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How To Use Colour Correction Techniques Like The Pros

Almost everyone has a home colour disaster or two lurking somewhere in their past. Me? Mine are somewhere in the hundreds. While colour disasters are correctible and not the end of the world by any means, many people only cause more problems when they try to correct their colour. Then, ball cap in place and tears in their eyes, they march to the salon only to pay big bucks to fix a problem that could have been prevented in the first place.

One of the most common mistakes made by people who colour their hair at home is to make the problem worse by applying the wrong colour to correct their first mistake. For example: Have you ever coloured your hair and ended up with a colour that is too red or brassy? To correct this problem, many people try to pull the red colour out by lightening their hair. This only causes more problems and more brassiness. Other people try to darken their hair again only to have it turn too dark. Or, if you’ve dyed your hair blue and it fades to more of a green. Both of these approaches are wrong and you will understand why with a quick course in colour correction.

Have you ever seen a colour wheel used by painters? It looks like a wheel with a different colour between the spokes of the wheel. You can create your own basic colour wheel by taking the primary colours, red, blue and yellow, and positioning those colours equal distances around a wheel or circle. Next, take the spaces between the primary colours to list the colours that are made when the two colours next to each other are blended. For example: yellow and blue make green.

Once you have done this you can easily correct colour that is too red or too green. All you have to do is look at your colour wheel. If your hair is orange, look at the orange space on your colour wheel. Then, look directly on the opposite side. What colour is there? It should be blue. Colours with a blue base are considered beige colours. So, to counteract or cancel the orange colour, you need to choose a colour with a beige base. You dont need to darken or lighten at all.

So, the next time you have a colour dilemma, dont try to strip the problem out of your hair. Simply use your colour wheel to cancel out the unwanted colour. Doing so will save you a lot of time, heartache and money.

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