Creative coloring: what is important to know about them?

Alexey Baluev , art director of LONG & SHORT beauty salon and co-founder of LONG & SHORT hair academy, as well as winner in the “Colorist” category of the international Stella award

Recently I just got bored with regular salon coloring, classic chocolates and all kinds of color stretches. Airtouch, highlighting, shatush are already in my throat, and I wanted to dilute my salon practice, make it more interesting and bright.

I was inspired by the example of a friend from Belarus, world champion in creative coloring Natalia Rotmanova, who was able not only to introduce elements of bright coloring into her classic works, but also to embody and implement this into salon practice. Clients come to her for such coloring and are even willing to pay for them.

Unlike full-fledged color dyeing, our market is not quite ready for creative work. Although there are guys who do full-fledged color dyeing, the demand is not that great, since the consumables for such dyeing are quite large.

High-quality materials - and I can’t work for others, because I only make them well, require considerable expenses. As a rule, those who can afford such coloring do not want to do it (for some, work does not allow it, for others, their lifestyle - there are many different nuances), and those who want, cannot afford it because of the high cost materials.

Using a friend of mine, I saw how she brought color blocking to commercial salon work. And this turned out to be a very interesting decision, since there really is demand and customers. I found them pretty quickly. It was enough to do several works with colored pigments and present them competently - and now I not only periodically look for models for such coloring, but also perform them on real clients for money. They come with the desire to make colored inserts, blocks or hidden coloring, which will brighten up the gray everyday life.

Another nuance is the difficulty of implementation. In fact, this type of coloring is more multi-stage; you need to prepare an appropriate base for it, because the direct pigments used for bright coloring are applied only to clean bases. The blocks need to be pre-lightened; you need to clearly understand what pigments you are working with, since not all pigments can be removed from the hair structure without problems. I always think about how I will work with this client in the future, so I try to use materials that will allow the client to change the look frequently.

I take ideas for implementing creative coloring from the Instagram accounts of my American colleagues; their culture is much more developed, and there are examples of work that inspire. It is these color combinations that I already personalize for my clients and carry out partially, in blocks, which allows me to make the salon image more interesting and modern.

Colors for dyeing are combined with each other according to the rules of harmony that exist in coloristics. This is basic color knowledge of working with the color wheel. They are important not only for a harmonious combination, but also when working with direct pigments, so that the colors do not mix and result in muddy shades. In bright coloring, it is important not only to paint brightly, but also to maintain maximum color purity, which, in turn, will give a more saturated result.

In the fourth round of our online battle without rules PRO Beauty Battle Hair 4.0 there is a nomination for Creative coloring techniques, so if you are interested in trying your hand at the competition, we invite you! Details here .