THE MONEY PIECE! A HISTORY & HOW-TO!
Money Piece; meant to accentuate not obliterate!
Ahhh! The money piece. The nickname for the bold face framing accent literally translates into money. We’ve all seen them executed well, and unfortunately witnessed some Kelly Clarkson circa 2003 versions. Let me share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in creating the perfect money piece!
First, let’s talk about WHAT a money piece should be! It should be a bold accent of color, usually the brightest color in the hair palette. It should do more than just frame the face. Done correctly, it is a way that colorists can balance width, accentuate facial features, and contour the neck and shoulders. The money piece should be cohesive with the rest of the hair color and should melt from root to end creating a beautiful visual focal point. This doesn't end with just the front layer. The money piece should flow from the top of the front hairline, all the way down to the longest perimeter in the back. I feel like that one is worth repeating; the money piece should start at the top and end at the very bottom.
Boldness framing the face that travels down around the ear and throughout the perimeter!
WHY is a bold money piece so popular? Let’s chat. If we sit down and review the last 10 years of hair color trends you can see that it's a pendulum, swinging from extreme to extremes. In 2010 Drew Barrymore stepped out of the salon with a level 5 root and level 10 ends. This was one of the first high contrast ombre hair colors that received the most attention. Back then, the technique to achieve this look relied strongly on teasing and bleach almost all of the ends. This was also at the start of Instagram.
The 2010 Ombre!
Stylists started documenting all of the alternative ways to get the ends of a color to look as bleached out as possible. Queue the era of the paint brush balayage application. All of a sudden every trending stylist was lobbing bleach with an actual paint brush onto every piece of hair on the head. The result was a warm high contrast ombre. This trend lasted about two years, which in my opinion was more than long enough. Haha. As 2013 came, so did the beachy, melted hair color. With this, they started to have super melted hair color with a soft dimension throughout.
The melt!
This sparked the need for stylists to actually learn how to balayage the French way. Small and deliberate sweeping bleach to create a soft highlighted effect. The thing about this classic technique is that it takes time, and a lot of time, to master and the trends show it. For the next four years, the hair trends showed a hybrid of intense ombre and “lived in” hair color. It wasn’t until around 2017 that stylists started to realize that the time it takes, and more importantly the battle of copper, with balayage wasn’t the most effective application for their hair color. By 2017 the current methods for effortless and softly rooted hair color was born. Celebrities and reality stars like JoJo Fletcher, Kristin Cavallari and Gigi Hadid were wearing the signature California and beachy dimensional hair color.
JoJo Fletcher with one of the most shown inspiration looks for balayage clients in 2017!
Their stylists, mostly based in Southern California, paved the way for the balayage foil methods that have swept the nation. Over the past 5 years, the art of using multiple medias and tools has morphed into a “foilyage” or hybrid. Foil allows more control and higher dimension. Add in some teasy lights or tip outs followed by a root gloss separate from the end gloss and BOOM. Welcome to the current world of hair color! High contrast, soft root and buttery ends accentuated with a bold money piece.
Kim Kardashian with a popular hair color inspiration in 2019!
Now, we all know that most clients sit down and show multiple celebrity inspiration photos with extreme money pieces. Sometimes the inspirations for color are shown on wigs or hairpieces or with extensions. As much and we want to fulfill each request to the max, it’s also important to learn restraint and WHEN to apply a bold face framing color. Let’s discuss the things I like to take into consideration with determining the strength of the money piece.
Hair Style: All hair color should be slightly brighter around the face, but determining the strength of that brightness is dependent on the overall hair style. Things to take into account when choosing frame’s boldness:
Length of hair around face and nape of neck. Ask yourself, does the hair hit the perimeter or do I need to incorporate more hair in order to have the money piece reach the longest length?
Time spent in a ponytail: Nobody wants the stripe of the money piece looking like a chunk of blonde when they pull their hair back. Melting the root slightly and making sure you are framing the entire face will help with softening the effect when pulled back. This to take into account:
How often will the hair be worn in a pony? More time pulled back means a softer root color at the base of the money piece.
Does the client want to feel blonde or brunette when the hair is pulled back? Softening the root can help with the blend, but be careful to not remove all of the brightness if the client wants to feel bright around the hairline.
Maintenance: Creating an effortless and lived in coloring with your foiling and formulations can easily be offset if the money piece is too strong at the root base. Keep in mind:
How often does the client want to get their color done? This will termine how much softening/tapping of the money piece will need to be done. I always like to remind myself that most glosses wear off within 15-25 shampoos. The toned hair that is revealed as the gloss wears is also important to keep in mind considering most of my clients I see every 12 weeks or 40 shampoos.
Face Shape: Can everyone have a money piece? Sure! Can everyone have the same money piece? Absolutely not! It is extremely important to remember that customizing hair color for each client should be the first deciding factor when choosing the strength of the money piece. Remember:
Brightness adds width. Boldness around an oblong face shape can balance the height by adding visual width. However, adding too much boldness around a round face shape can emphasize width and throw off the visual balance.
Depth contours or shrinks width. Deciding how much depth should be right behind your money piece is super important. This color shadow can be used to contour the face and cheeks in the front, and neck and shoulders in the back!
Integrity: The tough conversation… We all have the clients that come in that have been highlighted for years, used ample heat tools on their hair and pull their hair back so tight that it screams causing the hairline hair to become fragile and ultimately snap. This leaves a brittle and broken hairline to work with when it comes to adding the money piece. Some important things to take into account:
Here is a good reference for identifying the face shape you are workin with! Save it to your photos and use it in your consultations!
You are not doing anyone a favor by over lightning the hairline hair if it’s already in a fragile state. Sometimes the answer is “no”. And that’s important to feel comfortable saying! Because if you are the stylist that attempts to give them a money piece further exacerbating the breakage around their hairline, trust me, they will try other stylists and blame you for the breakage and will finally find a stylist that will tell them NO.
Remember, 30 shampoos. Once the client has shampooed for the first two months, the true money piece minus the tap and gloss is revealed. Nothing looks worse than someone having a white chunk of over lightened hairline hair that looks brittle or like cotton candy.
Olaplex or Bond Builders! It is so important to be able to fully talk through and explain the benefits of using bond builders in your lightener to your clients. Done incorrectly and your client will feel the conversation is about trying to upsell them or charge them more. Done correctly, and the client will feel that you are looking our for their hair’s best interest and that you’re carelly thinking through the best and safest plan of action for achieving their hair dreams!
Here are two of the most important rules I have learned for WHERE the money piece should live.
The face framing money piece should start below the bang ridge and from ear to ear. Money pieces that start too far back or too far forward fail to have the dimension around them to make them really pop!
The money piece doesn’t stop in the face frame. So important! The money piece should connect to the hair that reaches the perimeter. This means that you have to continue the application around the ear, down the neck and to the nape. This creates a harmonious bold color on the tips of the hair ALL THE WAY AROUND, meaning that the client can style, wear, and flip their hair any which way with the eye always being drawn to the ends.
Let’s talk money! If you’re unsure how much a money piece accent foil should cost, let me help break it down! A partial foil usually consists of around 30 foils. So, lets say your partial foil service charge was $100. If your money piece application is about 10-15 foils, depending on the hair density, then your service charge would be 40%-50% of your partial foil price. In this example, the service charge would be about $40. In this case, your service charge would be a regular partial foil $100, the money piece $40, plus your glossing service charges!
Remember, if you’re spending the money on education, then the time on the application, your service charges should reflect it!
If you’re struggling to master the money piece, or want to try a new approach, here is HOW I have evolved my application for a bold and melted result!
Here are the tools you’ll need to follow along with the application video:
mannequin head, preferable one without bangs or short angles
lightener, i’m using Wella Blondor with 40 volume
color brush, 1-2 inch firm bristle brush
highlighting comb, my favorite is the Y.S. Park Long Rattail Comb
jaw clips for sectioning large areas
flat clips for sectioning small areas
Go for it!
