Before colour charts became the standard

At the beginning of the 20th century, a young French chemist, Eugène Schueller, played a major role in the development of hair colouring. He created the first safe synthetic hair dye. The preparation he developed became the foundation of a company that later took the name L’Oréal. At that time, hair colouring was already desired by many women, but the earlier methods often produced short-lasting or unpredictable results and contained harmful ingredients.

As professional colouring developed, companies began to emerge that would permanently shape the history of hairdressing. As early as the first half of the 20th century, brands such as Clairol, Roux, Revlon, and Inecto were already operating. In the 1940s, the brand Zotos also joined them.

However, the growing popularity of colouring created a new problem: how to show the client the result before the dye was applied to the hair? The greater the number of available shades and possible outcomes, the more necessary a tool became that could visually present the colouring effect. It was at this time that the first, still very simple, prototypes of colour charts began to appear in hair salons.

The beginnings of visual shade presentation

Archival catalogues and salon manuals from the 1950s and 1960s show that there was no single standard for presenting colour. Various solutions were in use: simple two-page cards with manually attached hair samples, or accordion-style catalogues with graphically applied colours on the same model. In museum and archival collections — including those transferred to the Smithsonian Institution — examples have been preserved in which hair samples were mechanically attached, often using metal studs or pins. These were clearly craft-based solutions, handmade and created without today’s understanding of standardisation.

Hairdresser education and the role of colouring

In the mid-20th century, dye manufacturers placed increasing emphasis on salon education. A good example is the history of the Clairol brand, which actively trained hairdressers in new colouring techniques during the 1930s and 1940s. Colour charts, manuals, and visual materials became a communication tool between the manufacturer and the salon.

At the same time, colour palettes began to expand significantly. In addition to natural blondes and browns, blue shades, pastel pinks, cool tones, and experimental colours appeared — previously rarely encountered. Hair colouring became a manifestation of trends and colour boldness.

Experiments with form and sample structure

In the following decades (especially from the 1970s and 1980s), experimentation became bolder: with hair form (locks, strands, non-standard and wavy shapes) and with methods of attaching samples. Metal pins and studs gradually gave way to glued solutions. This became easier thanks to the development of so-called “sealed” hair sample ends — even, finished strand edges obtained, among other methods, by heat sealing or dipping in adhesive-like compounds. As a result, hair could be stably mounted in charts from the reverse side, without interfering with the printed surface.

From passion to technology – the beginnings of Marc Kolor

At the end of the 1980s, a group of friends passionate about printing and technology began systematically working on the form of colour charts, as well as on the creation and colouring of the hair samples themselves. These were the beginnings of Marc Kolor, which was officially registered in 1995. We will present the further history of the development of technologies, materials, and forms of colour charts in future blog posts.