4 Tricks That'll Make Your Custom Color Selection So Much Easier

With a whole rainbow of colors to choose from, making custom color selections with your client can be tough. But that difficulty can sometimes intensify once you’ve chosen a hue, as you progress to mixing and testing your formula and identifying the ideal base extension shade to work on. Set yourself up for success in each and every part of the custom coloring process by anticipating challenges and preparing solutions in advance. Here are some tips to help you do it:

Use the Donna Bella Color Ring

The Donna Bella Color Ring is our designated tool for reviewing and selecting Donna Bella hair extension colors for hair extension installations. It’s also great for:

finding inspiration for color transformations—let your client flip through the swatches until they find something that speaks to them!
identifying subtleties in shade and undertone—useful when selecting highlight and lowlight shades for your client’s hair
selecting a complementary extension shade for coloring—you’ll want to find an extension shade in the same undertone family as your client’s skin (golden, ruddy, olive—pairs with blue/purple hair tones—or neutral), and about two steps lighter than the destination color (unless you’re performing a funky/vivid color job, in which case you should work with #60)
providing a common color vocabulary between you and your client, as different people may have different perceptions of terms like “teal,” “rose gold,” “auburn,” etc.

Collect cut/shed hair and excess extension strands

Put the excess hair in your salon to work for you by turning them into color test strands. Keep locks of your client’s own cut hair to test how their hair will take to different color formulations, or utilize unused blonde strands* for swatching your color formula during the mixing process. This is particularly helpful if you stress about placing your color test swatch on the hair extensions you’ll be using for an installation.

*From June 10-17, 2018, take 10% off all blonde hair extension shades (includes every method). No promo code necessary.

Compile test strands and trials into a sample book

Save your future self repeated trial and error work by assembling your varied test strands into a reference compendium, complete with notes of base shade and color formula. Return to this resource while recreating colors, or even during consultations as an addendum to the Color Ring. This step alone will save you time on your custom color selections!

Offer trial strands for at-home product testing and in-salon demos

Invite your clients to see for themselves the effects of certain products on their colored extensions by sending them home from their consultation with a color test strand. Have them wash and style the color test strand with their usual products and routines, so that they know what to expect with their own hair (or so that they know what to switch out from their product lineup!). This is especially useful for clients who may be ambivalent about a certain service, as it encourages them to envision their future hair, and to actively experiment with its care. Similarly, you could use such test strands for in-salon demonstrations as well—showing clients in one sitting the before and after strands following 4 weeks of washing and styling.

Read up on more custom coloring tips in the blog posts below, then visit the Color Takeover Portal to view additional coloring resources (like videos, formulas, before & afters, and more!). And don't forget to browse our blonde hair extensions, available at 10% off until June 17, 2018!

6 Dos and Don’ts of Coloring Hair Extensions
6 Safe Practices for Coloring Hair Extensions
When Is Coloring a Bad Idea?