Honoring Salon Guys: Jerry Gordon

Photo by Marc Hauser

A few weeks ago, the internet became tear-stained with well-deserved memorial articles for the late Jerry Gordon. As a stylist of 60 years experience, an innovative businessmen, and warm human being in general, his death is a huge loss to the styling world, and especially to his community. He has left behind plenty of stories and examples for other hair artists and salon owners to follow, and an especially great example of a male successfully operating in the salon world.

It can sometimes be a rough and even scary thing for males to tackle. Stereotypes of male hairdressers can leave a lot of men timidly hiding the shears and Salon magazine under the pillow before someone discovers their passion for beauty in hair. While there's a growing number of fantastic male hair artists who break down the stereotype of the effeminate, lisping stylist, it's nice to have male stylists with a full successful arch to look to and say “no, really, anyone is allowed to do this.” Jerry Gordon lived the kind of life anyone would envy, stylist or otherwise. He was a writer in his own special way with a deep love of literature that goes beyond what anyone expects from hairdressers. He married, traveled the world, met incredible people, raced ferraris, and grasped the full spectrum of life into his wide-sweeping arms.

His life experiences are also what made him a great argument against the point we made in last week’s blog on talking while styling, because one of the most cherished memories people have of him are the stories he would tell while working.

It's been said the salon was his stage, the haircut his performance. Which calls into question, what really is the art of the hairdresser? Because if it's only in styling hair, Jerry Gordon managed something far beyond that, where each haircut was weighted with a different story. Perhaps some of his technique suffered from all the talking, but many of his clients, who still walked out looking fantastic, would probably tell you it was a small cost for the heightened experience his stories brought.

There's a lot to be learned in looking back at Jerry Gordon's life, but, for today, the focus is on the fullness of his character. To men who are still afraid of stepping behind the chair under the title “salon,” and to everyone who is already a hairdresser but believes they can't be anything else, look closely at this man. He will blow all of your expectations of life out of the water.

POMP Salon’s Valentine Education Event

Come Valentine's Day, 2016, Stockton's POMP Salon will be hosting their third major hair art Education Event. But that's ignoring the regular classes they host almost every Monday, which are free and open to any stylists able and willing to attend. We featured POMP Salon over a year ago, and while they've always been a place of non-stop activity, owner Dino Ballin has pushed that activity more and more onto the national map in the last half year.

It's all part of a movement toward enriching Stockton and the surrounding Sacramento area with genuine, high quality hair art. Ballin has made POMP Salon a huge part, if not the center, of that movement by carefully choosing new stylists and providing constant and current education for them. And by extending that education to all other hair artists he is building a stronger community of salons and individual stylists all working together to prove to America that there's something worth checking out north of San Francisco.

Estetica Magazine recently featured an interview with Ballin in which he explained some of the story behind the salon's success and how they manage to always stay on top of trends. But there's an especially poignant section in which he mentions his hope for changing the view of Northern California, saying “our goal is to lift the entire industry, not just the stylists in our own salon.” He explained that after trying to get a traveling touring group to come to Stockton and getting a discouragingly ambiguous response he decided to make his own high profile event. He started big with names like Rickey Zito, Lihn Phan, and James Miju, and didn't slow down. Now he's bringing in Canadian artist Eva Lam to teach a class for the very first time.

He's well on his way to achieving his goal of a turning Stockton into a place known for upscale styling. POMP Salon houses a long line of highly skilled hair artists such as Vicki Kirk, Fawn Anne, and Brittney Perez. Their work alone is a clear sign of the effectiveness of the POMP Salon philosophy. The proof of POMP's far-reaching effect is in the work of many other stylists who have attended past events like Sadie Gray and Nugget Le.

This upcoming Event will feature separate classes from Larisa Doll and Philip Ring, Eva Lam and Michael Klomsue, and Rickey Zito and Linh Phan. At the end, all artists, including Don Godfrey, will sit a Q&A session on business building and social media. And if you'd like to go the extra mile for a VIP ticket, there will be an after party catered by Chef Michael Midgley.

You can purchase tickets here.

Ombre's Hope for 2016

Ombre on left by Michael Klomsue; Ombre on right by Caroline Guiney

Let's talk about Miley Cyrus. It was bound to happen eventually.

The world has quickly noticed the strikingly normal length and color of her hair, and normally that might not be such a huge deal, except the color is a pretty put-together long-bob in ombre and whether you like it or not, this could have some pretty significant implications for you as a stylist/salon owner down the road.

Photo: Cyrus with TV actor Alimi Ballard via Miley Cyrus’ Instagram

You can browse around all the fashion blogs and articles summarizing the best hairstyles of 2015, and predictions of what's to come and pretty easily conclude that the “easy and natural” look is the at the top of the fashion food chain right now. We're practically breathing balayage/ombre with gentle waves at this point. But a year of this raises the question: Will people start getting tired of this look in 2016?

As you work out what products to order and plan your promotions for 2016 (and you really should be planning them right now), it becomes more and more relevant to know if all these Ombre enthusiasts are going to stay so enthusiastic.

Well, rest easy. They aren't going anywhere. The recent, if potentially temporary, change in Cyrus's hair is two parts indication and causation of the practically minded 'dos you'll be asked to perform in the future.

As trend setters go, Miley has jumped to the forefront of shock and awe, but it's nothing new for a pop star. If you go back through a decade of female pop singers you'll discover long lists of massive changes later resulting in massively popular, if sometimes brief, hair trends. Britney Spears made the world explode with platinum blondes, and Beyonce has spent much of her career making everyone with long waves and blonde highlights feel inadequate.

But here's what's a little different about the ombre and Miley Cyrus, and why her instagram potentially booked your 2016 with color appointments: The look in the picture above is perfectly achievable. She's not in costume, there's no glamour, her hair is at a practical length. It's the kind of thing most people could walk into work with. If you forgot about the nuclear music career, Cyrus could easily be any other person on the street with well-styled hair. It's something her fan base, consisting of everything from middle school tweens to near-college graduates, can ask for at your salon and realistically expect a similar result to the picture. This opens up the world of balayage/ombre to a whole other growing generation.

So in answer to the question: Yes, Ombre is here to stay, at least for another year, and it's about seep down into younger age groups. As you get your 2016 salon promotions and stock all worked out, prepare yourself and your foil for a swarm of ex-teeny boppers trying to find their identity in a new style of grown hair with sensible coloring.

What You Can Learn from a Dominican Hair Salon

Photo credit: del mich

The New York Times recently took a trip to the Dominican Republic to talk about hair.And in case you're short on time, here are the highlights (admittedly their article is more interesting than this blog post, but it's also much longer):

Carolina Contreras owns the Miss Rizo Salon on Calle Isabel la Catòlica in Santo Domingo, which specializes in cutting and styling naturally curly hair (colloquially called pajòn). It is a “departure from the Old World reverence to the Spanish explorers who colonized the island,” which, when we're talking about hair, means they're shaking off the stereotype of the famous straight, black Dominican hair. Miss Rizo is the place where Dominican women, both on the island and from across America come to have their natural curls treated the way they were meant to..

The salon and its artists are interesting across the board, but this phenomenon highlights three particular details you should be interested in as a hair artist and especially as a salon owner.

1. Natural Really is Coming Back

The first thing Contreras would tell you, is that naturally curly hair is back y bonita. A salon that understands how to handle the natural curl and texture of hair is a source of empowerment for many of her clients. (Of course, Santo Domingo isn't the only place you can find a salon that knows curly hair). Which means, it’s either time to start studying up on your curl care and start writing it on your menu, because this natural look is only getting bigger.

2. People will Literally Cross the Ocean for a Stylist they can Trust

There's something interesting in the fact that Americans are flying over the ocean to find someone who will treat their hair properly, but it shows just how dedicated people are to their natural style.

For some, it's also about culture: Native Dominicans return to their birthplace and get their hair done the way it was meant to be and re-immerse themselves in the culture they came from. But some are going just for the haircut. One interviewed patron said specifically “I had to come here because I wanted my hair done by people who knew what they were doing.”

It just goes to show that, no matter where you are, clients will swim oceans to get to you if they know they can trust you.

3. A Good Beauty Blog Means Good Visibility

If you run a salon in America, this should be ringing all the alarm bells. Especially if you're also an expert in natural curls. Why are these people flying outside the country for a haircut when they could just drive over to you?

One of the best answers is internet visibility. Contreras didn't start with a salon. She started with a blog, and became popular enough to open her salon with an Indiegogo campaign. She was also clever enough to write the beauty blog in Spanish, which turned out to be a genre in high demand. People in other countries know this artist can do miracles on their hair because she consistently proves her knowledge online in articulate detail. If you look at her site, you don't have to know Spanish to see she covers a broad range of topics, particularly on her curly-hair specialty.

Contrera is doing something great for the rich and surprisingly widespread culture of Dominicans everywhere by helping and encouraging the natural but lesser-known coiling nature of Dominican hair. But if we're talking as freelance artist and business owners, one very important thing to take from this story should be a serious re-evaluation of how you handle your business online.

Salon Guys' First Fanola Color Theory Class

Salon Guys is very excited to announce its first (hopefully of many) Fanola Color Theory class. It will be at the Salon Guys office in Sacramento on Sunday, January 24th, from 11 to 1. The class will be taught by Santa Rosa hair artist and salon owner, Sadie Gray, and will cover basic color theory, mix ratios, and foundation.

If you haven't heard of the Fanola hair color line yet, there are plenty of pictures and tutorial videos out there showing what it can do. But basically it's an Italian-made hair color line that's been igniting hair artists across the US with excitement over vivid colors, clean lifting, and even nice aromas. It's been especially popular for coloring Asian hair, as the particular tones of its hair dyes and the No Yellow Shampoo work very well for neutralizing the underlying warm tones in darker hair.

Photo: Sadie Gray’s Van Gogh-esque hair color creation

The class will be taught by Sadie Gray, who is a member of the Unicorn Tribe and a Master Colorist from Santa Rosa with plenty of media coverage including several features on Modern Salon and Behind the Chair. She's very skilled with ombre and balayage and ridiculously fearless with her fantasy colors (refer to the above picture). You can pretty much always find a steady stream of new and inspired work on her Instagram, meticulously planned out through diagramming and experimentation. And she has always been free with talking to other stylists about her formulas and techniques. She is a collaborator and educator down to her core. So it's especially exciting that she'll be coming to the Salon Guys home to start off our Fanola education.

Of course we understand not everyone can make it. Life gets in the way, or maybe you live on the other side of the country, but that doesn't mean you can't get a glimpse at what happens on the 24th or learn something about Fanola. Follow our Instagram @salonguys for updates on the class (and for future classes). And if you're interested in learning about what this hair color line can do, just check out Youtube channels like Josie Deseray where you’ll find tons of how-tos on coloring dark hair (often with Fanola) and look through the work of other hair stylists who use Fanola regularly.

We hope you can make it to the class this January, but if not, share it with your friends then read and explore Fanola on your own, and if you try Fanola for yourself, please, don't hesitate to share your creation with us.

Salon Guys Spotlight: Yakko Takahashi - The First Japanese Stylist

David Bowie and “Yakko” Takahashi - Photo by Sukita

This is a story about the first Japanese hair stylist, Yakko Takahashi. Like many great stylists, she is a master of working in the background, and because of that her name isn't mentioned much. But in the flood of mourning backlash from David Bowie's death, you've probably read a few stories about the creation of the Ziggy Stardust character in which she had a pivotal but rarely mentioned role.

Hair Stylist Sets the Scene

Yasuko“Yakko” Takahashi is not known for her skill as a hair stylist. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find any work specifically credited to her even though she was around for several iconic shoots, including the one that produced Bowie's album cover for Heroes. Yakko is better known for knowing people, and knowing how to connect the people she knew. This ability probably flourished in the cultural hub of Harajuku, where Yakko's work started finding recognition in magazines, and she developed relationships with two artists who become the biggest Japanese influences on Bowie's career.

Bowie and Yakko before Radio City Music Hall concert - Photo by Sukita

A Stylist with Connections

Bowie had always been fascinated with Japanese culture. His dance and mime teacher introduced him to kabuki theater, a form of silent dance drama similar to miming. Around the start of the 70's Bowie was experimenting a lot with looks and gestures he found in Japanese art, especially that of fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto. This was a big name in the fashion world at the time (and still is). Big enough for Yamamoto to become the first Japanese fashion artist to have a show in the London Fashion Week in 1971. As it happens, Yamamoto often employed Yakko for his shows, and brought her on as a producer for his London show.

But Yakko wasn't only in London for fashion week, because she also happened to be the go-to stylist and good friend of Masayoki Shukita, the prolific photographer known best for his work with Bowie, T. Rex, and Iggy Pop, and now his book, Speed of Life. She had set up a meeting for him with Marc Boland's manager (the lead man of T. Rex) to talk about doing a photo shoot for the band.

While Yakko and Sukita were walking the streets of London, they happened upon a poster advertising one of Bowie's upcoming performances. This image of Bowie inspired both Sukita and Yakko to do their own shoot with this unique artist. So once again, Yakko makes a few calls, particularly to Bowie's manager at the time, Tony Defires. After looking at Sukita's portfolio, Defires and Bowie agreed to a shoot with him. So Sukita set up the shoot, and Yakko went along, bringing with her a few pieces from Yamamoto's fashion show.

Yakko and Ziggy Stardust

Bowie connected so quickly with both the photographer and the stylist that Shukita would continue to photograph Bowie for many years, and Yakko was almost immediately hired as one of Bowie's touring hair and fashion stylists. This proved to be a great decision on Bowie's part, because shortly after, in 1973, Yakko invited Yamamoto to come to one of Bowie's shows in New York because he was using pieces he had created. The Bowie and Yamamoto met after the show and went on to collaborate throughout the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane tours.

"David Bowie - Heroes" by Sukita

In the meantime, Yakko continued to collaborate with Sukita, including on an impromptu shoot in Japan from which the famous Bowie portrait you see on the Heroes album came. While Yakko is never mentioned as being the stylist on this shoot, she did pick up Bowie and Iggy Pop from the airport, introduce them to some of her favorite streets of Tokyo, and acquired the clothes for the shoot.

Yakko Takahashi has since fallen out of the sliver of spotlight she shared in the 70's. As far as the public can tell, she hasn't done much since her time with Bowie and Sukita. At least, not with anyone with near the same level of fame. But there's no denying she was instrumental bringing that fully matured flair to Bowie's career. And that's really the goal of a great hair stylist: to bring about visual fulfillment. She only did that partly with her hair styling, but her skills clearly were not constrained to the scissors and hairspray .She seemed to know how to be at the right place at the right time with the right people, and if none of those seemed to be lining up, she lined them up herself.

Fanola and Salon Guys have a lot to announce this week, so we hope you'll bear with us as we gush about it all.

Salon Guys' First Color Class

First off, on Sunday the 24th Sadie Gray and a host of hair artists came through the Salon Guys office doors for our very first in-house Fanola color class. We couldn't be happier with how it went. There was a great turnout, and Sadie Gray showed her true colors as a knock-out educator. All the attending stylists really got into the color theory and helped to make the whole thing a fun experience for us.

A few shots from the Color Theory Class, courtesy of Sadie Gray.

A lot of stylists have asked about Fanola color theory classes in LA, to which we say, we're working on it. So stay tuned for announcements about that. When we know something solid we'll announce it here and on our Instagram, @salonguys.

Get to Know Fanola

No Yellow Shampoo in action, courtesy of Kacie Nguyen.

If you've never heard of the Fanola hair color line, there's a whole host of stylists who have been talking about it lately. Including on the ever vivacious YouTube channels of Nam Nguyen, and Josie Vilay and Deseray Thiessen. The resounding praise for it lately has been for the No Yellow shampoo, which is great for lightening dark, thin hair without being plagued by unwanted brassy tones. We should also mention (as the previously mentioned stylists have) that Fanola colors have a pretty high pigment concentration, so a little goes a long way.

Fanola Will be at ISSE 2016

On a more pressing note, Salon Guys will be at the International Salon and Spa Expo in Long Beach this weekend. We’ll be set up with a stocked Fanola booth. So if you're in Long Beach on Saturday through Monday come say hello and have a look around. New or familiar faces, we're always ready to talk to hair artists, and we'll be locked and loaded to answer questions about Fanola. Look for us at booth #726.

If you're so unlucky that you couldn't make it to our class, and can't go to the Long Beach expo this weekend, you can still get a hold of Fanola. Just follow their Instagram, @fanola_usa, where they repost work from artists who not only use but sell Fanola locally in their salons.

The color is out there, and it's getting bigger every day. You just need to look for it.

Picture courtesy of La Vladina through creative commons

Two defining qualities of the hair stylist life are standing on your feet, and having no time for meals. That's what everyone in the salon expects out of their day, and it might seem like a good excuse to eat whatever is handy on your rare breaks. But that doesn't have to get in the way of healthy eating.

It's not How Much You're Eating, It's What You're Eating

There are a few misconceptions about diet that are probably stopping you from eating healthy:

-You need to eat less calories to lose weight

-You don't have enough time for healthy meals

Picture courtesy of Kit McCallister through creative commons

Pretty much all nutritionists agree that the key to losing or maintaining weight isn’t in eating less but eating right. Cutting out specific foods (besides junk food) will usually do more harm than good. As a stylist, you probably burn around 1500 to 2000 calories a day, so unless you're emptying half a box of doughnuts and a bag of chips every day, you don't need to worry too much about portions. It's far more important to watch where you're getting those calories from, and it's probably easier than you think to get the right sources.

Hair stylists/nutritionist Andrea Schwanda-Matthews explains in a Modern Salon interview that the best way to get onto the healthy eating track is to “go back to basics.”

Bringing a few fruits and vegetables along to work gives you a leg up on your food cravings and energy loss. Snacking on a bag of berries and carrots throughout the day will keep you energized and prevent you from binging when you finally get off your feet long enough to have a decent meal.

Nuts are also a good way to stave off hunger, but it's easy to overdo it on salt when you're eating them, so it's probably not a great idea to just eat nuts.

Water Goes a Long Way

It's a simple, unsexy solution that we don't normally think about until the mouth starts going dry. But drinking enough water keeps your metabolism stabilized and reduces unhealthy cravings. Schwanda-Matthews explains that many stylists don't get enough water because they substitute it for coffee and soda for quick energy, and recommends starting everyday with a glass of water. That doesn't mean giving up coffee (God forbid), but water is, believe it or not, a great way to stay energized throughout the day without crashing.

Water is involved in everything the body does, so when you're dehydrated many body functions start slowing down and perform less efficiently. That means you perform less efficiently. Drinking about 8 glasses of water a day will improve both your work and your quality of life.

If you're a regular soda drinker, candy bar eater, chip crackler, or doughnut wrangler it can be difficult to give up one for the seemingly boring fibers of healthy snacks. But, besides practice, it's actually the best way to improve your work in your craft. You'll feel more aware and better able to work with unexpected challenges. So the next time your hand is quivering between the Milky Way and a bowl of grapes, try to think about what's more important in the end: your taste buds, or your health and work?

In this big-hearted Valentine's season we've searched through Instagram to find some of our favorite hair styles that remind us of love. Not the Hallmark, red-stained love you find in stores, but the grit and passion for craft that you can only find from a hair stylist.

Eva Lam

Most of Eva Lam’s work is done in gentle pastels, which would also be perfect for this time of year, but these carefully placed roses in a loose braid stand out with a classical beauty. Something about the rustic placement of the flowers in the messy intricacy of the hair pulls us back into a calm appreciation of a well-tended garden.

Jessica Warburton

Jessica Warburton has survived both breast and ovarian cancer and came out the other side brimming with inspiration and passion. So many of her styles are distinct from each other because she styles from the individuality of her client.

Josie Deseray

The partnership between Josie and Deseray is a beacon of hope in this industry. Their success as a team shows what stylists can achieve through collaboration and mutual respect, and their recent Youtube channel launch is the beginning of a beautiful friendship with the rest of the hair art community.

Fanola Color Class

Now that you’re feeling hair inspired, we'd like to announce that, on Monday February 15th, Sadie Gray is returning to our home office to teach our second Fanola Color Class.

She'll cover coloring basics as well as color theory with Fanola. There will also be a Reflections section where she will take questions from stylists who were at the last class. This won't just a basic introduction, although this is probably one of the best ways to become acquainted with the Italian-based color. But there will be opportunity to delve a little deeper into technique and formula.

This will be a small class where we hope stylists will feel comfortable enough ask questions when they need to and interact.

The class starts at 10 AM, and we'll be serving coffee and doughnuts at 9:30. We hope you'll come join us, not just to learn about Fanola, but to meet other stylists from around the area.

Last time there were several people who couldn't make it either because they were out of town or it didn't fit in their schedule. So this time we've created a Periscope account for the class. For up to 24 hours after the class you can check in on @cassiesalonguys to catch up on what you missed.

There will be plenty more classes and events in the future, so stay tuned here and follow us @SalonGuys for news and stylist features.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Pearce under creative commons

The new thing these days is subscription services. As our understanding of just how vast the choices in all things are (thank you internet), we all become less inclined to stick to just one thing. This is why you see so many businesses like Dollar Shave Club, Trunk Club, and Beauteque growing. They give people the opportunity to try several different types of clothes and make-up curated by professionals.

Here's why this is great for you as a professional hair stylist.

You're the Hair Professional

They know it, even if it doesn't always seem like they want to admit it. They want to hear what you have to say. People will respect your advice if you give it. If you advertise consultations and show that you know how to do several different styles well, the millennial generation will flock to you.

People often say they want a change, but they're afraid to take a chance. There's danger in trying new things. When these people sign up for a box of clothes to be sent to them every month, they see it as a way of safely testing new things before they commit to a full new style. In hair, you are a source of reliable change.

All the Hair Colors of the Rainbow

It's common practice now to change hair colors with the season. Learn your colors, and then learn how to remove those colors to replace them with something new, because you will be doing it a lot. Winter grays, spring greens, summer blondes, and autumn reds are the shifting mainstay habits of the young and newly middle-aged. Colorists who know how to make these changes with reliable quality can count on consistent coloring appointments throughout the year.

New Hair-izons

A refined experiment by Sadie Gray

This isn't just a chance for your clients to try new things. Now is the time you need to start experimenting with new ideas, because once you perfect a different color tone or hair style, there will be someone willing to try it out. If you scroll through Instagram regularly you've probably noticed the kind of fresh and refined ideas that tend to accrue the most attention. Some of them might be novelties, but there are plenty, especially like the stuff you see from artists like Sadie J, that bring a profound new wave everyone is itching to try.

This behavior might come across as wishy-washy at first. The kind of nightmare client who doesn't know what she wants usually means someone is about to waste your time and then complain about anything you do. But that's not what this is. It isn't that people can't choose one thing, it's that they want to choose everything but don't know where to begin. This is your opportunity to help them out. Stop being shy with your expertise and tell your clients what they can try.

There has never been such a huge variety of permanent and semi-permanent hair color lines to consider as there is now. It can get pretty overwhelming with all these companies vying for your attention and assuring you they’re the best for your needs, so it's important that you take a step back and actually consider what you need.

What Kind of Coloring Do You Do?

Are you mostly coloring gray hair, or do get a lot of young trendy clients looking for vivid and fantasy colors? Do you work with a lot of blondes, or are you pretty much exclusively styling level 10 hair?

Every company can do color but some are better suited to other hair types than others. For example, a color with a high ammonia ratio probably isn't great for fine, light hair, but if a lot of your clients have thick webs of brunette locks wanting to go lighter, then you might be looking for something fairly strong. Which gives us a great opportunity to talk about where that strength might be coming from.

Chemicals in Hair Colors

Take note of this: ammonia-free doesn't mean damage free. There is no combination of ingredients in the world that will make a hair color or developer damage free. But there are plenty that will smell better and mitigate the damage.

The two big bad guys you often hear about are ammonia and peroxide, but ammonia really isn't as harmful as most people think, and while peroxide does dry hair out, it’s not going harm any client’s skin without an allergic reaction. Ammonia is often the culprit behind the irritating smells in hair colors. When you see a box that says ammonia-free you can probably count on a pleasant fragrance. But if it's hair health you want, look through the ingredients to find some kind of oil that will help restore moisture to the cuticles.

Price point

This is often the deciding factor for many stylists. How much of a cream do you have to use in your formulas to get your colors and how much are you charging to give your clients that color?

One thing to consider is the strength of pigment in the colors of a line, because those are not the same in all brands.

One of the reasons so many stylists use Fanola now is not only because their tubes are larger and cost less, but because many of their colors have a very strong pigment so you don't need to use as much to get stronger color intensities. That also means you have to be more careful when you mix, but once you get the formula down you'll end up with a much more cost effective color without compromising quality.

Relationship and Education

Before you dedicate yourself to a line, you should always check into the company itself. Browse around their website to see how much information the provide about the creation and content of their products, and if they make an effort to educate stylists about mixing ratios and color pigment. Some companies will hold classes specifically for training colorists in how to use their product, and are often very open to giving samples for you to experiment with.

Photo courtesy of Dean Hochman under Creative Commons

Balayage is alive and well for clients wanting the “natural hair” look, which is why you can find balayage tips in every corner of the internet. Most of it is really good, and we won't try to add to the words of the experts offering this advice, but they don’t often take much time to explain their tips in much detail. But we would like to point out a few mistakes that we've found common among newer stylists that can be easily fixed with a little self discipline.

Planning the Cut After Painting

This might be the most technically difficult one:  Learn how to color with a plan for a finishing cut in mind, because it's the essential secret to accentuating the best in your colors. Color often distracts from cut, especially if the cut is done well, so not many people talk about it with balayage. It really can make all the difference, though. It's those framing highlights around the face, the tinge of shifting caramel to blonde around the ear that can make the whole style stand out. If you wait until after you’ve finished processing and drying the hair to figure out how you’re going to cut it you’ll end up cutting up more of your color to get the look your client asked for.

Too much Product at the Roots

Most experts will tell you even consistency and saturation are important for good balayage. When you glob a bunch of product at the root you're not going to get an even spread down the section. You could think of it like chewing food. When you really want to taste a good meal, you take it in small pieces so you can savor all the flavors. When you just shove half the meal in your mouth you only get a clumps of flavor and lose out on the full experience. In the same way, a tsunami of your mixture on top of the head will result in a bulky spread, making you lose subtlety of color in your end result.

Foils versus Plastic Wrap

Foils have their place, but the balayage is a delicate process. You need to be able to see what's happening under there. Each client's hair will react differently with developers and bleach, so it's important to keep a close eye on how the color is progressing. Otherwise you’ll just be doing educated guesswork. If you take special care to apply the product correctly, you still owe it to your client and your own work to watch it correctly.

The Wrong Brush

Don't underestimate the effect a color brush can have on your painting. If you use something too wide or too thin it can have pretty far reaching effects. Your layers can come out uneven if the brush is too angled, or spotty if the bristles are too hard or too soft. Brushes can depend a lot on personal preference as well since every artist develops their own technique for painting, so this is something you just need to take time experimenting with.

Constant education is necessary to stay up on trends, learn new techniques, refine your old ones, and stay ahead of the ever changing, ever demanding beauty world. That can be tough to do between the cost of workshops and the twelve hour days behind the chair. Thankfully we live in the information age and a lot of great hair artists take the time to create and post videos of their work and process so other stylists can learn from the comfort of their homes without spending money.

But a great stylist isn't always a great film maker, so not all hair-how-to videos are created equal. So we've compiled a short list of YouTube channels by hair stylists who have been established in the industry for a while and make quality education videos.

1. Josie Deseray

Josie Vilayvanh and Deseray Thiessen are a dynamic Canadian who have made a name for themselves by learning how to color dark, fine hair into pretty much whatever they want. They create a lot of vibrant metallic colors, bleach ombres, and even extensions, but best of all, they're very good at showing and explaining their process on video. They don't try any distracting effects and there's barely even music. It's just a clear angle of what they're doing while they discuss their technique and the tools they use while working. This is still a fairly new channel, so there isn't a whole lot of content, but they've been mostly consistent about posting every month since they started, so it's definitely worth checking regularly.

2. Nam Nguyen

Nam Nguyen started in fashion so this is not strictly a hair tutorial channel. The videos range from vlogs about his travels to box openings and first impressions of new products. But in each instance he's good at discussing his topic, and provides a lot of thoughtful insight into events, styles, techniques, and sometimes even gives you some a pretty compelling accounts from his own life. His video quality isn't the best, but he's always careful about showing you what's going on, and his commentary is always clear and pretty entertaining. This is a great place for discussion on both trends and techniques.

3. Stylist Pang

This is an interesting, straightforward channel. Pang actually wears her camera while she styles so she doesn't have to worry about the angle, and the viewer has a direct line of sight to her hands. Most of her work is in balayage, so if you're looking for pointers on free-hand painting this is a good place to go. The only issue is that she occasionally has trouble with audio, either because of the microphone she uses or because of the music volume she sets to the video. But that doesn't interfere so often that you can't tell what she's saying, so it's still a great learning resource.

4. Guy Tang

You've probably heard Guy Tang's name thrown around, and even follow him on Instagram and Snap Chat and Facebook. Most of America does. But if you haven't taken the time to watch any of his YouTube videos we strongly encourage you to do so. For someone who could easily charge for every kernel of information he divulges, he posts a surprising amount of instruction online. Some are long, running as far as twenty minutes, but Guy Tang throws so much charm into the camera you barely notice the time pass. And you're getting a lot precise, clear instruction from one of the best in the industry. There's a reason he's one of the most famous hair artists around, and it isn't just because of his skill with social media. Guy knows his stuff.

5. Nothing but Pixies

Don Godfrey isn't a stylist so much as a connoisseur of hair art. He has a marketing background in furniture, but has spent the last several years steeped in the hair community and finding artists to appreciate and support. The Nothing but Pixies channel is basically to appreciate recent trends, experiments, or just any kind of pixie cut that he thinks is interesting and well executed. It's not the kind of place you go to learn technique, but you'll definitely find plenty of inspiration, and it's probably one of the first places you're likely to find something new. We'd recommend checking this channel out any time you're looking for ideas.

Photo Courtesy of Harry Lawford under Creative Commons

Wedding season has always been a cursed blessing in the styling world. On one hand it's a big boost in business between increased demand and word of mouth, but there's almost no other job that's more stressful and demanding than being the hair stylist on wedding day. Fortunately half of success on these days is in preparation, so here a few things to take care of so your wedding season will go as smoothly as possible.

Discuss Backup Hairstyles

It's not uncommon for last minute hairstyle changes to be necessary. The bride might change her mind about what she wants, or something might might happen to a bridesmaid's hair that you'll need to work around. In both of these cases, they'll expect you to be the miracle worker. While you obviously can't prepare for every whim and disaster, and you don't actually have magic hair powers (despite what they might think), you can come up with a list of five or six different styles with the wedding party. This way you can practice and prepare for that handful of styles to work off of instead of trying to tackle a completely new style that you don't have the tools for.

Practice Your Styles

Laura Kaszoni (better known as Lala's Updos) once told us “the styles don't take hours, the practice does.” That’s good to keep in mind as you prepare. The last thing that should happen on wedding day is the stylist mucking up the hair because she didn't practice her updos enough. And even though you'll (hopefully) start styling everyone many many hours before the ceremony begins, you need to be able to work under a shortened timeline in case someone shows up late, or someone's hair is prematurely messed up. Practice does not make perfect. There is no perfect. But there are different levels of success, and the more you practice, the higher you'll get on that scale.

List the Hair Tools You'll Need

Start taking an inventory of all the hair tools you’ll need to get through the day: combs, sprays, brushes, pins, tiaras, headdresses, crowns,drinks, etc. Leave a space for checks on the side of that list, then make that list your best friend. Tack it to your forehead, go to the sleep with it, take selfies with it and tell it your darkest secrets, so that when the day comes you won't even need to double check that you have everything because you know that list like it's another little you. But you're going to double check it anyway, because shame on you if end up with a lopsided updo because you forget to bring enough pins.

Leave Time for Instragram

There are probably going to be a lot of professional photos of your work taken throughout the day, so you might think this isn't important, but if you've ever had to hire a professional photographer, especially for weddings, you know it can take a long time for those pictures to come back. And even when they do, you're probably not going to get any before photos. So be sure you set aside a minute just before and one right after styling so you can make sure you have decent photos of your work in your own hands. Remember, aside from the hopeful word of mouth you get from this year's clients, these pictures are your ticket to next next year's wedding season.

Visualize the Event

If you've never styled for a wedding before, now would be a good time to start toughening yourself for the madness that is about to consume you. It usually starts out calm enough, but as the sun rises and the in-laws start scrambling around to prepare everything else, the whole event usually tries to fly off the ground, and it will almost certainly not go smoothly. So you need to stay grounded. People will yell at you, criticize your work or the people you're working on, there might be tears of joy, sadness, stress, or confusion or all of the above at the same time from the same person, possibly while sitting in your salon chair. You need to remember that you're on the job. You need to stay calm and professional, if not for their sake, then at least for yours.

Online marketing is a must for most hairdressers, especially those just starting out. Social media has become a veritable battleground for attention in the hair artist community, so it becomes a little harder every year for anyone who isn't already established to be seen or heard.

There is no shortage of advice on online marketing for hairdressers and salon owners, but we're here to talk about one particular strategy for social media marketing: online competitions, and we don't mean the ones your salon runs, although that's a good plan too.

A lot of businesses and magazines run competitions entirely online now, providing stylists across the country with a great opportunity to get their name out. But a lot of artists tend to think of these as win or lose scenarios, and often get discouraged when they don't win or are too afraid of rejection to even enter in the first place. If you're among those artists, here are a few different ways to approach the world of official competitions that might encourage you to start entering.

Getting in the Spotlight

Let's assume the worst. You won't win whatever competition you've entered. That doesn't mean you won't get anything out of it, because you've put out your name out there just by entering. This is great chance to talk about yourself

When you out yourself out there with quality work, someone will notice. For example, we often re-post work from hair artists on Instagram that we like, but before we even know we like something we have to notice it first, and we scroll through a lot of work every day. We're much more likely to notice an artist when he or she is actively doing something because a lot more activity is suddenly directed toward that artist.

If people like your work, they'll want to support you. So the minute you enter that competition, post about it. Tell people what your process and inspiration was, and odds are people will start sharing your work without you even asking.

It's a Great Way to get Feedback

It's hard to hear criticism, and most people won't give you ideal or even positive advice, but entering something like the BTC One Shot is a big step toward getting your work in the eyes of other professionals who are capable of giving you constructive feedback. When you enter a competition you enter a community not just of competitors, but people from all corners of the industry who are interested in seeing great hair art. You will probably hear a lot of things you don't want to hear as more people see your work, but there will usually be kernels of wisdom in all the online commenting.

People Love Drama

We're not talking about high school rabble rousing. We get a visceral pleasure from watching people try to achieve their dreams. When you actively compete it intensifies that sense of struggle. We're not saying you need to go live a life worthy of writing a story about, only that people instinctively create the story in their heads. So get out there and struggle, and stop worrying about what everyone will think.

Hair colorists have been creating a lot of incredible hairstyles with Fanola colors lately. More than we can keep track of, which is great, because now it's easy to find great examples of pretty much every hair color. We've been diving into the Instagram sea and peaking at what a lot of great artists are working on, covering the hair color spectrum from brown to blonde.

Curled Sombre

Cashmetology8 (Danielle Ayala)

Obviously this style isn't just about the color. You could get lost in those Shirly Temple curls. But the contrast from dark brown to ash blonde was handled beautifully by Danielle Ayala, and if you look closely you'll find very light reds highlighting the blonde. Not too much, because frankly a lot of red would clash with the natural colors, but Danielle painted just enough to add some tasteful dimension.

Candy Pink

by Your Face in Vain (Fawn Anne)

This delicate pink comes from Fawn Anne of Pomp Salon in Stockton, California. Reddish colors are always a dangerous game to play because you're toying with muddled bronzing colors. But Anne is a pro at this, and came out with a fantastic color melt.

Transformation from Brown to Rooty Ash/Purple Ombre

by Sammi Wang

Sometimes Sammi Wang is so smooth your eyes slide right off her work. This melt from light ash brown to purple is a very careful navigation of hair color. The shades are so low toned, they border on being easy to miss, but Sammi has some interesting formulas when it comes to purple. And these colors go together so seamlessly it's almost addicting to look at.

Transformation from Red to Silver Balayage

By Hair Goddess Kat (Kathleen Austin)

Kathleen Austin's transformation from a rough, faded bronze to a strong, waving silver is almost viscerally satisfying to see. It's like popping a zit and watching butterflies come out of it. This really showcases her ability to save hair in just about any condition and bring it into a whole new dimension.

Pastel Purples and Blues

by Eva Lam

Trust Eva Lam to take pastels up to Mount Olympus. This beautifully wrought masterpiece of light blues and blonde blended into tight lavender waves is the final piece of Eva's goddess series. She did Hera, Artemis, and Athena before this. You should definitely check those out, but, as Eva herself said, she saved the best for last.

Transformation from Brown Ombre to Blonde

by Hairbyhayleex (Haylee Hutchinson)

Haylee Hutchinson is based across the pacific in Australia, which is a whole other world of fascinating stylists. It's easily one of the best blonde coloring jobs we've seen in awhile. We should stress here that Haylee is a blonde hair specialist, so she's exactly the kind of artist to look to when you want to see Fanola's full potential in blonde.

Photo courtesy of YuMaNuMa through creative commons

One of the most important factors you have to consider in planning a new salon is your standards and strategy for hiring stylists. The temptation for a lot of new salon owners is to find artists who are highly skilled with decent experience and clientele. But as Michael Levine points out in his “Developing your Culture” series on American Salon, that interferes with your salon's brand and image. It's scary to look to young stylists fresh out of beauty school (or still attending), but having that raw, unshaped material is a great opportunity for salon owners with the wisdom and ambition to harness it.

It Keeps your Salon's Image Uniform

When you want things to be done cleanly and consistently, you need stylists who are willing to learn how to handle customers your way. Michael Levine established specific rules in his salons to match his vision for a salon should run. For example, no one is allowed to say “no problem.” They cut the explanation out of the the video, but it probably has something to do with misleading consumers into thinking what the stylists are doing for them is ever easy. A stylist with a few years of experience elsewhere is going to have a hard time conforming to that kind of strict etiquette.

Passion is More Important than Talent

You want your employees to care about the craft and the business. The world is full of insanely talented hair stylists, but being a good hairdresser requires a lot more than natural talent. Even for a prodigy, learning color mixology, face-framing, and layered cuts on top of how to adapt to unique hair types takes hours of daily practice and experimentation and a willingness to listen when someone gives you advice. And that's not even addressing the learning curve in interpersonal relationships with clients. Levine said you should “make the priority having people who love what you do and want to be a part of your team.” The best way to find someone with that kind of passion and dedication is to look for the stylist who's still trying to make a name for himself.

Personalized Education

When you get a stylist with a full appointment book, odds are she has her own way of doing things, and won't be so willing to listen to feedback from someone they just started working for. But when you get someone just out of beauty school equipped with a basic knowledge of styling, you have the chance to create an artist who knows how to learn no matter how good she gets. Dino Ballin of POMP Salon in Stockton provides weekly education for his stylists, because he wants to create a community of learning in his business. He has a team of artists who are perpetually in a state of mind of learning something new and know better than to shy away from areas in which they aren't completely comfortable.

It Strengthens Your Salon Brand

Stylists tend to move around to different salons over time for various reasons. You can't expect people to stick around forever. The good news is that every stylist who leaves your salon carries the reputation of your business. At least, that's good news if you're doing your job right. When a stylist starts and trains with you for five years, makes a name for himself, then has to move out of town and find work at another salon, he'll end up telling people where he started, and you'll start gaining a reputation as a salon that knows how to make a good stylist. That benefit carries to both clients and hiring new stylists, because if you build your name well enough you won't have to try hard to find the passionate artists. They'll come to you.

Picture courtesy of Palmira Van through Creative Commons.

You hear a lot about going green these days, and more often than not the reasons cited are for the benefit of the planet, which, as reasons go, is pretty good. But the eventual destruction of the planet somehow lacks the punch needed to get a lot of people into motion, so we've decided to take a different perspective on it. The thing about making your salon more environmentally friendly is it's not just good for the planet but good for your business. Most of the solutions involve using higher quality products and reducing waste, both sound business practice. So here's why going green is good for business.

It Attracts Younger Clients

Most of the millennial generation, and even Gen Z, will claim they're concerned about the environment. Whether or not they actually are, they definitely like to talk about it, and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. That includes for brands and businesses known to be dedicated to helping the environment. Things like Green Circle Salons are a great way to get word-of-mouth attention for your salon. When you can truthfully claim that your business is wind or solar powered, that you recycle all possible waste, and that you donate hair to clean up oil spills in the ocean, you suddenly have a lot of trendy talking points on social media and advertisements.

It Saves Money

The whole idea behind being environmentally friendly is really being more economic: use less, get more out of what you do use, use high quality tools that can be repaired instead of thrown away. When you're looking for ways to cut costs in the salon, a quick glance at most green salon tips will give you plenty of ideas. Learn the right portions for mixing colors so you don't pour a bunch of product into a bowl only to dump it out later. Be more careful with water, go easy on the heat, use as much natural lighting as you can, and find ways to get every drop of hair product out of your tubes and bottles as you can.

It Might Prevent the Eventual Destruction of Human Civilization and Therefore Your Salon

That point doesn't need a lot of explanation. The collapse of civilization or destruction of the human race is pretty bad for most businesses. It will be a niche group that still cares about getting a new hairstyle when most of the world is crippled from drought on one side and city-shattering storms on the other.

Photo by Jeff Krasko

It's possible that this topic has little relevance to you. The beauty industry is not known for attracting gamers (not that it never does). But rest assured, whether you're aware of it or not, Pokemon Go is going to affect your business, if it hasn't already. Don't worry. For the most part it's a good thing, a chance to engage clients in a new way, and advertise your business… Or not, depending on how you feel about it. You just need to be aware of a couple details to prepare yourself for what's about to start happening around you, and possibly in your chair.

People Are Going Outside and Spending Money

Barely two weeks live and Pokemon Go is already a more popular app than Twitter. That's a huge cultural phenomenon, and the good news moving around outside is a big part of it, and they get very free with their money. The bad news is most of the time these people will be looking at their phone. So while the game increases foot traffic, traditional strategies for grabbing attention will not work quite so well. Many businesses have already started using the game to bring people in. However the majority of those businesses are food vendors. For them the game is a natural ally, since, as it happens, trying to catch them all is thirsty work. You'll have to be a little more creative to pull people in with the game.

These Are Mostly Millennial Nerds

For the most part, the people you'll hear talking about this game spent their childhood inside with their face stuck to a Gameboy. That's where this whole beast started. So if the majority of your clientele didn't spend much time in front of a screen in the 90's, this might not be such a big deal to you. But if you deal with a lot of people around 30 and under, well, odds are you've already heard plenty about this. Settle in and get ready to get engaged with this, though, because it's not going away anytime soon. This game could be a gateway to a new demographic for you.

It's a New Chair Distraction

If you get annoyed when people text and talk on their phone while you're working you haven't seen anything yet. These gamers are going to point their phones at every inch of your salon and will likely start gushing a string of unintelligible phrases about the Charizard on your shampoo unit. Don't panic when this happens. They are not cursing your business. They just found a magic animal on their phone and they want to tell you about it. In fact, at this point you can forget about talking to them about anything else.

You're About to See a lot of Pokemon Inspired Hair

If there's one thing a nerd loves almost as much as video games, it's cosplay. And colorists notoriously love patronizing that love. You're about to start seeing some outlandish hair styles out there (at least, they'll be outlandish if you don't know your Pokemon), especially on Instagram. If you're feeling adventurous, trying your hand at Pokemon inspired hair colors would be a good way to garner some attention on social media. That's up to you. Mostly we just want to warn you about the flood of yellow and black Pikachu hair you're about to see.

It's All About Exploring

At its heart, Pokemon is about searching the world for something new and exciting. Any hair artist can understand that, even if you've never touched a Nintendo system. People believe this is the closest they've ever come to seeing magic in the real world, so it's understandable they're all excited. If you really want to get in touch with this new evolution of culture, that's the feeling you need to tap into.

Vena Louise Elizondo has been an eclectic cultural force in the southern California for a long time now. Ever since she moved to America she's been drinking in the different noises and colors from cultures that come from all over the world to clash in the streets of Los Angeles, and she's put that wealth of influence to good use in her hair artistry. There's always something a little different with a hint of something else familiar in her styles, but most of all, if you're paying attention, there's something inspirational.

Red curls by Vena

Vena was born and raised in Ensenada, Mexico which is just south of the border, not too far from San Diego, so maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that she's so in tune with California culture. She enrolled in beauty school at the age of 16 with the support of her mother then went on to assist at the J. Russel Salon in Palm Springs. It took this period of time for her to really realize, or perhaps accept, that her calling in life was hair styling.

Rooty blonde by Vena

Thankfully, when she decided her art would be in hair she jumped into full force. She went on to receive education from Vidal Sassoon, Goldwell, Redken, Paul Mitchell, Bumble & Bumble, Sachajuan, and Oribe. Vena drank in new knowledge about cutting and coloring the same way she drank in the mixture of cultures from Ensenada and LA, and she worked hard over the next 12 years to refine this wealth of influence and knowledge into her own unique style that both draws from and whispers into the flow of imagery and self awareness that is always changing in California's rich cultural tapestry.

Mint green bob by Vena

Recently she has ventured more into the world of education. While she is still a prolific creator when it comes to different hair colors and experimental styles, she spends more time traveling to run workshops and share the techniques and knowledge she has so tirelessly earned. Recently she has started collaborating with people like the Kuthause Salon and Eva Lam, helping to strengthen the hair art community.

Red color melt by Vena

For stylists at any level, Vena's work is an great source of inspiration and learning, not only from a technical aspect, but for anyone who wants to see what happens when you let different corners of the world mix into one place. You end up with artists like Vena.

You can follow her on Instagram @venalove.