Everything you need to know about hair contouring

Published 19th Apr 2015 by rachael

Thanks to Kim Kardashian, contouring has never been bigger - and now hair contouring is here to chisel those cheekbones through the art of colour placement. The technique is being championed by Marc Trinder at Charles Worthington, who we recently caught up with to find out more. What exactly is hair contouring? Hair contouring is the same principle as contouring with makeup – using light and dark tones to create shadow and depth on the face. I realised that applying colour in specific areas of the hair could completely alter either an entire face shape or specific areas. Why did you decide to launch colour contouring as an in-salon service? It's a fresh new way of colouring; a technique which completely frames the face and works with choosing the best possible tones of colours to work with your skin tone. It's more about the actual shape of your face, so if you have a round or square face you can use colour in specific areas to elongate or create a more oval chin shape. However it can also work to shrink your forehead (with micro-fine highlights) or make your cheekbones pop. What would be your top tips for colourists for using colour to contour? Choose the right shade around the face. Look at depth of colour and the tones - cool or warm. Usually contouring is about placement around the face, so encouraging a subtle lightness by illuminating the hair which touches the skin is a great start to contouring. Do you find that big beauty trends are a good starting point for new hairdressing services in the salon? Absolutely. We always take inspiration from the recent shows to make sure what we are doing is forward thinking and relevant. How have you been creating a buzz around the service in the salon? We have a celebrity following and have been using this new technique on the beauty press who have tried and tested it - it has even made its way to the USA! All our staff have been trained in the new service and are offering it to our existing clients also which has created a real buzz in the salon. See Marc's advice for hair contouring with colour in the infographic below!