5 Tips For Creative Color On Dark Hair

Creative Color: 5 Application & Placement Tips For Dark Hair 🌈
Is your Instagram basically a mood board for creative color? Well, if you’re over just sitting and scrollin’ through intricate designs and colorful patterns without getting your own taste of the rainbow—what’s holding you back?! If you really want to get your hands in (because we know not every client is a clear, Level 10), read these tips from Sami Schneider (@samihairmagic) for making creative color both possible AND wearable on dark hair! Just keep scrollin’ for some super juicy tips and techniques.

Products Used

Hair Color

Ultra Lightener from Aloxxi

Aloxxi

Hair Color

Blue Lightener

Aloxxi

Hair Color

ULTRA HOT®

Aloxxi

1. Prelighten Up: Lifting For Creative Color
When lifting dark (we’re talking Level 1 or 2!) hair for creative color, you don’t need to lift all the way to a Level 10. Especially when she’s working with blues and greens, Sami will actually lift the hair to a Level 7 or 8 to allow the yellow pigment to help hold the color. BUT, to eliminate excessive warmth, Sami prelightens with a mix of Aloxxi Ultra LIGHTENER, Blue Powder LIGHTENER and Blue Developer to cancel out underlying warm pigments.

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2. How To Avoid Overmixing
Your creative color palette shouldn’t be limited, and that’s why Sami will mix different Aloxxi ULTRA HOT semi-permanent colors together to create variety in her creative design. Here’s a formulating tip: Always start with the lighter shade and then add to it. For example, if you mix orange—start with yellow and then add red later…don’t start with the more overpowering shade. Same for pastels. This will help you avoid overmixing product.

Tap The Beaker For Color Formulas!

• Formula A (prelighten)

  Aloxxi Ultra LIGHTENER + Blue LIGHTENER + 20-volume Blue Developer

• Formula B (prelighten balayage technique)

  Ultra LIGHTENER + Blue LIGHTENER + 10-volume Blue Developer

• Formula C (rainbow)

  Aloxxi ULTRA HOT Yellow

• Formula D (rainbow)

  Aloxxi ULTRA HOT Violet

• Formula E (rainbow)

  Aloxxi ULTRA HOT Red

• Formula F (rainbow)

  Aloxxi ULTRA HOT Blue

• Formula G (rainbow)

  Aloxxi ULTRA HOT Green + Neon Green (1:3)

• Formula H (rainbow)

  Aloxxi ULTRA HOT Yellow + Red (4:1)

3. To Fully Saturate Curls, Do This!
Whether your client has textured, curly or dark hair—full saturation is KEY (say it louder for the people in the back! S-A-T-U-R-A-T-E!). To ensure you aren’t missing any spots, stretch out curls and really work the color into the hair using your fingers until you achieve an even blend. Still seeing spots? Lay the hair on top of a foil (like you would a balayage board) if you need extra support.

4. Rainbows: Color Placement & Application
Are you seeing rainbows everywhere?! Us too! Whether you wanna make every month PRIDE month (obvi!) or your client won’t settle for anything less than rocking ROYGBIV on their mane, here are a few tips for creating rainbow designs:

• When applying a rainbow pattern within a section, don’t just work from the base through the ends. Set in the guidelines first—try applying every other color so you can space out the rainbow and avoid running out of room or have different-sized sections.
• Lay the colors down FIRST, and then use your fingers to blend them together.
• Sami uses ULTRA HOT because the colors won’t bleed easily, so she doesn’t need to create separation between sections.

5. Make The Grow-Out More Graceful
You’ve created a vibrant and intricate design, now what? What’s that follow up appointment going to look like? This will help with longevity until their next salon visit: Make your dark-haired client’s grow-out process more seamless by leaving a darker base. This will also create contrast to make those bright colors POP more.

Need inspo?! Sami made some serious hair magic with THIS transformation!