By Tina Csomo
I have returned after another hiatus! This time, I’m back with some info that may help if you’ve decided to stop using hair color. This decision for me was out of necessity. Years of exposure to hair chemicals have taken their toll in the form of allergies. Because of this I decided to put down the dye and grow out my natural color.
Truthfully, I had not given any thought to the transition. Short, layered hair is easy to grow out. As far as my Bright Spring palette, wearing it with adjustments (no yellow, yellow green, rust or orange) felt effortless. However, over time I noticed there was this gradual and slow metamorphosis that was purely subconscious.
After living in the Bright Spring realm for a few years, the color fans got put away neatly into a drawer. This is a normal thing that happens after getting familiar with your palette. I already had my own makeup staples that became “old faithful’s” and felt no need to expand on that. Strangely enough, I felt like my color range was quite narrow and could never figure out why.
As the old highlights and color got trimmed away, there was a gravitation to lipsticks that were still vibrant, but cooler in tone. Those lovely melon and orange colors of Bright Spring began gathering a bit of dust. My Bright Spring sisters could venture into Light Spring or even Dark Autumn territory, since those tones are also warm-neutral in hue. For me, those were not options. As my natural color grew in, that came to be even more apparent.
At this point, I was oblivious to the fact….there was a missing piece to the puzzle!
Just recently, Lisa K. Ford from Invent Your Image invited me to become a test model for her student, Erin, who is training to be an image consultant and color analyst. I happily obliged, expecting that nothing about the result would change. I’ve been down this road before a few times and went into this with no expectations anything would be different.
Here are some things I gleaned from my session with Lisa and Erin:
1) You can’t just “slap some drapes” on someone and decide, “OH……X is your color season.” It takes a discerning eye, accurate judgment and sharp observation skills to be a good color analyst. And that’s just a FEW of the qualities needed.
2) Whomever invented the phrase “patience is a virtue” was right on the money. For both the student and the test model, taking careful steps and being patient yield great results. If you wish to become a client, be willing to take it slowly and be an observer during your journey.
3) You will learn more from the subtle nuances than from the obvious changes. As a client, it is very important to observe those subtleties, because only then will it be understood why one seasonal category is more flattering than the other.
For me, the draping process went pretty much the same as it did before. It was apparent I was not a True season of any kind. This came as no surprise. Winter was good to a point, True Spring had some things to offer, and both Summer and Autumn were completely unharmonious.
The turning point happened during some of the red drape tests used to determine whether one’s skin tone is cool, warm or neutral – among other careful testing. It began to appear that a cool/neutral undertone made itself manifest, which was different from the last time.
When it became obvious I was (again) going to fit into the Bright spectrum, there was still the expectation of things not changing. However, the contrast between Bright Winter and Bright Spring was positively profound!!
Bright Winter made me look like a whole picture. Bright Spring read on me as too “candy coated”, light, threw sallow patches onto my cheeks and looked too brilliant or in the case of the yellows and the whites they were too muddy.
The last time I had a draping done with Lisa, my hair was the result of a color correction along with some light blonde highlights. I wore a gray cap during the draping. During photos, it made sense that Bright Spring was a fit.
