Premium Hair Colour Guide

Correct colour matching is essential for ensuring the most natural, discrete look for your clients.

As a provider of premium Hair Extensions in the Australian Market, we pride ourselves on giving our trade suppliers a lot of options when it comes to colour. The reason for this is to get the closest match possible for your client (meaning less colour processing of the hair extensions upon arrival!). 

In this guide, we take you through correct colour matching in depth based on whether you opt for ‘Stock Hair’ or Fully ‘Customised’. Read below or reach out to us should you have more questions:

 

Colour Matching Using the Ring

Our colour ring holds all the ‘Base’ colours that we stock, we then have mixes of these colours available when purchasing stock Extension sets (we will explain this in the section below).

Our colour rings go in shade / tone order from darkest to lightest. Below are steps on how to correctly match the ring to your clients natural hair colour:

1. ESTABLISHING THE BASE COLOUR – Every person has what we call a ‘Base’ colour in their hair. This is a colour that is usually the ‘majority’ shade throughout. It is essential to establish what this colour is. To do this find a section in the colour ring which looks the closest to your client’s hair. Choose 6 strands around this shade. Then, using process of elimination, take each strand ‘one by one’, fan the strand with your fingers and brush it against the ENDS of your client’s hair (the end of the hair is where the extensions most predominately need to match!). Do this until you find the closest shade to the base shade of the client’s hair. Once established, this should make up the ‘Majority’ of the colour in the extension order (at least 50%).

2. ESTABLISHING THE ROOT COLOUR – although not always essential, having a matching ‘Root’ ensures more discretion for the client. When hair gets greasy (which is usually close to the scalp), our natural hairt tends to part- exposing the extensions, therefore if the ends of a clients hair is a lighter shade than the root and the root of the extension is the same as the ends, they will be more noticeable. Therefore, it is recommended to colour match the root area to the closest colour on the ring to see if you can get a ‘Stock’ set with the same root and base colour (or order a custom set with both matched root and end colours). It is also recommended to measure the length of the root if you are ordering a customised set.

3. GET PLAYFUL WITH COLOUR – Does your client want blonde highlights but doesn’t want to damage their natural hair? Use Hair Extensions! When you have established your clients ‘Base’ colour at the end of the hair, you can then look to incorporate other colours for a highlighted / streak effect. For a natural / subtle look, going up or down from the base colour up to 6 shades is achievable. Our stock sets have been designed with popular mixes of colours that work well together. However, you can also order multiple different colour stock combinations for one head too (placement is key)! Rest assured, our premium hair extensions can also be dyed and toned should it be needed, this is good advice if your client wants to get a little colour crazy and do super contrasting colour mixes. Always remember, lighter colours can be coloured down, however darker colours cannot be lightened! It is also recommended to be highly trained in colour chemical processing as the extensions can be easily damaged if too high a volume is used. Need further advice on this? Drop us an email.

 

Understanding  ‘Stock’ Hair Coding

We will explain how the coding for our website ‘Stock’ sets work:

• Base Colour = e.g ‘#1b’
  This is where the hair extensions piece is all one colour from root to tip over every hair strand.
  
  
  
  
• Piano = e.g ‘#P1b/2' 
  Think ‘streaks’, a piano mix consists of two colours. In weft and tapes, these colour alternate across the band, in individual strands (Beaded / Glue methods) one side of the strand is one colour and the other is the other colour.
  
  

• Dip Dye = e.g '#DD2/4' 
  This is where two colours are used however, the first colour (in this instance a #2) goes from the root to 50% down the length of the hair and then the second colour (#4) goes from 50% to the tip. Therefore, if you order 18inch, 9inch would be #2 from the top and the rest in a #4.
  
  
• T-Zone = e.g '#T2/4'
  Think root stretch/smudge. This is where the first 3 inch (roughly) from the root of the extension is the first colour (in this instance a #2) and then the rest of the length is in the secondary colour(#4).
  
  

Stock colours can have a multitude of variations, including mixing together for example: T-zone (root stretch) with Piano mixes or multi-mix variations. Different colour mixes can be bought and placed specifically to achieve certain looks with placement techniques.

For example, in the Invisible Weft we do a '#9ATP9A/613'

This variations indicates a mix of:
9AT = a root of colour #9A
P9A/613 = a Piano mix of #9A & #613 at 50/50

Ordering a ‘Custom’ set

The possibilities are endless when it comes to fully customised sets! The benefit to custom sets is that they are THE CLOSEST match possible as they are handmade from scratch based on what is ordered. This means, we can order multiple different types of extensions (for example, a mix of Wefts with Tapes to fill out the front section of the head more easily) and specific lengths, grams and colour mixes. 

With colour mixes, we can ‘play’ with up to 3 different colours. We can also incorporate different mixes / techniques of these colours. For example:

- COLOUR MIX OPTIONS

• Ombre technique – an ombre technique usually (although can go in reverse if desired) starts with a darker colour at the top of the extensions, transitions into a mid-range colour and then finally a lighter colour on the tips. The cascade can be customised in terms of the inch length of each colour!
  
  
• Piano Mix – Streak look using two colours. We can customer the % if desired, so 60% base colour and 40% additional streak colour.
  
  
• Balayage Mixes – 3 colours can be chosen and mixed to make a subtle highlighted foiled / balayage effect (catches the light and is more discrete than the Piano / Streak mix). This gives a very natural look. You can also choose the % of each colour used. It is recommended that your base colour is at least 50% to ensure a good match. The other two colours can be chosen at your discretion in terms of % mix.
  
  
• T-Zone / Root stretches can be added at any length (minimum 1 inch)

• TEXTURE – Does your client have curly hair? We can also add what is called a ‘Kink’ Profile to the set. Most Hair comes straight or has a ‘natural wave’ from the donor/ (no chemical used). If you client has curly hair, we can add a kink profile. Please note that is it not advised to go above a shade #8 in colour with curly extensions as it is a chemical perming process and, due to the extensive lifting process lighter hair extensions go through, it reduces the quality and longevity of the extensions. Permed hair extensions are also timelier to look after – do provide your customer with our blog post on caring for curly hair extensions prior to purchase so they understand the time needed to keep them in good condition. It is recommended that clients with curly hair consider a straightening process prior. If straight hair is put in to natural curly hair, humidity can hit after styled and show the different between the clients hair and the extensions.
  
  
• HAIR ORIGIN – Our stock sets are all Russian Mongolian for best quality. However, if your client has Asian hair or Indian, we are able to request this hair origin. This will provide a better match due to the hair strands being thicker or finer etc.
  
  
• Thickness of sets – This refers to the ‘drawn’ status of the hair, meaning the amount of hair from root to tip. It is natural to have hairs that are shorter as our own hair replicates this. However, you may have a client who has thin hair and is happy with single or middle drawn. Or you may have a client with super thick hair who needs a lot of thickness from top to bottom. All of our stock sets are double drawn. Double drawn gives you more leeway with adding layering styles etc.

 

To discuss custom sets, or place an order, please contact our team of specialists.

Phone number: 1300211770

Email: info@valanciahairextensions.com

Please note, due to the individual nature of customised sets, once ordered – these cannot be returned or refunded. Your client will need to understand this.