5 Creative Color Tips from Guy Tang and Rebecca Taylor

A BTC COLOR, Cut & Style 2016 show (Early bird hotel deals AVAILABLE NOW for COLOR, Cut & Style 2017 in Austin, Texas!) just wouldn’t be the same without the irrepressible Guy Tang, and luckily nobody had to find out what that would be like. Kenra Professional invited Guy and the brilliant Vivids educator Rebecca Taylor (aka Guy’s “work wifey”) to present a segment on metallics, creative color and neons. Here’s what we learned.

Enter the Guy Tang Hair Battle! #NeonHairBattle

This just in! Get your tickets to the Battle today, and get $25 off!  

This One is Totally Non-Negotiable
When you’re creating a metallic end result, you must, must, must pre-lighten the hair to Level 10. No ifs, ands or buts about it. If there is any yellow remaining in the hair, and you tone with a metallic shade, you’ll see green. Which is great for frogs and dollar bills, but for haircolor? Not so much. If you lift and lift and the hair simply won’t get there, advises Guy, hit it with some Kenra Professional Rapid Toner in SV or BP while it’s still damp to take the yellow edge off.

Storm Cloud
This is the silver hue that everyone wants. Here’s how Guy created it. He applied Kenra Color Permanent Metallics 7SM at the “root-age,” 8SM through the mids and 10 SM on the ends. Optional if you need to cancel out yellow—add an inch of Violet Booster.

Refreshing!
Want to keep your silver clients happy long after they leave your chair? To maintain the color and hair health, try Guy’s home brew. “I mix some Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector with a few drops of the new Kenra Color Creative Charcoal,” Guy reveals. He sends the mixture home with the client and instructs her to apply it once a week, or once every other week.

Stay Chill

How do you avoid color bleeding when you’re working with lots of vibrant shades on one head? “Keep the water super cold,” commands Rebecca. “That will prevent the color from running. Also, I rinse, skip the shampoo and go straight to conditioning the hair when I’m creating these color designs.”

Everyday Metallics
Metallics aren’t just for special effects, you know. You can also combine them with other shades to neutralize warmth and create realistic-but-better shades. Here’s an example. Guy used metallic shades to produce this cool, chocolate hue!

A: Lift with Kenra Color Permanent 6AA + 7VM + 20-volume developer
B: Highlight select strands with lightener.
C: Glaze with these demi-permanent formulas:

• 7VM/violet metallic at the scalp
• 7VM/violet metallic + 9BM/bronze metallic on midlengths
• 10BM on the ends

Don’t miss out! Check out all the photos from Guy & Rebecca!