Last updated September 2026
Colour is the appointment people book with the least information. A cut is an hour and you roughly know what you are getting. Colour can be one hour or five, needs preparation days beforehand, often needs a deposit, and the result depends heavily on what is already on your hair. Here is what to sort out before you sit down.
★View the Best Hairdressers in Nelson→Book the skin test before you book the colour
This is the one that has to happen first, and it is the one most people do not know about.
A skin test, or patch test, checks whether you react to the product before it goes anywhere near your scalp. Reactions to hair colour are uncommon but they can be serious, and they can appear in someone who has coloured their hair for years without trouble. A previous good experience is not a guarantee.
Salons handle this differently, and some will ask you to sign a disclaimer if you decline. That is a reasonable position rather than a bureaucratic one: they are documenting that the risk moved to you.
One thing worth knowing, because it surprises people: there is no skin test for sensitivity to lightener on the scalp. A patch test covers the colour, not that. If you are having a scalp bleach, say so and talk it through.
Work out what is already on your hair
Colour does not land on a blank canvas, it lands on whatever is already there, and the history matters more than the photo you have saved.
Box dye is the big one. Home colour often contains metallic salts, and it builds up over repeated applications in a way salon colour does not. That affects how the hair takes lightener and how predictable the result is. Henna is worse again for the same reason.
Be straight about what has been used and roughly when. Nobody is judging. It changes what is possible in one appointment, and a stylist who knows will plan around it rather than discover it halfway through.
Understand why it takes as long as it does
Time is the thing that catches people out, and it is not padding.
Lightener has to be watched while it works, because it keeps going until it is stopped. Foils are applied one section at a time. Going significantly lighter often takes more than one session, and a stylist who tells you that up front is protecting your hair rather than upselling you.
This is why longer colour work usually needs a deposit, and why the deposit tends to scale with the length of the appointment. A salon that has held four hours for you cannot fill that at short notice. The deposit normally comes off the price of the service, and it is usually refundable if you give enough notice. Check the salon’s policy when you book rather than on the day.
Cancellation windows are shorter than you think
Twenty-four hours is the common standard, and the fee for cancelling inside it is often a percentage of the service rather than a token amount.
It reads as harsh until you look at it from the other side. An empty four-hour slot on a Saturday is not recoverable, and the stylist is paid for the hours they work. If something comes up, ringing early costs you nothing and ringing late costs real money.
Bring photos, and bring more than one
A single photo tends to communicate less than people expect, because it captures one lighting condition, one hair type and one camera.
Bring two or three of what you want, and bring one of something you do not want. The second set is often more useful, because “not this” narrows the target faster than “something like this”.
Then listen to what you are told about how close it is achievable in one sitting on your hair. That conversation is the appointment working properly.
What Nelson does to coloured hair
Local conditions genuinely shorten how long colour lasts here.
Sun is the main one. UV fades colour, and reds and coppers go first because those molecules are the largest and break down fastest. A Nelson summer spent outdoors will pull the life out of a colour faster than the same colour would fade in a darker part of the country.
Then there is the water. Saltwater at Tāhunanui and chlorine in a pool both strip colour, and chlorine in particular can shift blondes towards green through a reaction with copper in the water rather than the chlorine itself. Rinsing your hair with fresh water before you get in helps, because hair that is already saturated absorbs less of what it is sitting in.
Practical version: wear a hat, rinse before and after swimming, and expect to want a toner between full colour appointments through summer rather than only at regrowth.
Aftercare decides how long it lasts
Most of the fade happens at home, not in the salon.
Wait a couple of days before the first wash. Wash in cooler water than feels natural, because heat opens the cuticle and lets colour out. Use something made for coloured hair rather than a clarifying shampoo, which is designed to strip, and ask what your stylist actually recommends for what has just been done. Most salons carry the products they use so you are not guessing in a supermarket aisle. Heat tools do the same damage as hot water, so use a protectant if you use them.
None of this is complicated, and it is the difference between colour that holds and colour that looks tired in a month.
Where Capelli Hair fits
Capelli Hair is at 99a Grove Street in The Wood, about a ten minute walk from central Nelson, and covers women’s, men’s and children’s hair as well as colour work and wedding hair. They open late on a Thursday, which is the practical option if a longer appointment does not fit around a working day.
On the points above, their policies line up with the article for a reason: they ask for a skin test before colour and will have you sign a waiver if you would rather not have one, they take a deposit on colour work running past three hours which comes off the service and is refundable outside 24 hours, and they run a 24-hour cancellation window. Wedding bookings carry a non-refundable deposit, which is standard for a date being held months out.
They also offer QiQi smoothing treatments, which are formaldehyde-free, and which are aimed at frizz and drying time rather than colour, so they sit alongside the above rather than replacing any of it.
Whoever you book with, the skin test and the honest conversation about what is already on your hair are the two things worth doing first. Ring the salon and start there.
