Dyeing Blue: How to Adapt It for Clients

Blue as a dyeing color is often associated with a difficult procedure for creating a shade and with complex care for the resulting color. Prepare to be inspired by these beautiful, varied blue options that can be made wearable for clients in the salon. The editors of HJ magazine asked colorists and hairdressers at famous beauty salons about this.

Thin blue veil

Leonardo Rizzo, creative director of Sanrizz Salons:

“Darker blue tones like navy and petrol work great, plus a dark base and the right combination of shades can give hair extra depth and dimension without looking obviously blue. Here a thin blue veil was woven along the entire length, which can be seen when the light falls on the hair.”

Aquamarine

Grace Dalgleish, Brooks & Brooks:

“The idea behind this shade is to get the cleanest canvas possible first, then use a pre-toner and then apply the creative shade. To make it look this way, I pre-tinted it with a cold toner, adding a little black to make sure the base had a metallic reflection. I mixed Mind Green, Yellow and Caribbean Blue from the L'Oréal Professionnel range of paints and mixed them with light each time. To create several sea green accords, I layered the shades.”

Bold and deep blue

John Vial, Revlon Professional International Influencer:

“Love deep blue shades - that's one of the reasons we used them at Charles Jeffrey London Men's Fashion Week in January. I'm always thinking about how to adapt creative colors for clients in the beauty salon. For natural brunettes, I add a little blue Revlon Professional Nutri Color 190 along with the shampoo I use to wash my hair to neutralize any red tones and brighten the color. Remember that the shampoo should look sky blue as soon as you mix it.”

Smoke blue

Yasmine Hope Willmore, stylist of the art team Advanced Pro Salon and Color Code:

“I wanted to create a look inspired by classic blue. Nordic Blue from the Color Code Pastels provides a beautiful, elegant shade. These pastel tones also allow the client to easily return to a more traditional color rather than extreme shades.”

Dyeing blue: tips

J ordanna Cobella, creative director of Cobella:

“I love a cool blue on the roots that fades to a pastel grey/soft blue on the ends. This is the most natural way to wear blue shadow. My main tip is to always have plenty of samples to match the client's skin tone and eyes as this will help visualize the desired end result. For metallic shades we create a blue color with our permanent color range, and for softer shades we use our tinting colors that gradually build up to the desired tone, such as Wella Professionals Color Fresh Create or Color Touch.”