Copper babes, essemble! In today’s lesson we’re teaching you everything you need to know about achieving and maintaining the red/golden/copper hue of your dreams

Find your shade

Achieving the perfect head turning copper is a careful balance of considering your skin tone and features and working with your current hair and base. Results greatly vary depending on whether your hair is pre-existing red, blonde, box dyed and beyond, so it’s best to book a consultation prior to having your hair changed.

In regards to selecting a tone that will suit you best, use this as a bit of a guide

For pale skin tones: try rose, gold, apricot and muted copper tones
For olive skin tones: try ruby, auburn and berry tones
For darker skin tones: try cherry and wine tones

Finding your ideal shade can be tricky, so it's helpful to look online at images of people with similar skin and eye tones, in order to get an idea of what the colour might look like on you.

Generally, global copper tones will be permanent and if your hair isn’t a medium brown or lighter, you will likely need some bleach work to achieve your perfect hue. Below is a gallery of coppers that have been applied over the top of pre-existing blonde or bleached hair - you will notice that the peachy, apricot and fashion tones are included here. It’s also important to note that if you’re wanting to see variation in your copper, you will need to have a combination of highlights and a global colour to achieve the look.

If you’re naturally darker, you will want to opt for dark auburn coppers, cherry reds, mahogany tones and deep plum hues - your natural will not lift high enough to achieve a light copper result, unless you were to scalp bleach prior to your appointment which would mean massive upkeep. If you’re a brunette to black, we recommend choosing something along the lines of these looks below

Maintenance

While copper is a very fun style to have, it can often be quite high maintenance - you will need to have regular glosses to keep the vibrancy of tone and have your roots done every 6-8 weeks. Leaving it to grow down too far will create heat bands when trying to tint back at your next appointment. Coppers and reds are specialty colours that do require a thorough hair care plan. It’s best to book a consultation in advance so that you can best understand what maintenance and results may look like for you.

We highly recommend the Everlasting Colour range by Kevin Murphy, regular colour lock treatments, zero heat styling days and frequent glosses to keep your fiery locks looking their best all year round. For those ready to take the plunge and invest in their look, why not try copper!