Colour Recipe: Melting Rose

Kim Franklin Hickman, Master Stylist at Carlton Hair, created this beautiful pastel rose gold colour melt for a client at Carlton Ballito. Kim took her client from natural base at the roots, to a fabulously fashionable yet wearable rose through the mid-lengths and ends. What made this transformation even more incredible, was the problematic history of colouring that the hair began with!

Before: Micaela came in to see me a few weeks prior to her appointment for a free consultation at Carlton Hair Ballito. We discussed what had been done to her hair in the last 5 years so I knew the history, and also discussed cost. When she came in for her appointment I knew there was a band of box colour from 2 years ago, as well as a highly stained dark violet colour. I looked at the hair carefully and did 3 test strands in different areas, to identify that I was starting off with 6 colour bands.

During: I cleansed the hair section by section in foils (yes it took long, but slow and steady always wins). I went in with different bleach formulas using Davines Ammonia-Free bleach, and varied the developers 10, 20 and 30-vol. All had Bondplex in the mixtures. I left about a 2 cm regrowth at natural level 5 as we were doing a colour melt closer to the roots than normal for colour longevity.

Once I reached levels of 7,8 and 9 throughout, I rinsed, dried, and applied a colour melt Davines with Vibrachrom 10g 5/11+20g 7/11+ 5vol 1:2 for 15 minutes, just enough to break the bleach line and create a natural colour melt. I then rinsed, lightly shampooed using Davines Minu range, towel dried the hair, applied Davines Dede Mist (helps as a porosity equaliser) and applied 10g of Davines Ammonia free pure colour Violet +0.5g red + 51g Creme Base + 102g 5 vol. I left this on for 20 minutes, rinsed, lightly shampooed, and applied Minu post-colour lock in treatment for 3 minutes, then applied Minu mask under micromist to lock in the colour.

kim comparison

kim straight and curly

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After: The trick to the perfect pastel pink / rose gold / peach is the level you lift it to. Remember your underlying tones. Homecare is essential to keep up the pastel pinks and I recommended Davines Alchemic red shampoo, and Alchemic silver, red and copper conditioners.