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Christel Lundqvist - Killer colour queen

We’ve known of Christel Lundqvist’s talents for many a year – she first caught our eye when she was spreading her gospel of colour as part of the team at HOB Salons. Today she is the Global Technical Director for TIGI, which means having 62 models to colour at one time is pretty much a regular occurrence for Christel. We talk to this mistress of colour about where she’s at now, and what colours are going to be huge over the coming seasons.

Busy bee

Since arriving at TIGI HQ around 18 months ago, Christel Lundqvist’s life has become a bit of a whirlwind, to say the least. As the Global Technical Director, Christel can be found wearing a multitude of hats – when she’s not travelling across the globe…“I’ve been crazy busy planning for World Release, in Dallas, then we’re touring Scandinavia, Russia and Italy,” says the eternally blonde Swedish colour expert.

Add to that product innovation and of course, education, and you can imagine what life is like at one of the top colour companies. Christel says one of the favourite parts of her job is getting to develop new colours:

“Being part of Unilever means we have access to the most amazing resources. We’ll spend time brainstorming over trends in colour and styling, accessing what the hairdresser needs, then feed those ideas to the colour development team, who then pass it on to the chemists in the lab. They put our ideas and thoughts into action, and it comes back to me for testing and signing off.”

The Trends

Analysing the trends for this season, and the next (and the next) Christel and the TIGI team are always looking ahead. Here she breaks down the big trends for Autumn/Winter – think of them as TIGI’s ‘tribes’.

Punk

Think of this as a sophisticated, urban take on punk. What that translates to is indigo black, blue, turquoise and teal. Alongside those blue black tones we’ll see deep brown – borderline black – as people start to use their hair as an accessory to their look.

Haute Couture

Victoria Beckham is a great example of this look – it’s one for your highlighting clients, often blonde. It’s expensive hair.

Pastels

Instead of being delicate, like last season, pastels will be saturated and vibrant. We saw these tones on the catwalk in a lot of the more sporty shows. It’s kinds of a sporty look combined with technology and is also influenced by the graphic aesthetic of Japanese culture.

Eco Fashion

Very natural, this look is all about tone on tone colour, seamless colour – a sunkissed feel. Lots of nude tones and highly influenced by the Scandinavian minimal, clean style.

Street Tribe

This is about individual statement colour – a consumer-friendly version of what’s on the catwalk.

The Techniques

“Look out for reverse ombré – we call it Novella. There’s still a darker root, but the lighter tone kicks in around the eyebrows instead of towards the ends. Ombré has been around for so long – longer than people realise – but you’ll see consumers get into the new version in about a year or so. I’m also loving working with double processing – where the hair is pre-lightened and then you play with toners to achieve a range of looks. I love TIGI’s Fashionista Shampoo – it’s violet and a great way to play with colour.”

What it takes to succeed

“Dedication, hard work – education is key,” says Christel. “If you want to be the best you need to give yourself the best platform – and that doesn’t have to mean it’s going to cost you a lot of money. The internet offers a whole world of information, and there are always half day courses – if you want it, it’s out there.”

Get Inspired

Want to know where Christel finds her inspiration?

pantone.co.uk - find out about the latest, hottest colours and why they’re hot.
style.com - we LOVE this catwalk hair and beauty online magazine!
fashiontrendsetter.com - an online trend forecasting and news portal.

First published in the Capital Hair & Beauty magazine.