When your hair is the first thing people notice about you, changing it can feel intimidating. Over the years, Carima Robinson, the star of this week's episode of Hair Me Out, has come to love her natural curls — wild and bouncy and core to her identity. However, the one thing she'd like to change about her hair is its natural brown color.
Robinson's main objective is to elevate her color to something natural and custom to her brunette base, without messing up her curl pattern or losing the oomph in texture. So, she makes an appointment with Milena Rose Ghattas, a colorist and curl specialist at Salon Kazumi in Beverly Hills, and asks for "sun-kissed copper balayage."
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Because Robinson wants a natural, brown-red highlight and is committed to maintaining the integrity of her curls, Ghattas skips the bleach altogether. Instead, she gives Robinson a dry cut that's more of a dusting, then simply paints the hair with the copper dye, adds foils, and leaves it to process for a few minutes. "The chemistry of coloring curly hair is the same as if you were coloring straight hair," Ghattas explains. "It's really nothing to be afraid of."
For the styling, Ghattas is more exacting. Once the copper color has processed, she rinses Robinson's hair and adds detangler and a cocktail of styling products that will help add moisture to the curls. "For curly clients, I always apply a leave-in conditioner," Ghattas explains. "After gently combing through the curls, I then apply the Ouidad Primer, Gel, and Styling Cream, then use a diffuser to dry the hair completely."
In the end, Robinson's hair looks believably sun-kissed and her curls have never looked bouncier. "It's so cute," she exclaims. "My hair feels super healthy — actually, a little bit better than before I had it colored. I love the shade: It's like a lighter, sun-kissed copper that I haven't seen before, so it feels unique to me."
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