Changing The Hair Colour Conversation

Colour

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Main Image Credit:
The Chapel, Tunbridge Wells

With a huge amount of collective knowledge and expertise in hair colour, we have a seen the evolution of hair colouring techniques over the years. From ombre to balayage, highlights to babylights and palm painting - the list goes on and continues to grow with every style season. And whilst these new techniques have allowed us hairdressers to take our creativity to new heights, they have also compartmentalised the craft of hairdressing into billable services. The result? The sense of individuality or a personal touch added to styles becomes lost... in the worst cases, people feel they have 'Copycat hair' which doesn't necessarily give them the end result they were looking for.

This is why at The Chapel, we stay away from using these definitions and we’d love you to understand why so that you can have a meaningful conversation with your stylist next time you visit.

Image Credit:
The Chapel, Tunbridge Wells

What do we mean by freehand techniques?

For us, ‘freehand techniques’ allow us to cast the creative colour net a lot wider. This is an all-encompassing term for all of the creative colour techniques we have seen so far and those that come to light in the future. This way, we do not have to just deliver you one technique but we can mix and match them to give you a truly bespoke look. Sarah from our Tunbridge Wells salon explains in a little more detail, “balayage and techniques like it have now become commonplace, but why just settle for commonplace when you can have a tailored look?”.

Many other salons will offer each technique as a separate service, meaning you may have to invest more than you intended to fully achieve the look you desire. With the list of techniques always evolving, this will arguably mean an endless list of services that hairdressers will offer and will have to become trained in.

Our stylists keep on top of trends and look to try out new techniques as they develop - experimenting with mixing them rather than just being trained in one specific technique. It is this level of understanding which you can not get from an ‘ombre home kit’ or ‘highlighter comb-through’ - yet another reason why we’re changing the way we talk about colour.

Image Credit:
Amanda Dicker at The Chapel, Tunbridge Wells

Colour me beautiful

Amanda, our founder was the driver of this change. In line with her values - those which she built The Chapel upon - Amanda wanted to move towards using ‘freehand techniques’ to reflect the way we see and treat our guests.

You are an individual and therefore you need hair colour, styling and care which reflects that - making you feel like your most beautiful self. This also extends to the techniques used on your hair - it is a blank canvas which our colourists will look to repaint however this may take a combination of techniques to achieve. Your colour might also need to be adapted based on the cut you’re looking to have - for example, balayage on very short hair may not be best advised but we could look to add hints of graduating lightening elsewhere.

Useful tools to help your colour conversation

Whilst we are moving towards using ‘freehand techniques’ to describe our colouring, you can of course still use definers such as balayage to help explain the sort of look you’re looking for. “We want to expand and explore your hair colour through conversation rather than just speaking about one technique. We want to educate guests on the techniques being used on their hair rather than just giving them a one-dimensional look on account of just using one.”, says Sarah.

Next time you’re in ask to use one of our tablets to explain the look you’re going for and discuss the colouring you’d like to achieve. As ever, our expert colourists will be 100% honest with you about what is achievable and what might work well for you - to us you are more than just the price of a service or a simple technique definition.

To find out more about our bespoke service or knowledge from our experts take a look at our Expert Advice hub or Blog. Alternatively, book in today at our London, Tunbridge Wells or Sevenoaks salon.

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