Lindsey Olson has spent years mastering her craft with textured hair. She's learned about which products to use and which to avoid, how to work with all curl patterns, and most importantly, how to maintain the integrity of the hair throughout the process. During this year's Redken Virtual Symposium, Olson shared a color technique that she refers to as 'twirlyage' that works on wavy, curly and coily hair. Read on to snag her tips!
DETANGLING
1. Before you start coloring curly hair, be sure to detangle. Using Redken's One United All in One Multi-Benefit Treatment, softly mist the ends of the hair.
2. Subdivide the hair into smaller sections and then begin detangling hair from the bottom of the strand up to the base.
3. When you're done detangling, your fingers should be able to run through the hair completely without getting caught.
4. Repeat for every section around the head. This will ensure a smooth surface to apply haircolor on.
COLORING
1. Starting on one side of your client's head, create a zigzag parting working diagonally back. Clip away excess hair.
2. Divide that new section into smaller pieces. You want your section to be deeper than it is wide to ensure a strong pop of color. Again, isolate the hair that you're not working with.
3. Place your comb about half way down the hairstrand and give it a subtle tease to give the hair a multidimensional result.
4. Using Flash Lift Pods Bonder Inside, heavily saturate the surface of the hair. The goal is to see all lightener and no hair—if you can still see the grain of the hair through the lightener, it is not saturated enough.
5. Next, place your balayage paddle underneath the section and saturate the ends of the hair. Once saturated, flip the paddle onto the coloring brush, place the paddle back underneath the hair and saturate again. This is where the twirling technique comes into play.
6. Because curls shrink, you want your saturation to be about half way up the hairstrand to get that pop of color. The result? A dark base, medium midlengths and bright ends. Continue to twirl until you feel you have enough saturation on the hair.
Hot tip: Always use 10- or 20-volume developer on curly hair. This keeps the curls intact throughout the coloring process. The lift is going to come from the processing time and saturation.
7. Remix your Flash Lift every 15 minutes so that you have the most potent color for each section around the head. Repeat steps 1-6 until desired result is achieved.
8. If your client's base isn't that dark to begin with, give her a deeper root with a Shades EQ Gloss after lightening. A deeper root on very curly hair will make the color pop that much more.
For clients with wavy hair, you'll want to section the hair into a mohawk at the top. Because wavy-haired clients typically have less volume at the root, you'll want the color to sit a little bit differently than those with very curly or coily hair. The rest of the hair will be done in the same zigzag partings as mentioned above.