Not new, but recently in vogue, hair contouring is increasingly popular with women. Discover everything about this coloring technique that brightens the face!
______________
The 90s continue to inspire us! Once again, hair experts are looking to the past to find today's hair trends. After highlighting the baby braids we told you about in early autumn, now it's the turn of hair contouring ! Perhaps you've already seen the youngest Jenner, Kylie, proudly sporting one? Or even Queen B trying it out?
Beyoncé and her wavy hair contouring.
Source: @beyonce
Kylie Jenner, before she went completely brown.
Source: @kyliejenner
Hair contouring: a story of optical illusion
Similar to makeup, contouring also exists in hairstyling. It's a hair coloring technique also known as "money piece highlights", referring to the edges of a coin always being lighter than the center (well, it depends which ones!).
Hair contouring is used for two reasons:
💇 To bring luminosity to the complexion and the entire hair with beautiful golden highlights.
💇 To reshape facial contours by refining them with a play of shadow and light: no need for a scalpel for an overly prominent forehead or a too-square jaw.
One could almost call it customized coloring !
Very popular in summer, hair contouring also finds its place in winter to highlight pretty faces bundled up in scarves.
The colored strands are therefore those that frame the face. Generally, they are quite thin, so that the result remains subtle and appears natural.
What other benefits does hair contouring offer?
To change your look without going through full coloring, this hair process delivers on all its promises.
Moreover, it requires little maintenance. Indeed, money piece highlights save you money by avoiding monthly touch-ups at your hairdresser. A simple neutralizing purple shampoo prevents your color from turning yellow.
And that's without forgetting that hair contouring adapts to all hair types, whether blonde, brown, or red! It can also suit all hair types, whether straight or curly, and finally adjust to all face shapes. The only prerequisite: having the strands around the face long enough.
Applying hair contouring
"To make the highlights stand out, you need to choose a color 3 to 4 shades lighter to create the maximum effect."
The hair contouring technique is very simple: the hairdresser just needs to lighten the two front strands. However, these are not classic highlights; they should not be colored in bulk from roots to ends.
"To bring out the highlights, you need to choose a color 3 to 4 shades lighter to create the maximum effect. This usually requires pre-lightening these specific areas of the hair," confides Natalia Romaniuc, colorist at Windle London.
After bleaching, the chosen color must be in harmony with the hair's natural base, so that the new colored strands blend perfectly with the rest of the hair.
"Shades that are too far and too different from the natural base or skin tone will create a contrast rather than the desired blended effect." (Sandy Ory, colorist at Jean Marc Joubert).
It is advisable to favor rather soft blonde tones, or more trendy colors as here where actress Debby Ryan chose a light rose gold.
Do you want to enhance your hair contouring by also working on the cut? Then let yourself be tempted by a layered cut!
The much more contrasted variant: rogue hair
If hair contouring is all about subtlety, expect a much more pronounced contrast with rogue hair. Its particularity? Two very blonde strands framing the face, while the natural hair is brown.
Don't think that this hairstyle gets its name from Professor Snape in Harry Potter! On the contrary, it's a female character who is the source of inspiration: Rogue, a.k.a. "Malicia" in French. Belonging to the Marvel universe, Rogue is a mutant with superpowers found in the X-Men.
Source: Comic Icons
In both comics and movies, this character has long brown hair, except for her two famous white strands. When the first movie was released in 2000, several stars adopted this two-tone hairstyle. Far from doing what everyone else was doing, singer Avril Lavigne also adopted this style, but in her own way!
If today, we had to show you a very concrete example of rogue hair, it would undoubtedly be with Dua Lipa, who in our opinion embodies it best!
Source: Blooming Box
Closely related by their similarities, hair contouring and rogue hair are therefore essential hair trends that, we are sure, will allow two-tone coloring to assert itself even more in 2022! ✨
