What hair color should I choose, how do I get rid of green tones, can I maintain a cool shade in my hair, is there the option to choose any color and get the same as the model on the package? Finding the right hair color can be tricky, we will help sort out these points with simple means.
The Colour Wheel
It is not as easy as choosing a colour, going home, and coloring the hair to get the same result as the model. There are many aspects that reflect how the result will be and the most important is the understanding of the colour wheel. There are primary and secondary colours in the color wheel. The primary colours can not be mixed. Primary colors are red, blue and yellow, they are base colours and are used to mix all other colours (secondary colours). To neutralize a shade, the color opposite the circle must be used. For example, a yellow color is mixed with violet, this does not create purple hair but neutralizes the yellow pigments to white.
Think back to when you were little and would mix watercolor, yellow + blue = green, red + yellow = orange, orange + green = brown. If you now mix from brown to yellow, this is impossible. The same applies to hair color, color can not lighten color but can be mixed to create the desired shade.
Initial position - Desired result
The steps performed before selecting the correct colour are the initial position, the desired result and the colour cwheel. By comparing the starting position with the desired result, you can see in the colour wheel which colour needs to be added to achieve the desired result. It is important to understand which colors are opposite and neutralize each other and which position on the scale the color lies.
There is a scale in hair color that you may have heard from the hairdresser when they say numbers from 1-10. 10 is the brightest blonde and 1 is the darkest, black hair. To change the tone, you need to keep the same position or darker to get rid of unwanted pigments.
Cold & warm tones
Ash tones are perceived as gray or cold and warm tones are often perceived as golden or copper. They are opposites to each other and therefore have different bases required to achieve just that shade. Ash tones rest on a blue or violet base while warm tones rest on red or yellow tones.
Yellow tones often occur after bleaching or of washed-out color as the yellow pigments return in the absence of violet pigments that neutralized the yellow tones and maintained a cold tone. To get rid of yellow tones, violet is added as it is the opposite color in the color circle.
Red tones
Why your hair has a red-orange tone can depend on many different things. You may have bleached your hair then the pigments go from brown/red to orange to yellow. You may have dyed your hair with a colour that has a red base that appears when you wash your hair a few times. Hair colour with a red base is a common problem that has meant that all October Stockholm's colours have a blue undertone to keep a neutral shade even when washed out.
Once we have an understanding of why you get this colour, we will now go through how you can get rid of it. We return to the color wheel, opposite red and orange are green. Therefore, you need to have green in your colour to neutralize the red-orange tones. It only takes a very small amount for this, you should not dye your hair with green color, but mix the color you want with a small pea of
If this still sounds tricky, our professional hair colour consultants are available to help you on +46 10-350 0100. We are happy to help you find the right shade based on your initial position and desired result free of charge.