Master Colorist and L’Oreal Professionnel Ambassador Jason Backe colored Idina Menzel’s hair in preparation for last night’s Tony Awards. Here’s how he did it:
One of the big summer trends for brunettes is tone on tone variation. Personally, I love this trend because it is a much needed step away from Ombre. For Idina, I wanted to create subtle dimension utilizing ammonia free hair colors and lightener for rich highs and lows.
Idina came in with a faded level 6 that was starting to look a little too rusty. She told me she hated seeing red and wanted to be a deep brunette. She was drinking a cup of coffee with milk – I said “If I could do whatever I want I would give you a deep brunette base with highlights the color of your coffee.” She LOVED the idea.
First I did a partial highlight and used L’Oreal Professionnel Majimeches with 30vol. I kept all of the highlights ½ inch away from her hairline and part. Doing so has all of the dimension coming from the interior which creates a softer look. While the foils were processing, I painted Dia Richesse on her new growth using equal parts of 5.13 and 4N with 15vol. Next, starting in the nape, I took a bold 2 inch section and pulled that same formula through the ends. I skipped over two inches and then took another 2 inch section and pulled the formula through. I repeated this in a brick lay pattern throughout all of the hair not in foil. When the color had finished processing I rinsed thoroughly and shampooed. To get the “coffee with milk” shade, I glossed with Dia Light 8.1 with 15vol. The gloss processed about 7 minutes, we rinsed, shampooed and dried it to see the result…..She didn’t like it – and neither did I.
I tell you that because it’s real. Sometimes we have great ideas and solid formulas but the end result is not what we had in mind. It happens. What’s important is knowing what to do next.
Idina thought the color was pretty but way too light for her. We went back to the shampoo bowl, I re-wet her hair and re-glossed. This time I used Dia Light 7N with 15 volume. I let that process until the highlights were a deep 7. The end result was gorgeous. She LOVED it, I LOVED it and I hope you love it too!
Top Image: Dimitrios Kambouris via Getty Images; Bottom Image courtesy of Ted Gibson Beauty
