Color Enhancement Guide

Enhancing Natural tone

No matter what effect you wish to achieve when you color your hair, you always want to enhance your natural coloring to look your best. The amount and type of melanin in your hair and skin determines your tonality. The top portion of the table below illustrates how red, brown, and black melanin combine naturally to create warm, neutral, and cool tonalities in our hair and skin. The lower portion of the table provides more warm and cool facts, and finally recommendations for color enhancement for your natural tonality, as it leans more toward warm or more toward cool.

Red Pigment Creates Vibrant Warm Copper, Strawberry and Golden Blondes, and Auburn	Brown Pigment Creates Rich Neutral Blondes & Brunettes, Moderately Warm to Slightly Cool.	Black Pigment Tones Cool Ash Blondes and Brunettes. Black without Brown Produces Gray.
Amy Adam's warm pigmentation results from Dominating red melanin (pheomelanin).	Natalie Portman's neutral pigmentation results from Dominating brown melanin (brown eumelanin).	Courtney Cox's cool pigmentation results from dominating black melanin (black eumelanin).
A large concentration of pheomelanin (with a low concentration of brown and black) results in red hair, the least common hair color (1%-2%) in the world. Blond hair can have almost any proportion of pheomelanin and eumelanin, but both only in small amounts. More pheomelanin creates a more golden blond or strawberry color. Auburn is a mix of red and brown. With aging, red hair turns sandy, then white.	A low concentration of brown eumelanin results in blond hair, whereas a higher concentration of brown eumelanin will color the hair brown. The presence of black eumelanin will make the color more ash, while the presence of pheomelanin will give auburn or gold tones. An abundance of this pigment allows easy tanning. Brown eumelanin may be the the first to stop being produced in the hair as we age.	High amounts result in black hair, while low concentrations give gray hair. Black hair contains all three pigments, though they may not be apparent as black can easily dominates a mix of tones. Black eumelanin is in mostly non-Europeans and aged Europeans, while brown eumelanin is in mostly young Europeans. Gray hair color occurs as brown, red, and finally black melanin cease to be produced in the hair root and new hairs grow in without pigment.

MY NATURAL COLORING IS WARM OR WARM-NEUTRAL	MY NATURAL COLORING IS COOL-NEUTRAL OR COOL
Eye color: Golden brown, green,green-blue, or hazel (light brown) with gold or brown flecks.	Eye color: Deep brown or black-brown, gray blue, dark blue, or hazel with white, gray or blue flecks.
Skin color: Brown with pink or gold undertones, pale with peach or gold undertones, freckled, or I burn easily with pink, bluish-red, or ruddy (red) tone.	Skin color: Very dark brown, true olive (most Asian and Latino), medium with very little color in cheeks, medium with golden undertones, pale with slight pink or no color in cheeks. I tan to brown, golden brown, or bronze.
Melanin: Visible pheomelanin (red, pink, gold) with variable eumelanin.	Melanin: Pheomelanin is difficult to see because eumelanin dominates.
Jewelry: My skin tone looks better with gold jewelry than with silver.	Jewelry: My skin tone looks better with silver jewelry.
Veins: The veins in my arm are greenish, and my skin tone looks better with gold jewelry than it does with silver.	Veins: The veins in my arm look blue, .and my skin tone looks best when I wear silver jewelry.
Hair Color: My hair is naturally deep brown with gold or red highlights, red, strawberry blond, medium blonde, or dark blond.	Hair Color: My hair is naturally black, very deep brown, medium golden brown, golden blond with no red or strawberry, or salt and pepper.
Clothing: I look best in these colors, which include "earth tones" - yellows, oranges, browns, yellowish greens and orange-based reds.	Clothing: I look best in these colors, which include "jewel tones" - blues, greens, pinks, purples, blue-greens, magentas, and blue-based reds.
Recommendations: Avoid blue, violet, white, and jet-black hair colors. Depending on your skin tone and your preference, you'll find rich golden browns, auburn, strawberry, and golden blond shades enhance your "sunny" look. If skin tone is red, warm colors with golden tones tend to work well. If skin tone is more golden, try colors containing red or copper.	Recommendations: Avoid gold, yellow, coppery red and bronze tones in medium to light shades. Depending on your skin tone, shiny blacks, ash browns, cool blonds, dark violets and cool red to red-violets can work very well. Black or very dark brown hair can be stunning with contrasting warm chocolate tones that are relatively dark in value.

Not everyone is easily categorized as warm and cool. In this case, subtle warm and neutral colors work well in contrasting values, or color may be used creatively with foil or color placement techniques to add the hues that will harmonize best with your various warm and cool features.

Lightening and darkening: Changing levels

When considering if lighter or darker hair would suit you, one thing to consider is the darkness and lightness of your natural features. If your features are darker, you have more pigment in your skin and hair and skin than someone who is fair or light. The more pigment (melanin) you have in your skin, the easier you tan. Darker hair and darker skin usually means more concentration of pigment in the eyes, resulting in a darker eye color, but not always. Your eye color combined with the lightness or darkness of your skin can serve as a rough guide to determine how light or how dark a color can be to bring out your best features, instead of washing you out.

When you want a lighter or darker effect with your color, the following are important considerations:

1. Will lighter or darker hair suit me? What warm or cool shade is best for me?
2. What about roots? How long will my hair look good between salon visits?
3. How do I keep my hair looking shiny and healthy?

All-over color is usually done in a single step, but to go from dark brown to a very light solid blonde, such as a platinum blonde, your hair may need pre-lightening. This service is called a bleach and tone. A pastel color, such as platinum, is added in an extra step. Think of Paris Hilton or Marilyn Monroe. The downside of lightening hair with an all-over color is that roots will be 1/2" after 4 weeks. It is important to discuss what will be involved in retouching your color with your stylist. When going lighter, a highlighting service can (and should) double or triple the number of weeks your color will look good between color touch-ups.

Consider Highlights when going lighter (see next section: Highlighting & Lowlighting)

a demi-permanent, deposit only color is often best when going darker

A demi-permanent color, such as Igora Viviance, does not contain ammonia, which is only necessary when you want to lift or lighten the natural hair color or color very resistant gray hair. Try not to think of "demi-permanent" as meaning temporary, because these products can be as lasting as a permanent color. All shades and brands of permanent colors contain some ammonia, even the darkest shades, with the lighter shades containing the most. Unnecessary lifting with permanent hair color can have the following undesirable effects:

• When a cool tone is desired, lifting brown hair creates underlying warm tones, or "brassy tones". Demi-permanent color does not do this.
• Roots tend to be more noticeable with permanent color as the color grows out
• The action of ammonia is not as gentle on the hair, so the hair texture tends to be better with demi-permanent
• If you decide to go lighter in the future, is is more difficult to do so with darker permanent color in your hair.

Always Consider Highlights when going lighter

Highlights are very popular because of the tremendous creative flexibility this service offers. When highlighting, very fine strands of hair are colored in one or more shades to harmonize with the natural hair color. Lowlights may be added to restore depth for added dimension, while vibrant or very light tones may be used where accents are desired. Typically, a full head of highlights colors only 20-30% of the hair, which keeps your hair healthier, and has several additional benefits:

1. Roots are less apparent as the hair grows compared to an all-over color;
2. The effect that can be achieved ranges from natural-looking to surprisingly bold;
3. If you choose to maintain highlights, retouching is only necessary every 2 1/2 to 3 months (minimum)*;
4. Highlights offer tremendous flexibility for changing the look down the road.

*Bold, thick slices or weaves with a high degree of contrast will show re-growth sooner than every three months, and may be more difficult to retouch without overlapping. I will guide you in choosing an effect that suits your personality and lifestyle.

Most clients will find a half-head highlight service adequate or even preferable to a full-head application, because it is nice to retain the natural depth in the nape area.

When an all-over high lift color a better choice than highlights:

1. You want a very dramatic lightening effect.
2. You don't mind or actually prefer coming to the salon every 4 to 5 weeks for a re-touch.
3. You want better gray coverage than you can achieve with highlights.

What about an all-over color with highlights?

As popular as it is to have hair colored and highlighted at the same time, this is a color service you will probably never see walking out of a Vidal Sassoon Salon, and since Adrian's color training is from Vidal Sassoon, this is a color service he rarely provides. The reason for this is both an esthetic one and a practical one that has to do with keeping the hair looking as good as possible for as long as possible between salon visits. To the Vidal Sassoon trained colorist, accenting with color placement (see the next section) is an alternative that allows a more sophisticated look in which the pitfalls of over-processed hair, and hair requiring frequent all-over toning or other corective procedures, is much easier to avoid.

Accenting With Color Placement

The most esthetically interesting and dynamic coloring effects are created using color placement techniques. With a panel of color creatively placed within the design of the cut, the effect is variable as the hair moves. Change the parting, and you may have a completely different look. Creative color placement can solve many esthetic and practical challenges. Color placement can be used for the following creative and practical effects:

1. For highly saturated, vibrant shades: These colors take on a uniquely sophisticated look using skillful color placement techniques. These shades are often too much as an "all-over" color, and present the problem of visible roots as the color grows. These colors do not work well as highlights for two reasons: First, the vibrancy of the color is diluted so much it is lost, and if sliced "chunky" instead of finely woven through the hair, the effect may be striped. Second, if the vibrancy needs to be refreshed later, it is virtually impossible to isolate the highlighted areas from the rest of the hair.
2. For extreme lightening on dark hair. Again, color can be placed so that roots are less noticeable, and the result is the best of both words: a luminous blonde color effect that doesn't wash you out because you keep most of your natural depth. This also avoids the horrible striped effect of highlights that are too light for dark hair.
3. For adding depth on natural lighter shades. When lowlights might be too subtle and an all over color is too much of a leap, adding some darker tones underneath the parting and mostly or entirely away from the front hairline give the depth that you crave. Add a light panel also for even more dimension.
4. Instead of highlights when contrast is the desired effect: Sometimes a fine weave of highlights and lowlights is insufficient to create that perfect balance of contrast and dimension. As an alternative to a highlighting technique, in which color is applied to fine slices and weaves, color placement is regional, and capable of providing a little more "punch". Think of it as adding a "block" of color, which can be a panel, a small or large bar, triangle, or other geometric or morphic shape.
5. For gray hair: Color placement solves many esthetical and practical challenges. See the section "Covering Gray" for more information.

The images above are from ukhairdressers.com, and are chosen because they illustrate excellent color placement technique comparable to Adrian's technique.

Covering Gray

The First Gray Hairs

When there are just a few gray hairs, and you are not in the habit of coloring your hair already, a really good option to start with is a demi-permanent color, such as Schwarzkopf's Igora Viviance, that covers gray 70 percent. Demi-permanent colors are deposit-only, which simply means that they do not lighten natural color. Because they do not lift the natural color, visible roots are insignificant as the hair grows. The color is durable enough that it performs more like a permanent color than a semi-permanent color. This means you will experience minimum fading between salon visits and may only need the re-growth colored when returning for a touch-up, with an occasional need to have the ends refreshed.

Lots of Gray, or Resistant Gray

When there is quite a bit of gray hair, a natural lightening effect is taking place in your hair. Many of us have seen persons who've decided to color their graying hair in order to look younger only to have the opposite results. For most of us, as we age, our hair color (and skin tone) typically gets naturally lighter (regardless of gray) and the color we had naturally in our twenties may too dark when we're fifty. By coloring the hair with a too-dark hair color we only succeed in making ourselves look pale and emphasizing any age lines and wrinkles we may have. When your goal is to cover gray hair, it is often wise to aim for a color a bit lighter than the natural color of your non-gray hair. Additionally, with a lighter color you can avoid at least some of the harshness of white roots.

A great product for even coverage when there is more than a little gray hair, or when the hair is resistant, is Schwarzkopf Igora Royal Absolutes, shown in the image, right. This product provides even color results on more than 50% white hair with 100% color intensity.

Techniques for Covering Gray

All-Over Color

All-over color is often the best option, but not always, the best choice for gray coverage. Tone-on-tone color, as discussed for covering the first gray hairs, is an excellent option for blending gray or for adding richness or vibrancy. Sometimes a slightly translucent effect is desirable in order to soften the appearance of re-growth. When a lighter shade is desired, a permanent all-over color is necessary. See "Lots of Gray, or Resistant Gray", above.

Highlights & Lowlights

If you have been highlighting your hair prior to turning gray, this will hide much of the gray for some time. Lowlights are also sometimes used to reduce the amount of gray hair, but only by roughly 25%. When you reach the point that you cannot go 3 months between highlighting without seeing lots of gray, it may be time to consider an all-over color or a color placement option.

Color Placement

Gray or salt and pepper hair can make you look older than you feel. With reduced pigmentation, nature may also be lightening up your hair in variable degrees of uniformity. Fortunately, variations in the distribution of white hair can be beautiful and expressive, and you can may choose to enhance this effect without returning to the exact shade of your younger self. Adrian is highly skilled at creative color placement on gray hair, paying special attention to hair around the face and the parting to minimize the appearance of roots. One advantage to keeping the light areas lighter is that roots will be much less noticeable, keeping you looking better longer between salon visits. See "Accenting with Placement" for more information.