I had seen a picture of Rihanna where she wore a beautiful red dress with red lipstick and gorgeous hair in varying hues of brown and gold. That image somehow stuck to my mind so when I was offered to color my hair using shades from the new L’Oreal Professionnel Mocha Mania range, I knew that was the look I wanted to go for. My appointment was fixed at A N John Salon, Park Street and I was met by the in-house stylist and L’Oreal Professionnel senior stylist and trainer. I told them the look I wanted to try out and the stylists recommended a mix of two techniques – Balayage and Hair Contouring using L’Oreal Professionnel Mocha Mania hair color.
Before I share details on what color was used on me and the entire experience, here’s some information on the two techniques.
Balayage and Hair Contouring
Balayage is a French word meaning to sweep or to paint. It allows for a sun-kissed natural looking hair color with softer, less noticeable regrowth lines. Balayage is applied on the surface of the hair and can also be called a freehand technique because no foil is used to create the highlights. Basically, it looks more natural and the color grows out evenly so it is quite low maintenance.
We all know about contouring the face with makeup to give it more definition but do you know you can do the same with your hair? Hair contouring is a coloring technique that uses a combination of free hand application and highlighting paired with the careful positioning of different tones and depths around the face to highlight and shadow targeted areas. Darker tones create shadows and are used to shorten or narrow the face shape, whilst lighter tones elongate and lengthen the face shape by reflecting light. There are seven basic face shapes and a skilled L’Oreal Professionnel colorist will be able to determine where to position the dark and light shades to sculpt the face and achieve a more ‘oval’ shape. This bespoke service is available in top L’Oreal Professionnel salons across the country and in Kolkata, A N John is one of them.