YOUR FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT
Can you outsmart regrowth? Yes, says selfproclaimed lazy hair colourist Remy Rippon.
Can you outsmart regrowth? Yes, says a self-proclaimed lazy hair colourist.
REGROWTH IS HAVING A REBIRTH, ALTHOUGH IT’S NOT THE DEMISE OF UPKEEP
There aren’t many women who can admit to leaving the hairdresser looking more dishevelled than when they arrived. After three hours sporting a full head of foils, looking like a member of a visiting intergalactic species, I skip the blow-dry, preferring to pocket the extra 30 minutes, twirl my sopping, freshly coloured locks into a top knot and hotfoot it home. When I walk in the front door my husband is more likely to ask whether I took a dip in the ocean than notice I’m fresh from the salon. I am, reluctantly, a lazy colourist.
I’m a hairdresser’s worst client: for them colouring my hair is like going to the effort of renovating a house without ever seeing the final reveal. The truth is I don’t relish the three hours of “me time” getting my hair coloured. Of course, that spring-in-yourstep feeling you get from a fresh cut and colour is great, but for me it doesn’t make up for the fact that I simply don’t enjoy the process, and put it off for as long as possible. A trip to the hairdresser generally starts with my colourist, eyes fixed on the telltale racing stripe of regrowth, questioning the date of my last appointment, to which I routinely respond: “Umm, two months ago. Maybe even three months. Okay, four.”
I learnt early in life I’m a much better artificial beach blonde than a natural mousy shade of brown. While I never skip a manicure appointment ( CND Shellac, fortnightly on Wednesdays, always), I am more than happy to reschedule a salon booking, pushing it further and further between top-ups until I’m channelling Courtney Love circa 1993. My morning monologue frequently involves selfreflection: can I squeeze in one more week? Will a loose wave better conceal it? Does it look deliberate and cool or just plain shabby? The answer generally appears when the mousy centreparted line looks like a literal divide between the right and left sides of my brain. Time to visit the colourist. Hold the blow-dry.
“A future-proof colour,” says colourist Jaye Edwards at his Surry Hills salon Edwards and Co, clocking the aforementioned stripe and graciously offering a solution. Promising a minimum three months of fresh strands, a “future” colour is designed to grow out gracefully. “The majority of my clients work long hours and live hectic lives, so future-proofing their colour is paramount. I also travel to Melbourne and Singapore every eight to 12 weeks – sometimes it’s even longer in between visits – so I need to make sure my clients’ colour lasts.”
For colour that can go the distance, Edwards avoids permanent tints close to the roots and replaces it with balayage, foilyage (instead of hand-painting colour à la balayage, it’s applied using foil to lighten darker hair tones), highlights, root-shadows and low-lighting. “Lived-in colour is what you should ask for: lowmaintenance without a defined regrowth,” he adds.
It echoes the lo-fi mood humming backstage this season, with hairstylists and models recalibrating their opinions on regrowth. At Alexander Wang’s autumn/winter ’17/’18 show, models certainly hadn’t spent their Saturday morning at the hair salon; Australian export Julia Nobis looked as though she had skipped her last three appointments, with her virgin-hair roots blending seamlessly into the highlighted mid-lengths. Meanwhile, an air of nonchalance set upon Chloé, with centre-parted grown-out locks throwing off 70s bohemian vibes, artfully framing the face.
By all accounts, regrowth is having a rebirth, although it’s not the demise of upkeep. And nor should it be. In 2015, Roy Morgan researchers found that in a four-week period more than one in three women visited a hair salon for a cut, styling or colouring, suggesting that, whether it’s for maintenance or “me time”, women are dedicated salon-goers.
Celebrity hairstylist Renya Xydis, who sees a bevy of high-flying, time-poor clients, says future-proof colour starts in the salon with your colourist and then with you maintaining it at home. “Ask for a root fade, a light balayage or have your foils start a quarter of the way down the length of your hair. This is key to ensure your colour looks natural and subtle,” says Xydis. “If your colour feels dull, whether lighter or darker, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have it coloured or foiled. Opt for a toner or a nourishing salon treatment like the System Professional EnergyCode mapping consultation. Healthy, moisturised hair instantly transforms the colour and makes you feel happier, too,” she adds, her own bubblegum-pink strands always a picture of health.
While you may be forgoing a colour from time to time, it doesn’t mean skipping out on routine haircuts. When it comes to preserving the life of your colour, says Xydis, the cut is equally important. For lighter locks, blended layers ensure the colour looks fresher for longer and reflects the light for super-glossy strands, while “a dark colour looks great with layers, but can also look edgy and fun with a blunt cut”, she says.
Conversely, no amount of clever cutting will disguise silver roots. Instead, opt for a dry shampoo spiked with colour, such as Oribe Airbrush Root Touch-Up Spray, a genius formula that will not only conceal rogue regrowth but also absorbs oil build-up on day-two locks. Meanwhile, blondes will benefit from a generous dusting of regular dry shampoo (is there anything it can’t do?), as it soaks up oil from roots (which makes them appear darker) and instantly blurs the giveaway time-stamp between months-old colour and fresh roots.
In terms of styling, Edwards says a side part will impart a strategic and fashionable edge on any grown-out colour. “Deep side parts and textured waves hide regrowth, in fact, it makes regrowth look fashionable,” he says. “Middle parts tend to emphasise regrowth, so when you get to your third month, flip it over and it will look as good as new.”
The versatility of a future colour doesn’t stop there. If you’re transitioning from colour-processed strands to your natural hair tone, consider it your rebound. One friend, fed up with the time, cost, dedication and, in some cases, pain, of her platinum locks, swanned gracefully into her natural brown tresses with an “in-between” shade of blonde strategically painted from the regrowth to the ends. “I was dreading having to go through that transition period of having half a head of dark regrowth and the rest platinum,” she says. “Instead, toning down the platinum instantly took the edge off and meant that as my natural roots peeked through, the difference wasn’t quite so alarming.”
As for my own attempts at resisting colour: three months on and I’ve only just picked up that self-reflective conversation with myself in the mirror. I’ve glided through the usual bi-monthly colour conundrum with the help of a weekly hair mask to brighten the overall tone, and where the harsh stripe between new and old growth used to resemble line markings on the road, now it’s a seamless is-it-or-isn’t-it kaleidoscope of brown, blonde and everything in between. While once I was tied to being a beach blonde, ironically, my strands now actually look sun-kissed and, dare I say it, an undetectable shade of artificial blonde. As is turns out, for this lazy colourist the future looks bright.