THE BASICS OF PERFECT COLOR FORMULATION

Have you ever found yourself staring at the dispensary color wall begging the hair gods to make the perfect formula fall into your color bowl? Sometimes formulation can be overwhelming! Whenever I get stuck, I take a minute and think about the color wheel, combined with a few basic considerations of hair color. So let’s break it down… The rules of the color wheel are the same if you’re a painter working in oil and canvas, or an artist creating beautifully dimensional hair color. Here are three rules to remember. Rule One: There are three primary colors that cannot be created by mixing color, but are the foundation of all other colors we see. PRIMARY COLORS 1)    Yellow 2)    Blue 3)    Red Rule Two: There are three secondary colors created when you mix equal parts of two primary colors. SECONDARY COLORS 1)    Green (yellow and blue) 2)    Violet (blue and red) 3)    Orange (red and yellow) Rule Three: There are six tertiary colors created by mixing equal parts of one primary color and one secondary color. TERTIARY COLORS 1)    Yellow-Green (75% yellow and 25% blue) 2)    Blue-Green (75% blue and 25% yellow) 3)    Blue-Violet (75% blue and 25% red) 4)    Red-Violet (75% red and 25% blue) 5)    Red-Orange (75% red and 25% yellow) 6)    Yellow-Orange (75% yellow and 25% red) Understanding those principles helps me remember the basics of creating beautiful hair color. Now I can accentuate or neutralize (compliment) tone. The following is based on the brand I use in the salon. Every manufacturer views hair levels and underlying pigment a little differently, so be sure to refer to your brands swatch book to understand their system. After analyzing my client’s hair, I can implement some basic considerations of hair color formulation. Consideration One: The hair level system measures the natural level of lightness and darkness of the hair. HAIR LEVEL SYSTEM Level 1 – Black Level 2 – Darkest Brown Level 3 – Dark Brown Level 4 – Medium Brown Level 5 – Light Brown Level 6 – Dark Blonde Level 7 – Medium Blonde Level 8 – Light Blonde Level 9 – Very Light Blonde Level 10 – Ultra Pale Blonde Consideration Two: There is an underlying pigment associated with each level of lightness or darkness in hair. Underlying pigment is the tone revealed once the hair has been lightened with lightener (bleach) or color (when lifting lighter than your clients’ natural level). I find it easiest to associate each level with its place on the color wheel (starting with blue and working through red to yellow – using the color wheel above). UNDERLYING PIGMENT Level 1 – Blue Level 2 – Blue-Violet Level 3 – Violet Level 4 – Red-Violet Level 5 – Red Level 6 – Red-Orange Level 7 – Orange Level 8 – Yellow-Orange Level 9 – Yellow Level 10 – Pale Yellow Now I have the information I need to formulate. If I want to “accentuate tone” and really make a color pop on a natural level 7 (for example) – I would add a range of yellow-orange to red-orange to my formula. If I wanted to “tame tone” and neutralize the orange underlying pigment in a natural level 7, I would add blue (the complimentary tone directly across the color wheel from orange) to my formula. Remember, a neutral color is simply equal parts of red, yellow and blue. Brown is considered a neutral color because in its purest form, it is an equal combination of all three primary colors – that’s why colors “brown-out” when you over formulate… Of course hair color goes much deeper than this – but for me – going back to the basics never fails when I get stumped creating a formula. Our knowledge of the basics is one of the main things that separates us from the box of color at the drug store. To me, that knowledge is very valuable and makes me proud to be a professional stylist. How about you?