Dominik Rafa has recently joined the Crown Hair team as Senior Colourist, and we are so excited to have him on board! Having worked at renowned London salon Hari’s for his colour streaked career, Dominik joins the Crown Hair team with nearly a decade of colour experience under his belt.
Why did you choose hairdressing?
Since I was young, I was always interested in doing hair and makeup, and when I moved to London, my ex-partner was a hairdresser. I became more interested in what he was doing, so I started to look for a salon to assist in.
That’s how I ended up at Hari’s. When I was a kid, I was always doing my mum’s hair, my sister’s hair. I was interested in hair and beauty from a young age!
Why did you choose to pursue colour over cutting?
I find colour more interesting and more creative. You work with numbers more, and it’s always interesting. There are always new clients and they all have different hair – you never get bored. I don’t see myself getting bored with colour. It’s my passion.
Tell us more about your career in colour.
When I was in London at Hari’s, I trained with Rebecca Frost. She has about 30 years experience and was one of the first staff members at Hari’s. She has her own way of doing foiling and her years of experience meant she knew what would work best for the clients. Then I moved to another branch of Hari’s once I qualified, and then I worked with Melanie Smith.
From her, I learned about different angles of colouring. She taught us how to look at hair from a different perspective. My boss at the time was friends with Aubrey Loots, who is a hairdresser from LA. He does all the Fashion Weeks. I trained with him in LA also, which was great.
He taught me about freehand balayage and something called ‘LA Lights’. This is where you put the bleach on wet hair and balayage the highlights on wet hair. Water breaks bleach, so the effect is much softer. To me, this is a great look on shorter hair – it’s much quicker and softer in effect than foils for that hair length.
He also taught me about face framing, or contouring, which has recently become very popular.
Where do you take inspiration from?
I would say master colourists such as Josh Wood, who is a global ambassador for Wella. His work is very creative. I also share tips and tricks with other hair colourist friends in the industry, and I think it’s important to stay ahead of the game. For example, silver or ash hair is huge at the moment.
Why do you like to work with Crown Hair?
Kathy has a great knowledge of colour, and I like being able to talk to her about different products and techniques. There’s a family atmosphere here at the salon, which I like. Everyone takes care of each other!