“Seeing Red

The past few weeks have been so much fun for me! Besides having gained some wonderful new clients, I have created some truly amazing redheads. I love coloring hair, I really, really love coloring hair and days like these remind me how much it exhilarates me. Don’t get me wrong, cutting, styling and other chemical services get my juices flowing too. As a Colorists friend once said “why just decorate some one else’s architecture when you can create that architecture yourself and then decorate it too” Was his response to teaching a Cut and Color class. He was stepping way outside his recognized comfort zone. In my case, I am challenging myself to expand my boarders and show myself, and everyone around me, what I’m capable of. And you know what? It feels really good. There is no better feeling than to see a guest just beam with joy, or hear them say ” that’s exactly what I wanted, I love it!”

The one thing I must, must, must change, and Now, take before photos! After photos are wonderful, but far less impactful without seeing where you started and how far you came. One example is a busy mom who loves a vivid, bold red and had been doing it herself with a red violet hair color and “4 activator”. (There is no such thing, she was using 40 volume, or 12% hydrogen peroxide, with permanent hair color. I can’t tell you how horrifying that sounds to a good hair stylist!) She was then coloring the whole thing again with Manic Panic hair color- Vampire Red.

 When she sat in my hair she was three tones of red orange with dark brown roots. I Bumped her base, reconditioned and cut her hair. Next I applied a color formula at her target color direction to her untainted hair, processed for the full time required and then matched the mid-lengths and ends to her roots. It took 5 hours, but she couldn’t stop telling me “That’s it! You got the color I wanted.” Yup, that’s what I do.

This is one of my best color corrections. I’m still patting myself on the back for this one!

We all have our favorite guests, men or women who bring something special to our art. I feel like I have a lot of these, here are a few of my favorite red heads:

 

Here I shifted her from Caramel highlights to a Candy Apple stain with Caramel highlights

  

She cant get enough red so we create a red base and color weave for more

  

A perfectly placed pop of color compliments her cut and texture

  

Red looks great at any age!

 

My love of red hair comes naturally. I am a natural dark blond, mousy brown, girl who started greying in my teens. I played with blond and red in my twenties, and wore both well till I hit thirty. Two things changed in my thirties, I stopped looking good in blond haircolor and I realized I was no longer coloring for fun, it was now a necessity. Red is the color I chose for myself so I know how empowering this color direction is. Blondes may have more fun, but redheads do it with attitude!

 

Schwarzkopf Essensity hair color in Copper Auburn

  

Multi dimensional tone add texture and interest