Blech....

What a dumb week...the weather hasn't been conducive to ANYTHING... Tuesday it started to snow, so I stayed late to take care of a client I would've been with Wednesday, which was a day I stayed home because the weather was soooo bad. Made the mistake of driving over to Walmart on Wednesday because, gosh, the roads by my house were clear! The closer you got to Walmart, the worse the roads got, to the point of not being plowed!! Thank goodness I got the car fixed two days before...Thursday was my day off, anyway...didn't do much there, either...it's done nothing but "slush" ever since. Tonight turned out to be a waste of time to go to work...one haircut...she was sweet...84 years old with the most beautiful head of pure white hair! Eventually, I left, though...couldn't take being bored any longer. However, while I was at work, Evelyn proceeded to complain about her last client and how she was about ready to give her to me. I told her "Go Ahead...I've got no problem with that". See, this nice lady has a full head of white hair underneath a ton of color. She complains about her color every time she comes in...how it's too dark for her taste. Now, a while back (I think I even blogged about it), I was able to apply her color...it was the day of musical hairdressers, and I got to talk to her a bit. She commented on wanting red hair, and I talked about how if I was the one to rinse off her color later, I wouldn't run the color through to her ends. Evelyn has the hardest time with her because she feels the client isn't listening to her. From what I was hearing, the client seemed confused that Evelyn did get her color right once, and that's the one she wants. I can only imagine when that was, because based on Evelyn's comments in this client's file, she's never liked her color! What do I think part of the problem is?? Lack of listening. Evelyn repeated herself over and over, stating that "Color doesn't lift color" continually, and loudly. I guess the client, in Evie's opinion, wasn't understanding that part. Personally, I think she DID understand it. What she doesn't understand is why she can't get a color she likes with coverage she can live with. Here's an interesting tid-bit. I asked Evelyn "why not try Color Sync??" "That won't cover it at all." This is where we differ...I'd be inclined to use the color reduction system we have kicking around, to deal with the color build-up on her ends first..may have to do this a couple of times. Then, evaluate what it looks like when it's done. IF the remaining color is light enough, see what you can do to match that up, maybe even introduce the red color she admires into the mix, just to see what happens. The worse thing that will happen is that the red won't do because it turns her white hair pink, and she may not get the coverage she's (possibly) looking for. Anything has to be better than to continually hear Evelyn raise her voice and watch Ginger act all irritated because she feels that Evelyn is right and the client is wrong. However, back to Color Sync....I think it will cover just fine, once you get some of the old, existing color dealt with. However, it's dealing with the previous color that is 3/4 of the problem...it was done incorrectly. What do I mean by this??? Every time she changed the color, the leftover permanent color got dragged through the ends of her hair. Is this a problem?? Yes. Years ago, back when Ginger was a newbie, and even when Evelyn was new, the procedure to refresh the ends of colored hair was to save aside the color in the bowl, add water, or maybe some shampoo to the bowl, add the mixture to the ends of the hair to "refresh" the color. What does this really do??? Well, since the hair color still has the developer in it (which lifts & deposits color, except when previous color is there, then it just deposits), it makes a mess on the ends, ultimately darkening the ends and making them feel rather "crispy"...it's hard to get a brush through that mess! The new way of doing things?? Mix together the same formula, in demi-permanent form. Why?? Demi color only deposits, it doesn't have the ability to lift, because it has no ammonia in it to swell the cuticle. What demi also does is leave the hair feeling conditioned and shiny...something repeated layers of permanent color does NOT do. It's gentler and safer for your hair. Now isn't that something you'd rather do than something that's harsh and damaging??? So, it's been a blech week. And, it's turning into a blech weekend, too...