An Ombre hair coloring style is where you get a fade from dark to light or from light to dark as you go out from the mid-lengths to the ends.
The Ombre look is really popular in the salons these days. Here is a simple fail-safe way of achieving the classic ombre hair look:
For the Base. You need to caramelize the base. For this, use a natural color fairly close to your customer's hair coloring level, but with some added reflects and make sure that it is 1-2 levels lighter. Mix with developer and apply on the mid-lengths only using your dye brush, but do not color the ends.
For example, if your customer has a natural level 5, you can choose any color at the 6 level.
For the Ends. Now you can deal with the ends. If you are looking for the classic ombre hair color result, use a highlift color (100 series). These are available at most professional hair color brands and they offer up to 5 levels lift. So these give really good ombre results.
Mix with 30 Vol. developer to get some lift (the mix ratios for highlift colors is typically 1 part color to 2 parts developer) and apply using foil. Apply fairly thickly so that you get a nice dramatic difference between the mid-lengths and the ends.
For More Original Ombre Looks. These days, stylists and consumers are pushing the boundaries more and more with ombre. Try the following hair color combinations, they do work well and are surprisingly wearable!
For a Purple Ombre Hair:
Base: Chestnut Blonde 7Br
Ends: Violet
For a Pink Ombre Hair:
Base: Dark Blonde 6N
Ends: Fuscia Pink and Copper Blonde mixed
For Ombre on Long Hair
Use Bleach for the ends mixed with 30 Vol, and use a balayage technique to get flowing ombre locks. Beautiful!
What kind of hair works well with Ombre?
Ombre works very well on mid-length hairstyles, especially if they are curly or wavy. The ombre helps to add depth and dimension to such hair styles.
But Ombre works well with long hair as well. When doing ombre on longer hair, balayage techniques can give a really gorgeous, sexy hair color result.
Styling Ombre Hair
Ombre is a fairly informal style and works well when it looks fairly natural. So use leave in creams and only a little spray to create a fairly natural look.