Hair to the Rehab

THE DOOR TO COOL COLOUR

This post is about me stepping in and becoming a fairy (beauty) godmother with my favourite hair salon FOUR London waving their magic colour wand. A friend of mine had suffered a hair malfunction after a well known, on-trend salon had coloured her hair with, it seems little technical skill. I thought this might be a useful blog post for all of those walking around with a hair shade they hate as they - or even (worryingly) their salon don't have the know-how to correct. Worse, in typical salon style, most of us don't say we're unhappy with it as we tip them and wave them goodbye! Colour correction is big business at FOUR and something they are adept at doing. Bad colour is like walking around wearing the wrong foundation - it robs your skin of natural radiance and upturns your look not in a good way. Here's the hair history from my friend Amy.

COLOUR BAND OF SHAME

For about a year and half, I've had a scalp bleach. The condition of my hair really deteriorated so I went back to my hairdresser and said I wanted to dull down the blonde to try and get the condition back, so perhaps give bleach a miss for a while. This is where it went wrong. At this point I'm not too sure what my hairdresser did as it was all done at the backwash so I couldn't see. But when I came out I was left with an extreme brassy/orange band around my root area and the rest of my hair went a grey/khaki/dark blonde colour. You can see the pics above of the band of shame!

Consultation

I went in to see Danielle, colour technician at FOUR and she could see exactly what was wrong with my hair. Although she said it wasn't the worse she had seen, it did need five hours work! We both looked over some images and it was nice that we were totally on the same page of hair shades that we liked. I felt a big relief that Danielle knew exactly how to correct my colour back to normal. Carly, the stylist came over to take a look at my cut and said she was quite surprised, that except for around the hair line where a 'chemical fringe' had been created, my hair was in pretty good condition and breakage was minimal. Bad colour normally results in bad hair. She said she would give me an 'invisible' trim as I wanted to keep the length, and to make the broken fringe better she would cut me in a parted fringe.

BAD COLOUR BE GONE.

Step 1

When doing my hair Danielle said the first step was to get rid of the brassy orange band that I had around the root area. She wanted to leave my actual roots and try to bring some of those back into my finalised colour. This would most certainly help with the condition of my hair. A permanent dark dye was applied over the brassy band and my very natural root was left out. This totally eliminated the orange band - phew! Danielle thinks when I told my previous hairdresser that I wanted to dull down my colour, rather than bleaching my hair she put a high lift tint onto it followed by a toner over the top. This caused the colour to go ginger. A toner was then put over the rest of my blonde colour to take the brassy edge out of that. 

GREAT COLOUR COOKING!

Step 2 

My hair was then washed and dried and the final colouring process began. She put a mix of two colours of highlights in. One which was closer to my natural hair colour and one blonde. More of the darker colour was applied to the underneath of my hair to make it look more natural and give my hair some depth. The blonder bits went around the parting. We washed it off and I was taken to Carly. 

Step 3 

I definitely wanted to keep the length of my hair, and unlike other stylists who take up to three inches off knowing you want to keep you hair long, Carly said she could take off just the very tips and it would still remove all of the split ends. I was happy for the first time whereby I wasn't about to walk out of the salon thinking where has all my hair gone? Carly cut my chemical fringe and kept the rest of the hair around the face long as I wanted to grow out the graduation. She blow-dried it off quite naturally with just a bit of movement and I couldn't have been happier with the final result. I had no orange at all left in my hair, just a lovely ashy blonde colour and the cut of my hair was amazing. I literally couldn't stop swishing it when I left the salon!

Yes, it's pricey - my colour was in excess of £300, but now I own the colour I actually want and I'm not spending on expensive mistakes - my colour disaster was over £200 and I've crucially found a colourist I can trust. I've learned that expensive colour can look cheap unless you go to a super skilled colourist!

NEW ROOTS

BRAND NEW HAIR!

For further details go to www.fourlondon.com
Telephone: 020 7297 9600 or email: salon@fourlondon.com

Tinting talent

When it comes to summer hair, we all want to channel that cool beach-surf girl look. Free 'n' easy, salt-sprayed and don't-care wavy style - it's the only time you can officially ditch your dryer and straightening irons. And the colour should be just as free falling. But the combo of bleach and sun can leave dread(ed) locks - all fried and barmaid brassy. At my favourite salon, FOUR, their talented tinting team have worked on creating a new Duo Tint technique which adds up to masterminding an on-trend high lift platinum blonde. Minus the bleach. Genius. This technique doesn't hold the hair to ransom and there's absolutely no Bet Lynch tones to be seen. As for those who want to hair surf brunette style, their new Brown on Brown Lights give just the right amount of lift without a sunset red tone in sight, giving brunettes a hint of sun beach (not bleached) colour. And for those who want to off piste, check out their Bubblegum Pastels Collection. Shades are created using a mix of Crazy Colour in sundae shades of soft lemons, mint greens and soft peaches.Pretty girl hair is literally just a tinting brush away.

Although I wouldn't go all out for DIY colour, there is a trend to home dabble to keep root growth at bay and stretch out those salon sessions a little longer. The FOUR London Smudge Kit is an insider secret with beauty editors. The reason? A personal formula is made up to complement your hair shade and designed to maintain hair-line and parting once the roots start to creep back in. Perfect for those who travel a lot or just want to tap into their inner colourist.


FOUR London, 62 Conduit Street, London W1S 2GB
www.fourlondon.com  

Colour genius

MAKE-UP FOR HAIR

Unless you’re consciously working that too cool for skool punk look of showcasing your roots – think Debbie Harry circular 1978, for most of us peek-a-boo roots don’t look cool, just unkempt. So when a haircare line comes along that promises to disguise and protect your hard earned colour – let’s face it a good colourist ain’t cheap! You take note.

SWEEPING AWAY YOUR ROOTS

Color Wow has brains. Created by renowned beauty inventor, Gail Federici and the hair legend that is John Frieda behind the brand, you know you’re in for something a little out of the ordinary. A hair changing collection that thinks outside the colour box, this dynamic duo have gone back to their roots to tackle yours. For more than three quarters of us who are reliant on colour to keep our hair looking rebooted and refresh, Color Wow delivers a DIY solution to roots, fading and brassiness.

Their innovation, The Root Cover Up is a favourite. Packaged like a  high-end cosmetic, flip open the lid and you have a professional mineral powder. With a unique oil based, non-waxy formulation that doesn’t budge. Simply brush on to smudge and disguise offending re-growth. Each shade – there are three: blonde, medium brown and dark brown, boasts a number of colours and pigments to ensure can’t-spot- blending with the natural tones of your hair. Obviously it’s not permanent and doesn’t take over from a colourist, but it’s perfect for covering roots on a daily basis when you’ve over-run your colour appointment by a week or more. Especially handy on bright sunny days when neglected roots love to show you up!

SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER

For the wet line, check out their Color Security Shampoo which is sulphate-free and features a Low Charge Density Technology to prevent cuticle swelling and fading. The conditioners have a trademarked Sealicon colour shield complex to protect and smooth the cuticle. There’s also a lavender tinted mousse to counteract barmaid brassy tones and a One Minute Transformation Styling Cream in the collection too.  In fact, everything to keep your colour uplifted and stealing the spotlight!

For further information on pricing and an at-a-glance VT on how to use The Root Cover Up go to www.colorwowhair.com