As a celebrity stylist, my clients expect me to create color that is flattering and wearable, on-trend, but still accessible. Since these clients are constantly being photographed, my work has to be flawless, even if their hair is not!

Some of my recent celebrity color work speaks to where I believe hair color is heading this season—natural-looking, blended and balanced--so I thought I would share my how-to’s. Hopefully my experiences will provide ideas and insights for your own clients.

The Perfect Bronde for Gray Coverage—Daisy Fuentes
Bronde is a great shade for a mature client—it’s bright and flattering, it’s not extreme and it’s a good way to cover gray without too much maintenance.
Daisy has been my client for nearly nine years and I think hers is the perfect bronde. This is what we do:
· Daisy is naturally light brown, so I cover her gray with Matrix Color Insider 6N + 6A.
· Each time I color her regrowth, I also paint all of the little baby hairs around her face with Color Insider 9N. I do this because I don’t need to re-highlight her every time I see her, but I like to make sure her color doesn’t get too dark around her face.
· Four times a year we do balayage highlights with Matrix Light Master + 40-volume developer and Matrix Bond Ultim8. I apply delicate face-frame and crown lights, and heavier and thicker highlights toward the ends. At this time, I’ll tone the root area with Color Sync 7N to shadow it a bit, but I tend not to tone my highlights because I like them to be as vibrant as possible.

A Balanced Bombshell Blonde—Madonna
Madonna is a natural Level 5, and with the exception of a few periods in her career, she has always been a bombshell blonde. This hasn’t changed. And because she’s a high profile icon, I’m conscious of the importance of creating a blonde shade that is exquisite. It can’t be too ashy, because that will wash her out. She doesn’t want to be platinum blonde. And because her hair is dark, it exposes warm tones when it’s lifted, so I have to be sure to cancel out the warmth. I believe we’ve been able to create the perfect, balanced pearly blonde tone for Madonna, which is upscale and flattering.
· I start by applying fine, delicate foil slices, almost back to back, using Matrix Light Master + 20-volume developer and Bond Ultim8. I find it’s much easier to achieve a good baby blonde shade when you isolate the hair with foils.
· I placed Matrix SOCOLOR Ultra Lift AA+ + 40-volume developer between the foils.
· After processing and removing the above, I used a tint bottle to tone with Color Sync SPV to cancel any remaining warm tones.

A Gradual Red to Blonde Transformation—Lydia Hearst
With many celebrities (and many clients,) color changes are frequent. Lydia Hearst is a natural dark blonde, and a while back we made her vivid copper red. A few months ago, she asked me to return her to a blonde shade—she wanted the dark ash base and highlights she had as a child. We’ve worked in stages, and now she’s close to her desired shade. Here is what we did:
· The first step was to remove the majority of the red pigment. I performed two applications of Matrix Light Master with Bond Ultim8 to lift the hair to a yellow orange.
· Next I applied Color Sync 7N at the roots to neutralize more yellow.
· I finished with fine highlights using more Matrix Light Master.
Subsequently, she has been returning for balayage highlights every three to four months, and each time we’re able to break through more of the red pigment with the Light Master. It’s important to remind your client that a color change like this is always a process that will take time to achieve the desired result!