Kristin Grip, owner of KOVI Hair, Tease Salon, and the winner of the Behind the Chair One-shot Winner of 2019 gives us her expert advice on how to choose the perfect hair extension color.
The most important factor in getting hair extensions to look real is matching your hair colors. You could have the best installation, and the best cut but if your colors don't match it won't look real.
We all have this idea of what we want our hair to look like or what we think it looks like but that might not be reality. Many times my clients are surprised with the colors I choose for them because they aren't looking at their hair as subjectively as I do. Here's some tips for how I match my clients:
1. Match your ends
Match the "seam". The seam is where your natural hair stops and the extensions continue to add length. Matching the colors at this seem is crucial to getting a real look and blend. There are probably colors in your ends you didn't know you had and probably some that don't match those new highlights you got on the top of your head. If you are a blonde with some darker tones underneath, its important that you carry those tones through your extensions too. You can add the blonde but I would recommend adding a little of all tones that naturally exist in your ends.
2. Add Dimension
Its rare that I use a solid color on a client because its rare that a client is a solid color. Even if their hair appears to be solid, take a closer look. You might find that there are different tones in there and by adding them into your mix you will create a better blend that also has depth and dimension.
3. Send us some pictures!
At KOVIHair.com we love to help customers get a perfect blend. Send us pictures of your client or target photos of what you want and we will have a professional stylist (usually me) pull some packs for you and send you back some pictures of some color suggestions. Be sure to let us know what type of hair you are wanting to purchase for faster assistance.
4. Tone the extensions to match
**First, a disclaimer - Coloring or toning extensions is always done at your own risk. Always do a test strand to make sure you are happy with the results before proceeding with all of your hair.** Toning hair can also be a valuable trick to getting an exact match. Start by buying hair the same level or one level lighter than the desired color and tone the hair using a demi or semi-permanent hair color. If possible, use the same toners used on the clients hair so its a perfect match. We use a lot of Redken Shades EQ in my salon and love the results. I'll be writing another article shortly on coloring extensions that will cover this topic more in depth.
5. Use a color ring from the company you are ordering from.
Color rings are a great tool to make sure you are getting the right colors you need. With a color ring in-hand you can hold it up to your clients hair and discuss colors with them in person to make sure you are ordering exactly what you both want.
Kovi Color rings include 30 shades to find the perfect match for your install.
6. Buy extra hair and return what's unneeded.
KOVIHair.com offers a generous return time and I would recommend buying an extra pack of two of hair to make sure you have exactly what you need. It would be hard for me to guess the exact ratio of colors I need prior to installing so I love working with extra bundles on hand so I can mix and match as needed rather than "try to make it work."
