Last updated: July 12, 2021

3 Tips For Creating Dimension On Short Hair

Add Dimension To Short Hair With This Advice!

You’re probably used to adding depth and dimension to long hair, but are you neglecting your short haired clients? Color Space™ Co-Founder Lupe Voss (@lupevoss) demonstrated how she makes short strands pop with foiling and freehand placement. Keep scrolling to get her haircolor tips, check out the finished looks and grab the formulas! Plus, make sure you watch the full 55-minute tutorial above!

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Check Out The Finished Salon-Friendly Look!

1. Follow The Haircut When Applying Color

When applying color to long hair, it’s best to subsection and place color using the length as a guide. That approach doesn’t work on shorter hair. Lupe says that anything cut chin length and above must be colored around its shape.

Why? Because if you don’t follow the hair, you will lose the shape of the cut. If you’re worried about exact color placement, think about how the hair lands when you over direct and move the hair. For example, if you see triangle sections, work in triangles.

Tap The Beaker For The Formulas!

Formula A
Color Space™ LIFT Silver Powder Lightener + 20-volume ACTIVATE Creme Developer
Formula B
Color Space™ LIFT Freehand Powder Lightener + 30-volume ACTIVATE Developer

2. Add Dimension With Sectioning & Color Placement

Lupe adds dimension to a short cut in two ways. First, she takes smaller triangle sections following the pre-existing haircut to create more visible dimension. Make sure you never deviate from the haircut’s original sectioning or your color will look flat once finished.

Second, she takes slices with zig-zag partings on both sides of a triangle section. She places a foil in between using Color Space™ LIFT Silver Powder Lightener with 20-volume developer and freehands the left out hair using Color Space™ LIFT Freehand Powder Lightener with 30-volume to add more variation and to break up the color.

Here’s The Technique Using Fashion Colors!

Formula A
Color Space™ ZERO Push Ammonia-Free Permanent Hair Color Clear + Blue + Violet + 5-volume ACTIVATE Creme Developer
Formula B
Color Space™ ZERO Ammonia-Free Permanent Hair Color Level 1.0 + 5-volume ACTIVATE Creme Developer

3. The Key To Making Dipped Ends Work

When Lupe is foiling the ends for a dip dye look, she places the haircolor or lightener an inch deep past where the hair was texturized. Placing too little color will cause the ends to look see-through and lack depth. If you place too much color, Lupe recommends point cutting the excess out because it’s easier to remove hair than to reapply color.

Pro Tip: To keep fashion colors from mixing at the shampoo bowl, Lupe sprays Color Space™ STOP Liquid Oxidation Stopper & Cuticle Sealant on the hair to stop the color from processing and prevent bleeding. Then she rinses each foil one at a time with cool water to keep the cuticle closed.