It all starts with the assesment
Creativity is the greatest aspect of being a stylist. I recently got the chance to sink my teeth into some guys who wanted to get some animal print hair for the Burning Man Festival. Of course, I knew that I couldn’t just jump into it right away without coming up with some sort of plan. I had to think about certain things like: do they have any previous color in their hair, what colors am I allowed to use and is the hair the light as it needs to be to take on the color? All of these things and more play a small part in the end result. These things are what cosmetologists are trained to think about. Now that I had a plan, I could move forward by setting up their hair before applying lightener and the color (I used Kevin Murphy’s Color.Me Powder Lightener, Affinage, and Pravana.)
Starting the process
I’ve found that with any type of prints or shapes the result are better on shorter hair or in a place where the hair doesn’t have too much movement. That way the shape of the design stays and it doesn’t turn into an indistiguishable mass of color (unless that’s the look you are going for). The cheetah print design had shorter hair than the zebra print, simply because of the client’s personal preference in length of hair. I evaluated the hair for good integrity, and after I determined we were good to go with cutting the hair. After cutting we went on to applying lightener and then color.
Application Process
Lightening the hair is the process used to get my client’s hair to a good point so I can put “the crazy colors” on and have it show up vividly. Usually I look for it to be between a inside banana peel yellow to almost white depending on what I’m doing. After the lightening is done, the fun and creative part is next; the color! While I didn’t have smaller brushes to make the lines thinner in some areas, I would definitely recommend investing in some. Fortunately, I was able to use some wax sticks to create the “C” shapes for the cheetah print and zebra lines, then just used different sticks to apply the color around the shapes I created. After processing the color it’s time to wash.
After Care
Now I’m at the shampoo bowl ready to wash. Cold water is the best and speed is important so the colors don’t bleed into one another. I normally only use conditioner and not shampoo. Shampooing would just shorten the lifetime of the semi-permanent color. The less the client can wash his/her hair the better. I always recommend using dry shampoo, using cold water when washing hair, and wash the hair less. It is possible to take a shower without washing your hair. The finished products are these awesome animal print styles.
These animal prints and other hair designs can be created here at Phoenix Twin Salon by our hair artist Jade.
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