Personalize Colour & Style

In a recent chat with Australia-based Clive Allwright and Lia Mei of muk products, the duo offered the following advice for creating personalized looks for everyone.

CLIVE ALLWRIGHT – Global Artistic Director

Tell us about upcoming trends for hair in 2018: cuts, lengths, finishes, etc.

Hair trends are all over the place in today’s society here in Australia. Individuality is still paramount! Just like fashion, hair trends are so different now depending on age and personal financial situations.

It’s been many decades since everyone from 18-50 all wore the same fashion such as miniskirts and Sassoon style bobs with black eyeliner. Personal style has continuously evolved for years depending on income and age.

For example, I was sitting on a plane one morning at 6:00 am flying from Sydney to Melbourne, arguably the most stylish of Australian cities. When I looked around the aircraft, I saw the following:

  • 1990’s loose Gucci (Guido Paulo) style hair up, elegantly street cool.

  • Perfect bouncy blow dry.

  • Sleek, tight round buns, ballet style.

  • Natural curl almost afro, and dare I say a bit 1980s.

  • Some young adults returning from a festival the guys had tight fades, the girls had beach hair tousled and balayage with amazing dirty three-day unwashed waves.

  • Slim guys in suits with Harvard-style barbering haircuts obviously scissor over comb and expensive haircuts - not your usual $15 barber job.

  • Teenagers at University or school with their rendition of Pulp Riot, purple and green hair that looked like it was done in someone’s garage with a budget of $20 from the pharmacy.

I guess the point I am trying to make here is that style and affordability is a reflection of what stage of life you currently are placed. That’s why we have such an eclectic melting pot of salons, styles, stylists, and prices.

As hairdressers, we need to decide what is our target market and which market best suits our skillsets and capitalize on it! For instance, vibrant pastel colours when done exceptionally well will cost a small fortune because of the skill it takes to get it right the first time. When the younger demographic can see value in that service, they will pay that price just like they pay big dollars for hair extensions. But you’re going to struggle to upsell that kind of colour to someone driving a Mercedes wearing designer clothes regardless of skill or price. 

Hairdressers: Work out what your target market is. Understand “why” and "how much” your clients will want it and will pay for it. Then always be aware to change as the trends change. Be on top of them. There are so many different types of target markets today!

What are some of the must-have products to achieve these textured looks?

Fat muk Volumising products are paramount to achieve texture and volume for smooth and textured looks with a layer of Beach muk Sea Salt Spray.

1. For natural texture (curl)

The Kinky muk curl products are the best to achieve texture to curls, separation, smoothing and defrizzing. My personal favourite is Kinky muk Curl Leave in Moisturiser, which is a multi-purpose product for moisturizing and defining.

2. For natural wave

Think cocktail. 2 parts Kinky muk Curl Leave in Moisturiser, 1 spritz of Beach muk Sea Salt spray.

Once blow-dried, finish with Head muk 20 in 1 Leave-In Miracle Treatment.

3. To add texture to otherwise straight hair

Head muk Dry Shampoo on the roots, then spritz Fat muk Volumiser in stages to layer the product with a hairdryer.

LIA MEI – Global Colour Director

For 2018, what do you look forward to for hair color trends?

Suitability is key with this season’s blondes, working with (a) client’s natural beauty to make the most of their colour is crucial. Beautiful ‘lived-in’ blondes with depth at the roots are never going to date. Working this way allows us to get those gorgeous, pure, clean blondes that have that “wow” factor.

With brunettes, the significant trends are face-framing with soft caramels and hazelnuts.For redheads, look for multi-dimensional pomegranate and cherry reds, while maintaining/adding contrasting deep natural tones. This will give dimension and will not be overpowering.

For fashion colour, the softer and more delicate tones have made a huge impact this year. They featured prominently at the Paris Fashion Week Shows and NYFW. Powder pink and baby lemonade are my favorites. Super soft and super sexy.

What will be trending as far as colour placement?

Right now, it’s all about seamless balayage applications. Practice makes perfect and the better your technique, the bigger your clientele. 

What are some of the best ways to help maintain hair colour at home?

Don’t shampoo your hair every day. When you do, use the Vivid muk Colour Lock Shampoo and Conditioner, as it slows colour fade by up to 30 percent, whilst nourishing and conditioning. Hint- always shampoo and condition using the coolest water you can tolerate. The hotter the water, the quicker the fade!

If you are based in the US or Canada, muk is available here

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