Get Gorgeous Hair Color with Redken!! Nancy from Ten Pretty Girls

Nancy Lichtenstein of TenPrettyGirls blog snagged an invite to a Redken event to meet with Tracey Cunningham, celebrity colorist and Redken Creative Consultant. This is Nancy’s piece on the event!!
How can you look like a celebrity even if the closest you’ve come to fame is bumping into Nicole Richie at Starbucks? The best way is to take advice from stylists to the stars, like Redken Creative Consultant for Color Tracey Cunningham, colorist to such celebrity clients as Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Lindsay Lohan. We chatted with Tracey the other night at an exclusive fall haircolor showcase at the Park Avenue Hotel, so here’s the scoop on the Fall 2008 haircolor forecast, tips on how to care for your colored hair, and some dish on what the stars are really like.

Nancy of Ten Pretty Girls at the Redken Color Event
“This fall, haircolor will be earthier, deeper, richer tones full of shine,” according to Tracey. She likes it when clients bring her a visual of what they’re looking for and recommends Cameron Diaz’s color for blondes, Kate Beckinsale’s for brunettes, and Lindsay Lohan’s look for redheads, as shown below on Redken models.

Redken Color Models: blonde, brunette & redhead
While spring is the busiest time for hair color changes, what’s in then can look too beachy by fall, so she transitions overly light or brassy hair by adding warm, rich lowlights all over, weaving dark in near the roots, with lighter color framing the face and on the ends to add contrast and look more natural.

Beyond trends, Tracey talks with all her clients before the color process to achieve their goals in their hair tones…do they want to be sexy, bold, simple, or low-maintenance? All of these requests are clues that will help her formulate color to fit her clients’ individual needs. But she cautions that keeping the hair in good condition and working with the client’s natural color are the most important elements of a star-quality look. “When clients come in and want a total change of color immediately, I’m honest with them and tell them no!

“If I don’t think that the client’s hair is strong enough to handle the dramatic color change, I’ll talk her out of it and recommend what I think is best to match her skin tone and natural color,” she continues.

“For example, if a client with dark shades wants to go platinum, I would recommend highlights, low-lights and other shades to lighten up the base, and I would also tell her it’s a work in progress and might require three visits over several months to get it right.”
Sometimes her celebrity clients require quick changes for movie roles, though, such as when Lindsay Lohan recently went dark and then had to switch back to blonde within a few weeks because of an upcoming movie.
How does Tracey do that safely?
“By taking time and being patient with the color,” she says. “When Lindsay goes from dark to light she is in the salon for a full 6 hours. The process is step by step and you can’t rush it or you will damage the hair. You have to gradually take it down shade by shade until you have the desired blonde that you want. I always use Redken Shades EQ color as a final step and recommend Redken Color Extend products to protect the color.”

Shades EQ is the “color that thinks it’s a conditioner,” and Tracey says she’s spoiled and uses it as a weekly gloss treatment on her own hair to keep it shiny and in great condition. While she warns that there are no truly “green” hair color products, even the ones you find in Whole Foods that say they’re all natural contain peroxide. Ammonia-free products like Shades EQ can help protect the cuticle of the hair. As for the Color Extend, they should be used in between sessions to keep the color from fading. “It’s like buying a $1,000 cashmere sweater,” says Tracey. “It looks best if you follow the care instructions.”
As for the celebrities themselves, Tracey says most of them are sweet, low-key, and don’t wear makeup when she sees them. She says they do always “have that it factor, though. You get it when you meet them in person; there’s always something special about them.”
Her most talked-about color transformations are Lindsay and Nicole (Richie) , and besides paparazzi, working with such famous women has its own challenges. She sometimes has to color extensions, which she does after they’re attached, but that can be extremely difficult because you don’t know the origin of the hair or what’s been done to it. “Brunette extensions are sometimes colored with clothing dye,” she says.
She’s also not thrilled when clothing stylists try to offer too much input around awards time. “Do you really want your hair to match your dress?” she asks. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”
To find a colorist who can give you celebrity style of your own, visit www.redkencolor.com for a list of Redken salons and more information on how to talk to your stylist about color.
Thanks to Nancy Lichtenstein, TenPrettyGirls blogger for this great piece! Make sure you check out her blog!
Stevie Wilson