Harsh hair color...and overplucked eyebrows...

There are times when I wish I could just sit and people watch, all day long.  The things I see are just too whatever to make up (stupid, silly, etc.)  I was in Walmart the other day (not the store I actually work in) and noticed a cashier's hair color and eyebrows.  Sigh.

She's probably around my age (43), maybe a titch younger or older, kind of hard to tell.  Anyway, she's got those tell tale bags under her eyes, which tells me she's not living a "clean" life  (cigarettes, drinking, idiots in her life).  Otherwise, her skin was pretty clear (bonus in her favor).  Her hair color is quite dark (artificially so), and her eyebrows are plucked  with a poor shape and practically non-existent, which makes her facial features stand out in an unattractive way.  I'm not saying I'm the most beautiful person on the planet...to the contrary, I usually look very "relaxed" when I'm out and about on my days off.  However, this person was at WORK....she needs a make over, STAT!!

First thing I'd do...counsel her to step away from the tweezers.  Get her to let the poor things grow back in so we can actually see the shape they're supposed to be and work on them to get them there.  There's nothing worse than looking permanently surprised....Once the shape has been established, and getting her used to how they look, she will notice a HUGE difference in how people perceive what she looks like.  I know, it sounds shallow, but it's true.  A well groomed brow makes all the difference!!  (just look at anyone who gets their unibrow taken care of....what a huge difference!!)

Then, her color.  Right now, the only thing that can be done is to A) some very well placed highlights to lighten up her overall color.  Continue to highlight her for at least 3 total visits (spread out over the course of at least a year).  While these highlights are going on, taking care of her regrowth is very important.  I'd be using a lighter color, even if it's only one shade lighter, to move things along, making sure it all blends accordingly.  Once the highlights are plentiful, I would then start using a tinted glaze over the whole thing to bring the highlights to a newer, lighter shade of brown, which would be infinitely more pleasing than the harsh dark brown she currently has.

The one thing I'd explain to her is that this process takes TIME.  It cannot and should not be done in one visit.  The first visit would be a partial highlight to lighten up the over all color....fine highlights, spread out so there's a subtle change, making sure the highlights are placed so there is no obvious line of demarcation. Depending upon how much grey is being covered, I may not touch the regrowth areas, or I might start the process of making her overall color a half shade lighter.

The next appointment, I'd add another layer of highlights, the same amount as before, placed slightly closer together, to break up the color even more, and continue to touch up her regrowth with the new overall formula.  The third appointment (the highlight appointments should be placed roughly 2-3 months apart.  The retouch of her regrowth should be every month to ensure good coverage of any grey hair) would be the final application of highlights, still placed so there is no obvious line of demarcation.  At this appointment, I would match up a glaze color to coordinate with her new base color, lightening up her hair overall without damaging her hair.  The glaze will be a demi permanent color, which contains NO ammonia of any kind.  This will close down the cuticle and make the hair appear shiny and smooth, which equals healthy hair!!

Is this an expensive process, over all??  Yes.  Is it worth the time and money??  Absolutely.  Lightening up that harsh hair color does a number of things, most importantly, it makes you look younger than you are.  The darker the hair color, the older and harsher you look.  No matter how pretty you are, you will look HARSH and OLD with dark hair.  Why do you think all the kids want to dye their hair jet black???

Never trust the formula in front of you...

A lesson that gets taught, A LOT in this industry is to never trust the formula in front of you.  Here's the scenario:

You've got a client in your chair.  Their last color service was not performed by you.  You go get their color card, check the formula, mix it up, apply it, time it, rinse it....it's too light.  What happened??  You scramble & reapply the color, using a darker formula.  PHEW!!

What happened:  You trusted that what the person did before you was accurate.

In the case of last night, it was.  But it was nearly a year ago that this nice lady received a color in our salon.

What didn't happen:  A thorough consultation and color analysis.
What else happened:  This nice lady has been coloring her hair at home and decided to treat herself to a salon service.  What should have taken a couple of hours, tops (including hair cut & style along with the color) took 3 hours because the color had to be reapplied...at no cost to the client. 

This was Tina's episode of "The Mad Hairdresser" last night (Mad as in crazy, not angry).  In Tina's defense, she was MOBBED last night.  I only found out about it because I went in at the end of the night to get my color done!  It's one of those "honest" mistakes....however, it does tend to stick in the client's mind that this hairdresser screwed up and maybe I shouldn't go to her again.  Hopefully, that won't happen.

Updates, bulletins as they happen!

So, I got a phone call yesterday....WE HAVE AN AREA SUPERVISOR!!  WOO HOO!!!

Sorry....just a little excited about this...

I got to speak to Zoe for about 5 minutes.  I can't wait to actually have a "sit down" with her!!!   In the interim, I plan on having a whole bunch of notes to refer to, when the time comes.  We have LOTS to talk about!!!

Corrective Color...

So, this client walks in yesterday, after calling us in a panic, because she colored her hair at home, and it didn't come out the way she wanted it and she wants us to fix it.  Oh, goodie.  On the one hand, I love a challenge.  On the other, great, what the heck is coming in.

Well, she walked in, and I saw who it was.  Tanya has been coming in since we opened.  We've all had her and we've all tried to talk her into getting her color done here so we can minimize the damage that's been done.  Tanya's hair is both thin and fine.  She wants it long, it's already pin straight, and she continually damages it by doing her color at home.  The stupid thing is that she finally figured out how to get the right color combination in her hair, on her own, and then she let her friend wreck her hair!!

So, here's what she did.  She decided, a while back, to add a small bit of warmth to her hair, in the form of red highlights.  Just a little bit, and just in the bottom nape section of her hair.  She liked it so much, she decided to do more.  This is were the fun begins.  Her friend pulled her hair through a cap.  Because she didn't realize, while pulling her hair through, that she has NO HAIR, the friend managed to pull ALL her hair through the cap.  And proceeded to paint the red color onto her hair.

When Tanya came in yesterday, her hair looked kind of fun....like fire, really....However, she didn't like the color and wanted it stripped out.  Well, because I know the condition of her hair, I refused to strip the color out.  And I explained why...her hair will disintegrate and break off.  So, we came to the conclusion, together, that she needed to darken her hair to cover up all the red.

I also explained to her (while I was finishing up my perm client, who she wanted me to ditch to deal with her hot mess) that since the red is a dominant color, it's going to hang around for a long time.  And, no matter what I do to her hair, it will fade and that red will come right back through.  She wants her blonde back in a big way.  All I would commit to is that it will be a LONG time before we can safely take her back to blonde.  She truly needs to leave her hair ALONE.

I highly doubt she will, though.