Lived-In Color Class Inspiration
I flew into LA last week to take a hair color class from an educator that I that I respect and have all of her a long time now. She creates the most seamless blends with gorgeous tones with the most amazing blow outs. She goes by the username @dvcolour on Instagram and if you're into hair as much as I am I suggest you follow her. I learned so much and came home totally inspired.
It's so interesting to see how different stylists approach time and prices to create these beautiful looks. Her lived-in colors take 4-5 hours and she charges above $1,000. She is in a big city and highly sought after. People fly in from all over to get their hair done by her and it is worth it. Lived-in color like this needs to be done once or twice a year, with a tone and cut every 3 months. But here I am in small town Auburn where almost nobody pays those rates. And honestly, I'm not sure if I want to sit with the same person for 5 hours, and I know it's hard to sit in a chair for 5 hours and get your hair done.
So it has been my goal (and many other stylists as well) to create these beautiful looks but be more efficient. I am learning from many different educators right now because the industry has grown so much since my balayage revolution 10 years ago.
During my balayage revolution I learned from so many different people who had totally different ideas of how to create lived in color- from color melts with six bowls of different colors to painting with cellophane and using real paint brushes. Since then, I find that most influential educators that do lived in color (once called balayage) use very similar techniques. They use foilage combined with balayage and then use color to blend roots to ends to make their desired tones.
Foilage is back combing the hair at the roots and using foil over highlights. This is shocking to some clients who have never seen this technique but it is the best way to create a seamless, beautiful blend between colors.
So now I am on the journey to find out how I can use all the techniques that I am learning to create the colors I want to create in an efficient way that is cost-effective for my clients. I have been creating some of the most beautiful hair that I've seen, and I am really passionate about the colors I create. My goal is to be able to create these colors in around 2 and 1/2 hours, and I think I’m doing a pretty good job so far! It’s really so much fun and to see the end result is so satisfying. I love it!
