Salon Lighting for Haircoloring

For haircolor purposes, the consultation and work environment should be very well lit. Lighting in this area is very important. I suggest a mixture of lighting effects. What I mean by this is; if possible, try to have equal amounts of incandescent lighting, florescent lighting and natural lighting coming in from the windows or skylight. If you have all of one type of lighting in the salon, the haircolor can look very different in the client’s home or in different lighting situations. For example, florescent lights are blue; therefore, if the lighting is all florescent, it can make a blonde look green. (Blonde hair is yellow and blue lighting can create a green cast on the hair). So, a lot of blondes will look green under purely florescent lighting. Florescent lighting can also make a redhead look brown, because of the cool nature of this type of lighting. It will bring out the cool color in the hair, which is ash and it will suppress the warm colors in the hair (golden and red). This will make redheads look more brown and less red. Incandescent lighting is very warm. This can make a blonde look brassy or red. And 100% natural lighting is not great either because it will give off too much warmth and produce a false sense of red also if you rely solely on 100% natural lighting, you would be limited to doing haircolor only during daylight hours ☺ Since there is no perfect lighting, I suggest a mixture of all three. I find that with a blend of all three types of lighting, you get much more realistic looking haircolor and the client is less likely to call after she gets home to tell you that in her bathroom, her haircolor doesn’t look anything like it did in the salon. In our salon we use florescent lighting as general ambient lighting, and we have an incandescent halogen spotlight over each chair. We are also fortunate enough to have plenty of large windows with an abundance of natural indirect lighting streaming through most of the day. I welcome your comments and suggestions. David