Conversations on COLOUR with…

The Wella Passionista and Northern Ireland salon owner shares her love of natural shades and explains why social media is integral to the growth of her business

What do you love most about being a colourist?

  I love having the knowledge and skills to transform hair and help clients select colour. I adore doing fashion photoshoots and colouring wefts and wigs. For me, creating shades and bespoke colouring is what makes me tick.

Where do you go for your colour inspiration?

I am a Wella Professionals guest artist and Wella Passionista so I work closely with colour trends. I work at fashion weeks and I follow the designers, make-up artists and bloggers through Instagram and social media. It’s a great way to see what other creative people are doing. I also love street style and I follow different genres of music artists.

What are your favourite colouring techniques?

I am enjoying lightening techniques from foliage, balayage, chunky lights and freehand painting. I love using colour to lighten and brighten the face and placing it in key areas to accentuate the face shape, eyes, lips and cheeks. Also, I love multi-tonal, dimensional colour that allows texture and shape in the hair. I always strive for minimal and adaptable colouring techniques. I like to create subtle or bold colour changes for my clients and keep bleaching and lightening to a minimum.

What colour trends are you pleased to see out of fashion? 

I believe Ginger Spice-style red hair with bleached highlights should never return. Joking aside, techniques and colours do go in and out of fashion, so I like to keep an open mind. I love change and taking old ideas from different eras and seeing them in a new way. It’s great to reinvent old techniques and create something beautiful.

Are there any colouring trends or techniques you’d like to bring back?

I am enjoying the chunky highlights resurgence. For 2021 chunky highlights are placed to enhance the features and allow for easy maintenance. They’re also ideal for introducing colourful semi-permanent colour changes.

What are the biggest challenges facing professional colourists at the moment?

The lockdown is the biggest challenge so using social media to connect with clients has been crucial. We need to create moodboards filled with colour ideas and inspiration to make clients feel excited about coming and seeing us as soon as they can. We need to prepare clients for skin colour tests, colour compatibility and strand tests. We need to educate ourselves on fundamental colouring techniques as clients will have extended regrowth, and some will have dabbled with colouring their hair at home using box-dyes, so we need to be equipped to deal with all the challenges that are ahead in a professional and non-judgemental way.

What’s been your most memorable colour consultation?

I had a lovely client who let her daughter put a colour in her hair during the first lockdown. It turned out very green and mucky. I advised her to use Wella Professionals Pure Shampoo and do lots of Fusion Treatments. As soon as I got her in my chair, I gave her a great haircut and I cleansed the unwanted oxidative colour safely with zero damage. I used a beautiful illuminating glossing technique to illuminate and revive her hair and she was so relieved!

What do you enjoy most about your day-to-day job?

  My clients – I’m looking forward to chatting to people again while making them look good and feel good.

What advice would you give to a trainee colourist? 

Education is key to success. I am a Wella Professionals Master Colour Expert and it has been the best and most enjoyable training course I have ever done. It has helped me develop knowledge, skills, techniques and business awareness. I have a network of colour specialists through my journey on the course and I have continued support, inspiration and trends through being connected with Wella Passionistas on Instagram and Facebook. Social media is a valuable tool and creating an online presence and showing your work in a positive and creative way will help build a good client base and job opportunities.