We sat down for cocktails with JOICO Ambassador Larisa Love and trend addict Zoë Irwin to get their take on the world of colour – from both sides of the pond!
What gives you your colour inspiration?
L: The best thing for colour inspiration is actually travelling and nature and being able to experience different types of sunsets and sunrises because everywhere you go is going to have a different type of tone, a different type of lens and especially when it comes to the seasons it may have cool tones or warm tone it is definitely my favourite part of nature.
Z: Yes! My favourite part of nature is watching how the seasons change around the world, I look at leaves a lot and how leaves change in autumn and spring and take inspiration from that.
Is colour a big part of your own personal style?
L: Colour is definitely part of my own personal style, I did every shade of hair colour under the rainbow when I was younger and then I was blonde for a really long time and I decided to go darker because I felt more sophisticated and grown up as I felt I was at a different turning point in my life and my career so I decided to go a bit more natural to bring out the confidence of who I am and not have to be so ‘wow’ with my hair.
Z: I’ve never really been many different colours when it comes to my hair I’ve always stayed blonde. I like to be playful with colour in what I’m wearing, I like sneakers and my lipstick and mainly around me I redecorate my home every six months and I use colour to uplift me in different ways.
What is the most popular current colour trends with your clients?
L: Very minimalistic, normal sun-kissed balayage and a lot more natural colour. Back in the day it was popular to have super dimensional highlights and now it’s now becoming very natural, even with styling you just have to wake up and not really do anything to your hair – minimalism is definitely very on trend with my clients.
Z: Very soft, worn-in colours that are definitely goings towards more golden tones, like sunwashed terracotta, softer, and definitely warmer. Multi-blended, lots of brunettes that are very multi-tonal.
L: Exactly!
Z: Lots of packets of colour with loads of colour around. They’re actually on the same base, but with a slight kiss of a different tone.
What would you do if your clients ask for a colour that doesn’t suit them?
L: If a client comes to me with a colour that doesn’t suit them, I’m a professional and they’re coming to me asking for my professional advice, so I’m going to give them my professional advice because that is what we are trained to do. I will never do a colour on a client that I know will not compliment them. I will explain to them why a different colour will compliment their skin tone more. If you are very approachable, have a good presence about you and confident about your consultation, your client will really trust you and will allow to create the art that you want to. I never do anything that I won’t like on my client, I will always have integrity in my work and allow myself to create art that I know will look beautiful on every single client of mine.
Z: I like to ask them what they like about that particular thing they’ve asked for and then try and find my way through it. I would never do something that I don’t feel suits somebody, and I just feel that I’m kind of gentle and try and point them in a different direction, maybe by showing them lots of pictures, and really talking about their skin tone and their eye colour. I think you need to assert yourself as the expert, because if you don’twant to ever do something that you feel in your heart is wrong.
What is your favourite way to educate?
L: My favourite way to educate, I would just say that I’ve always said that I never wanted to be an educator. I’m self-taught, so I never want to share my “secrets” with anyone else. But once I started educating, I fell in love with it because I loved the way the students reacted to something minimal, that was so easy for me but is so eye-opening to them. The way I educate is that I educate to someone who is a brand-new stylist, so whether you’re the most advanced stylist or just barely becoming a hairdresser, or even in beauty school, I educate like you don’t know anything about hair and start from scratch that way you can fully understand what I’m talking about.
Z: I take people into new worlds and educate them, at the moment I’m doing a project on the emergence of skate boarding – why it happened and why it became big so I take people into a new world. Whether it be a 70s world or a skate world or a punk world, I do a full emergence into it where I have moodboards and films and influences and I always do it by trend. It’s mainly about discovering new trends and getting an excitement about something they maybe didn’t know about.
