HandTouch coloring technique: its features and nuances of implementation

Natalie Silchenko , technologist TM BES ITALY, former teacher at the Arsen Dekusar hairdressing school, took a fundamental color course from the art director of BES ITALY Saverio Palma (Milan, Italy)

Our clients still want changes - brightness, color, relief, glare and everything else their heart desires.

(Works by Natalie Silchenko)

There are a large number of techniques, and new items and tricks in coloring are constantly appearing. We, as masters, must know and be able to carry them out, because our clients are now active users of social networks and often understand all the intricacies, so we must know and understand what we are doing, why and what result a person wants to get.

The most popular techniques were and remain:

• Highlighting (veil, darning, Venetian highlighting)
• Shatush (many simply call it “bouffant”)
• Balayage (brondering, California coloring, burnt hair effect)
• AirTouch
• HandTouch

(Works by Natalie Silchenko)

These are the techniques that our clients most often request and the knowledge of which will help you cope with any task.

Today I would like to talk about the popular HandTouch technique. Its creator is the famous stylist Spartak Kirakosyan, founder of HAIRSEKTA.

For me, this is now one of the most popular techniques, because you can get the desired result while spending much less time (and most clients, oh, how they don’t like to sit in a chair for 7 hours!).

Many people compare HandTouch to AirTouch, since the effect is really very similar: we work with a hairdryer and blow out layers that we subsequently bleach. But HandTouch takes 2 times less time, gives a beautiful relief, ensures the smoothest regrowth and wearability from 6 to 9 months.

A distinctive feature when working in this technique is the thickness of the strands. If with AirTouch we take strands from 0.5 cm to 1 cm, here it varies from 2.5 to 4 cm (depending on the thickness of the hair and the desired effect).

The application is very similar to what is done with the balayage technique: sweeping movements, as close as possible to the roots or by drawing the desired pattern (V-shaped, W-shaped).

Often, such work takes from 2.5 to 4 hours (including shampooing, toning and drying), since it usually takes from 15-21 strands, depending on the thickness of the hair and the desired result (with or without missing strands ). You can control the required amount of blonde or relief yourself.

The work is done with diagonal partings, repeating the shape of the head (you can perform zigzag divisions - this will give more smoothness, but more difficulties in correction).

When working, it is important to apply the product evenly (so that there are no stains), correctly selected decolorant (it should not be liquid, otherwise it will leak and stains will appear) and insulation using foil or thermal strips.

(Works by Natalie Silchenko)

This technique is ideal for clients who want the smoothest, most embossed color extension and do not want to color their roots every month (with the exception of gray hair, then the ideal option is AirTouch). It is enough to do toning once every 1.5-2 months, and, of course, this is professional home care, and not “Secrets of Grandmother Agafya and homemade recipes of desperate housewives.”

For the salon, as well as for the master, this procedure is, of course, very cost-effective, because it saves your time enormously - instead of one or two colorings a day, which take 5-7 hours, you spend almost 2 times less time, getting an ideal result and as a result, higher income.

HandTouch is universal! It solves the issues of spots, stripes, regrown roots, transition from blonde to relief coloring, it has the possibility of “smart correction”, which will allow you not to affect previously bleached hair.

It is important to understand that all techniques can be combined with each other, creating different effects and designs, making the image of your client special. It’s cool to combine HandTouch and AirTouch to achieve a play of light and contrasts or, conversely, to get the maximum amount of blonde.

In any case, the choice is always yours. The main thing is to understand what to do and why, because any potential client is in the long term permanent. When doing coloring, think that this client will return to you in a month, two or six, and you will have to work with this hair, so create beauty consciously!