HAIR COLORING

Choosing the Right Hair Color

Choosing a new hair color isn't as simple as finding a color you like on a box in the drugstore. You need to make this choice based on an analysis of your natural hair color, eye color and skin tone. First, let's review the basic "laws" of color. Color, as we see it, is actually the reflection of light off of the colored pigments in the hair shaft. It's sort of like the color prisms you saw in elementary school: it fractured light into distinctive colors you could see. This is what happens with hair color except that you're adding or subtracting colors to change from one color to another or to change the undertones.

A shade of color is made up of different combinations of reflections off the pigments. That's why hair color -- both natural and dyed -- looks different under fluorescent lights and in natural sunlight. Color levels are the degrees of lightness or darkness of a color seen by the eye. Hair color is assigned a level number from 1 to 10, with 10 being the lightest and 1 being black. Black reflects very little light and the lightest shades of blonde reflect the greatest amount of light. A colorist would say that a level 10 blonde is two steps lighter than a level 8 blonde.

Choosing the Color

When you select the actual color, always use skin tone and eye color to determine your tonal value and you will never go wrong.

Basically, skin tone range and eye color fall into two major categories:

1. Warm, Yellow-red undertones skin such as:
   Ivory, Peaches and cream, Creamy beige, Light golden brown, Cafe au lait, Tawny, Coppery, Deep golden brown, Golden-red brown
   
   Eye Color:
   Blue, Blue-green Hazel, Green, Topaz, Amber, Cinnamon, Coffee bean
   
   Hair color options:
   Golden highlights, Golden with red highlights, Golden brown, Honey brown, Chestnut, Copper, Auburn, Mahogany, Warm tones of gray, Warm tones of White
   
   
2. Cool, Blue-red undertones skin such as:
   Alabaster, Rosy pink, Rose beige, Light pearl, Light Oliver, Dark olive, Gray-brown, Dark brown, Ebony
   
   Eye Color:
   Light blue, Gray-blue, Gray-green, blue-green, Deep blue, Deep green, Brown, Black
   
   Hair color options:
   Plum, Burgundy highlights, Ash, Platinum blonde, brown, Dark brown, Black, Slate, Salt and pepper, Pure white
   

What Can I Do About Gray Hair?

No, it's not your imagination. Some gray hairs -- especially coarse hairs, prematurely gray hairs and gray hairs around the temples and hairlines -- are especially resistant to color or quicker to lose color than other gray hairs. Try the following suggestions:

• Apply color to gray areas first. (This gives resistant gray hairs more time to absorb color.)
• Leave color on longer. (Adjust your timing and try it first in the strand test. Grays could take up to 45 minutes to color.)
• Increase your hair color level. (If your grays still show up even after you've adjusted the timing on your semi- or demi-permanent color, you might consider going up a level.)
  
  

For your personal recommendation, talk to you KingsHead Hair Colorist Technician.