Color Correction
This is a blog post I wrote for Stilisti’s website a while back, but think it is worth sharing again!
Every week we at Stilisti spend the day advancing our team and perfecting our craft. There is always some type of education happening ranging from manufactures product knowledge classes to in house advanced color and cutting techniques and everything in between. Often times we have outside educators come in to facilitate these classes, but we also like to take advantage of this time to have our own team members run the education and synergize with each other. A few weeks ago, our senior stylist/colorist Alexandra facilitated a color correction class for the whole team.
Color correction is a term that gets thrown around a lot and perhaps with some misconceptions. Let’s break it down a little. Within the industry, by definition, a color correction is any situation where you are coloring hair that has been previously colored. And remember, once you have colored your hair, until it has grown out and been cut off of your head, that color still exists within the hair strand. So yes, almost everyone (except those rare hair color virgins!) will fall into the color correction category.
Without going into too much technical information, let me explain why. There are generalized rules and theories that dictate how we formulate and use hair color. The existing hair color will dictate these rules. Unlike painting nails or painting a wall, when professional colorists are coloring your hair there are many factors to take into consideration. It is not as simple as painting a coat of something on to achieve that color, or even painting a primer on first. The natural color that our hair has is dictated by the melanin or pigment within the hair cuticle. To simplify: when we darken the hair, we are adding pigment; when we lighten hair, we are removing pigment. Thus, exposing underlying pigments. Every hair color (and color in general) has underlying pigments, which basically means all the various colors that combine/build up to create the color that you can see. (Remember basic art class: red + blue = purple; blue + yellow = green, red + yellow = orange; red + blue + yellow + green + orange + purple = brown) It is these same tones that are exposed during the coloring process. When you are lightening hair from brown to blonde (or yellow in primary color speak), you must first go through red. These tones are most commonly referred to as warm or brassiness (any natural brunette that likes to be blonde you know what we are talking about!) Factor in different textures, grey hair, previously colored hair and we’ve got ourselves quite a project! So yes, technically speaking any color service done on hair that has been previously colored is a color correction. For the sake of ‘salon speak’ and for this article however, we will refer to color correction as anything that is a ‘significant color change, requiring multiple steps.
Our model for this class, Malissa (who was not an existing client) had reached out to me saying that she was unhappy with her hair color and really wanted a fresh change. Years ago, she had thick curly blonde hair that required little maintenance besides semi-regular visits to her colorist to keep her roots astray. And at home: shampoo, conditioner, and a little curl cream to get her curls bouncy. Five years and two rounds of chemotherapy later, Malissa’s curls had been left lack luster and during this time she had also transitioned into a red-head (both with her natural hair and wig.) She had been to a salon a few times to try to get rid of the red, so was much lighter, but still quite copper. Now that her treatment is behind her, Malissa wants to focus on moving forward. Blonde hair reminds her of a time when she was healthy and wants to get back to that time. Hair and hair color can have an incredibly strong emotional and sensitive relationship for most people. Think about a time you had a hair color or cut you didn’t love, or those silly bangs or better yet perm you had in your old school picture. I bet just thinking about it can bring you right back to that place emotionally. So, when listening to Malissa, I knew she would be the perfect model for a color correction class.
We brought Malissa in on an education day at Stilisti and we were armed with seven senior stylists, two junior stylists, three assistants, unlimited time and no other clients in the salon. First, I had a consultation with Malissa. Even though I already knew what she wanted from our previous conversation, this in an integral step in any hair service, and important for everyone to hear. Then, the whole team went to the color mixing room and I had everyone write down a blueprint of what they would do if she had sat in their chair. Remember, there are multiple routes to arrive at the same destination. After everyone shared their ideas (many of them similar), we decided our first step would be to try and get out as much of the copper as we could, as quickly as we could. At the sink we did a color removing service using a gentle lightener on damp hair. We were pleasantly surprised how much of the copper came out! Next step was to paint on a base color all over to cover any grey hair and also to provide a fresh canvas for dimensional work. After that processed, we washed it out, put a conditioning serum on and did a rough blow dry to prepare for the dimensional work. Then, I went in using a combination of highlighting, low lightening and hair painting 9also known as balayage) to achieve the desired natural dimensional look. Finishing up the color service with a glaze to provide toning and overall shine, much like a lip gloss to your lipstick. After a good trim and re-shaping Malissa was back to feeling like herself! Her hair texture probably won’t ever get back to being 100% like it used to be, because of the effects of her chemotherapy treatment, but with the right cut and home care (we used Davines curl shaping cream and curl mousse) it certainly looks and feels much better. In order to maintain her color, I recommended monthly visits to cover the greys and every other month to freshen up the dimensional color and cut.
As you can see, this was a quite in-depth process. In total, it took about 5 hours, and this was with our whole team pitching in and no other clients in the salon. So remember, when you are looking to have a color change, color correction, there is much more than meets the eye. And when you see celebrities making drastic color changes, just know that there is a whole team and limitless resources behind the scenes (including wigs and hair pieces, but we’ll save that for another blog post!)
