This Colorist Specializes in "No-Makeup Makeup" for Your Hair, so I Booked an Appointment

Julie Dickson has always been fascinated by "little kid hair"—the unbleached, never-touched-a-hot-tool tendrils that reflect the light with a kaleidoscope of colors. "I used to love it when I would get stuck behind a redheaded kid in line at the grocery store," she tells me as she paints my own strands at her chic Lower East Side salon, Joon Drop. In each youthful mane lies a patchwork of subtle yet vibrant hues, which, for a master stylist like Dickson, is a feast for the eyes. "You'll even see a purple strand, or a clear, strawberry strand," she gushes.

These memories eventually became the impetus for her salon speciality: "kid color," a low-maintenance dye job that takes you back to your most natural, youthful shade. As a member of the "blonde as a child" club, I was curious whether this subtle technique could truly catapult my strands back in time, so I skipped over to Joon Drop to put "kid color" to the test. Ahead, my investigation.

What Is the "Kid Color" Technique?

If you've ever looked at your baby photos and wondered, "Why does my hair look so good, and why doesn't it look like that anymore?" you're not alone. Little kid hair tends to appear bouncier, healthier, and way more vibrant before it ultimately loses luster over time. This is in part due to accumulated stressors—like heat damage, free radicals, and overall wear and tear—and hormone fluctuations from the natural aging process. I personally wish I could go back in time, shake the tiny shoulders of my 6-year-old self, and beg her to never fry her strands with a flat iron—but some of the changes are, to an extent, unavoidable.

"Most people's hair gets a little bit darker as they get older," Dickson explains. "But a big thing that happens is that it stops producing so much warmth. All those honey and chestnut pieces that people used to get in their hair stop occurring." That's where the "kid color" technique comes into play. By reintroducing an array of tones (as opposed to, say, one set of highlights), your hair can take on a more lustrous quality that, in the end, doesn't look color-treated at all.

How It Works

Note, "kid color" is a little more than just natural-looking highlights. "What I usually do is take paper-fine baby pieces, [dye some] slightly lighter, and then [dye] some slightly darker shades of the natural color," she says. By including lowlights (aka, darker pieces) in the mix, you're able to create dimension without completely altering your base shade. As for the paper-thin pieces? That ensures the highlights don't look so "stripey," Dickson tells me. The highlights and lowlights should naturally ebb and flow throughout your mane—as if your hair were naturally kissed by the sun.

Before selecting your dye, Dickson will first take a look at your baby photos. This is actually a pretty common practice among colorists, as it can be helpful for deciding whether cooler or warmer tones suit you best. A caveat: Just because you might have been blonde as a child doesn't mean you'll wind up platinum. It's important to set expectations here. The goal with "kid color" isn't to identically match your childhood hue but to bring out the same level of warmth and vibrancy.

"If you look at your blonde when you were little, it was a warm blonde," Dickson points out from my own baby photo. "It was kind of a buttery blonde. It wasn't ashy at all. So that's what we're doing—a warm honey blonde, just a darker version."

My Results

I've had highlights before. However, it had been a while since I'd gotten them touched up. (As you can probably tell from my "before" photo above, my roots are pretty dark.) After landing on the direction of "warm, nude honey" from my baby photos, Dickson painted and foiled my strands in super-thin, tiny pieces.

"Hair color is always darker at the roots than it is on the ends, so we're taking what you have [there] and adding in some of that honey," she tells me. She painted those highlights first, then added in some lowlights around my roots to create depth. After washing, toning, and blow-drying my strands, she left me with a noticeably brighter, sunnier mane that still felt like me.

Of course, I had to ask Dickson about the upkeep. How often would I need to come back for touch-ups? "If you do it right the first time, you could never have to get it done again," Dickson declares, much to my delight. "For you, we're doing something a little more impactful. I'd say twice a year." Not bad considering some color choices require maintenance every six weeks!

Overall, I'd consider Dickson's technique the "no-makeup makeup" of hair color—a little zhuzh that makes a noticeable impact. And if I inspect a section up close, I can detect a medley of hues: golden, chestnut, honey, etc. These slight variations make such a difference in my hair's level of shine. In the weeks following my appointment, multiple stylists have commented on my "seamless" hair color—coming from the pros themselves, this is a mega-compliment. I wonder if a colorist has even stood behind me at the market or on the subway platform, secretly marveling at how my strands catch the light. A girl can dream.

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