Hair Topic: Hair Trends For Spring
Spring is just around the corner, and all the fun spring/summer hair trends are starting to blossom. To be perfectly honest, I think all of them should be in fashion all year round because they really look beautiful. I'll be going over a few different trends, how exactly they're achieved (i.e., why you're spending your hard-earned money for fun hair) and the best products for at-home upkeep! One of the most important things to remember about any color service is to be honest with your stylist what you have done to or put into your hair in the past. I CANNOT stress this enough! I promise it's not because we are judging you, we just don't want you to judge us when you end up with hair that looks drastically different than you wanted because your habit of using box color has changed the structure of your tresses. I always want my clients to leave looking and feeling beautiful, and I never want to compromise the integrity of their hair.
-Balayage- This is my absolute favorite technique. A balayage is applied by painting directly onto the hair to create perfectly blended and natural-looking highlights. This can be used in all sorts of hair texture, color and length. The balayage allows your stylist to be very versatile with the color depending on what look you are going for. A balayage is typically applied using bleach, but it can also be applied using a color if you have virgin hair (i.e., no box or professional color on it ever; can also be achieved if you have cut it really short and have grown all the color out of it). When I am applying a balayage, I break the hair into different sections, starting with horizontal sections at the nape of the neck, and working up to the occipital bone. Once I get to the top of the head, I take diagonal back sections from the sides of the head and triangle sections from the part. This allows me to really create that "sunkissed" look in the most natural way possible. This technique from start to finish typically takes me around two hours. The best way to keep a balayage looking and feeling its best is to still keep up with trims (every 4-6 weeks) and great at-home care. If you struggle with your hair fading and turning brassy, try investing in a purple shampoo, which you can use 1-2 times a week. We carry Clairol Shimmer Lights at my salon which works great when washing out highlights, or all grey clients who want a little shimmer of violet/blue in their hair. Using color safe shampoos, conditioners and leave-in products will help to extend the life of your color. Always remember to use heat protection when using a blow dryer or styling iron on your hair.
-Pastel/Grey- The second hair trend I am going over is very popular but one of the most difficult colors to get to without seriously damaging your hair (when done right). This is because in order to get to a pastel or a light grey, you need to get hair to platinum or the palest yellow blonde. Getting to a beautiful pastel takes time and many visits to the salon to keep up with trims and conditioning treatments. Olaplex is another great product for achieving a bright blonde as it repairs the bonds in your hair while it lightens your hair. Once you have achieved that perfect pastel, it does take extra care to ensure it doesn't fade out as fast (most pastels fade out pretty quickly because they are so light in pigmentation to begin with). Using color safe shampoo is a must, and try to cut down on the number of times you wash your hair each week. Dry shampoo will probably be your best friend! It's also a good idea to ask your stylist if you can buy the color used on your hair off of them and mix it with conditioner to help refresh the color in between visits. If you really want to keep the color fresh though, expect to be at the salon every few weeks for a refresher on the pastel (and to do your roots). As listed for the balayage, using heat protection before heat styling is very important for keeping the color in as well. Using the tools at a lower temperature will help the color from being stripped out.
-Color-melt/Sombre- While I looped these two techniques together, the colormelt and sombre are two different color applications.
- Colormelt-
A colormelt creates a seamless blend of 3 or more colors starting with the base shade and “melting” into another down the hair. This technique is applied by layering one color onto another creating an even blend down the hair. When doing a colormelt, it works best to stick with colors in the same tone, otherwise you may end up with muddy ends after a few shampoos. You may want to start light and melt to dark or visa/versa. Whatever color(s) you desire, using the color melt technique, it will seamlessly blend together. I just went from having a purple color melt to a green color melt in my hair actually. I like this technique as well because it’s very versatile.
-Sombre-
The difference with a colormelt compared to a sombre is that you see very obvious highlights of color painted into the hair. This sombre is especially popular with cliets who want to keep their dark base but want their ends to be quite a bit lighter. In order to avoid having any harsh lines in the hair, balayage is used in this technique to pull some pieces of the blonde higher by painting some highlights in closer to the roots. I like to use a mixture of heavy and light pieces (thick and thin highlights) to get the color to blend down and look natural. I always make sure the ends are fully saturatedas I go, using olaplex to avoid any breakage so that their ends really pop.
Recently, I had an 8 year old client who wanted seafoam/mint green hair melted into her blonde. I had the highest level of deposit( this means the most color) of the green on the ends and lightly painted it up into the blonde. The end result was having a definite difference in color from the roots compared to the ends, but perfect blending all the way down so it didn't look blotchy or have any harsh lines in it (check out my instagram for pictures! @ellengobi_hair). The after care for a colormelt or sombre is the same with the previous two, and any variation in after care is dependent on what color you and your stylist decided upon. Always ask your stylist for their suggestions! They know the color line they use and which of their products will work best to keep your hair looking its best.
Pintrest is a very useful tool when looking for hair inspiration! I used a lot of the images from Modern Salon, Behind the Chair, VP Fashion and other beauty articles linked to the pictures on pintrest. Thanks for reading this week's blog post! Do you have any hair color trends you really like? Join the discussion by posting in the comments box. You can always check out my posts on my instagram @ellengobi_hair or email me at ellengobi.hair@gmail.com. Be sure to to check in next thursday because next week's post will be all about prom, which will be here before you know it!
