I loooove a beautifully executed hair color placement. Something about the way the colors have been arranged and how those colors really compliment the wearer. Hair color is a love of mine one with it’s own elements to master. Knowing the appropriate placement that would be suitable for a person or how to compliment colors with others can be a challenge. Even knowing what colors compliment the person’s skin tone is a talent all by itself. As I have had a great opportunity to work in this hair field I have to say that I get discouraged when I don’t see more textured hair being acknowledged especially knowing the amount of work and skill level it takes to produce beautiful complimentary and vivd tones executed so beautifully on textured hair.

I commend any stylist who is able to produce vivid shades and complimentary hair color placements on textured hair especially if it can be excellently executed with minimal imperfections. Although there are some stylist out there who make it look easy It can be extremely difficult to execute beautiful color placement on textured hair. One reason being because there are so many factors to consider when coloring textured hair and in most cases way more than with naturally straight hair. For one the smoothing process can be daunting at times and requires a lot of blow drying and smoothing of the cuticle to get straight. Some textured hair colorist will color the hair in its natural state however if the person who is wearing the color wears their hair primarily straight most of the time then the color placement has to be positioned with that in mind and it may require smoothing the hair out before doing each color process that may be required to achieve the desired look. Besides that special care has to be taken with preserving the integrity of the hair considering that if worn straight there will be a lot of heat involved with styling the hair on a regular bases. One thing that makes some color work look so good is the fact that the work has a very healthy canvas to be displayed on.

Another factor to consider would be if the client has relaxed hair or other chemicals involved. Then it would take a whole lot of calculating and strategizing to make the color happen while still keeping that hair healthy. In most cases the health of the hair is sacrifices some for the glory of wearing a beautiful color pallet.

Over the years I have found myself doing less color projects on textured hair. One reason for this is because it does require a lot of work and time to accomplish causing textured hair clients to be unwilling to invest neither finances nor the time to receive such services , but another factor I think is very interesting is the fact that they also are limited to the choices they can have in today’s society. There have been many a client who have tried coloring their hair on their own or by a hairstylist who may have not been knowledgable enough and suffered hair loss which really can be traumatic and makes that person reluctant to ever try it again. In some other cases because of the hair texture ( could be naturally dry or to tightly coiled ) there aren’t a lot of color options besides cinnamons dark blondes , or reds that a client can choose from without the sacrifice of their hairs health. With so many different colors on social media today who wants to be stuck in a box when it comes to choosing a beautiful complimentary color? Based on what’s deemed appropriate in the work place many texture clients can’t receive all the beautiful color techniques we see on social media. Another factor that I feel is very interesting is the fact that many advanced learning programs for color techniques don’t teach color techniques with textured hair in mind. This leaves stylist who may primarily work with textured hair out in the cold having to learn through trial and error which ways would work best to execute contemporary color placements on textured hair warn smoothed out. Through the years I have had to take my advance skills and reformulate them to fit a textured hair situation. Besides that, most of my textured hair clients can’t receive certain colors due to it being deemed inappropriate in the workplace. Having heard that from so many stylists I had to ask myself “ what makes certain hair colors appropriate or not and when it comes to deciding that, is it based on taste level?’

To answer that question I had to understand what taste level was or in other words as someone would say “ You have great taste”. When you look at someone who is well put together you would say that they have great taste. Great taste is attention to all the aspects, an outcome of taking care of all the details. When one becomes accustom to putting together all the details one turns this process into a habit, a habit that after while seems to become woven into one’s DNA. So when we apply that to color placement and execution how would you say a style and hair color is tasteful? In my opinion hair color is tasteful when all the elements that surround it are considered. These elements include but may not be limited to execution of styling ( if the hair is over stylized or under stylized) , cut ( the shape of the style reflecting these colors), combination of colors chosen ( if the colors compliment each other or not ), and suitability ( if the person wearing the color has the right skin tone, look, fashion sense , head shape , or in other words if they can pull it off) .


With those factors in mind we can assess if certain hair colors are appropriate or not. If a certain people are accustom to seeing things their own way then they won’t know how to understand another people’s way of doing things and this may or may not include the other people’s definition of taste level. If there isn’t much regard to a certain people’s definition of taste level with in a system in which the minority people reside and function in, then there would certainly be differences in opinions and preferences. Since in todays times textured hair people live in a world where naturally straight haired people are the majority it would make sense that naturally straight haired color aesthetics and definitions of taste level would out weigh other definitions. In this particular system it would make sense that the textured haired definitions of taste wouldn’t be considered. This being said it is no wonder that you don’t catch many colorists who’s work is showed primarily on textured hair being highlighted for there artistry as much as some other colorists. This leaves me to think upon the day when it will be felt and understood how amazing it is to see textured hair color perfectly executed. It truly is a feat to see when considering all the factors involved to accomplish it. If people knew and understood fully what it takes to beautifully executed a complimentary color pallet on textured hair smoothed out then we would see more textured hair colorists highlighted for that on a broader scale. Now don’t get me wrong I have surely seen really nice color placement on textured hair that wouldn’t be considered tasteful however I have also seen the same colors on both a textured hair client and a naturally straight hair client and it be more acceptable for the naturally straight hair client to wear versus being considerate ghetto or not tasteful on a textured hair client. The standards differ in different areas. One day I hope to see more praise for textured hair colorist for their skills just simply being execellent skills and within the workplace, I would love to see more colorful people being allowed to express their identities through how they choose to wear their hair. Considering the taste and attentions to detail first of course.

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