DO you know your ombre and sombre from your balayage or your dip-dye from your flashlights?
It might sound like a Mexican mechanic at work in the dark, but they're actually the latest terms to be found in your hairdressing salon. These days you almost need to carry a dictionary when planning a cut and colour.
But what's right for Rhianna or Cara Delevingne, who can have help with their daily hair care regime, doesn't necessarily work when you've got the school run or a bus to catch to work every day. Then there's your own colouring and face shape to consider. Hardest of all may be pinpointing the exact definition of the look that you're after.
"Different hairdressers come up with different terminology to describe a look or a colour technique which they're trying to own. The difference between definitions can be quite subtle too so one person's idea of balayage may not be the same as someone else's," explains Wilson Derbyshire, owner of Shine Hair & Beauty, in Northallerton, with 30 years' experience in the industry.
The general trend in colour is for grading to create a sun-kissed, casual look, as if your highlights are growing out. Coupled with more unkempt styling, the overall feel is natural and not over-styled.
Balayage, for instance, is highlights that are created freehand, adding to a less-uniform result that works particularly well on long, full hair. Babylights are the finest highlights giving very subtle and therefore natural shifts in tone; in contrast flashlights do what they say on the tin with bursts of blonde on darker hair.
Dip-dyed is a look of contrasts, where the ends or more of the hair appear to have been 'dipped' in colour and the rest left alone. Ombre is a dramatic dark-to-light contrast and sombre a more subtle take on the fade with the highlights starting higher up and some darker tones retained lower down.
Confused? Wilson says instead of a dictionary, pictures are a better bet.
"It's very easy for clients to see or read about someone's interpretation of these trends, but if they're after a specific look bringing a picture with you to the salon, or asking your stylist to go through the look books with you to find what you're after, is a much more accurate method to achieve the result you want.
"A good stylist will also take into consideration your skin and eye colour, the condition of your hair, the shape of the cut and your lifestyle. For example, Kim Kardashian's change from dark to blonde and back to dark is way beyond what most people's hair can stand but she will have a technician applying all the best products all the time to maintain the condition, and the time to do it. For most people that's just not realistic."
Shine Hair salons, which are also in Stokesley and Preston Farm, are promoting the importance of individuality with Colour Couture, a high end, bespoke, creative service drawing on all colouring techniques and an extensive palette from Wella's innovative new product Color.id to create looks that are particular to each client.
"It's about really personalising what we do. The beauty of the Color.id product is that it doesn't bleed so the stylist can use a whole raft of freehand techniques and, for the first time, put colour side by side on different parts of the hair without foils or other separators to create a really individualised, harmonious look.
"It's really only limited by the imagination and creativity of the client and their stylist so it's perfect for going into spring with a fresh new look."
* For more information, contact Wilson on 01609 771477, Stokesley salon owner Steve MacVean on 01642 712755 or Preston Farm's Jacqui Elliott on 01642 670203.
