Vibrants: Salons Add to Palette and Profitability
By Laurel Nelson, contributing writer with Salon Today
Salons now have a bolder, natural, and vegan option in their color lineup with Full Spectrum Vibrants™ (“Vibrants”), a line of 11 super bold, semi-permanent shades (nine intense colors plus clear and charcoal). Damage-free, this color is 95 percent naturally derived*, conditions, and provides radiant shine, leaving clients’ hair in better shape than ever.
Aveda is the only manufacturer with an entire color line—semi, permanent, and demi—that’s naturally derived, and with Vibrants, it includes trending fashion colors at their boldest.
“We’ve never had a direct dye (semi) in our line of hair color,” Alberto Rossell, Director of Hair Color Sales and Education at Neill, says. “Straight out of the tube—what you see is what you get. If it looks teal in the bowl, that’s how it’s going to look on the hair.”
Applied on pre-lightened hair, Vibrants process for about 20 minutes. Or you can mix and apply at the bowl to process for 10 minutes for a quick color gloss. Or apply it like a highlight—the possibilities are endless.
IT’S VERSATILE AND INTUITIVE TO COLORISTS
Alix Maya, founder of the Unicorn Tribe on Instagram and colorist at Statements the Salon in the Washington, D.C. area, says she was astonished when she first tried Vibrants at Elevate Masters this summer.
“Vibrants gives me the ability to mix paints the way I would on canvas,” she says.
“I was also able to create a pastel that was vibrant, stayed true to tone and adhered to the hair the way I wanted it to.”
John Benedetto, regional hair color manager for The Salon People, says “Vibrants is designed for so much more than fashion shades. Its base allows the color to show on hair that’s not just pre-lightened, like other lines.”
Some favorite applications Aveda and Rossell-Davis recommend include:
Color Drench: An all-over hair color application that can add intensity to already dark hair, or refined pastel shades to blonde guests who want something different.
Color Melt: With this application, you go from dark to light, using Clear or Charcoal, to create a sheer or muted effect on the color.
Undercover Color: With this application, you go from soft to strong, and the placement is focused on the interior of the hair cut.
Color Dip: A flash of color concentrated on the ends of the hair.
Color Frame: A frame of color just where you want it.
Rossell-Davis says the possibilities are endless. He will gloss a client with light brown hair with Tangerine and Daffodil to spice up their shade for a more auburn tone.
“We can now introduce non-color guests to new services with a Shine Treatment or now a Vibrants service,” he says.
“This is where I want to challenge our network of colorists,” he adds. “We have another tool to capture more color guests, and can use it in a brand new, fun way.”
Teresa Holland, the owner of two Terra Bacio Salon Spas in the Huntsville, Alabama area and two DanTera Salon Spas in north Alabama, says they were reluctant to take on Vibrants at first because some of their locations are in rural areas.
But she’s found Vibrants work on a wide range of her clients. “Vibrants take the age factor out of the equation, and everyone can have fun with commitment-free color,” she says.
Terra Bacio stylist Jennifer adds, “I used it on my faded level 4 client, and it’s gorgeous—the right amount of vibrant. Her hair feels great and has amazing shine!”
WHICH CLIENTS SHOULD I USE IT ON?
Rossell-Davis says a semi-permanent line like Vibrants is perfect for guests who’ve never had color because there’s no commitment.
“Maybe these clients are seeking change,” he says. “We can elevate their service by enhancing their natural color without the fear of a lot of maintenance or going outside their budget.”
Benedetto agrees that low-commitment color will appeal to a whole new sector of guests.
“First-time color guests that don’t want the maintenance now can try on color, without commitment to showing new growth as it grows out, because Vibrants will simply fade off the hair within 15 washes,” he says. “It will tap into a whole new guest, who perhaps was just a cutting guest due to the commitment factor. It also means that a guest can have a new shade every 15 washes.”
And for some clients, change is key.
“I just made a platinum blonde a rose/champagne tone with Vibrants, which is beautiful, but she’ll want to go back to her original shade,” Rossell-Davis says. “It’s hard to remove a demi, but a semi lifts right out.”
Karen Pantzis, Aveda hair color Purefessional and owner of Bhava Salon in Trinity, Florida, says with her clientele, that age is no longer a factor when it comes to fashion colors.
“I see all ages wearing varying degrees of fashion color,” she says. “It’s our job to show them how to wear these shades in a conservative or bold way.”
“From bold shades to faded pastels, there are endless options with Vibrants. It can be marketed to virtually every guest. In my experience, when I talk about a new color focus or product launch, the guest gets excited and wants to be a part of it.”
WHAT COLORISTS LOVE ABOUT VIBRANTS
Rossell-Davis has been having fun playing with muted tones in the Vibrants line.
“The Charcoal shade allows me to get muted pinks, smoky greens—toned-down versions of any shade,” he says. “And it gives the hair a more matte, metallic finish.”
He has also been using Vibrants to lowlight his natural redheads. “They hate coloring their hair, but natural gingers fade over time and need some help. I am lowlighting with Tangerine/Daffodil—I call it ‘naturally vibrant.’”
Pantzis is also enjoying customizing Vibrants.
“The customization is amazing, and I love the ease of application,” she says.
“The product glides through the hair, and the amount of shine is incredible.”
“It’s great diluted as a faded pastel overlay – which is very on-trend right now – and I love to use it to add concentrated pops of color/peekaboos on longer hair, especially since it fades on-tone.”
Maya agrees. “You can manipulate Vibrants any which way you want,” she says. “Blue undertone? Gold? Green? You can create exactly what you need instead of pulling something from a line that was created for you.”
With the endless options, and a simple application, Vibrants is a colorist’s dream, unlocking their creativity and the guest’s self-expression.
WHAT’S IN IT (AND WHAT’S NOT)
Vibrants is formulated without synthetic glycols, silicones, phthalates, parabens, mineral oil, oxidative dyes or ammonia and with:
Kukui oil has moisturizing properties leave the hair soft and incredibly shiny
Certified-organic sunflower, jojoba and caster oil improve condition of hair, and add strength from within.
Certified-organic ylang ylang, petigrain and ginger help provide a bright, floral, spicy aroma and pleasant guest experience.
How are you using Vibrants on your guests? Show us your work on Instagram with #avedavibrants
*From plants, non-petroleum minerals or water.
