Cool and natural hair colours are the most popular tones around right now. From bronde and mocha to ash blonde hair and ash brunette hair shades, cool hair colour doesn’t have to look cold. By blending the right tones, you can get healthy-looking, glossy hair that perfectly complements your complexion and personal style.
Cool & Natural hair colour: you ask, we answer.
There are certain recurrent questions that our stylists are asked by clients when it comes to natural-looking hair colour. Here, we break them down into three main sections: 1) What shades you should be considering, 2. The best ways to achieve your idea cool hair colour, and 3) How to prevent the enemy of cool hues: brassiness.
What cool hair tones will suit me?
The objective of cool hair colour is to look natural, so your current hair colour and skin tone are important to take into consideration.
Base hair colour: If you have dark hair, you’ll have to entirely lighten your hair to achieve an ash blonde shade. But if you’d prefer a more subtle cool hair colour over the top of your natural dark shade, ask you stylist for a few ash brunette highlights that catch the light.
On a blonde or light brown base, you can choose to go for an all-over cool blonde shade or the most popular trend at the moment, light ash brown. Looking for a statement cool hair colour? You can’t get much cooler than platinum.
Skin tone: If you suit silver more than gold, light pink more than orange, and have a bluish tint to your wrist veins, you fit right into the cool skin tone category. If gold jewellery is your go-to, peach pops on your skin, and your veins have more of a greenish hue, you’re in the warm skin tone group. Cool skin tones look great with really cool hair colours, while naturally warm complexions should play with multi-tonal combinations. Don’t worry if you’re a little bit of both – this means you can play with almost any hair colour!
How can I get cool, natural-looking hair colour?
Even if your hair has warm tones to it, you can play around with adding multi-tonal cool shades to create depth and body. Ask you stylist about the new INOA star colours: 4 new amber shades that have cool iridescent tones that catch the light and give a gorgeous glow. The best of both warm and cool worlds!
For brunette hair, or those who want to discover their darker side, have you thought about a cool dark bronde or light mocha? The INOA Mocha collection can be used alongside the L’Oréal Professionnel Blond Studio range to create a tailor-made cool bronde or ash brunette hair colour. The INOA collection is ideal for creating neutral, natural-looking hair colour on both light and dark bases.
If you are looking to give your light brown or blonde hair some cool tones, your stylist will be able to help you pick the perfect shade, from ash blonde to icy platinum. But going cool doesn’t have to mean all-over: colouring techniques such as ombré, sombre, highlights and balayage can all offer different ways to subtly lift your hair using cool tones. By trusting the expert skills of a professional, you can achieve natural-looking hair colour with shimmering multi-tonal cool shine.
How should I prevent my cool tones from going brassy?
Why can cool hair tones sometimes turn brassy? If you have had cool tones applied over a warm base (whether natural or not), over time these warm tones can start to re-emerge, as the blue colour molecules in cool hair tones break down and wash away more quickly than red and orange ones. The result is an unwanted orange hue. This brassiness can also occur when hair is lightened, but the lifting process doesn’t remove all of the underlying original pigment.
Don’t panic, however, there are ways of preventing brassiness and keeping your cool shade for longer.
The first step is to choose a permanent hair colour like INOA, specifically formulated to keep its cool over time. Then, when you want to refresh your hair’s cool tones without re-colouring entirely, book an appointment for a toning service, which revives the colour and eliminates brassiness.
The right everyday haircare is crucial for maintaining your cool shade and preventing brassiness. Using harsh shampoo can strip the hair of its cool pigments, revealing the unwanted brassy tones underneath. Opt for a shampoo and conditioner specifically formulated to cleanse while protecting coloured hair. Purple shampoos are the latest popular choice of haircare for safeguarding and showcasing cool pigments.
When it comes to styling products, choose ones that will showcase your colour, and always remember to apply heat protectant before using straighteners or curlers: weak, damaged hair doesn’t hold colour well, and it won’t show off the colour to its best.
By following expert advice and using tailored hair colour treatment right from the start, you can get your ideal cool hair colour, and keep it for longer. Bye bye brassiness, and hello cool hair!