to perform a root shadow by shampooing the color into your hair, or by applying it with a bowl and brush. In both methods, I use the semi permanent color depositing shampoo and conditioner.

Conclusion

A root shadow is a technique that blends your natural root color with blonde hair, creating a soft, seamless grow-out. This method helps extend the time between salon visits and keeps your hair looking fresh for months.

And while the terms root shadow, root smudge, root tap, and root melt are often used interchangeably, each refers to different levels of color application.

When applying a root shadow at home, you can do it on either wet or dry hair. Wet hair tends to create a more blended, translucent look, while dry hair gives more coverage and longevity.

For DIY root shadows, semi-permanent color or color-depositing products are the safest and easiest options opposed to demi permanent colors. Permanent color should never be used for this technique.

Leave me any questions you have on root shadowing in the comments section, and make sure you subscribe below to make everyday a good hair day!