Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Tracey Cunningham on How Stars Go From Brunette to Blonde Overnight

Minka Kelly's new blonde hair, colored by Tracey Cunningham

Whenever I talk to colorists about dyeing my naturally dark hair light blonde, they act like I just decided to get a tattoo on my face. And both times I've tried it, the colorist has taken me on a six-month, multiple-salon-trip odyssey, by the end of which I didn't even want to be blonde anymore. Maybe this is just how things are, but if that's true, then how is it that celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Lawrence are able to bypass the weird partially highlighted phase and go from dark to light without destroying their hair?

"It's kind of all an illusion," says Tracey Cunningham, co-owner of Beverly Hills salon Mèche. "It usually takes a long time. Hours and hours and hours, conditioning in between. It’s not an easy process." Going blonde in one day can require as many as five rounds of highlights. “You just keep going and going and going till you get it right,” Cunningham says. She uses Redken Chemistry Shots to condition the hair between each round.

Cunningham, who recently blond-ified Minka Kelly and Drew Barrymore, says the main reason stars go blonde fast, instead of spacing it out over months like us civilians, is that it’s required for a role. And they have the money: Color correction with Cunningham doesn't come cheap, and as the number of processes goes up, so does the price.

But actors aren't the only ones dyeing like it's their job: Cunningham gets requests for one-day color changes from non-celebrities, too. Why not space it out and keep their hair a little bit healthier? "People don't like to run around with half-assed hair," she says.

No comments:

Post a Comment