Hair colour can be bold, but it is so much better if the edges aren't obvious.
When Brian Suhr works with New Zealand women's hair he sees damage and dehydration. He also sees a lot of colour that looks like it has been laid on with a trowel, which is not the sort of technique the international master trainer for Italian company Davines demonstrated here in a recent visit to New Zealand.
"The trend now in Europe is that the client wants to look natural," says the lanky Dane.
Colour choice may be strong, but application is aimed at making it look seamless. Obvious dip-dyeing has had its day, except for fun fashion statements. Instead subtle panels of colour can be under-laid in hair and then styled to show. Graduated colour, lightening at the ends, is still popular, but should be done subtly. Intermingling tones throughout - such as dark chocolate with warmer browns for brunettes or ashy shades on blondes - can give a stunning result that doesn't shriek "dye job".
Suhr says this emphasis on having hair look healthily full of light and shade has led to the development of a new colour tool called Flamboyage. Davines' respected artistic director Angelo Seminara came up with Flamboyage Meche and it was shown by Suhr to New Zealand hairdressers in Christchurch last month. Around a dozen models were used to demonstrate a variety of colouring effects, with Suhr explaining that using Flamboyage could cut a third of the time it took to do a classic head of foils.
