Colour clinic with Tracey Cunningham Creative HEAD Magazine

Creative HEAD visits the wonderful world of Tracey Cunningham’s brain to solve four main colour issues

Hair stylist to the stars, and by stars, we REALLY mean stars, (think the Kardashians and Jennifer Lopez) and responsible for the Hollywood siren blonde locks sported by rising acting icon Anya Taylor-Joy, colourist Tracey Cunningham really deserves the title.

Despite her famed status in the world of colour, Tracey is surprisingly down to earth, and all too ready to share her colour tips with stylists around the world. The Los Angeles, California based Tracey brought all the sunshine, relaxed vibes, and easy friendliness of her home state to a recent meet-up with Creative HEAD in a central London location, and there, she spilled the tea on her colour correction secrets.

It was time to play a game; if a client walked into Tracey’s salon sporting a big colour issue, what would she do? What advice would she give to stylists facing a similar situation? This is Tracey Cunningham’s colour clinic, exclusively for Creative HEAD, doors open, for one time only…

1. A dull blonde wants to go blonder. What do you do?

I’d put low lights in because they need something right next to the blonde to make it pop. Sometimes, a person wants to go blonder and I can see they’re very blonde already, but what they really need is more blonding at the ends. When you’re looking at hair, you’re looking at the frame, like the frame of photo, and that way the ends can be missed. A combination of highlights and balayage is always good. Even if a client looks blonde already, sometimes they just need a pop of colour around the face to really feel blonde and you don’t have to do a whole head, just concentrate on certain sections. You can balayage flat against the foil, I fold it as that creates heat and helps a bit more than just free handing.

2. A natural brunette wants some lift, how do you get it right?

A lot of the time, brunettes look even better with some golden and caramel lights in their hair. But sometimes, they should be ashier. It really depends on the client and what their vibe and skin colour is. But most importantly, it depends on what they’re most attracted to. Some want gold, others want ash. Sometimes, a client won’t know what they’re asking for, so it’s important to ask them to show you a photo first. Sometimes, you’ll need a highlight with a lowlight. Even with a brunette, you might want to darken things up. Generally, a few highlights and a little balayage on the ends goes a long way with brunettes.

3. A faded Cherry Pop client wants to go strawberry blonde, where do you start?

I would baby-light the whole head with very fine highlights everywhere. I would then balayage the ends and finish with a beautiful gloss – it will look gorgeous. If you know they want this look before their appointment, I suggest that you get them going with a clarifying shampoo first.

4. A buttery blonde client with a dark natural base wants a perfectly blended blonde from root to tip. What techniques do you use?

I would start off by asking where their parting is then I would highlight everywhere. For the parting, I would make it a bit more concentrated with a finer weave then use a gloss to blend away the stripiness. Whatever you’re doing, whether it’s balayage or highlights, they are stripes, and even though some clients say they don’t like stripes, I explain to them that we’re not done yet, we’re going to blend it away. Some people call it shadow root, others call it blending away. But it’s really about the gloss you choose.