Color your life :-)

Color: By Chiala Marvici



There are some things that we generally know about color and it has been around as long as we can remember. Color has always been fascinating to me, not just it’s beautiful hues and extensive spectrum, but the affect it can have on us physically, emotionally and its place in social stigmas.

 Color can raise our heart rates and our body temperature, which is the very reason why we stop at red lights and stop signs. Red is a perfect example of the physical affect color has on us. It can increase our pulse, heart rate and increase our blood pressure. Red increases our appetite by increasing our metabolism, which is why red is a common color in restaurants. As well, it can also have a calming affect. Next time you visit a local hospital notice the color pallet they choose for the interior and the fabrics. The colors found in hospitals and mental treatment facilities are usually soft pastel colors such as, greens, purples, blues and pinks. This is important in places where it is necessary to keep people calm. Science has proven that cool colors such as, blues, greens and purples will lower blood pressure, heart rates and calm the human system overall.

 The social stigmas relevant to color are equally fascinating. As a hair colorist of 17 years, I have seen this first hand. Brunettes have often been viewed as having a stronger, more powerful personality as opposed to blondes or red heads. Time after time women visited my salon feeling down or out of sorts and request a drastic change to their hair color, as if this was the solution to their problems. Well, what I discovered was it was a major factor in how they felt about themselves and how they believed that people in society viewed them. I developed a system that would help me create customized color to create an emotion and literally brighten someone’s day. I studied the psychology of color to have a better understanding of how I could use this in my work. I was able to not only affect the client’s emotion with color, but was also able to manipulate the depth around their face to visually change the shape of their face. This practice came from the basics of painting a room, as explained in an interior design book. For example, if you want to visually change the depth of a room you can paint the room in a variety of ways to make it look larger or smaller. This is one example of the affect color can have on us.

So next time you go out to a restaurant or visit the doctor’s office notice the colors in your environment and become aware of how they make you feel. Do you feel anxious or calm? Use this to create a mood in your own environment. Take the time to look around and feel the many different moods of color.

 Chiala Marvici