By Sam Escobar, Good Housekeeping
[post_ads]If you've always hoped to go blonde
but don't want to sit through a nine-hour appointment, a new product
from Pravana promises to be the tool of your dreams. Declared by the
company to be "the biggest thing to happen in blonding ever," the Blonde
Wand supposedly lightens your hue a whopping seven shades in just a
matter of seconds — a sizable claim considering comparable lightening
processes often take far longer.
Here's how it works, according to Pravana's product page:
Once
the Pravana lightener is in your hair, the stylist then runs the
"thermal lightening tool" along the foil-enclosed hair like this:
The before and after images are super dramatic.
According to Pravana, as well as professional fans of the tool, it's
better for your hair than traditional processing. "Not only does it
speed up the time, but there is a lot less damage to the hair because
the lightener doesn't have to sit on the hair for so long," celebrity
colorist Justin Anderson told WWD. Pravana says that its research proves the Blonde Wand leaves hair in better condition:
So, is this the biggest hair innovation since the Dyson hairdryer?
We're not quite convinced. "It is not novel that heat accelerates the
lifting of hair color via bleaching, as some colorists put clients with
foils under a hot salon air dryer," says Birnur Aral, Ph.D., Director of the Beauty Lab
at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute.
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"In the end, it's still
the same chemical reaction happening with what seems to be the same
amount of bleach in the hair — whether it's faster won't change the
damage once you reach the desired degree of lightening." In fact, she
says, there could actually be more damage because of how hot the iron gets.
The takeaway: This could be a fantastic new advancement in hair tools, but you should definitely talk to your stylist first.
