Flashes

Q: I would just like to know what flashes are. I have dark brown hair & my skin tone is olive. My hair is thick. What method - between flashes & foils - would you recommend & what color?

A: Flashes, as it pertains to hair coloring techniques, is the use of thick bands of color beneath the surface layers of hair that only become apparent when the hair moves, exposing the color beneath the surface in "flashes".

The technique you should use depends on the results you want. Flashes are generally created using foiling, only underneath the upper layers of hair. Other foiling techniques may simply have sections of the hair isolated for the addition of color highlighting or accents. Decide what kind of result you want and then your stylist can create them for you.

As to the color to be used, as always the hair should be accented with natural looking tones based on your hair's natural color. For the color you describe, you could choose something like caramel or milk chocolate tones to accompany your dark brown hair, or perhaps a cinnamon red to add some spice and warmth.

With "flashes" however, you can often go for a slightly "bolder" color (perhaps a redder red tone, or lighter ginger tone) since the color is only seen in flashes. Or you can stick with the subtle and natural-looking tones you would use for traditional highlighting.

©Hairfinder.com

See also:

How to color hair

Hair coloring techniques for special effects

How do you do foils which are underneath and not on top?