PCA Horror Story
Helena books a Personal Colour Analysis (PCA) with her hairdresser. The hairdresser looks at her and says “you have blue eyes, you must be a Summer”. Then the hairdresser tests a couple of drapes and after 10 minutes concludes “Yes, you are a Cool/True Summer, Helena”. Helena has no idea how in such a short period of time the conclusion has been reached. She didn’t know what to look for in the mirror and before she could get her head around what she sees, the PCA was over… Cool/True Summer - the colour palette looks nice but Helena has doubts. Do the muted cool tones actually flatter her eyes, complexion and natural hair colour? She goes home with her colour palette, confused and full of doubt. Is she really a Cool/True Summer? How about the warm pigments in her hair?
At home Helena reads about daylight being crucial during the colour analysis. Then she realises that she was analysed under the hair-salon’s artificial lighting. She also reads that any Colour Type can have any eye colour, i.e. blue eyes do not automatically mean that the client is one of the Summer Colour Types. Helena is afraid that the PCA was too rushed as well as biased. Helena is certain the hairdresser made a mistake. Helena has no idea what her Colour Type is, yet, she is certain she is not a Cool/True Summer.
There are two worst case scenarios when it comes to Personal Colour Analysis:
1) The client doesn't understand how the colour analyst determined her Colour Type to the extent that the client is unsure whether the assigned Colour Type is her best Colour Type. Even if the PCA process was 100% correct, simply because the client didn’t understand it, she is confused and full of doubt.
2) The client believes the colour analyst made a mistake. The client believes that:
the whole draping process was too rushed;
the light conditions were not optimal;
the analyst was biased because:
she seemed to want to confirm her guess rather than find the colour dimensions of client’s face from scratch (e.g. “The client looks like Light Spring, she must be Light Spring, let me confirm she is a Light Spring.”);
she had a strong personal preference for cool colours or bright colours or muted colours, which might have thrown the draping process out of balance.
As a result, the client believes her Colour Type is different from the assigned Colour Type.
At Style Identity, the PCA process is very carefully thought through, so that the client sees and understands the decision making process. All Style Identity clients know how their Colour Type has been determined and why it is the optimal Colour Type for their complexion, hair, eyes, lips etc. They see everything with their own eyes, they are an active participant in the draping process and they have zero doubt once the conclusion has been reached.
When a client decides to go for a PCA, he invests his time, money but also his trust. He trusts that his natural colouring, his beauty will be treated with the utmost precision and care. The client does feel slightly vulnerable. And perhaps even sceptical. Therefore, the PCA process has to be very careful, very precise and very transparent and easy to follow. It has to be bullet proof* when it comes to results. That is why I double-check my results. Once the colour type has been determined using the 100+ professional drapes, I double-check the whole process using a different set of professional drapes. The client sees it. The client is convinced. The client knows. The client has no doubt. There is peace, joy and reassurance.
Note: *Because there is a human factor involved (i.e. me, the analyst), no process can be 100% bullet proof. Therefore, Style Identity will re-drape any client for free, should he have any doubts about the quality and precision of the draping process.
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