Colour Chords:

Would you like to know how colour chords can help you paint the perfect texture for blondes, brunettes and redheads? In this episode, we answer that question.

The Colour Kristina talks podcast shares practical industry advise for colour loving hairdressers wanting to grow their confidence with all things colour, consultation, personal branding, creating your niche clientele, social media and biz tips, plus how to stay inspired and more.

I am super excited to be talking with you about my approach to colour chords and how recognising the similarity in musical chords and harmonies has really helped me as a hair colourist. 

Let me explain where I got the idea from, and make it clear this is not a theory I have created. I am a Colour Educator and Haircolour Specialist that likes to paint a picture with my words & I try to source practical information from many sources to help hairdressers understand how to paint and know why.

Just by listening to this podcast series is my opportunity to introduce you to curated topics, to help your creativity, and technical ability grow from artist to expert. And to make sure you don’t miss out on any upcoming episode I would love for you to subscribe on to my Colour Kristina Talks podcast on iTunes 

Let’s chat colour!

My favourite subject at school was Art History and I try to infuse a little bit of that passion into my education when teaching hairdressers about colour.

A few years ago I visited the Art Gallery of NSW to see the ‘Australian Moderns’ exhibition and was blown away by the concept that colour groupings behave in a similar way to musical scales. 

Ever since that visit to the gallery I have been obsessed with exploring the links in musical chords to create harmonious tones in haircolour. This is a game-changer for Haircolour Theorists to gain a deeper understanding of successful formulations for multi-tone colour techniques that can be replicated for Blondes, Brunettes or Redheads.

So what exactly is “Colour Music” or “Colour Chords” and how does it relate to Haircolour?

I want you to imagine something for me to help you understand what I am sharing in this podcast. Imagine that you are standing in a room that is lit up by one bright light, and music starts playing…. and as you are listening, the colour of the light changes with every chord and changes texture to different beats – from black to red, to red – cream – from cream to orange and so on….

Chords are not like colours. Chords are colours. Harmony is a colour you can hear. 

Chords can clash or match. Chords can be very subtle and harder to detect

 I was taught to paint (noticeable) texture into haircolour by selecting colours 2 or more levels apart because that will work best for noticeable contrast. For example, creating a gorgeous multi-tone Medium Blonde could be created with a 7 level tint alternating with a 9 level tint and a bleach lifted to pale blonde (level 11). However, if a client wanted a “natural” blonde a Colourist can still create texture that is “less obvious” with painting tints on the same level or just one level difference. For example, a classic Bespoke Blonde could be a 9 level Ash and a 10 level Gold with a few bleaches in the rotation for a Foil or Freestyle client. My experimentations have included recreating these colour harmonies for Brunettes & Redheads… and you may be surprised to know that I have discovered this works for more than just our blonde clients! 

Let me Break down these buzz words Dimension – texture – seamless for BBR

I believe there are also links between haircolour techniques to musical genres

For example, What colours do you relate with music when you are listening to your favourite tunes? 

I think Foil highlights have links with classical music perfection….

Hip Hop remixes many different genres and remixes it into unique blends that keep attracting younger listeners. 

Could foils be linked to classical music and symphonies? And hip hop be linked to the younger social media savvy Balayage Freestyle Painters?

Let’s paint by numbers to Repeat successful formulas for blondes brunettes or redheads. Think tonal variation and levels and do some test strands to explore in your own colour range.

Brunettes, roots 5, 6, 7 for seamless natural blend or 5, 7, 9 for contemporary balayage

Blondes we have already touched on in this episode

And redheads tend to behave better with clashing tones sitting on similar levels, such as level 7 roots with level 7 and 8 ends in yellow and orange. All chords that can be repeated higher or lower on the colour chart number scale

And I hope this helps you get into my mind a little as to how colour has harmonies and chords that can be repeated in blondes, brunettes and redheads