HAIR COLOUR TIPS, TRICKS AND TRENDS
With spring on the horizon, you might be in the mood to switch up your hair colour. What's trending as we head into the new season?
"There's a lot of people working with their natural hair and just enhancing what they have," says Joe Savine, head of colour at Paul Edmonds London.
"People want very seamless, entwined sort of colour. They're looking for great blending and very natural balayage."
He's also seeing a move away from super-bright platinum shades: "People still want to be blonde, but it's going towards warmer tones. Previously cool tones were always the thing – icy or ash – now it's all about golden blonde."
Plus, a certain pop star is inspiring lots of people to rock the redhead look.
We asked Joe to talk through some of the key spring/summer colour trends and offer his advice on how to maintain your hair colour at home…
Brighten your hair
Instead of all-over colour, the chicest way to brighten your hair ready for spring is with balayage, where the colourist applies highlights using a free-hand technique.
"It's a case of adding a secondary tone to your hair that's at least two shades lighter than the overall colour," Joe says.
"It's about picking out pieces, not making it too heavy, as if you've been to St Tropez for six months – that kind of warmth."
In some cases, particularly with brunette hair, he recommends 'foilayage', where bleach is applied by hand then the strands are wrapped in foils to increase the intensity: "If someone has a really warm undertone, you lose two levels of lift in your product, so they have to go with a foil to get that lift."
Try the rich red trend
Pop singer Dua Lipa sparked a huge hair trend when she debuted cherry red locks at the end of last year.
"Her 'cola red' is really cute and in some lights has a violent undertone. It's a cooler red, which is quite nice," Joe says.
Is it easy for anyone to achieve the same shade?
"There's loads of different paths you can take to get there," Joe says. "You can do a no-bleach route, but sometimes bleach is needed for darker hair."
It's easier to get that vibrant hue when starting with lighter hair: "If you're going from a light colour to dark it's quite simple, but at the beginning, there is quite a lot of maintenance."
Frame your face
Face-framing colour is a great way to revamp your look if you've previously had balayage.
"Once the hair has grown a bit it can look or feel dull because the roots are growing and you start to get that kind of shadow around the hair," Joe says. "If you have even just a really subtle face-frame it just brings everything back to life."
This technique can be adapted according to how intense you want your colour to be: "You can have a really soft, natural look or you can have more of a power piece where it's a bit more bold and punchy."
Get glossy with a glaze
In between colour appointments, having a glaze applied helps to refresh your shade and create a gorgeously glossy finish.
"It basically shuts the hair cuticle and stabilises it but also deposits colour," Joe explains.
He likes to use glazes for 'root smudging' or 'root tapping': "A root tap is where you apply it around a centimetre from the scalp and a root smudge is where you're going down to more like an inch or two inches to smudge out any highlight lines for a seamless blend."
Or you can do an all-over application, which he recommends for red hair: "Reds and coppers are very prone to fade. They're a lot of maintenance and I don't think people realise. It helps to do a glaze every two to four weeks."
It's important to tailor your haircare products when you try a new colour.
"Glow Shampoo from Shu Uemura is an antioxidant for blondes that washes out impurities in the hair, making it feel brighter," says Joe.
"Davines have golden, tobacco, copper, red and chocolate products aimed at different blonde, brunette and red shades."
Colour treatments
"I personally I always recommend my client to have a bond building treatment with every service, especially a lightening service," Joe says.
"We use Olaplex, INNOluxe and Metal Detox. They go on within the colour, so as the colour works it protects the integrity of the hair."
At Paul Edmonds, we also use the two-step Kérastase Fusio-Dose range of treatments.
"You have your main bottle and then you have a booster that you put on the shaft," Joe says. "You could do colour and shine, strength and shine, moisture and shine… Each treatment is cocktailed to the needs of the client."
After you've had an in-salon treatment he recommends the Kérastase Chroma range for coloured hair: "They have the Opaque shampoo for fine to medium hair and the Riche Limpid for medium to thick, plus the Chroma Gloss treatment which is amazing."
Maintain with a mask
The essential product for fighting the fade at home? It's got to be a moisturising mask designed for your specific shade.
"For blondes, a mask helps to reduce brassiness, and then you've got the green mask from the Kérastase Chroma Range which is for brunettes, but brunettes with highlighted hair cannot use it because it'll go blue," Joe says.
He recommends using a mask every one to two weeks: "Do two shampoos - one to remove product build-up, the second to actually clean the hair. Then towel dry the hair and apply the mask. Most of the time I would say you can leave it for 10 minutes, but with blue masks just leave it on for a couple of minutes as the pigment can be strong."
Don't forget heat protection
"Fade, unfortunately, is caused by a lot of factors," Joe says. "It's from the minerals and chemicals in water, central heating, sun, wind, heat styling…"
That's why it's so important to use a heat protection serum or spray before blow drying, straightening or curling your locks.
"It reduces colour fade and protects the structure of the hair itself," Joe explains.
"If you used straighteners that are around 180 degrees on hair that's coloured and there's no heat protection it will fade it, whereas if there was a protective layer that counteracts what heat does."
Time to book your next appointment?
So if you're thinking of switching up your hair colour this season, why not try a sun-kissed golden shade or head-turning red?
With a nourishing in-salon treatment and effective haircare at home, you can keep your locks looking lustrous for longer.
Check out our wide range of products for coloured hair in salon at Paul Edmonds London or on the website.