101: Learning The Basics Of Color Melt | Kenra Color

Hey everyone, I'm Kelly educator with Kenra Professional and today I'm going to be teaching you color melting 101. Before we get started, be sure to subscribe to our channel for more educational content.. Today, I'm creating a dimensional natural looking color that blends previous highlights with a natural base.. I want to make this a low maintenance style that doesn't require frequent upkeep.. Color Melting is a technique that blends a base color with a color on the ends. So there is a seamless transition between the two colors. To formulate for my color melt. I am going to use Kenra's five easy steps to color formulation.. First, I will want to assess my clients, natural level and tone.. I will have some underlying pigment that will be exposed after the lightening process. I will be incorporating a violet based shade into our mid-length and end formulation that will help neutralize this unwanted warmth, while still depositing my target shade.. By conducting a thorough consultation. I have decided. I will be creating a low maintenance. Color result that matches the natural base blends previous highlights and creates a light shade of beige on the ends.. I will need to do some lightening before the color melting service. To assure I have my best light beige results throughout the canvas., So now that I've brightened up the hair around the face, I'm ready to begin my color melt, I'm first going to want to start by sectioning the hair. I'm going to first find my client's natural Parting, my mannequin uses a middle parting, so I'm going to leave the hair there. You can adjust this accordingly to how your client normally likes to wear their parting.. So working directly down the center of the head, I'm going to create a zigzag right where our hairline section ended all the way to that the back hairline.. Now that I have two large subsections, I'm going to take another diagonal from the highest point of the head right behind the ear. Zigzag. Partings are perfect for a color mount application, as they really help assist in giving the perfect blend. For the base. Color formulation, I'm going to be using one ounce of 6B+ and one ounce of 10 volume developer. For the dimensional mid-length and end formula, I'm going to be using 1 ounce of 7B and 2 ounces of 9 Volume Activator and lastly, for the light beige end formulation. I'M going to be using 1/3 of an ounce of 8VM and 2/3 of an ounce of 8B mixed with 2 ounces of 9 Volume Activator.. The 8VM is going to assist in neutralizing any warmth that I have exposed when lifting or pre-lightening the hair.. I'M going to begin my color melt application in the back right quadrant, so I'm first going to take my base, color formulation and I'm going to bring this color down far enough to diffuse her previous highlights. I'M gently flicking the product down to diffuse it across those. Previous highlighted lines., Now I'm going to be taking my mid-length and end formulation and fully saturating those ends. To diffuse these two colors together, I'm going to take a wide tooth comb and comb through these colors just once or twice, and then I'm going to take my Index finger and my middle finger right where the two colors come together and gently blend those I'm going to grab my base color formulation and bring that down just right over her previous highlights.. How far you drag your base, color down is going to be dependent upon the look that your client is wanting to achieve.. If you're wanting to go for more of an ombre effect, you can bring the base color down a little bit farther. If you keep the base color up a little bit higher, this is going to give more of a shadow rooted effect.. So every third subsection I am going to be using the same base, color formulation, but I am going to go to my mid-length and end dimensional formulation. This is going to help give some depth into the canvas and really make it look. Super natural. Pro-tip when color melting to keep the application super clean. I like to start at the bottom of my subsection and work to the top, so I don't flip any of the color over to the next subsections and get any color where I may not be ready to work yet. To avoid my two mid-length and end formulations From combining together, I'm going to take my subsection of my dimensional formulation and just slightly over direct it to the exterior of this quadrant to avoid the two combining together. Color options for color melting are permanent and demi-permanent color. Permanent color is great for clients. Looking for long-lasting, vibrant color, results. Demi-permanent color is also a great color option.. I love using demi-permanent color on clients, especially with previous lightning, because it's super gentle on the hair gives beautiful shine and brings dull hair back to life.. Demi-Permanent is also a great way to introduce clients to the world of hair color without commitment and upkeep., I'm going to repeat the same process on my back left quadrant, as I'm doing so. I'M going to want to try to line up my diagonal subsections with the ones on the right side that are already finished to make this look the most natural and the most cohesive. I'm on my third sub-section. So I'm going to switch up my mid-length and end formulation to my dimensional shade and I'm going to slightly over direct it to the exterior of my subsection to maintain a really clean canvas.. The combination of zigzag, partings and diagonal subsections will give us the perfect blend in this color melt, application and working the diagonal back away from the face. So it does follow the same diagonal pattern as the back two quadrants.. These diagonals are going to follow the round of the head, so this is going to give a very natural looking blended result., I'm still adding my dimensional low light every third subsection in the front quadrants I'm going to direct this slightly back to the left to again Make sure I don't overlap any of my color and keep everything nice and clean. Two more subsections, I'm going to do one more subsection of our low light and one more subsection directly on the top of this quadrant as our brighter formulation. I would want to avoid putting my low light formulation directly on the top of the head, as we do want this to look sun kissed, and this is generally going to be our lightest part of the head.. Now I have one more subsection on this quadrant, which again is going to be our lighter formulation.. Now I'm going to continue this same process on the left quadrant., So I'm going to begin working at the top of the subsection and taking very thin slices. So I can make sure that I'm being extra cautious when tapping out this root., I just want to bring the color down far enough to blur out any of the highlight lines that I did put in there. But again I don't want to drag the color down too far to take away any of the brightness that I did add. It's important to take very fine sections here to have a lot of control as to where you put the product.. This is exactly where your client sees all of their color directly in front of their face, so we want to take extra measures in making this very, very blended.. Before I apply my mid-length and end formulation, I'm just going to go in with my wide tooth comb and slightly drag this formulation down.. So now that I have that base color applied, I'm going to go back in with my mid-length and end formulation., I'm going to direct this color as I'm painting away from the face, because I don't want this color to get close to my client's skin.. Now I'm going to do the same thing on the opposite: side. Now that the color melt is applied, I'm going to process for 30 minutes for our permanent color formulation. And here's the final result of my color mount with all of our tips and tricks. This process was quick and easy, and the color is beautifully blended. I encourage you all to try this color technique on your clients.