Have you ever worked on a red head, and they have complained about micropigmentation or microblading treatments being painful? Or have you struggled to decide what pigment would be most suited to a redhead?

In this article, we will discuss treatments on red heads and understand how to  achieve the best results, how to achieve effective pain relief, how to choose the correct pigment tones to use and much more….

Pain threshold

Red is the rarest hair colour with less than 2% of the world’s population carrying genes that cause this fabulous hair tone. The country with the highest percentage of redheads is Scotland with 13%. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/hair-color-by-country

Research suggests that the genes that create redheads also lead to this small minority to experience pain differently, redheads may have suffered in the past from issues such as dreading the dentist due to not receiving the correct amount of anaesthesia. This is a great question to ask a red head during the consultation process to assess their pain tolerance.

Research has shown they could require longer application times of lidocaine based topical anaesthetics! When working on eyebrows or lips, the client should self-administer their topical anaesthetic to ensure a pain free semi-permanent make up treatment or microblading treatment.

On the contrary, red heads may be less sensitive to skin sensations such as needle penetration and stinging sensations to the skin.

So, what is the best way to proceed with your treatment? How can you tell how much pain relief is needed? Listen to your client during the consultation. These are two simple questions you can ask your red head client during a consultation:

• Ask them how they find sensation in the skin? A good tell-tale sign is to ask if they notice heat change, redheads can be more susceptible to hot and cold changes in temperature.
• Ask how they are receptive to pain? This will ensure you have a better understanding of the living organism you are about to work on. Remember you are working on just that, a living organism and no individual comes with an instruction manual!

Pigment choices

Let’s start by thinking about the skin tone we are working on; most red heads tend to have a cool undertone however this is not set in stone.

Look for signs of cool undertones – these being more pink fleshy tones around the eyes and the nose.

Neutral and yellow based red hairs may not be called a true red, they may have more neutral skin tones or less pink tones in the skin.

 Amy Adams and Isla Fisher neutral tones

True red heads have blue or grey eyes, pink tones around the eyes and nose with lovely red hair! They will have a translucent skin tone and pale due to the lack of melanin produced by the myelocyte cells. Due to this, you should always advise aftercare with high SPF.  

True red heads Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman

Choosing a pigment tone that suits this skin type can seem difficult, should the eyebrows be brown with a cool undertone or warm undertone.

The best way to choose your pigment tone is to swatch your pigments on the client’s make up free forehead, dabbing pigment to assess how they look against the skin tone.  If your technique is correct, then a pigment that has some warmth to it will work well once placed into the potentially cool undertone of the client’s skin.  This should leave you with a soft slight warm brown that will cool over a period of time as the treatment ages and fades.

Finishing Touches Group (FTG) True Brows range has a perfect pigment tone for redheads called Truly Auburn, a warm brown perfect for redheads with a cool skin undertone.

Truly Auburn on red head client

However, you can warm any pigment in the True Rrows range with either Corrective Amber or Corrective Orange just by adding 1-2 drops into your pigment mix up. Simple and easy, long lasting organic pigments.

When working with eyeliner on redheads, depending on the digital device you are using always work with a soft stroke, this will ensure you do not create too much trauma to the sensitive area and delicate thin skin, the Vogue machine will ensure a perfect application of eyeliner.

Should you choose a deeper tone to work with, you could add 1 drop of Corrective Orange to prevent the cool tones around the eyes changing the pigment tone to appear blueish in hue once healed.

So, whether it be strawberry blondes, medium red hair or auburn hair, you should be able to confidently work on red heads as long as you understand your client’s pain tolerance and know and swatch your pigments. You can get the best results by using our organic pigment range.

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