But color! Some of my clients fret over whether or not to add a few highlights, just in the top, not too bright, but not too subtle. I fret over whether or not I can find a brighter shade of turquoise to go with the emerald green I love. Fear no color! Hair is our most versatile canvas - we can curl it, straighten it, make it rainbow hued, pile it up, let it down - and the next day we can change it! My hair can take color like nobody's business! It can be black, purple, green, pink, blue, white! It can match my wedding dress or a peacock. I can use a flower for inspiration or a movie poster. If my hair can teach me about acceptance and non-attachment, it can also teach me about possibilities and creative daredevilry! There's nothing like show-stopping purple hair to give you no place to hide. You're out there for all to see! You do not blend in. You quite obviously chose to go against societal norms. What if all our life choices were so blatantly on display? Would we be more circumspect in making them? Our hair teaches us many things, young grasshopper. Be responsible, be kind, make good choices, be brave! Most importantly, it can teach us to be ourselves. Accept our limitations and our possibilities. Be ourselves and anything we want to become. Thank you, Sensei, for your wisdom. And sorry about the bleach.
Nothing is permanent about hair - or anything else for that matter. Our hair is our Zen Master of life lessons. Nothing can be completely controlled, nothing stays the same, embrace what is, let go, practice non-attachment. Yep, my hair is a freaking lama of enlightenment! It's straight, except when it isn't. If I let it air dry, it's actually quite curly - around my face. No where else. Just there. The rest of it isn't exactly straight though, either. It's not exactly wavy. I call it a wobble. Just enough of a wave to not be straight. It's like straight hair that had a shot of tequila. Mine used to be auburn. Now it's more of a dead mouse brown. With white moving in. I have plenty of it, it's just that what I have is fine. Not the mane of curls I would love or the dreads I would gleefully embrace or the Japanime edginess I would like to rock. No. This is white girl hair. Tame. Smooth. Mouse brown. If I curl it they fall out, if I blow it straight, humidity brings the wobble back.
But color! Some of my clients fret over whether or not to add a few highlights, just in the top, not too bright, but not too subtle. I fret over whether or not I can find a brighter shade of turquoise to go with the emerald green I love. Fear no color! Hair is our most versatile canvas - we can curl it, straighten it, make it rainbow hued, pile it up, let it down - and the next day we can change it! My hair can take color like nobody's business! It can be black, purple, green, pink, blue, white! It can match my wedding dress or a peacock. I can use a flower for inspiration or a movie poster. If my hair can teach me about acceptance and non-attachment, it can also teach me about possibilities and creative daredevilry! There's nothing like show-stopping purple hair to give you no place to hide. You're out there for all to see! You do not blend in. You quite obviously chose to go against societal norms. What if all our life choices were so blatantly on display? Would we be more circumspect in making them? Our hair teaches us many things, young grasshopper. Be responsible, be kind, make good choices, be brave! Most importantly, it can teach us to be ourselves. Accept our limitations and our possibilities. Be ourselves and anything we want to become. Thank you, Sensei, for your wisdom. And sorry about the bleach.
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Has anyone written a book yet about salon etiquette? If not, consider this my first chapter. (My next book is on cellphone etiquette, so watch for it!) The salon is the our safe place, our oasis of calm in the sandstorm of our lives. We can go there and be ourselves, put our feet up, and let our hair down. We can talk about our lovers, our mothers, our neighbors, and our bosses. We can discuss our latest diets, our vacations, and our on-going struggles with our cable companies.
But even in this sanctuary, we do have to mind our manners, especially if there are other clients or stylists within earshot. So, unless you're in a sound-proof room with your stylist or you were lucky enough to get the salon to yourself that day, please filter those statements that might offend. If there are skeletons in your PC (politically correct) closet, this isn't the place to drag them out. If you have some latent, or not so latent, hang-ups about someone else's race, religion, or sexual orientation, please don't let that Freudian slip show in the salon. We all have our prejudices. Mine is country music. I'll say it right here. I'd rather have gum surgery than listen to any form of country music. But I have clients that absolutely love it. Well, a few. So do I trot my fanaticism out when they are in my chair? I do not. I smile and nod while they wax poetic about Clay Aikens and the latest concert they scored tickets to. Do I say I'd rather staple my fingers together than join them? No I don't. I keep that slip firmly under my skirt. Regrettably, some prejudices are far uglier than that. And you'd be stunned at the people who will lay them out for all to see in the salon. Not only may you offend other clients, but more dangerously, you may offend your stylist. Offending your stylist is about as smart as offending the wait staff serving your food. Word to the wise. In my grandmother's salon, she had three no-no's-don't talk about money, religion, or politics-which she followed religiously-except when she didn't. But she knew her clients, there wasn't a stranger in the house, so she knew when she could let her Freudian slip fly. And did it ever! My grandmother was to hair what Robin Williams is comedy-uncensored! But it was never in a hurtful way, and never said within earshot of anyone who might be offended. Think dirty limericks. She was a hoot. But in today's salon, you don't know the person two chairs away who can hear every word you're saying. You don't know who the stylist next to you voted for, or where the client next to you goes to worship, or what country the receptionist's family is from. So please, by all means, let your hair down. But keep that Freudian slip well tucked up - you can text the limerick to me later. It's that time of year! Party, party, party! You've spent a week looking for the right dress, a fortune on a killer pair of heels, bought enough makeup to keep Cirque du Soleil stocked for a year, and now the big day is here. The moment you've been dreading. What to do with your hair??? You kept meaning to look for pictures. You've seen a million of them in magazines-Make a Splash with our Great Holiday Looks! Look like a Million Dollars in just Minutes! 5 Steps to Perfect Holiday Hair!
If only you'd saved them! Where are they now??? It's the day of and you have zero ideas. Would it really look so bad to just throw a scarf over your head? The dress is stunning-could it stun them enough that they just didn't look above your neck? AAARRRGGGHHH!!!! It's time for a desperate, last minute call to your fairy godstylist! She'll know what to do. She has the magic! It's time to call in the big guns and get this party started! Party hair is your hair's chance to really strut its stuff-show the world just how fabulous it is. Even if it isn't. With a little pixie dust and the wave of our magic wands (or flat irons), we can make your hair look like it's going to the ball! Short hair can look long, thin hair can look thick, and everyday hair can look like it just met its fairy godmother. Cinderella, honey, your carriage awaits! So, first step-call your stylist. Call as early as possible, and get in as early in the day as you can so she can take the time to really pull out all the stops. Second step-remember to wear a top that buttons or zips-you don't want to ruin the magic by trying to pull a t-shirt off over your hair! Third step-look around and find accessories that you can take with you that your stylist can use in your 'do-barretts, combs, headbands, obviously. But also earrings, necklaces, pins-they can be transformed into beautiful embellishments for your party hair! So think outside the box-great aunt Matilda's vintage costume jewelry that's been languishing in your drawer could be just the thing to make your 'do stunning tonight! When you do arrive for your appointment, be sure to describe your dress and jewelry to your stylist. If your dress has a dramatic low back, she'll want to style your hair completely up off your neck to show that off. If you're wearing a gorgeous pair of earrings, she'll want to make sure your hair doesn't compete for attention on the sides. Is your dress retro? Vampy? Elegant? She'll want to give you a style that pulls the whole look together. Also, make sure to tell your stylist if anything is uncomfortable-if your hair is pulling so tightly your eyebrows are arching or if a bobby pin is drawing blood, tell her! You won't be having a great time if your hair is giving you a headache half way through the evening. And after she has the 'do done, give your head a shake. Does anything feel loose? Better to check that now than have your updo coming down before you're ready for it to. Lastly, keep your 'do dry until the party! Even a steamy bathroom can cause it to wilt or frizz before your big night. So, my dear, you are ready for the ball! You look stunning from your perfectly coiffed head to your manicured little piggies. Have a wonderful evening, and remember to say a quiet thank you to your fairy godstylist-she's only a wish away! I took one of our dogs to the vet this past week and to my surprise, the only other client in the waiting area also had purple hair. (My hair is currently purple, just to catch everyone up.) We struck up a conversation, she was very nice, and we compared hair products and techniques. I told her that my husband Josh and I do hair professionally, so he takes care of my hair, and she informed me that she was going to a stylist to bleach her hair and then doing the color herself at home. The whole time we were talking, though, my horrified gaze kept drifting over to her tortured locks. I tried to keep eye contact, but it was impossible to drag my eyes away from the dead, mangled, purple mass on her head.
I was called back to one of the exam rooms first, so I said my goodbyes and when I came back to the reception desk, she had already left. The receptionist then told me "M'Lou, when she first came in, her back was to me and I thought it was you. I thought, my god, what did Josh do to M'Lou's hair??? Your hair is always so healthy and shiny, I couldn't imagine what had happened!" We've all seen it. Zombie hair. Hair that died a horrible death and should have been given a decent burial three years ago. The terrible history of its demise is there for all to see. The torture, the neglect, the starvation. And then it's left to hang there, limp and lifeless, the color drained, not even a ghost of its former self remaining. But will its murderer let it go to it's eternal rest? Never. Because " I don't want to lose any length!", "My husband loves my hair long", or my favorite, "It doesn't look too bad, does it?". Yes, yes, it does. It looks like a small furry animal was caught in a thresher and then its little corpse landed on your head. Bad doesn't cover it. Nothing fixes this. Sure, we have products that can help hair that has seen better days, but honey, this hair isn't seeing anything anymore. It's shaken off its mortal coil. It's expired, deceased, given up the ghost, passed on to Valhalla. You have to let it go. You can grow more hair. Healthy hair. Hair that has color and all its little protein cells intact. There is no beauty in keeping a corpse on your head. LET IT GO. Treat your hair as though it was a beautiful creature living on your head. Be kind to it, feed it well, be gentle and loving, keep it out of the sun, the cold, the chlorinated pool. Handle it with care, wide toothed combs, low heat settings, and good products. It will reward you by being shiny, bouncy, and flowing. It will purr with contentment. It will swing and dance about your head. People won't be able to keep their eyes off your hair, and now it won't be because they can't drag their gaze from the horror. See? Isn't that so much better? So no more zombie hair! Let it go to its eternal rest. Learn from your mistakes, love your hair, and it will love you back. And not eat your brains.<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/1claim=yne82tggg5z">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>1369243/? Thanksgiving has to be one of our most nostalgic holidays. Every year we make the same trip back to our spawning grounds, see the same cousins, eat the same turkey, watch the same football game, listen to Uncle Ed's one joke, and start eyeing the exit before the pie is served.
At some point between our second dessert and our third cocktal, Aunt Millie brings out the photo album and we all make fun of each other's hair. Oh god, the eighties weren't kind. Neither were the seventies. And what were they thinking in the sixties??? What twisted mind ever first conceived of mall bangs? You could go parasailing with some of those. Remember the mushroom cut that every little boy had? It was like some madness that overtook soccer moms everywhere. What about all those guys in the eighties who thought they looked ever so studdly with their hair parted right down the middle? It was always set off by a pair of wire- rimmed, tinted aviators and a tie wider than their head. Oh, the shame. How delusional were we that we thought we looked absolutely hot with these crimes against nature on our heads? The endless perms, the mountains of tease, the tanker cars of hairspray, and those unholy cuts. Business in front, party in the back? Rattails? We want to bury these deep. What if these photos landed in the hands of our enemies? What if they posted them on Facebook??? We would have to uproot and start over again in Sweden. How can we distract Aunt Millie long enough to grab that album and dart out the door? We could be home ripping out pages and gleefully throwing them into the fireplace before they finished the pie round. Nothing expires faster than a hair trend. What we think looks like the bees knees today will look like we lost a bet in ten years. Our children will point and laugh. And there's no escaping it. It happens to us all. However good our intentions, however stunning we think we look at the moment, time will not be kind. Fashion is fickle, with a wicked sense of humor. Sure, you look great in that Dorothy Hamill wedge, it tells you with a twinkle in it's eye, knowing full well that it's going to completely change the game next week and you'll look be left looking like your head is a doorstop. Why do we listen? Why are we always Charlie Brown, believing that this season Lucy won't pull the football away? But we do. We shave our heads, bleach, perm, tease, and straighten our hair, beleiving that this time, we truly look fantastic. And we do. For a minute. Then Fashion does a 180 and we're left trying to snatch damning photos from the hands of little old ladies before anyone else can witness our shame. I guess the best we can do is be in on the joke. We can know that we're always going to end up stepping on the banana peel of fashion and taking the pratfall. Whatever we choose now will look deranged in ten years. So have fun with it now - it's just hair. Do it up - a beehive? Absolutely. A mullet? You look fabulous. A spiral perm? Gorgeous! Somebody, quick, take a picture! I was recently contacted by a woman who was given my name by one of my clients. My client is now in a time out. The e-mail read something like this: "I have been coloring my hair black, but now I want to be bright red. I used color remover on my hair and put a red on it. The roots went bright red but the rest of my hair turned dark brown. So I used color remover again and used a brighter red. My roots went really bright red, but the rest of my hair turned dark again, almost black. My hair is still in really good shape. Could you get me to a bright red?"
God save us from box color. It's like giving someone a chemistry set and telling them to cook up their own Prozac. Speaking of Prozac, do you have any? As I read through the e-mail, I just wanted to reach through the screen and shake her and say "Stop! For the love of god, just stop!" . Nothing reduces a stylist to tears faster than home hair color. They put those pictures on the front of the box of some model who has never been within a mile of their product, and promise that you too can have perfect hair, white teeth, glowing skin, and an above average IQ if you just throw this chemical hell-storm on your head. Then the next morning you're calling a stylist for a miracle. Honey, Miracle Max couldn't fix this. Forget the chemistry, the color theory, or the knowledge of hair structure that you've completely disregarded. You now want a Get Out of Jail Free card so you can go to work the next day without a bag on your head. And don't tell me, I already know - you don't want to lose any length. So cutting away this painful reminder of your poor judgment isn't in the cards. This is one of those moments when a stylist doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Either way, the client will be deeply affronted. So we gamely try to explain why, yes, we could get your hair blonde again, but no, it won't still be on your head. It's a toss-up whether your scalp will be there, either. So, please. The next time you get that gleam in your eye after a glass of wine and think "I want to be blonde. Tonight." , put down the box and pick up the phone. Better to call us before the crime has happened than to call us afterwards asking for help to hide the body. I promise, we'll both feel better in the morning. I have a confession to make. I never wanted to be a hairstylist. I grew up in a family of hairstylists-my grandmother had a very successful salon that she started after she raised five daughters. She had never done hair or owned a business. She went to cosmetology school, went to the bank for a loan, converted her garage and set up shop. Kept herself in diamonds and minks from then on.
But I wanted to do something meaningful. I wanted to become a lawyer and fight for citizens' rights against The Man. Or create great art-show the world a vision it hadn't seen before. Or be a concert pianist, and fill the world with the music of Bach. (O.k., actually the first things I remember wanting to be when I grew up were a Formula One driver or a spy. Go figure.) Hairstylist? No way in hell. I wanted to use my little grey cells, not destroy them sniffing hairspray all my life. I wanted to do something meaningful in the world, not make it "pretty". My idea of dressing up was sewing a new patch on my jeans to cover up the newest hole. I wore no makeup, cut my own hair, and never saw the inside of a salon after my grandmother died. I got married, had two daughters, got divorced, and started looking for my road to change the world. And then I went to cosmetology school. I swear to god I woke up one morning and thought, "You know, I think I want to do hair." The DNA had kicked in. Marie (my grandmother) was back. I still can't explain what happened, but somehow I started channeling my grandmother. I went to school, got a job, and started doin' up some do's. But I still had no feeling for what I was doing. It was just a paycheck. I could have been flipping burgers for all the meaning it had. So I put in my time, built up my business, built relationships with my clients ( I married one!), and was the last one to see it coming. Meaning. Changing the world. One head at a time. I was the last one to figure it out. I wasn't in the business of making people "pretty". I was in the business of changing how they felt about themselves. Or how they felt about the world that day. Or how they connected to the next person they ran into. I saw clients come in ready to cry ( or actually crying) about their lives and walk out relaxed and smiling, just because they got to sit down and have someone care for them for an hour. They left feeling like life was a little less overwhelming. Sure, they left looking better. But it wasn't just the "pretty" on the outside. They had someone listen to them for an hour. They had someone touch them, massage their scalp, rub their shoulders. They got to be in a "safe" place where they could unload all the stuff that was building up in their lives. And when they walked out, they felt a little lighter, a little more cared for. Who knew? I thought all my grandmother was doing all those years was just slinging shampoo and talking trash with all her weekly clients! I didn't see her holding them while they cried, or having a drink with them to celebrate their son's wedding, or talking them off the ledge when it was all just too much. She WAS changing the world. It was just one head at a time. I always want to be a hairstylist. Or a Formula One driver. One of those. Have you ever taken a picture in to your stylist of a cut you've loved, only to have less than great results with the finished product? The problem may be in what your stylist is doing the cutting with. Most stylists in the States cut primarily with scissors - that's what they are taught in school to use and they received little or no training in anything else. In Europe, stylists are trained mainly in razoring techniques, which give wonderful results on almost any hair texture. So why the emphasis on scissoring here, you ask? Because training in the use of scissors is fast and easy, and in the U.S. most schools of cosmetology want to get the students in and out in around a year. In the E.U., training can be anywhere from a four year degree to a seven year apprenticeship.
So what can a razor cut do for you that a scissor cut can't? A razor tapers the end of each hair, so there are no blunt ends. It also creates multiple layers with each cut, giving the hair dimension and movement. There are multiple ways to cut with a razor - everything from blunt to extremely textured. It gives volume to fine hair, texture to curly hair, and movement to coarse hair. A good stylist can razor your hair into any shape she desires - the structure will be built into the style, which saves you work in the morning when you're trying to get out the door on time. I was lucky enough to be born into a hair styling family - my grandmother and my mom were both trained by a pair of Italian brothers who came to the States and opened the Zigarelli school. They taught European razor cutting to a generation of Americans who had never had this technique available to them. Even today, it's very hard to find a stylist who has been trained on a razor. Many of our clients come to us specifically because we do razoring. If you want to see what a difference this makes to your hair, give us a call - 614-565-6416. We'd love to show you what your hair can do! See you in the salon, M'Lou Come visit our Strut the Salon Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter. Have you ever walked out of a salon looking like Jennifer Anniston died and you got her hair only to wash it the next morning and look like Ugly Betty? What happened? How could your stylist fail you like this? Obviously she gave you a dud of a cut that she, in her crafty stylist way, was able to make look like a million dollars, only to have the terrible truth revealed the next morning - she sold you a lemon!
Or, could there be another explanation? Could you, just possibly, have missed one or two steps in your styling routine? In your rush to get to work on time, did you maybe not spend the 45 minutes your stylist spent on that new do? Do you have any idea what she was doing in the back of your head for that last 10 minutes? And what was that spray she used? It was fantastic and smelled divine, but who makes it? So before you accuse your stylist of pulling a fast one, maybe you just need to ask for a tutorial. The next time you go in, tell your stylist that you need some remedial training in the care and upkeep of your style. That way she'll know to allow a little extra time to give you some solid pointers and you'll have time to ask all those questions you didn't think to ask last time. Most stylists would be more than happy to spend the extra time to help you out - after all, if you don't look good, we don't look good! With just a little extra knowledge and a lot of practice, you'll be back to looking like the happy inheritor of Jennifer's tresses instead of the unfortunate understudy of Betty! At Strut, we are always happy to schedule time to teach a few simple techniques that will help you get the same results at home that we can get in the salon. We'll give you a list of products, tools, and techniques so that you can get the gorgeous hair you walked out of the salon with. Have questions about styling your hair at home? Leave them for us in the comments section below. We'll do our best to help you look your best! Have you ever stopped to realize how you feel when you first walk into a salon? What strikes you first? When you walk into a new salon, what makes you decide if you want to stay? Every salon is different - each has its own ambiance. There are a thousand things that go into the personality of a salon - and every one of them register on some level the moment you walk in. Do you want to feel energized or relaxed? Do you like the busy buzz of people around you or do you want your own little private oasis? Do you want to watch T.V., listen to quiet jazz, or talk to the people around you? So much goes into the design of a salon - it's a mix of the owner's personality and the demographic the owner is focusing on. You may absolutely love your stylist, but if he or she is working in an environment that just isn't "you", you'll never be completely happy with the experience.
I've been in salons where my clients have been driven mad by the music the owner plays, or irritated by the constant bombardment of noise in an overly-crowded space. Or they've been charmed by the owner's attention to detail in decorations or in the little gestures of hospitality. It makes a huge difference to your salon experience to be in the environment that suits you. Everyone knows how important it is to find the stylist they can bond with and work with over the long haul, but few people realize what an important element the salon itself is. So the next time you walk into your favorite salon, take a second to stop and look around - what makes you happy to be there? Or what is there that quietly irritates you each time you walk in the door? Either way, let your stylist know! We always appreciate feedback, and we will always be looking for ways to make your experience better. So get the most out of your salon experience - it's your time and money you're spending - make it the best salon time you can have! I'd love to hear about your salon experience - what have you loved about the salons you've gone to? Or what have you wanted to scream about? What did you want to tell your stylist about that you hated but didn't want to speak up about? Did some salon just do an incredible job at making you feel great? Let me know! I'm always looking for ways to make my client's experience better, and I'd love to hear your ideas. Fire away! |