Friday, April 16, 2010

the lightening curve

lights, camera,
color, make all the difference in the world.  Serge Normant is a genius,

Fergalicious all the way , love this Gautier dress that reminds me of Madonna's Bustier here


Actually I am referring to the Wella Color Lightning curve as seen here below. As a Colorist in the Salon when doing a color consultation I need to know where we are starting, where we want to end and what's in the middle. For example: You have dark brown hair and want to lighten up with no warmth (red) and  want some caramel highlights. Lots of requests for this on Brunettes, Spring thru Summer.
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  The Exposed contributing pigment is the most important thing to consider when going lighter.  We need to know where we are starting, where we want to end and what's in the middle. That's when I go back to basics and pull out my color wheel chart and compare with the lightning curve which essentially is showing me the stages and levels of color as it lightens from darkest to lightest. I had a rough last week with a client melt down ruining my weekend. This client came to me with light blonde hair think of Pamela Anderson (uh huh) blonde! Her request, lower maintenance blonde closer to her natural color think of Jennifer Aniston The end result a  warmer blonde, with a cool, blonde, highlights. My thought was she is so blonde anything darker is going to freak her out. I could have taken the easy way and slowly eased into some lowlights but I really wanted to please her and give her what she wanted, lower maintenance hair closer to her natural color. Her service now entailed double process, base color, and highlights, the new color would be highlights only. Substantial savings in time and $ for her. This little rough patch was a reminder that the art of a thorough color consultation is so important.  With pics and swatches of the destination color and a repeat back of what the client thinks that will be, seriously! I utilized my tools thoroughly today and to end a Friday my Lovely Brunette client (think Catherine Zeta Jones) who had very dark brown hair and had been coloring herself had finally entrusted me on her third visit with me to throw in her color towel and let me perform my magic. Her request: lighter brown with Caramel highlights like this. Three hours later and 3 processes later she thanked me for giving her exactly what she asked for and more. I hope this helps to clarify the mystery of color a little and how we hairdressers feel, we really want to please you. Thank you for pleasing me with your lovely comments and inspiring blogs.

images: allure, elle, wella images my own

4 comments:

yolanda said...

The service industry can be a little tricky because pleasing your client may require changing their initial request to something more pleasing, even if they don't know the process.

You're showing your commitment to higher service by this post.

Have a nice weekend!

COCAMIA said...

The consultation process is so extremely important!!! I work with stylists and colorists and sometimes if the consultation is not clear, everything else fails! Love this post! Yes, the bar should be set high! It sounds like you do this day to day. Love it! You will succeed in this industry and stand out! Happy weekend...xo

Sarah Klassen said...

I have a lot of respect for stylists! It's not an easy task -- creating the perfect cut and color for a person. As a Graphic Designer, I have the opportunity to try things out, delete them, touch up, redo, etc. A gifted stylist like yourself thinks of the person, and what will truly make them happy in the end. We need many more of you in this world :)

Enlightening people on the process, thought, and care that goes into such things is very helpful. Keep up the fabulous posts!

xoxo,
Sarah

Beno said...

I always love the pictures you post. So elegant! Then I see this! As a cosmo student, what I crave now more than ever is education. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it is much appreciated!

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