Happy Halloween

Dark Chocolate Hair Color

Now imagine a client (guest) coming to see you wanting to go from a level 7 (light brown) hair color to a chocolate brown and brings you a box of very expensive chocolates and tells you that this is the exact color she desires, Brilliant! I always say without visuals with your consultation you’re in trouble and to me this means no hair swatches. So my client Linda who has been seeing me for the last let’s say 22 years a consumer reporter for a national new paper is wanting to go chocolate brown, I love this and agree it would look great on her complimenting her skin tone and  beautiful blue eyes, however I still have to go over a few things such as, in almost all brown hair color there is a tone of somewhat warmth (Red) if there wasn’t then you might as well go black. The box of dark chocolates she brought were matte in other words no shine a little different in hair color as we all know and battle the no “red” clients but still want shine, the minute the natural hair is altered with any hair color even for 5 minutes the molecule opens up and delivers a shine, light  technically called red NRP natural remaining pigment. This is an important bit of information for clients to know on what will occur instead of the end result being different then the desired one. In food most chocolate we refer to is either dark or milk with 1000’s of variations, also there’s shinny chocolate or matte the shiny ones appear warmer the matte (flat) appear cooler, the point is no matter what are own personal ideas are on certain universal colors it’s what Linda’s are which are shiny dark chocolate almonds and by explaining to her that there will be some warmth and that food color is different than hair color we can achieve 98% exact  color, so whatever the visual maybe a picture or a box of chocolates there is in hair more shine there for more warmth.  At the end of the day Linda got her beautiful dark chocolate brown hair color and I got to enjoy the yummy chocolate, thank you Linda for inspiring me to write this post.     

Extra Touch #1

   Hand Treatment    

 I am constantly working on creating new services in the Studio not only in hair color but for a ‘Client Experience’ so for every individual that sits in the chair they will receive extra touches and hopefully excellent service. These days an added touch to a service is important why? consumers want more for their buck so to speak and the competition is also doing added value services which means clients have choices. So lets just say I have upgraded an Aveda hand massage to a Hand Treatment and so far my clients (guests) are loving this one.


While the hair color is being processed we offer a hand treatment , first scrubbing in warm hot with a touch of Aveda’s Caribbean Therapy Body Scrub then wrapped in a warm towel followed by a smoothing massage with Aveda Hand Relief and finally a light mist of Aveda Botanical Kinetics Skin Firming/Toning Agent. Does this sound like a great service you would want getting your hair colored? you might think it may take too long in fact all it takes is 10 minutes or less. So whatever it takes to make the time for a hand treatment make it! Believe me the more you offer the more the word spreads about their experience the busier you will be!!!. recreate your value added services.  

Featured Corner # 1

Having just returned from the west, Calgary/Edmonton teaching and spending time with not only incredible hairdressers but beautiful hearts I find myself inspired to create a Featured Stylist Corner. These individuals to me represent professionals that love the craft of hairdressing, beauty, and fashion and continue to strive hoping to make a difference in our industry and with the people they touch. Seasoned or Newbies we  can all learn from each other and share in making our tribe the best there is.  

I have written many posts in the past regarding Permanent Waves and how shocking it is to me that the majority of hairdressers do not do them. I know or have heard all the reasons why this service is almost absent in most salons or there might be one to two people who actually do them, biggest reason I believe is fear from cosmetology school. This past weekend which ends my season of travel for the year of educating finished with a short visit too one of our concept salons, an in-salon class to inspire and share formulas and a couple of quick foil placements. I had a wonderful time with this group of smart, creative individuals that embraced all I had to share and as always was leaving with a full heart. I very rarely get a chance to linger with everybody after a short class I’m usually rushing to catch a plane so I don’t get a chance to see the staff actually use the tools I just taught them behind their chair, since my flight was later on I could hang around. Not only did I see two stylists doing a placement I taught but as well others trying my formulas, what a feeling! Now to Katrina who has been in the industry 7 years and has been in a few of my academy classes in the past, a true beauty inside and out with a passion for her work and people with a big heart and a great student was doing a perm I was like YEAH! Someone is doing a perm with no fear and doing it just right with all the correct Aveda products to use with a perfect wrap on YES highlighted hair.  I loved it! and in this salon almost all of the stylists do perms, my hats off.

Katrina Boyeechko

Salon Sylvia & Co Aveda Concept Salon, Sherwood Park, Alberta,

Email: Natural Red Head Color Question

I have a client with natural red hair. She is about a level 6 R/O in the back anda level 7/8 O/R on top. She wants heavy highlighted blonde without usingenlightener. A little warmth is ok, but doesn't want to be a redhead anymore asit is not flattering on her. She also has a very tight curl with frizzy ends.Any suggestions?
Christina

Well you sure have a huge task infront of you, the most difficult color to remove in hair is Red particularly anatural redhead and of course the hardest color to keep in the hair

First thing is - Why does she not want you to use Enlightener? In my experience this is the best non-debilitating lightening (bleach) product on the market, I will assume it’s because of her tight curl frizzy ends combo. One very strong suggestion I have before I go into hair color is for you to recommend her to get the New Smooth Infusion Treatment which would do wonders for her type to just losen up the curly a bit and make any color you both choose to do look great. Now for hair color if you are 100% sure you cannot use the enlightener then what I suggest is trying the Crème Booster alone with viscosity and 40 volume, this will give you a golden /strawberry tone but I cannot guarantee it becauseI have seen it work on natural red hair color and I have also seen it do hardly anything.

The best way to handle this is you can add a touch of enlightener to the Crème Booster so 2 parts Crème booster + ¼part enlightener not the other way around with 40 volume in the back and 30volume on the top and front using slicing instead of weaves for your foil work. This truly is the only way, I also feel very strong about hairdressers having the confidence and assertiveness that we need with clients that limit us with the product/tools we need to use to get the job done, why does she need to know that you are going to use a touch of the Enlightener in your Booster formula . The objective is to try and get her from what I understand as light as possible and the bottom line is nothing else will really work so go for it and tell her it’s a blonding cream that lightens hair like a bleach but is much more gentle to the hair.
I do not make it a habit in lying to clients (guests) but a little white one now and again in a situation like this knowing that it will work always gets the job done for a win/win end result.
Good Luck
Let us know the outcome
HCC

Where Are They Now: Carre Otis

Carre Otis began her modeling career at age 16, while hanging out in San Francisco, she was immediately sent to Paris where she began to achieve recognition after appearing on the cover of French Elle in 1986. Over the next several years her career sky rocketed with a Calvin Klein Jean Ad that till this day is considerd one of the most famous campaigns.
Around this time she also made her acting debut alongside Mickey Rourke who later became her husband in the film Wild Orchid, her beauty and sexuality was undeniably  raw and magical.


The constant very public struggles with her relationship to Mickey Rourke and drug abuse became notorious in the gossip magazines and after a tumultuous 6 year marriage ended she found peace and serenity in the practice of Buddhism and began the process of getting herself off substances.
As part of her recovery process Carre began to gain weight "in the fashion worlds standards" but this did not stop her from Modeling she became a plus size model at size 10/12 imagine being considered as a plus size model when the average size is 12/14. Today at 43 Carre Otis has become a spokesperson for substance abuse, and eating disorders something she too faced in the height of her modeling career. She still remains as one of the most beautiful women to have ever graced the fashion pages of our time.
Where is she now? Carre Otis  most recently has written an extraordinary account of her life, struggles and career, a wonderful read which I highly recommend Beauty Disrupted, and is a devoted wife, mother and Buddist who still models from time to time.

Should Coloring Men’s Hair Be Different Then Women’s

Let’s just say that perhaps one fundamental difference between coloring men’s hair and women would be the amount we do. In the 80’s and 90’s I remember doing  just as many foils on the head of a man as I would for a woman, call it the era of Duran Duran hair :) the percentage of my male clientele back then was a lot higher then recent years until now. Today as time has passed I have seen more and more men being concerned over their grey hair and showing interest in 'a little color'. Men want fast and efficient services not to say we take away any added valve services we offer too our female clients or attention, in fact men receive the same and then some. Offering rinses, low-lites and even subtle hi-lites to add body and dimension to their hair and haircuts is the way to go creating customized and quicker techniques, so for all you hairdressers out there start recommending Men's Hair Color.  
Keeping in mind that for most men their main concern is that their hair looks natural. One thing we must remember is to explain to them that it just might be that they need to visit the salon more often just like any female client because their natural hair color as been changed and with that also comes new growth (Roots), so it does matter in which hair coloring approach we take with men, they also hate to be displayed so find the most private corner to color away.

Should we color men's hair differently? Yes and No...

No Idea

Now how can 5 or 6 years pass by and only like a few days ago it occurred to me that I had colored a very young fiery Brazilian beauty that had only been in NYC for the past 6 months. She smoked  cigarettes, was chatty, hung-out with us, and I was going to color her very thick long hair for a step by step collection called Flow for Aveda, and after a long day she did not have enough cash on her to take a taxi home I gave her $20 to get home. I see all my interaction with this model like it was yesterday, turns out to be Camila Alves better known as Matthew McConaughey Baby Mamma for now.

Can I say shocker!!! only because it took me this long, and if it wasn’t for someone asking me what she was like I would probably have never realized it was her. The clincher was this, most of the models that are done for the actual look/techniques are given a name 90% of the time it’s the models real name hence why it was called Camila.

All I can say is she was a stunner, sexy, confident, nice, with a free spirited brazilian attitude, maybe she can lend me some money now LOL.

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