Root Retouch
Regrowth only, matched to the color already on your lengths. The commonest appointment we run and the one where accuracy matters most, because a root that misses by half a shade shows as a band in daylight.
Color is matched against your skin in daylight at the door, not under salon bulbs. Toner and gloss are inside the quoted price, so the figure you agree at the consultation is the figure you pay at the desk.
Every color service needs a patch test at least forty eight hours beforehand. That includes root retouches and it includes clients who have been coming for years, because sensitivity can develop at any point. It takes about two minutes at the desk and we will move a booking rather than skip it.
Shade Matched In Daylight, Not Under Salon Bulbs
Seven things happen in a color appointment, and every one of them is inside the quoted price. Nothing is added at the desk afterwards.
Color is a chemistry job with a taste problem attached. Both parts have to be right.
Six different jobs that all get called hair color. They carry very different prices, timings and risks, and the consultation decides which one you actually need.
Regrowth only, matched to the color already on your lengths. The commonest appointment we run and the one where accuracy matters most, because a root that misses by half a shade shows as a band in daylight.
Root to tip in a single shade, for a change of depth or a reset after months of build up. Root and lengths are processed separately, because scalp heat makes the root develop faster and applying both at once leaves the ends darker.
Gray hair is coarser and more resistant, so it needs a different formula and a longer development time than the rest of your head. Blended coverage is also an option if you want the gray softened rather than erased.
No lift, no commitment, no regrowth line. A gloss corrects tone that has gone brassy or dull and adds shine that lasts four to six weeks. The cheapest way to make an existing color look new again between full appointments.
Coppers, reds, pastels and full vivids. Most vivid shades need a pre lightening stage first, which means the appointment is longer and sometimes needs a second visit. They also fade faster, and we will tell you honestly how fast before you commit.
Banding, patchiness, box dye build up, a home kit that went wrong, or a shade you did not ask for. Quoted only after a consultation, because nobody can price a correction from a photograph. Frequently a plan across two or three visits rather than one.
Eight stages, in the same order every time, starting two days before you arrive.
A small amount of product behind the ear or inside the elbow, left for forty eight hours. If anything reacts, we know before it is anywhere near your scalp.
Swatches held against your skin at the door. We look at your undertone, your natural depth and the color already sitting on your lengths before choosing anything.
Everything that has been on your hair for two years, including box dye and home toners. Box dye in particular changes what lightener can do, and hiding it is how corrections start.
What is achievable today, what needs a second visit, and what would damage your hair to attempt. The final figure is confirmed here, before anything is mixed.
Sectioned properly, with root and lengths treated separately where they need different timings. Your stylist stays with your development rather than setting a timer and walking away.
Rinsed, treated and toned. This is the stage most often rushed elsewhere, and it is the one that decides whether your color reads expensive or flat.
We look at the result at the door, in the same light we chose the shade in. If the tone is not right, it is corrected now rather than discovered by you tomorrow.
Blow dried, finished, and a short routine for holding the tone. Your next appointment can be booked before you leave if you want the same slot held.
Six things decide whether a color suits you and whether it will still suit you in six weeks. Only one of them is about the shade itself.
Warm, cool or neutral. A cool ash on warm skin can read gray and drain the face, while a warm copper on cool skin can look like it belongs to someone else entirely.
Existing color does not simply disappear under new color. Box dye, henna and old lightening all sit in the hair and change what today's formula can achieve.
Ten percent gray and sixty percent gray need different formulas and different development times. Gray is also coarser, so it resists color and needs longer to take.
A shade several levels from your natural depth means a visible line within four weeks. If you can only come every three months, we should be choosing something closer to your base.
Porous or previously over processed hair grabs color unevenly and lets it go faster. Sometimes the right first appointment is a treatment, not a color, and we will say so.
Reference images are lit, filtered and usually on a different starting depth. We translate the picture into what your hair can hold and tell you which parts are not available today.
Often Booked Together
What you get here that a rushed color appointment cannot deliver at any price.
Toner, gloss and bond care sit inside the quoted price. The bill at the desk matches the figure you agreed before anything was mixed.
Shades chosen at the door in natural light and checked there again at the end, so what you see in the mirror is what you will see in the street.
Scalp heat makes roots develop faster. Processing both together is why so many full head colors come out darker at the ends than they should be.
Every service, every client, every time. Sensitivity can develop after years of trouble free coloring, which is exactly why regulars are not exempt.
If your goal takes two or three appointments, you are told before you book, not after the first session has already lifted your hair unevenly.
Your colorist stays with your timing rather than starting a second client. Development is watched, not guessed from a timer across the room.
Six things clients describe about their last color appointment before they describe their hair. None of this is unique to any one salon, it is how a great deal of the industry runs.
A color quoted at one figure, then toner, gloss or bond protector appearing as separate lines on the bill. The final total lands twenty or thirty percent above what was agreed.
Here InsteadToner, gloss and bond care are inside the quoted price for every color service, without exception.Swatches held up under warm interior bulbs that flatter everything. The shade looks perfect in the chair and reads brassy or gray the moment you step outside.
Here InsteadShade matched at the door in daylight, and checked in the same light before you leave.Color applied with no test because the client is in a hurry or the salon is running behind. Reactions to PPD are uncommon, but they can be severe and they are entirely avoidable.
Here InsteadForty eight hours ahead, every service, every client, including people we have colored for years.Nobody asks about box dye, henna or previous lightening. Lightener then reacts with what is already there and the result is banding, orange patches or breakage.
Here InsteadA full two year color history at the consultation, and a strand test whenever the answer is unclear.Product applied, timer set, colorist moves to another client. Development is not linear across a whole head, and the difference between correct and over processed is often five minutes.
Here InsteadYour colorist stays with your development and checks it by eye, not by clock alone.A client shows a platinum image, gets booked for one session on a box dyed base, and leaves orange. The honest conversation was avoided because it might have lost the booking.
Here InsteadYou are told at enquiry how many sessions your goal actually needs, even when the answer is inconvenient.Better to know all of this now than at the door.
The patch test rule means a first color cannot happen on the day you enquire. Allow at least three days between getting in touch and the appointment itself.
Roots show at four to eight weeks depending on how far the shade sits from your natural depth. Coloring is a schedule you are joining, not a one off purchase.
Going several levels lighter from a dark or previously dyed base is a plan across two or three visits. Attempting it in one is how hair breaks.
Included toner, longer slots and one colorist per client cost more than a rushed appointment. If price is the only factor, we are honestly not your best option.
Starting prices with toner, gloss and bond care included. Very long or very dense hair sometimes needs extra product, which is quoted at the consultation before anything is mixed.
| Service | From | Time | Rebook At |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss And Toner Refresh | $55 | 45 minutes | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Root Retouch | $95 | 90 minutes | 6 to 8 weeks |
| Full Head Color | $120 | 2 to 3 hours | 8 weeks |
| Gray Coverage With Gloss | $130 | 2 hours | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Fashion And Vivid Shades | $165 | 3 hours plus | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Color Correction | $200 | Quoted after consultation | As planned |
| Patch Test | Free | 2 minutes | 48 hours before |
Five habits that decide whether your color holds for six weeks or twelve. The first two matter more than any product on any shelf.
The cuticle stays slightly open after coloring. Washing too soon lets a noticeable amount of tone straight back out before it has settled.
Sulphate shampoos strip color faster than anything else you do. Switching is the single highest impact change most people can make.
Hot water opens the cuticle and lets pigment out. Cooler rinses and one fewer wash a week will visibly extend your color.
UV oxidises color and chlorine turns blondes green. Rinse before swimming so the hair absorbs clean water first, and cover up in strong sun.
A gloss refresh costs a fraction of a full color and resets the tone completely. It is the cheapest way to stretch the gap between full appointments.
Heat tools fade color as well as damaging the hair. Colored hair is already chemically processed, so it has less margin than virgin hair does.
You can request a colorist by name when you book. If they are unavailable on your date we will tell you rather than quietly reassign you to someone else.
Erin leads everything involving color and lightener. Gray coverage, tonal work, vivids and the corrections that come in after a home kit has gone wrong. She would rather book you two appointments spaced apart than damage your hair trying to do it all in one, and she will say so at the consultation rather than halfway through.
Tia founded Erothots seven years ago and is fully qualified and insured. She does not take color appointments herself, but she sets the rules the color team works to: patch tests without exception, toner inside the price, and colorists who will tell a client honestly when a goal needs more than one visit. If something is not right, she wants to hear it directly.
Six other hair services, most of which can be booked in the same appointment as your color where the timing allows.
Hand painted lightening with a soft regrowth line, built to stretch four to five months between visits.
See BalayagePrecision cutting with a dry consultation, a dry check before you leave, and free fringe trims after.
See Women's HaircutDeep conditioning and scalp work, worth booking before a color rather than after it.
See Hair SpaWash and finish for an event or a reset between colors, with a walkthrough if you want to repeat it.
See Blow DrySmoothing for frizz and drying time, with a strand test first and formaldehyde free options as standard.
See KeratinTrial and wedding day styling, with color timed to settle in the weeks before rather than the night before.
See Bridal HairA gloss or toner refresh starts at $55, a root retouch at $95, full head color at $120, gray coverage at $130 and vivid shades at $165. Color corrections start at $200 and are quoted only after a consultation. Toner, gloss and bond care are included in all of those figures.
Because sensitivity can develop at any point, including after years of trouble free coloring. A reaction to PPD is uncommon but it can be severe, and the test takes about two minutes. We will move an appointment rather than proceed without one, including for clients we have colored for years.
Forty five minutes for a gloss, ninety minutes for a root retouch, two to three hours for a full head or gray coverage, and three hours or more for vivid shades that need pre lightening. Corrections are quoted individually.
Every six to eight weeks for most shades, and every four to six weeks for gray coverage or where the color sits several levels from your natural depth. The further from your base, the sooner the line shows.
Usually yes for going darker or matching depth, and it becomes much more complicated for going lighter. Box dye deposits more pigment than salon color and builds up unevenly over the lengths. Tell us honestly at the consultation and we will strand test rather than guess.
Many people continue to color during pregnancy, and many prefer to wait through the first trimester or choose a gloss with no scalp contact instead. This is a decision for you and your doctor rather than for us. Tell us at booking and we will work with whatever you have decided.
Warm pigment sits underneath the color and surfaces as the cool tones wash out, and sulphate shampoos, hot water, sun and hard water all speed that up. A gloss refresh at around week five resets the tone for far less than a full color.
Yes, and it is usually quicker and cheaper than two separate visits. The cut is always done after the color so the ends are shaped once they are final. Ask when you enquire and we will book the right length of slot.
Seventy two hours. The cuticle stays slightly open after coloring, and washing sooner lets a noticeable amount of tone out before it has settled. This one habit does more for color longevity than any product.
It is the work of removing or evening out color that is already there before any new color can go on, and it can take twice as long as a normal appointment. It cannot be quoted from a photograph, so it always starts with a consultation, and it is often planned across two or three visits.
Depositing color at or below your natural depth causes very little change to the hair. Lifting lighter opens the cuticle and does carry a cost, which is why bond care is included and why we refuse to lift too far in a single session.
Say so before you leave, or call within seven days. Tonal adjustments inside that window are made at no charge. We would far rather fix it than have you living with a shade you are unhappy with for the next two months.
Tell us the shade you are after, everything that has been on your hair for the last two years, and any date you are working towards. We will book your patch test at the same time so nothing holds up the appointment.
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