Lost in Translation By Kristie Kesic

In a world filled with 7.7 billion people each person will see and view colour differently. This happens because colour is created by light waves rebounding off an object and everyone eyes react differently to these light waves. As a result of people seeing colour differently, each person will describe colour differently. Each individual person will be describing the way they see it. So if each person sees colour differently and describes colour differently it very easy to see why colour can get lost in translation.

I took to social media and have compiled a list of the most common examples of how hairdressers and clients can see colour very differently and I’ve got a few tips to help you overcome these.

1. CLIENT: I just see yellow HAIRDRESSER: Your hair is over toned ash TIP: For these clients, unless you legit overtone their hair ash or violet they will always just see yellow.

2. CLIENT: My hair is just brassy HAIRDRESSER: Unless our hair is orange and raw it’s not what we would call brassy. TIP: If your client always says their hair Is brassy you either need to take them a shade darker than a level 7 or you need to lighten them beyond a 7 level. This will eliminate an orange undertone and help eliminate a brassy colour.

3. CLIENT: I want to be lighter, but I don’t want bleach on my hair. HAIRDRESSER: Pending on the hair history this is just possible. If there is artificial colour in the hair, we know colour on colour goes darker, so the only way to remove colour is to bleach it out. If the hair is virgin hair, then you’re in luck. You can absolutely lighten the hair without using bleaching but you’re not getting clean white, blonde, you will get a max of 4 shades lighter. TIP: Give a quick colour theory lesson and explain this to them. Once they understand the why and that you do in fact know your stuff, they should trust you.

4. CLIENT: But my old hairdresser got me this colour and didn’t use bleach. HAIRDRESSER: If the hair is light blonde and they are naturally dark or if the hair has artificial colour in it, they have 100% used bleach, they just didn’t tell you. TIP: Ok let’s be honest hands up if you have been guilty of doing this one? I’m not ashamed to say I haven’t straight up lied and said I didn’t use bleach ; I just didn’t tell them what I was using in the first place. The fact of the matter is you are the professional. They come to you to achieve a look they want. They don’t understand what is required to get them to that look. YOU DO! You do not need to tell them what exact product you use to get them there. It’s only your responsibility to achieve a result they want while keeping the integrity of the hair intact. And besides bleach isn’t bad. They only think it is because they have been told by a friend of a friend that bleach is bad, or they know someone whose hair snapped off because of bleach. No, the hair snapped off because the hairdresser used the bleach incorrectly. That hairdresser was the problem not the product.

5. CLIENT: I want a creamy blonde but absolutely no warmth and no ash. HAIRDRESSER: Do you even know what creamy means! TIP: Show a photo. Creamy is a buzz word. The way people perceive creamy is always going to be so different. I’ve had clients say creamy and all I see is ash.

6. CLIENT: I want a golden blonde, but I don’t want a warm blonde. HAIRDRESSER: GOLDEN IS WARM. TIP: Golden is another example of a buzz word. I want it golden and summer Beachy. 9 time out of 10 you pull up a photo of what you would say is golden blonde and they are going to think its yellow and warm. Pull up a photo of creamy and natural and that more what they want. When they say golden, they normally mean they just don’t want to see grey or any overtone.

7. CLIENT: I want chocolate but absolutely no red in the sun HAIRDRESSER: Any colour in the sun is going to be on the warmer side. Sun reflects warmth. The underlying pigment of a chocolate colour is red TIP: Explain the role the sun plays in affecting the reflect of the colour. Explain that they only way to help with this is to give a cool reflect to start off with. By doing this though the colour will appear darker to start off with. A Violet reflect or a super flat matt colour is a great colour for clients like this.

8. CLIENT: I like copper, but I don’t want to look orange HAIRDRESSER: COPPER IS ORANGE TIP: Copper is one of those tones that I have 3 descriptions for. Red copper: a copper colour that swings more to the red side Copper Copper: pure orange Golden copper: a copper that is more a yellow copper Establish which one they mean, because they all look very different.

9. CLIENT: I want ash, but I don’t want to look grey HAIRDRESSER: Face palm! Ash is grey TIP: Tone the colour to the point just before it’s overtone. The moment it goes over toned they will just see grey.

This last one a client described to me 14 years ago I had just become a senior, she was an older lady, and she was a big socialite. I was colouring her blonde hair for the first time and all she said during the consultation was, do not make my hair menopause mauve.

Still to this day it haunts me, and I don’t know what she even meant by it, but every now and again I see someone with an ugly violet colour, and I look at it and think to myself, menopause mauve.

As hairdressers there are certain times you want to scream and shake certain clients or at least have a little giggle at the way they describe things to us compared to what they really want. But at the end of the day, it is not their fault. They are describing what they see or better still they’ve just heard the description of a colour and thought it sounds great, but when you give them what that means they hate it. Our job as a professional is to listen, to interpret and to make sure we 100% understand. They are coming to us for a reason. The only way you can be certain things aren’t going to be lost in translation is to plain and simple get out those photos as examples. Showing a physical photo as an example is the only form of a universal language, we can all understand.

Kristie Kesic, Master Colourist, Cobelle Creative