What Is Hygge Hair?
Only The Warmest, Most Comforting
Color Trend Ever
By Ariana Marsh

Considering autumn and winter are the perfect seasons to embrace a newer, more fiery hair color (unless you prefer to look like an ice queen, which I think is totally rad, too), there’s no better time than the present to get your hygge on. Head to the salon in a cashmere sweater, lambswool boots (again, Uggs are the optimal choice), and a hot drink in hand, for an especially cozy effect once your dye job is done.


This article first appeared on  Elite Daily

When it comes to creating an ombre effect, there are many factors to consider. What colors you want, how smooth you want your transition to look, and the color of the original hair all come into play. Fear not! Here’s a list of dos and don’ts for working with ombre combinations to help you pull off the effect with flying colors (no pun intended)!

Do:

Match your skin tone – this goes for any hair coloring job, but try to avoid picking colors that will completely clash with your skin tone. Brunettes may wish to try melting variations of a rich espresso to a light amber, blondes going buttery blonde to vanilla and redheads trying auburn to copper. This isn’t to say you can’t go off the beaten path in your color choices, just remember that in the end, if your skin tone clashes with any of the colors contained within the ombre, it will have all been for naught!

Keep Hair Moisturized – Any time your hair goes through a color process it needs to be maintained afterwards. Though an ombre uses far less coloring than an all-over job (and even less if you use extensions!), the hair still needs all the help it can get when it comes to maintaining its moisture, sheen, and natural ability to repair itself when you leaves the salon.  Be sure to buy a good moisturizing conditioner for aftercare and understand the benefits of regular upkeep.

Ensure Hair is Cut and Styled Beforehand – If you’re creating an ombre with extensions, it’s likely your stylist will cut and blend them in afterwards. Still, since the hair’s specific starting length will actually affect the placement of the colors and ombres during the process, it’s best to make sure that before you get an ombre effect, the hair is cut and styled to the appropriate length beforehand.

Enlist the help of a professional – When all else fails, call a professional. Ombres are a popular hairstyle and one that has created a robust knowledge base of stylists across the internet. Accidents can still happen, though! A stylist will know the best course of action for your specific hair type, and can help point you in the direction of your best option. Don’t attempt to give yourself an ombre if you’re not a professional.

Don’t:

Change colors too abruptly – When creating an ombre, always strive to create a shift from lighter shades of the same hue, rather than shifting from a dark hue to a light color abruptly. Allow the color change to come gradually and subtly because a harsh line of demarcation from one color to the next is hardly flattering and will clash heavily.

Go for a Drastic Color Combination – Look, we’re never going to tell you not to experiment with colors! All we’re saying is that an ombre is tough to pull off in itself. If you’re not explicitly trying to pull off a brightly colored fashion ombre, opt for a subtle, natural looking, two (maybe three)-tone color combination. Throwing too many in the mix will overpower the ombre effect and might ruin the effect anyway.

Alter your natural base color – Always use the base color as your jumping off point when choosing other colors. This will ensure that your new tones will highlight the natural color you already have in your hair.  Do not take a darker shade and attempt to create custom ombre color at the bottom of the extensions.

Remember, you want your ombre to showcase a smooth color transition and to highlight tones already present in your hair.  And if you get stuck, you can ALWAYS enlist the eye (or appointment book!) of a trusted salon professional.


This article first appeared on Modern Salon

• It’s still 2017, but that’s not stopping L’Oréal Paris from declaring Rose Blonde and Smokey Gray as its Hair Colors of the Year—the first time the world’s No. 1 hair color brand has made such a proclamation. And just how did the brand’s color designers reach their decisions? By analyzing search data, traveling the world and drawing inspiration from fashion, design, art, music and automobile industries.
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“This year, I visited numerous countries studying people from many different cultures, visiting exhibits and art fairs, going backstage at fashion shows and meeting with the top master colorists all around the globe,” said Orrea Light, VP-global marketing beauty innovation and acceleration. “Through this process, rose gold and ‘90-inspired grunge consistently emerged as the top trends.”

To help celebrate the findings, L’Oréal Paris launched two collections: Superior Preference Rose Blond and Feria Glam Grunge.

“We challenged our color labs with creating hair color shades that would allow people a premium, yet accessible, and fashion-forward way of expressing these trends and are thrilled to introduce them.”

It’s no secret I colour my hair, but I do like to pretend that this is my natural hair colour. When my regrowth starts to show, I have some tricks to try and hide it.

One of the problems I had on my last trip was traveling for so long; I missed my regular hair appointment – 1st World Problems, right? I did think about seeing someone else, but I’m pretty loyal to my hairdresser Stevie English and just couldn’t trust a stranger with my hair.

By the end of my travels I had to get pretty creative with my hairstyles. I also found some products that are so helpful in hiding regrowth as well.

Here are my tips on hiding your regrowth and pretending that this really is your natural hair colour.

1. Embrace hats and accessories
I love hats, and that’s a good thing because they’re your first weapon to hide your regrowth.

Whenever I wear a hat, people often say to me “oh, I could never wear a hat; I’m not a hat person.” But I think you just haven’t found the right hat yet.
It sometimes takes a little bit of confidence to wear something different on your head. I say embrace it and just go for it! Find a great shop and try on a bunch of hats until you find the one that you really like. I promise it won’t be the last hat you buy.

I found this hat on my travels and it’s a souvenir I bought home from Cuba. I wear it every summer now and I always pack it when I’m travelling. It came in as a real lifesaver to hide my hair growth at the end of this trip.

One problem I do find is that you sometimes have to remove your hat when you go inside. But if you choose a smaller hat, you can leave it on anywhere. And if you’re worried about hat hair, I have a great trick I’ve shared here.

2. Learn how to wear a scarf
If you saw my humidity hairstyles post, you saw I recommended packing a silk scarf to wrap around your pillow. That scarf can do double duty and create an awesome hairstyle for you as well.

I like to try and wear it as a bandana style or wrapped around a bun, turban style. Either way looks great and helps to cover your regrowth.

The best thing about a scarf or a bright accessory is that it draws attention away from your roots and people noticed the accessory instead.

3. Go big
The higher the hair, the fewer roots you can see.

Forget your hair straighteners and reach for your curlers instead.
I embrace my natural curl a lot more once my regrowth is noticeable. That little bit of extra height will hide the regrowth and puts more focus on the ends of your hair.

4. Wear your hair out
I know that as soon as your regrowth starts to show, you want to hide your hair away, but you should wear it out.

When your hair is pulled back, you actually emphasise the root. Instead, leave your hair out and put the focus on the ends of your hair.

Try to remember that you’re noticing your regrowth more than anybody else. They don’t know what you look like straight from the salon.

5. Disguise it
Did you know that there are tinted dry shampoos? Batiste makes a great range of tinted dry shampoos to help hide that pesky regrowth or those greys starting to poke through. It’s a total saviour for those final few days before getting your hair coloured.
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I don’t know about you, but it can seem to me that my hair isn’t growing at all and then overnight it’s like it has grown an inch! I notice the regrowth suddenly and I can’t believe I let it get so bad. I hear myself moaning into the mirror: “I’m sure it wasn’t like that yesterday…”

I hope these disguises for your regrowth save you time and stress, and help you to persevere until you can get your hair back to its proper colour again.
 
This article first appeared on Hair Romance

"balayage au coton"

 n.— «The shop has imported a young man named Yvan from the Carita salon in Paris to do what he calls a “balayage au cotton.” Starting at the nape, Yvan lifted out fine strands and applied a lightening paste with a thin brush. Instead of the usual foil wrapping, he tucked pieces of cotton wadding to support the strands in process and keep them from the rest of the hair. When he was three-quarters through, he had used 1,000 feet of cotton stripping and Miss Weston looked as though she were wearing an enormous white wig. The idea of the balayage (the word means sweeping) is to lighten fine strands of hair, rather than add color.»
“Color Your Hair Simply, or Turn It Blue—Salons Can Do It All” by Angela Taylor New York Times Apr. 1, 1974.

Balayage is the most exciting highlighting color technique to appear in a long time.  Colorists and clients alike fall in love with the fabulous results. Color placement looks natural and organic, similar to the effortlessly random color you'd receive after a summer at the beach.

 THE HISTORY OF BALAYAGE

Balayage (ba-lie-azhe), sometimes spelled ‘balliage’ or ‘baliage,’ is the art of hair painting. The term is based on the French word for ‘sweep away,’ or ‘balayer.’   Balayage, a.k.a “sweep away” originated at the exclusive gorgeous “Carita” Salon in Paris in the early 70’s making a huge name for itself with it’s beautiful and effortless sun kissed look.  There’s a link to the 1974 New York Times article above.  

Balayage is offered in many salons today—but not all results are consistent (it’s not as easy as it looks!). The colorist must be well-trained and have a keen sense of the hair’s texture and movement.  It’s just the colorist and the balayage brush. The most natural-looking results are usually those that look the most random, which calls for a very specific placement strategy.

In the 70’s, this technique was originally called “Balayage a Coton” for it’s use of cotton strips to separate the colored hair from the untouched portion. It was introduced during the time when our industry norm was frosting caps and solid colors, making the Balayage technique truly revolutionary for its time!  In the 80’s the industry introduced many varieties of foil highlighting techniques and it wasn’t actually until the early 90’s that Balayage first entered the US by storm grabbing the attention of top celebrities and became one of the hottest color trends to date!

It seems most clients that highlight their hair on a regular are almost afraid of stepping in to the world of balayage as it is something “new” to them and may seem like a big change.

There are many great reasons why Balayage is the top choice for highlights over the Foil technique!   When the hair is sectioned and “weaved or sliced” in to a foil, the whole section is saturated in color giving it a dense, uniform effect which gives it an unnatural appearance. Within weeks you start to see the regrowth or a “line of demarcation” and you are due for a retouch.

The Balayage technique is softly hand painted on the surface of the hair, leaving you with natural-looking swipes of color going from thick to thin and play off of the hairs natural movement.  Unlike traditional foil highlights, balayage lightens more slowly, which means there's less of a chance for breakage.   By choosing Balayage, you can go months without retouching and it gives that free flowing, untouched look.  It can be done with any variety of colors making it flexible for your wants and needs and makes it more manageable for your wallets!  A little something to think about before booking your next color service.  
      
NOT JUST FOR BLONDES
It’s important to note that balayage is definitely not just for blondes. Brunettes, redheads, even those with black hair can all take advantage of hair painting.  The results will be subtle, but they’ll add the dimension that everyone craves, giving a dark brunette swirls of cinnamon or caramel, for example.

FOILS VS. BALAYAGE
Foils often end up looking contrived - a neat row of uniform highlights.  When a section of hair is colored using a foil, the entire section is saturated with color resulting in dense, unnatural stripes of color.
 
Balayage color is painted in soft brush strokes across the surface of the hair, leaving you with natural-looking swipes of color that flow from thick to thin and play off the hair's natural movement.  Even better, balayage won't leave you with any signs of demarcation, creating a softer and more manageable grow-out.

FOILYAGE - the newest trend
This process marries the technique of Balayage with the vibrant color payoff of foil highlights. The traditional balayage technique involves painting onto the surface of the hair, completely freehand, but the process can be messy and may not lighten the hair enough.   Foilyage is a technique colorists use when they want to get more lift and can't achieve that with balayage so they go in and balayage inside the foil.  Foilyage uses this same hand-painting technique, but adds foil for added lightening.  In the end, you get nice natural-looking highlights.


Article Sources:
A Way with Words
Beauty, Head First
Maxine Salon - Chicago
Char Le Blanc - Salon & Spa
InStyle
GoodHousekeeping