Musings by the Hairslave

Have you ever seen that movie star that changed from blonde to brown, and then back to blonde. Oh, it doesn’t matter which, you can think of one I’m sure. Did you ever wonder how big of a deal that is? I’ll give you a hint…it’s huuuge.

The blonde to brown isn’t that big a job. For a good colorist you can do it well in around 1 1/2 hours. I say well, because it’s easy to turn it to baby poop brown. I’ve seen it, it ain’t pretty. And going brown to blonde isn’t a huge challenge. Again, about two hours.

Blonde to red can be tricky, but not usually as time consuming. A number of glazes can be done in as little as 2 hours, if you know what to use. But red to blonde, totally up in the air. Red is one of the hardest colors to remove, there always seems to be that last little bit that doesn’t want to budge. It’s ironic considering how quickly red fades!

But blonde to brown to blonde is a whole other world. It can easily take 2 or more visits to remove the artificial brown. There are some simple ways to go to a subtle blonde. In a few visits enough foils can be added to get you there painlessly. But if it’s to be a true blonde it usually involves a color remover (1 to 2 hours), a bleach wash (15-30 minutes), a filler (45-60 min), a glaze or two (1-3 hours), and possibly foils (1-4 hours). This is all rough time estimates, length and thickness of the hair, porosity, darkness of brown level, and many other factors can affect a color correction of this sort. And all of these are based on the hair being healthy. Bad “at home” color is another game altogether.

I am rarely willing to tackle a black to (literally whatever you can get), but I gave it a shot for a dark blonde client who had “accidentally” tinted her hair black for Halloween. I say accidentally because she didn’t read the fine print on the box of semi-permanent hair color she used. Hint: no such thing as semi-permanent black. Once you go black, you never go back, as we say in the hair industry. What, you thought that meant something else? Your bad…

Anyhow. After the first day (5 hours to get her from black to dark brown, ugh! I don’t like to fail), I went home, tinted a doll head black (using the same color product she used) and proceeded to spend the next two days getting it blonde. It only took me 3 hours to do it on the person. It was amazing what I learned!

This is the doll head after two days of color correction experimentation.

On the other hand, I accidentally tinted a blonde client black myself one afternoon (it’s really not my fault. The blonde (6•1) looked exactly like the black (1•9) when held upside down!). And it only took 5 minutes to fix that! luckily I know shortcuts.

First and foremost, you absolutely MUST trust your stylist. No excuses. If you don’t trust him/her, then you should not be sitting in that chair. You should always be your own hair advocate, but if you don’t trust the wo/man with the shears, you will never be happy.

If you’re the type of client who knows exactly what you want, that’s fine. You pay the bill, you get what you want. But if you’re the kind of client who tells your stylist what to do, you are short-changing yourself. You may know (or think you know) what looks best on you, but you didn’t go to cosmetology school, right? You don’t know how to layer, you probably don’t even know the lingo. I can’t tell you how often someone has told me “how many” layers they want. There aren’t any number of layers! Layers aren’t (generally) like rock strata. You shouldn’t be able to count them. Layers that you can count are chunks. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t have chunks! I’ve done beautiful cuts with “chunks”, but these are more accurately called “disconnected layers”. Layers are more correctly thought of as a continuum. We also use the term “graduation”.

When a client tells me they want a certain number of layers, I know it’s time to educate. Delicately. That’s why they trust me.

You should, however, always be able to make your stylist understand what you’re looking for. I’ve discussed the consultation before. That’s where we build trust. If you “tell” your stylist how to cut your hair. Your wasting your time, and theirs.

If you’ve had trouble communicating with a stylist in the past, and are currently looking for a new stylist, please schedule a consultation. Any stylist worth their salt will be happy to set up a few minutes to talk with you. Believe me, I find the time is well worth it from my position as well as the clients! If the stylist has an attitude when it comes to booking a consult, they will only be worse when you’re sitting in their chair.

The consultation allows you to explain what you are looking for, or ask for ideas. The consultation is the first step in building trust. It lets you test the stylist’s knowledge, techniques, and most importantly, communication skills.

But how do you find this magical, all-knowing stylist? Well, your lucky, it’s the 21st century! Most of my new clients find me in one of two ways. The internet, or word of mouth.

The internet has loads of info. That’s what it’s for. Google hair salons, or stylists, and you’ll find so much info you won’t know what to do with it all. I’ve found some of the most general to be the best. If you get into sites that are specific, they usually have an agenda. Payed ads aren’t going to tell you much, unless they have a killer website, and even that’s paid propaganda. Stick with google, or yahoo, maybe even Linkedin or Myspace. Somewhere where you can get opinions. I’m lucky to work in the city of Davis. You can’t beat the Davis Wiki. Information and opinion, if you use it right, you can trust the data. I look at it this way: if someone’s business is listed on a consumer site, someone likes them. If there aren’t many (or any) opinions, in all likelyhood the patronage is older (not a bad sign if your not looking for trendy/artsy), no bad comments are a plus. If they have mixed reviews, they’re probably not too bad, people like to complain, you can’t please everyone, blah, blah. If they have raves, you should be impressed. Or they might be good marketers, but it’s your best bet.

Word of mouth is primo. Stop someone whose hair you like on the street. They’ll be flattered! If they give you a recommendation, ask them how long they’ve been going. At least three visits are best, but if you love their hair, go for it, even if the stylist is new to them. A friend you’ve known more than a year is great. If you like their hair and they’ve gone to the same stylist for at least 3 visits, jackpot! That’s the safest bet you’ll ever get in finding a stylist. I always say 3 visits because it goes like this: 1st visit the stylist does exactly what you ask for, 2nd visit the stylist isn’t quite sure what they did last time (we’re not computers) and they try their best to duplicate the cut, 3rd visit and they do what they think they should do. If the 3rd cut’s good you’re dealing with a stylist with talent.

Money means nothing. Wait! That means just because they’re expensive doesn’t mean they’re good, or that they’ll listen to you. It’s hard to learn that one. I’ve had a client for a number of years now who came to me after not having her hair cut in a few years. She had been so traumatized by the high-end (read:expensive, very) celebrity stylist who cut all of her hair off in his Hawaii salon, that she hadn’t had a cut since. He was very unhappy, apparently, when she started crying in front of the models that were waiting to be finished for a shoot she tells me. I have to admit that at first I thought she might be a wack-job, but she’s turned out to be a great client! She is always very happy, and we seem to click. That’s what you should be looking for, someone you click with.

Don’t settle for less!

Hair art is what I call something you’ve probably seen, but not quite “gotten”. It’s often called “Fantasy Hair”, or “Fantasy Styling”. When you look through a hair magazine at your local hair salon (I mean who hasn’t, right?) you will often see some pretty bizarre stuff! I admit it, even I sometimes look and have a “What were they thinking?!” kind of moment. But it’s really just like any other form of art. Sometimes you need to push the limits to get somewhere. I remember when the “Flip” hairstyle came back into fashion. My co-workers and I all thought the same thing, “No way in *bleep* are any of MY clients going to want that!” Guess what, we were wrong. The “Flip” is so common now it’s almost considered classic, like the “Bob” or the… well “Bob”. It’s the only other truly iconic look that would be so recognizable right now. In the 80’s it was the permed look (if you can really call it a “look”), the nineties were the Rachel, now it’s the “Bob”, and the “Flip”.

“Fantasy” hair is all about the shock value. Much like other forms of art, it’s all about getting attention (in a good way I think). You can look at almost any mainstream fashion magazine to see them. Bazaar, GQ, Cosmopolitan, they all do it. It’s getting the clothes, and the magazine noticed. But as a hairstylist, I see even more. Some of the trade magazines I get would curl your hair (get it? curl your hair! Ha… OK it wasn’t that funny). I get to see all of the cutting edge color placement and formulas, wedding styles, cuts, you name it and I look for, and at it. A lot of it isn’t even possible on a real head of hair. Most of it is extensions, wigs, glued on hair, fake hair, not hair, etc.

A fantasy wedding style on a blonde dollhead, using flowers, real or not, and brown hair extensions.

Side view of same.

A fantasy wedding style on super short, flattened hair, with red hair extension.

A medium length fantasy wedding look with hair extension Veil.

But at the very core it’s all there for a very good reason. To inspire. If someone didn’t push the envelope we wouldn’t even have the “Bob”. It started in the 60’s just as women were getting away from the once a week set. The “Farah”, a cut that was very groundbreaking (think layers, yah layers) in the 70’s, was unthinkable a few years before. And don’t get me started on the “Rachel” (90’s), what a truly bizarre (and popular) style.

So the next time you pick up one of those magazines and think “OMG!”, remember, you might be wearing it in a few years!