Written by Color, color, everywhere! Our shop is full of creative hair color. From rainbow to solid hues of pink, you are sure to see it walking out of the shop just about 7 days a week. So how do we take a guest from one series of colors to another series of colors on the opposite side of the color wheel? Well there are some tricks to it.
With every new guest to us or anytime a guest wants to change their color we do a thorough consultation. It is important for us to know both their short term and long term goals. If someone wants to change their color throughout the year or once a year it will change how we approach both our formulations and also our color combinations.
Someone who wants to switch up their vivid hair color a lot, we ask if they have an idea of what they want the next 2-3 appointments to look like. We will make our recommendations and sometimes that means re-organizing hair color plans so that we can transition smoothly from one to the next. Consultation really is key when it comes to planning and organizing a successful vivid year of transitional color. It allows us to better serve our guests and hit their hair color goals. Occasionally a color just is not possible in one appointment even with planning.
For a guest who isn’t sure what they want ahead of time we have a couple formulation tricks to make switching colors easier. Here are some rules of thumb:
- Add 10% clear or dilution into the formula to reduce how strong the pigment load is. Typically this is not enough to be seen by the visual eye but will make removal or change of tone less to wrestle with.
- Know the color wheel and what colors can be made into another color. For example: pink into orange, into red, into purple, into blue.
- Be aware of the depth or level of the colors. A color can fade but still look as bright as it was on day one. However, it may take less effort to change the tone based on how much pigment is left in the hair. A great tip to check this is by taking a photo of the hair alongside a level chart in black and white. When looking at the photo you will be able to identify the level or intensity of the color which will help formulation.
- Neutralizing a color before bleaching it can help to make removal look more predictable depending on the brand.
Now let us tell you about why we LOVE the brand we use. First of all, it is the only brand with the technology on the market. It uses the physics of positive and negative attraction from a magnetic effect to color the hair rather than oxidative or staining properties. This means its non-damaging and lives inside the cortex of the hair strand. That means its DURABLE! Yes! Unlike other brands, Elumen Haircolor is considered permanent because of where it lives in the hair. Depending on the porosity of the hair, color can last until it grows out. This means we can offer our guests VALUE in their investment. If you are looking for high quality and long lasting vivids that are changeable when desired you can look no further. We got you!
What does maintenance look like? Good question! For anyone who wants to keep their brand new color for 6+ months we recommend booking for a gloss or refresh 1-2 times a year. This is a quick, cost effective appointment to overlay a solid color. The color can be the lightest or brightest tone in the hair to make it look renewed but does not re-color all the tones how they were at the first appointment. You would be surprised just how fresh this can look. If someone has a rainbow or FUNK’d Shade service we recommend becoming a subscriber and paying monthly instead of per appointment. This subscription allows you to have an appointment every 6-8 weeks. We plan for a couple full sessions, day sessions and touch-up sessions for the calendar year. We only lighten the roots on scalp twice a year, the rest of the appointments we overlay the natural color to blend with the rainbow of hues. This keeps the cost down and the integrity of the hair as healthy as possible.
Have questions? Let’s get you in for a consult with one of our creative color specialists!
Chantel Funk + Co. 