Corrective Color....Box Color-dun dun DUUUN!!!

New York City!!

I have been in New York taking a wonderful class at the Redken Exchange, Redken's hub on 5th Avenue. The Exchange was most amazing, and the class was very informative and inspiring!
It was called color 911, and was all about color correction techniques. Now, I considered myself very talented in the corrective world already, but with the new things I've learned, am ready to tackle the worst if it- show me your at home disasters! In the 70's, at home hair coloring was being done more than in salon coloring, then in the late 90"s the statistic flip flopped. Hooray for professinal hair colorists everywhere! Because of recent economy strains, we are back to at home experimenting taking the cake- which really equates to more corrective color in the shop.

I learned many new techniques in the class, but I think the highlight was when we got to experiment with home color kits. All of us in the class got a different box of color, and colored 4 swatches of hair. After processing and rinsing, we kept one as a control, and were able to go to town on the other 3. The point was to test reactions and predictability. We then shared our results so we all could learn from it. My product was a 10 minute root touch kit, that guaranteed 100% grey coverage and the ability to match ANY medium brown. First off, my swatches turned a very funky, green/gold blonde shade...very far from desirable. I created what I thought would be popular requests for me, if someone had did this to their hair. A more balanced blonde, a deeper and richer brown- like the box promised, and I tested highlighting over it. All turned out about how I predicted, and weren't too tricky to work around- which was great. Some of my class mates were not as lucky however. Funky color was the name of the game, and there is no doubt that at home color is risky. If you are lucky enough to get a decent result, plan on keeping it because it may not budge! Or just plan to come see me: )

Also, I learned about some wonderful pre and post color treatments to really help hair feel good, and not as processed as it may be.

I look forward to getting back behind the chair, and fixing your hair!!