(High) light up your life

When Jennifer Lopez was dating Puff Daddy back in their high-profile glory days, this was actually the time she blossomed. Not only did she insure her buttocks for a million dollars each, she also dazzled the red carpet with bleached-blonde highlights. Until now, this has been her never-changing, trademark, to-die-for look.

My first highlighting experience was quite weird. Wait! Make that bad, actually. Since my hair is curly, instead of using foils, the colorist used this dreadful highlight cap with holes. So, it took an hour of yanking strands through with a crochet needle. Although the color turned out okay, I swore never to go through that pain again.

The good news is, highlighting can now be hassle-free. This is because L’Oreal Professionel recently launched Platinum at Salon Prive, at Makati Shangri-La Hotel. The great thing about this highlighting service is that it has an avant-garde blend of safe yet effective ingredients and takes total care of the hair. So, you get gentle highlights and safe lightening.

"It is a technological breakthrough comparable to the switch from VHS to DVD," explains Emmanuel Greze-Masurel, L’Oreal international hair color product group manager. With Platinum, it veers away from bleaching powders and uses a lightening paste instead. No worries about going overly blonde, indeed.

I have always wanted to highlight my hair with streaks of blue, red, orange, and green. But I might look too punk-rock or even like Rainbow Bright. My hair-color expert was quite horrified to see two inches of roots growing into my otherwise dyed hair. Yes, it’s my fault – I got too lazy to dye my hair again after a few months. But going back to my secret hair fantasy, expert colorists won’t go wild, unless you ask. So he picked a lovely shade of light brown to go with the bleached-blonde highlights.

After two hours of dyeing, shampooing, and highlighting with foil (not with that rubber cap), I really loved the results, from the color to the shine – my hair was absolutely gorgeous. Dig this, ordinary bleaching products reduce the "lipidic potential" of the hair fiber up to 60 percent, which leads to a major loss of shine.

For first-timers who want to try highlights, there is no need to worry about the condition of the hair. Platinum will keep the hair healthy. So, the hair remains soft, shiny, and strong – as if it has not been treated with chemicals. And for those addicted to J. Lo’s blonde-streaks look, with Platinum, highlights can be redone with no fear of damaging the hair.

"While the lightening result is the same, the advances in terms of quality of hair fiber are incomparable," concludes Greze-Masurel.

Highlights can now be worshipped and fetishized, allowing women to look like their favorite celebrities with a single toss of their locks. Intriguing, eh? Just don’t forget to protect your new ’do from fading with color-care shampoos, conditioners – and enjoy being gorgeous.

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Platinum by L’Oreal Professionel is available in Manila’s leading salons.