What you wear, starts with your hair

In the fashion world it's not just the clothes that are the focus, hairstyles too come in and out of trend. Cuts, colour, styles are all part of the fashion format. Hair colour is also a style statement.

Colour techniques that explore a wider reach is one such style project by Tom Connell, Davines Hair Art Director. A balance of technique and naturalness enhances the colour proposal of smokey reds, champagne blonds and cool brunettes.

A conversation with Vikram Mohan Co-Founder, Spalon India Pvt Ltd (Bounce Salons) to get more details.

What colours are trending for the season?

As people have started stepping out recently, I have noticed that there is some kind of �revenge hair colouring' happening, where more people are experimenting with really bright shades, which I haven't seen in the past 17 years of experience. Shades like neon green, bright purple, pink highlights are happening. I believe it's because people were not stepping out much. I am also seeing another extreme with classic burgundies, etc.

So it's the people going on holidays after a long time that are the ones trying out these crazy colours and on the other hand, we have those attending weddings, family events, getting ready to socialize, who are just refreshing their hair colour. To answer your question, the whole seasonality thing is gone today .

How important is it for clients to understand the various colour techniques and to discover what it is they truly need?

There are multiple hair colouring techniques; block colouring, highlighting, and balayage amongst many others. Today's client is very well informed, as they follow fashion bloggers, lifestyle influencers, hairdressers, so they kind of know what they want.

However, in terms of colour techniques, they can use the guidance, because everybody's hair texture is different so sometimes the references that they see on the internet are heavily styled. We can do that type of colour for them but tomorrow it will look really weird, so we as hairstylists need to speak to our clients and explain to them what will suit them.

In a country where Ayurveda and natural colourants like Hena are popular, how does Davines plan to gain market share and make an impact?

I don't believe that Henna is very popular with the kind of customers we have at Bounce. When we started, we had many customers who used to apply Henna to their hair but we explained to them what Henna actually does. Eventually, your hair looks dry and unhealthy, because your hair won't be able to absorb moisture. The people who use Henna on a regular basis, their hair are very brittle and there is no softness/natural feel left in their hair.

I think the people who like to use Henna will continue to do so and nothing can change their mind, so for Bounce as a salon brand adopting Davines Colour has been quite smooth, because of its high-quality, high-performing range. We have gotten customers who had Henna in their hair, we applied Davines colour and the results were really good.

The world is moving towards sustainable practices in products and routines, what are Davines' sustainable integrations?

From the sourcing of ingredients to the manufacturing process to the packaging, we look at every aspect of being sustainable, in international markets the most underlying problems you see are in salons that don't use sustainable products.

Tell us what wearing your attitude in the way you look means to you?

I think what I have noticed over the years is that a lot of credit has to be given to influencers and social media, celebrities. They have all adopted their own individualistic style and I think that people have today embraced this. They can pick and choose what they like, so let's say if I'm following 10 influencers that I like, then I pick and choose 5-6 things that each person is doing and I make that my own.

Our brand motto is, What you wear, starts with your hair and we've been seeing that more and more as the years go by, even if you look at people in Bollywood or digital stars, all of them have started to take their hair very seriously. So everybody wants to have their own unique style and we want to represent them. And we also have a huge segment of our clientele, who want to be well-groomed and understated, so I think it is very individualistic.

Today there are young fashion brands, boutique fashion brands available, the amount in which women are taking care of their skin, makeup, all of that, you can truly personalize it and make it your own attitude. So gone are the days where people wanted to blend in, some of them may want to blend in, some want to stand out, but I think everybody has their own individualistic style and I think that is what their attitude is.