Photo by Johnny Lai

By now you probably have your holiday marketing plans sorted out. You’re already sending out mass texts about special offers and referrals and gift sales and now you’re waiting for the Christmas tide to wash up to your neck, and hoping it won’t get over your head. This is technically a happy time, but it’s also obscenely busy and a lot of stylists become overwhelmed by the thickening appointment book coming at odds with the lengthening to-do list at home. While it might be a good time for business, it’s not great for health, and that’s one of the most important aspects of keeping your business up. So here are a few tips for getting through December without breaking down.

Prepare Meals

It sounds like your grandmother saying you need to put more meat on your bones, but you’re a stylist. Odds are your lunch was a protein shake pounded down in five minutes while standing up, so it’s a safe bet grandma was right. Eating healthy is a lot easier than most people think, it just takes a little planning and preparation. At the start of each week try sorting out snacks to eat during the day like trail mix and dry fruit, and if you don’t have time to cook every night, try making food in bulk like stew, chili, or soup that you can just heat up when you get home. It takes a little cooking savvy and cuts into your Sunday a little, but you’ll thank yourself every day during the week.

For God’s Sake, Sleep

There is no worse mistake made by ambitious creatives and business owners than to drive yourselves into the ground with too many late nights. Sometimes it’s necessary, sure. Constant growth is inherent to this industry. But if you let too many of those late nights stack up you’ll be bed-ridden by the end of the month. Especially during flu season, when bacteria flies behind warm closed doors with wild abandon. And, not to alarm you, but as a stylist you’re coming into close contact with a lot of people. Maybe you already got your shot, and maybe you’re taking a daily dose of vitamin C and wearing a mask, but at the end of the day, the best way to avoid getting sick is letting yourself get those 6-8 hours at least a few days a week.

Separate Work and Home

We all love what we do. The great thing about being a stylist, colorist, barber, etc. is that you wake up every morning and go home every night knowing you’re doing something you enjoy doing. But it’s still work. It involves stress and planning and a lot of dedication, so even artists need to turn off sometimes. When you go home at night, parcel out a set amount of time to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Whether that means reading or watching tv or just watching paint dry (on the wall, not hair. No cheating). One of the things that often keeps us from relaxing is knowing we have something else we need to be doing. If you specifically set an hour or so aside to do nothing it makes it easier to relax because you know exactly when you’ll be getting back to life.

Are You Ready to Style Hair at Home?

Photo by Karen Newman

For millions of stylists in America, starting a home salon seems like a shorter, cheaper path to owning their business, but many don’t realize what all goes into opening a salon. And a home salon brings its own set of unique complications. Between finding the right salon equipment to fit in your home and the complications of adapting any room in a house to meet state regulations, you will quickly find yourself drowning in preparation. So it’s important to take a step back and really consider if working from home is worth the trouble, and if you’re ready for it. To help you along, here are a few reasons you probably aren’t ready for it.

1. You Will be too Stressed

It’s a tantalizing prospect. You don’t have to drive to work or rent an extra space so you’ll save money. Every break and lunch can be spent in the comfort of your own room or kitchen, and you’ll never have to worry about forgetting something at home. But your now your home is your work and there is no easy escape. If you thought your job was stressful before, just wait until your bed is only 20 feet away from your salon chair. It will affect your sleeping habits and your eating habits. Your emotional state will shift toward anxiety in almost every facet of your life.

2. You Don’t Have the Discipline

Working from home creates a dangerous compromise between professionalism and relaxation. Every time your lie back in your pajamas to watch tv, you’re doing it at work, and every time you put on an apron and pick up a pair of scissors, you’re doing it at home. It becomes very easy for the lines to blur to the point that your time at home becomes too professional, and even worse, your work becomes too relaxed, and you’re never really working or playing to your fullest potential.

3. Decorating Your Salon Means Decorating Your Home

There’s a lot of silver lining here since a salon is meant to be a beautiful, well decorated place anyway. But maybe your not so big on keeping your home as clean as your work, or you really like movie posters in your home but that doesn’t really fit with your salon’s classic aesthetic. And even if you successfully put up a solid divider between work space and living space, the outside of your home takes second priority to the outside of your work. You need to take pains to keep your yard manicured and your holiday decorations tasteful (according your salon’s image, anyway). Unless you already have a relaxed image and know all your clients well, you lose a lot of freedom, because everything must be decided with consideration to your clientele.

4. You’re Working with a lot Less Space

In general, a home salon will be a tighter fit than any other option. Whether you’re converting the garage or the living room into your salon, it means you not only have to find a new place to keep the car or living room couch, but you’re also working with less square feet for your salon than you would have by just renting out a studio somewhere else. It takes a lot of careful planning to work out the ergonomics of fitting salon equipment like a styling chair and a shampoo unit into 120 square feet of space while also finding a place for your regular home furnishings.

But…

It’s absolutely possible to make a home salon work. And if it’s what you really want, or if it’s just the only option you have, you will find a way to make it work. Pessimism is a safe mentality. It operates by avoiding the possibility of failure, but you will only ever accomplish anything through the ambition inherent in optimism.

A small space is an opportunity to innovate and make the most out of what you have. If you love what you do you’ll find the discipline and creativity you need to make work and home mix well enough to keep pursuing your passion. Just keep in mind that this is not a frivolous decision. A home salon is going to be an insane amount of work and stress, but hair artists are nothing if not dedicated problem solvers. If you can figure out how to take a brunette ravaged by three years of box dyes and turn her into a smooth silver fox you can work out how to fit an all purpose chair and a color bar in the second bedroom.

It’s been a little while since we’ve rounded up some of our favorite hair colors made with Fanola, and the end of 2016 seems like a good time to do it again. This is getting trickier to do because Fanola has been getting progressively more popular. People are getting wild out there with it, but the most common use is the Fanola No Yellow shampoo, which a lot of stylists use as a way of pre-coloring. So not all of these hair colors are just Fanola colors, but they were definitely brought to you by Fanola in one way or another.

Brunette to Blonde Transformation

There aren’t many colorists who could hold a candle to a balayage by Rachelle Mariano. The closest thing any will ever get to sleeping on a cloud is to have their hair done by her. This brunette-to-blonde transformation she made a while back is a great example of subtle toning. It has a hint of silver mixed in to create an almost smoky color that makes it stand out from a world of pure blondes.

Burgundy Layers

There are a lot of things to love about this glowering purple hair from color specialist Tiak. The layering, for one, is bold to say the least. It keeps the from looking flat and allows light through in different angles so the style shades itself and creates a more dynamic look. But the color is of course the star of the show here. Instead of a straight red or purple, Tiak took the time to find the sweet spot between the two, and her work paid off.

Ice Queen

Even if the best part about winter is over (RIP, holiday season), we appreciate this icy white color from Esa Beauty Studio. It has all the regal airs of a true ice queen, with a loose tie in the center that’s not quite a braid but perfectly brings the whole undone look together. It’s a fantastic execution of a style that seems to be getting more popular every year.

Red and Curly

We love it when someone goes red using Fanola, because it’s such a tricky color to get right. Isabel of Bellabru Salon has not only properly set a head on fire (figuratively. We don’t condone lighting your client’s hair on fire), but she’s also tackled a head of curly hair and done wonders with it by making it a dark color melt and tying it off with a loose braid.

Mermaid Hair

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include at least one mermaid hair color. White Ivy Studio brings us this vivid rainbow on a long bob. They were not afraid of making intense neon shades out of oceanic colors, tinged with a sunset on top. There’s a lot of fun behind these colors. It’s the kind of thing that a lot of colorists want to do, but very few clients are brave enough to try, so it’s satisfying to see it done, and done well.

Color Melt/Blonde Transformation

This is something of a No Yellow miracle by the people from Revive by M. No intense coloring going on here. It’s just a solid hair save and clean up resulting in a lush color blend. These colorists have done a great job taking an extreme color melt to a soft blonde with a dark layer. There’s a lot of careful hair care and painting going on here.

One of the worst things you can do after setting up your salon equipment is to leave it alone and pretend it can take care of itself. Whether it’s styling chairs, shampoo chairs, or manicure tables, your equipment needs regular cleaning and maintenance. Most of it really doesn’t take that much effort, and with a little care and attention, even cheap salon equipment can give you years of reliable use.

Exposing It to Direct Sunlight

Natural lighting is great for decoration and your Instagram before-and-afters, however sunlight wreaks havoc on most kinds of upholstery by drying it out and fading the color. When you’re designing the layout of your salon make sure the sun won’t be beating down on any chairs in the afternoon (it isn’t quite so damaging in the morning). If you have to put some chairs in sunlight make sure you cover them with something. Even clear plastic chair covers are better than nothing because they still disperse some light.

Ignoring the Screws

Most of your equipment includes moving parts and pieces screwed into other pieces. Over time all those things are going to loosen up and wear down. Every week or so make sure you give your chairs and tables a once over and make sure all the screws are tight and nothing is wiggling more than it’s supposed to. This will prevent pieces from wearing out or even breaking off over time.

Leaving it Uncovered when Using Hair Chemicals

Hair color cream and bleach don’t play well with pretty much any surface. It should always be standard practice to at least protect the back of a styling or shampoo chair with a chair cover when you’re going to be working with any chemical more caustic than water. Otherwise you’ll end up covering the chair in stains and eventually ruining the upholstery.

Irregular Cleaning

Dust is the enemy of any machine, no matter how simple. Wiping down a chair completely at the end of the day goes a way toward keeping its color intact and all its parts working properly. And always wipe the equipment down with disinfectant regularly to avoid any grime build up. A lot of people are sitting in those chairs and lying on those tables, and the cumulative body oil from all of them won’t look or smell great if left uncleaned for too long.

Repair vs. Replace

It’s important to make sure all the parts on your equipment are repaired or replaced quickly because generally when one part is breaking down, it will start bringing all the parts nearby down with it. Every stylist and salon owner should know how to repair things for his or herself, but if you’re going to fix something on your own, learn to do it properly, and most of all, learn when a part just needs to be replaced. There are far too many flustered stylists out there assaulting their styling chairs with duct tape and glue to avoid dropping a few bucks on replacement arms, when it would be simpler and safer for both the chair and the clients to put on a new part.

It’s a new year, spring is inching closer and people are starting to get an itch for change. And that means new hair styles. We’ve  been seeing a lot of hair color transformations while we spend too much time scrolling through Instagram lately. There are a lot of bright colors coming back into the world, and even though we enjoyed the ice queen winter changes a few months back (and even though spring is still a ways away), it’s refreshing to see hair bloom again. Here are a few of our favorites so far.

Green or Red Color Melt

Seattle hair artist Kylie Rose does a lot of work that’s fun to look at. She paints lots of bright colors and often combines complementary colors so every shade comes out strong. We don’t know what all went into this mermaid makeover, but seeing this change from sea green to sunset orange with a smoky complement is an immersive experience. It’s like looking at an impressionist painting of a landscape.

Blond to Sunset Hair

The determined artist behind this creation, Haley Edwards, actually hails from Melbourne, Australia, so the whole spring change thing doesn’t quite hold up here. But it’s still one of the most vivid color transformations we’ve seen so far this year. Take a look at the rest of her work and you’ll find that colors like this are a motif for her, but this transformation definitely wins out as the most vibrant.

Muted Split Vivid Transformation

Dear Miju, where did you get your magic powers?

This lift-and-color job is a work of genius. Lifting dark hair is a delicate process, especially when you’re going to add colors as soft and light as this afterward. James Miju has been working magic with Fanola for a while now, so you’d think we would stop being surprised when he weaves together a soft purple and blue color spell. We suspect that he’s still got quite a few surprises mixed up in is color bowls, though.

Black to Brunette Balayage

Okay, so this doesn’t have quite the same kind of color spectrum as the others, but we like it anyway because this transformation is a sign of hope. Vena Love took this first-time client with aggressively darkened hair, dry to the bone, and breathed enough life back into it to lighten the color slightly and paint subtle highlights. It’s not an extreme change in color, but in terms of hair health and color dimension, this transformation as like night and day.

Rooty Ombre to Platinum Blonde

Leave it to Sammi Wang to take a grown out dark brunette ombre all the way up to platinum blonde and still make it look natural. This transformation made liberal use of the Fanola fiber fix treatment, and probably took months before it crossed the light-haired finish line, but this hard-earned result looks about as close to a perfect platinum as anyone could get. This hair is breathing a whisper of summer, so it looks like a light at the end of a rainy tunnel right now.

Studio Posh 29 has become a constant sanctuary for Sacramento people with hair troubles thanks to the calm and caring ownership of Katie Radu. Many of the stylists here are well known for their precision with cut and color and for always being able to come back with a new solution to a challenge. Part of that skill and ingenuity has grown out of the mentorship Katie provides to artists in Studio Posh 29.

The Studio

It sits on the east end of Broadway in Sacramento, an area where trendy cafes and breakfast joints hide in plain sight, and most days of the week you can hear school children in the distance. It’s the kind of place that’s easy to feel safe in, so it makes sense for Studio Posh 29 to be here. With cozy, wood-paneled walls, and a quiet atmosphere it’s probably one of the most relaxing places in Sacramento to get your hair or nails done. It opened its doors back in the summer of 2015, and has been weaving beauty and fixing compromised and box-colored hair with a cool confidence ever since.

Katie Radue

Apart from steadfast salon owner and cool teacher, Katie obviously fulfills her role as a stylist and colorist to an incredible degree. She makes white Kahleesi styles and classic balayage look easy. The things she’s been doing with Fanola colors lately serve as great examples of clean, professional work for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s very well done. She makes hairstyles look like they just happened to grow out that way. That’s an important detail. The less visible a stylist is in her work, the better. The other great thing about Katie, though, is that a lot of the time when she styles or colors she’s fixing something. People come to Studio Posh 29 with damaged hair or months of box dye or after a botched bleaching process from somewhere else, or even just a poor cut. And Katie and her team are always there to help them through it. For both clients and stylists, Katie has become the person to go to when you’re just not sure what to do anymore.

Fanola Troubleshooting Class

Now the good news is that Katie is coming to the Salon Guys’ home to teach a class on troubleshooting color problems with Fanola. That includes everything “from color corrections to toning disasters,” and the class comes along with a gift bag of Fanola products that Katie picked out herself, so you’ll walk away with the tools you need to actually practice what you learned. The bad news is this is happening very soon and might be tricky getting seats for. The class starts at 11 AM on Monday, March 13th.

It’s not the end of the world if you can’t make it. Even if you can’t learn from Katie personally, you can still follow @studioposh29 to get your daily fill of hairspiration, and while you’re at it, follow @salonguys and @fanola_usa so you can stay updated on the new hair artists and the next class.

A good massage table can make all the difference on a day of travelling between clients. Lugging around tables that are too heavy, or stepping up onto one to do deep tissue and hearing that worrisome creak from the legs can make for a stressful day. That’s not an ideal state of mind for someone who’s supposed to relieving stress all day. If you’ve been looking for some decent, sturdy massage furniture, you need something reliable, and preferably light, that can take a few hundred pounds without making you worry. There is a universe of options out there, and only one you, so here are three tables, tried and true by both amateurs and professionals, to help you start your search.

Master Del Rey Massage Table

This is the heaviest table on the list. In fact that’s usually the biggest complaint people have about it. The Del Rey is a bulky option, there’s no way around it. It weighs nearly 40 pounds, so this might not be the best option if you’re small or have clients who live up three stories of stairs. But if you can handle the weight, it’s one of the sturdiest tables you can get. This beast can handle up to 1,500 pounds, and has a pretty generous working area. This would be a great table if you have a lot of bigger clients.

Master Fairlane Massage Table

If a light table is your main concern, then the Fairlane is definitely a good solution. At a little under 30 pounds, it’s one of the lightest options you’ll find without sacrificing too much sturdiness. It can’t handle quite as much as some other tables but with a weight capacity of 1,000 lbs it’s no pushover. The most common complaint about the Fairlane is that the adjustable headrest can be a little tricky to work with sometimes, but some careful tightening should fix that up. This is also one of the most economic options, if price is also a big concern. This table usually comes in at around $200 versus the typical 3 to 500 you expect to pay for any table of decent quality.

MT Midas Massage Table

MT is an often overlooked brand for massage equipment, but they’re good at making a comfy portable table at a pretty reasonable cost. The Midas table is one of their more popular products because it offers a good compromise between cost, comfort, and portability. It’s not the lightest option you’ll find, but with a nice 3 inch cushion it’s worth the weight. It’s also roomy, so you’re clients will love it. However it does have a plywood frame, which is by no means a top quality structural material. You might hear some creaking as you settle extreme weight on it, but so long as you don’t misuse the thing it will hold, and you’ll have a good comfortable table for good long while.

Prepare yourselves, colorists. Fanola is headed to America’s Beauty Show in Chicago this year. They’ll be in booth 2480, and pining to answer your questions. Fanola has been working hard to educate stylists around the world and provide them with the tools they need to perfect their colors, so they’re extra excited to be going to ABS for the first time.

Fanola’s No Yellow Shampoo

While they offer a hug line of colors, bleaches, and hair treatments, one of their most popular creations is their No Yellow shampoo. Many stylists hail this purple shampoo as an excellent way to save time and money thanks to its incredibly strong pigment. It processes a lot faster so coloring sessions will go quicker. On to top of that, many stylists, like Nam Nguyen are using it to turn blonde hair silver without using color. The No Yellow shampoo will sort of be Fanola’s flagship product at ABS 2017, so if you’re curious about, this will definitely be the time to check it out.

Fanola Colors Make Art

The people using Fanola have been creating absurdly good artwork. The likes of James Miju, Vena Love, and Josie Vilay have been experimenting and perfecting their skills with Fanola colors over the last year, and their end results are inspirational to say the least. Some of the best silver colors have come from innovators using Fanola colors. And it’s become especially valued as a great color for working with very dark, fine hair.

Fanola Wants to Talk to You

One of Fanola’s goals is to support and build a relationship with stylists. They believe artists become stronger with the support of a community, so come talk to the representatives and ask them about hair colors. Tell them about your salon and your artwork and maybe they can tell you how Fanola can help your business. But either way, the only thing better than helping hair artists explore their craft is hearing their stories. That’s why they try to hold education events as often as they can. Getting to interact with stylists on a close and personal level helps Fanola learn the best way to serve the artists using their products.

This March 25 - 27, come check out booth 2480 and find out about the hair product that’s been sweeping the US. If you can’t make it to ABS this year, though, you can still talk to Fanola representatives. Just call or email the folks here at Salon Guys. And if you just want to see what Fanola can do, you only have to go as far our Instagram.

In the meantime, keep coloring, and Fanola hopes to see you this March.

Photo courtesy of Adg

The hair styling life comes with three major problems.

1. Clients who don’t know what they want.

2. Slaying too hard.

3. Back problems.

You can fix the first one with the second one. Unfortunately, slaying like a samurai master with a pair of scissors is often fixed by the third problem: musculoskeletal problems. In fact, back problems are the number one health concerns for hair stylists, followed quickly by sore feet, nutrition, and carpal tunnel. For your average 9 to 5 office jockey, back problems might not be big game changers, but for hair stylists, if the back, legs, or hands go out, it puts your career at risk. And if you’re working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, it isn’t if you’ll have back problems, it’s when. You aren’t doomed though. There are a few simple things you can start doing every day that will help keep your future back problems in check.

Start Sleeping More

You have to start here. Frankly nothing else will help you that much if you’re only sleeping 3 to 5 hours a night. The CDC actually considers sleep deprivation to be a public health problem, because it has a wide range of consequences, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression. Staying healthy requires some willpower and you just won’t have that unless you’re well rested. That means getting a minimum of 6 hours of sleep every night. You’ll feel like a superhero on 7 or 8, but we’re talking simple here. It doesn’t have a direct effect on your overworked spine, but it does help the body around the spine. It just makes everything inside you work better.

Stretch and Take Breaks

It’s hard to hold off what you’re doing to swing your limbs around for apparently no reason, but it helps to stay limber. Take five minutes at the beginning and end of each day to stretch your legs out, and during the day try to stop every thirty minutes to an hour to flex your hands and stretch your wrists. Just long enough to rest your hands and keep the blood flowing easily.

Good Salon Mats are your Best Friend

You probably spend most of your life standing on a salon mat at this point, so it makes sense to pay close attention to how it makes you feel. Your feet will be sore at the end of the day regardless, but when you start feeling that sharpness in the ankles or the knees, it’s time to either take a vacation or get a new salon mat. For such a simple piece of furniture, the salon mat is remarkably healthy for you. Besides just being comfortable, it actually helps maintain blood flow through your feet and legs, which has nice, far-reaching effects for your brain and your heart. A solid, comfy mat means a reduced risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and osteoporosis. So, you should definitely make sure you have one you like.

Water, Fruits, and Vegetables

You probably need to eat healthier, because you’re a hair stylist and the easiest thing to do on your 10 minute lunch break is to either wolf down a protein bar or eat nothing, then consume everything in sight when you finally get home. This has a similar effect to sleep deprivation. It makes you more tired and more depressed. Your whole body just operates less efficiently and that’s going to take a bigger toll on your back. A better diet doesn’t necessarily have to be some extreme trade off, like smothering everything in spinach, or giving up meat for nuts and beans. It can be as simple as making sure your eating fruits and vegetables everyday, and drinking enough water. So for a start, just resolve to start taking at least one kind of fruit to the salon with you and a large water bottle, and you  better drink enough to refill that bottle several times, because you need about a gallon of that stuff a day.

Take Walks

We know you’re on your feet all day already, and all you want to do when it’s over is kick off your shoes and melt into a mattress, but walking might be one of the best ways to protect your legs and back from trouble down the road. Walking helps you in three big ways: it improves your mood, it helps reduce weight gain, and it eases joint pain. According to Harvard Health, walking actually lubricates the joints in your legs and lower back and builds the muscles around them. You can prevent, or at least relieve, arthritis and osteoporosis just by walking five or six miles a week. You can easily make that if you spare fifteen to twenty minutes a day on strolling the neighborhood.

A New Season Means New Hairstyles

But a new summer means a lot of sun, wind, water, and sand, ie, some of our hair’s worst enemies. Summer can be a great opportunity to find new clientele but the new round of harsh elements presents a challenge to you as a hairdresser trying to style damaged hair, and to your clients trying maintain your beautiful work, so it’s important to start planning out how you’ll deal with it. Thankfully, Fanola has you covered with a huge range of treatments for just about any situation you can think of. Here are just a couple that you’ll find handy to have around in the hot weather.

Fanola Diamante Puro

This treatment is meant to be both regenerative and protective. If a client comes to you with a history of box dyes asking for the miracle of soft hair for the summer, Fanola’s Diamante Puro solution is a good way to get them back on the right path. It has some usual suspects in oils, argan and cypress, that work pretty quickly to smooth hair out again, but this stuff contains a couple of high class additives that amp up element protection. Micro-gold and diamonds. This isn’t like wearing a dollar sign around your neck though. These precious metals and stones are actually for bonding hair follicles, brightening color, and filtering sunlight. That means this treatment does double duty making your colors stand out more and protecting them from the increasingly harsh sunlight.

Fanola Zaffiro Puro

There’s one very important difference between Fanola’s Diamante treatment and their Zaffiro treatment: the purple one is for blondes.

It has the same concoction of oils and micro gold for smoothing, bonding, and filtering UV light. But anyone who has gone platinum knows that light hair requires a slightly different approach to maintenance, especially if you’ve used bleach heavily to achieve a color. The Zaffiro treatment is specifically designed to help fight and prevent damage from chemicals and hot irons, while also helping your yellows contrast more. With this, you and your client will be working with healthier hair and more vivid colors.

Fanola Fiber Fix Treatment Package

One thing you can be absolutely sure of this summer is that at least one person will come in with devastated hair, and they’ll expect you to make it look like pure silk just as soon as you finish fighting off the birds trying to use their hair to build a nest. Whether they’ve blasted their hair with box dyes or it was zapped by too much sun and saltwater, they’re going to need a lot of help getting back on track. This series of Fiber Fix treatments from Fanola was made for just this situation. This collection includes Fanola’s Bond Fixer, Bond Connector, and Fiber Shampoo. They’re all steps toward rebuilding the structure of the hair, not just sealing the follicles and slapping oil on them. The creams and shampoo revitalize the hair to its core and gets your client ready for that big switch to blonde they’ve been thinking about all winter.

Photo by Francesca Cappa

Pick a magazine with your eyes closed and you’ll find a Spring 2017 hair trend gallery. That’s cool. We like looking at hair trends, even if they look like the same trend we got last year. But after combing through all the spring hair buzz, we have to ask: Where are the curls?

Curly hair has an atypical place in fashion. We like it when it’s done well. We think it’s cute, but rarely think of it as beautiful and never as professional. And working with it is such a dreaded task for most stylists that you just don’t see many freshly done curly locks around Instagram or Pinterest, so we get saturated with easy flowing ‘dos. People jump to a hundred conclusions about anyone with natural curls without realizing it, and none of those conclusions involve work ethic or marketable skills. We attribute a lot of personality to the direction someone’s hair grows, and anyone with curls gets the short end of the equation. So for their sake, let’s spend some time asking why.

We Think It’s Adorable Instead

When was the last time you saw anyone with natural, intensely curly hair and thought it was “beautiful?” Generally the first words that come to mind are “cute” or “fun” or even “rebellious.” There’s something about curls that make us think of the face as softer. There’s no logical reason for this (if anything, curls should accentuate the angles on a face), but maybe we could still go to the Greeks for some explanation. Go check out almost any picture of Cupid, modern or ancient, and you’ll find a few babies with magical curls waking up in fields and playing with bows. Jump to the other side of the spectrum with Athena and you get fierce, long black hair, where it’s not covered in armor. They’re extreme, and old, examples, but that contrast between how we see the free-loving, curly-clad love god, and the long-locked, battle-ready god of wisdom seems too close to how we view hair styles in the modern day to day to ignore.

Maybe It’s Just not American Enough?

We originally set out to make a list of stylists who specialize in natural hair. What we immediately discovered is that most of those stylists, like Rodrigo Araujo, are in Brazil. Actually we’ve talked about a whole salon in the Dominican Republic with this speciality, so maybe Brazil isn’t the only place. The point is, you don’t find many in the U.S. There’s an overwhelming view here that curly hair makes it harder to get a job, so you get a horde of people trying hard to keep their hair straight so they’ll fit in. It becomes a self replicating problem, because the less we see curls in the workplace, the less we’ll associate them with a professional demeanor, and anyone who embraces their natural hair is seen as a rebel.

Blame Hollywood

Most of us watch TV every day, and at least one movie a week, so what we see on the screen has a big impact on how we see hair. If you pay close attention to who has what hair you’ll probably notice that the heroine almost never has curls. You’ll find those on the funny best friend, or the wacky mom, or the sweet neighbor lady. But the big love interest? The single mom just trying to keep her kids fed and runs into the handsome millionaire? She’ll have cool waves all the way down to her shoulders. You might see short hair. The hard case new boss standing at the front of a board meeting, or a frantic artist struggling with a new painting that just won’t come out right. Then standing behind both of those characters, or waiting in a coffee shop, is the support. The sidelined friend waiting for her next line while pulling on her springy hair to make it bounce.

How Does Curly Hair Become Professional

The simple answer is that employers, the people who actually pick who works and keeps working, need to understand that natural hair has nothing to do with politics, drug use, humor, or ability. If we can start hiring and promoting people without noticing hair then none of this will matter anyway. But that shift in perception doesn’t happen overnight; it happens through exposure, which brings us to you: the stylists.

You have a unique opportunity behind the chair to make those natural curls the best they can be and show the world how you did it. When someone comes to you asking if they should straighten their hair, try showing them how they can embrace the natural look and help them walk out of your salon doors with the confidence to hold those curls high, then post those before and after photos so we can see it too. Then over time maybe we can stop asking how to get hired with natural hair and ask the real important question: what cool stuff can we do with that hair?

Photo courtesy of Garry Knight

The male hairstyling movement is in full swing right now. Or at least, this iteration of it. Male grooming has always been a big thing. We just talk about it differently depending on the decade we’re in. Beards are big right now. That will almost certainly change in the next few years, but what won’t change quite so quickly is the way we talk to men about their personal appearance. Even with the growing comfort with men in salons, there’s still a certain stigma about how they approach their appearance outside the salon, and in consultation they still like to be reassured that they’ll retain a certain image of masculinity. It sounds like pandering, and that’s exactly what it is. But if you’re a stylist looking to take in male clients, the man’s hair consultation is something you need to put a little thought into.

Active Words

For whatever reason, cultural, biological, or magical, men like to hide their finicky grooming under practical justifications and short utilitarian words. Robert Cromeans, artistic director of Paul Mitchell Global, says “the more dangerously you can power your words, the more effective you’ll be in consultation.” That sounds a little like he’s suggesting you make everything you say sound like the title to an 80’s action movie, and that’s not far from the truth. His examples include saying “anti-aging” instead of “anti-balding” and using phrases like “edge-up” and “high performance”. Generally this means shifting the way you describe looks to relate to some kind of action word rather than directly talking about how the hair will look. The hair is doing something, not just being put into a certain shape.

Get Old Fashioned

You might be as young as you feel, but most men want to at least look mature. The modern man’s hair style is turning into a variation of the 30’s shape, but with a harder part. That’s the discovery Sarah Cottrell made when she designed her style for The Look competition in 2016. This throwback popularity might be part of the hipster movement’s obsession with the old fashioned world, where we believe everything was simpler and higher quality. Or maybe it’s just the natural cycle of fashion, where every look has a chance of revival after twenty years. Or maybe it just has something to do with George Clooney’s character in O, Brother Where Art Thou, because that guy looked pretty dapper. Whatever the reason, giving your client the image of a 30’s American gentleman (maybe sans the handlebar mustache) is a pretty safe way to go.

Low Maintenance Look, High Maintenance Client

Even with the growing wave of men pouring into salons and barber shops, there is still a certain squeamishness among them about coming off as too concerned with personal appearance. Because of this, the goal in men’s haircuts is usually to at least appear low maintenance regardless of whether it’s a loose laid back style or a quick and tight look. The common factor between the hard part with a smooth border and the tousled wave pulled to the back is simplicity. If you look at a lot of the men’s cuts coming out of places like Sacramento’s Bottle and Barlow, they look like they’re very easy to manage, even if some of these men are spending a half hour every morning smoothing everything out with a comb and a can of pomade. It doesn’t matter how complicated a man’s haircut is to achieve, they want to know that their hair will look is if it takes no thought at all.

Coachella has travelled far from its roots as a grungy music festival to something more like a free for all fashion show. It usually comes with a wave of free spirited behavior, so when people change their hair for it they’re looking for two simple things: Easy maintenance and a lot more color. Fashion bloggers and Youtubers the world over travel to southern California adorned in meticulously planned outfits, some of them getting their hair ready weeks in advance. So the festival season is really a time for people like James Miju and the team at Miju Van Salon to shine.

Braids and flowers are a staple of festivals, especially Coachella, but this year the trend leaned more toward pigtails, double buns, and unicorn colors, which is exactly the kind of thing these artists excel at.

Miju set the tone with this kaleidescope of unicorn inspiration alongside Sammi Wang. Many of the colors that came out of Miju Van for the weekend were much darker. Maybe because black and dark red feel cooler in the sun. Or maybe the profusion of bright vivid rainbows in hair styling the last couple years has created a space for dark, multi-toned colors to be edgy. Whatever the reason, they played with that trend perfectly.

Fashion vlogger Karen Yeung has been one of Miju’s clients for a while now so her hair is in good shape. That’s in part because she takes great care of it, so it’s healthy enough for her and Miju to try pretty much anything. She came to this glowering black and pink bob from a cold steel gray, which is a pretty extreme transition. But the combination of Yueng’s passionate approach to fashion and Miju’s unique mentality with hair coloring is bound to produce some pretty extreme hairstyles in the future.

Cydnee Black (on the left) went full on pink thanks to the careful genius of Tim Kim. No light task considering she started with level 9 or 10 hair. But like her contemporary Karen Yeung, Cydnee has very healthy hair, so Tim was able to take her all the way to blonde and finish off with the pink blend while keeping the hair silky and shiny. If you follow Miju Van you’ve probably seen them doing a lot of pink work lately. We don’t know if this is a growing summer trend or just something their clients in particular want, but we do know that everyone in Miju Van Salon is very good at it.

Left to right: Before and after Coachella

This color took some forethought. Miju actually colored the hair in deeper shades about a week or so before Coachella so the color would have time to fade into its proper tone when the big weekend arrived. It’s in keeping with Miju’s shift in unicorn hair to darker tones the last few weeks. Rainbow color hair turned darkly passionate feels like an appropriate direction for festival season in a year where emotions in every corner of the country seem to be on the rise.

You can always count on the artists at Miju Van to create something spectacular, but we especially appreciate them bringing something new to Coachella this year. In a place where everyone strives to be wild and different, it’s refreshing to see them send people out there in hair that actually feels unique. There’s a lot that can be said about the artwork coming out of Miju Van Salon right now, but it’s really best to appreciate it by looking at it. So we encourage you to follow both Miju Van and James Miju if you’d like a regular dose of wispy inspiration.

A Rose Balayage out of the Ashes of a Chemical Wasteland

There is a secret to working with over processed hair. Possibly. that secret involves becoming James Miju, but since only one person has accomplished that so far, we’ll have to settle for using his formulas and application method.

Miju is well known for his delicate work with thin, straight, and dark hair. He’s made a career of lifting the color of black strands and spinning them into vibrant pastels and vivid unicorn styles toned by his minimalistic aesthetic and what we assume must be magic. Of course, his careful selection of tools and products and massive knowledge in using them might have something to do with it too. But whether it’s the the workings of a powerful brain, or long-trained expertise in developing color formulas, one of the first words that come to mind looking at this recent creation is magic.

Miju created what he calls a Pale Ash Rose color out of a tricky combination of thin, uneven, and heavily processed hair. His client, Chantelle, had her hair done blue before coming to Miju for a big change, so her hair hadn’t had much time to recover its health.

Here are the gritty details of his process.

Starting Level: Chantelle’s hair was level 10 with level 7-8 banding. It was colored with direct dye and oxidative color and had tape-in extensions in the front for fullness all done a few days before this appointment. The client is recommended to use clarifying shampoo at home to get excess color removed before processing again.

Color Formulas

Formula A (Pre-treatment): 30 grams of Fanola Botolife Filler Intensive Reconstructor+ 7 grams of Fiber Fix Step 1

Formula B (Lightener): 30 grams Oro Therapy Bleaching Powder + 60 grams Oro Therapy 24k Gold Activator 10 vol + 7 grams Fiber Fix Step 1

Formula C (lilac-silver blonde): 59 grams of Oro 10.1e + 1 grams of Oro 4.2 + 90 grams of Oro 10 Vol developer + 7 grams of Fiber Fix Step 1

Formula D (smoked shadow): 50 grams 8.1 5 + grams 5.1 + 5 grams 4.2 + 90 grams of Oro 10 Vol developer + 7 grams of Fiber Fix Step 1

Formula E (rose color treatment): 40 grams of Botugen Reconstructive Mask mixed with 1 pump of Fanola Intense Red Color Mask Shine And Hydration.

Application

1. Remove any hair extensions, brush out tangles, and check the hair for hair strength/quality and color.  Apply a Formula A (Pre-treatment) on overprocessed areas first.

2.  Start applying Formula B (Lightener) on darkest areas first. Thoroughly saturate areas with darker Level 7 banding. Use papers to isolate  these sections. For banding that is level 8, lightly apply product to gently lift these areas.  

3.  Check hair every 10 minutes for hair quality and color. Wipe off the lightener with a towel if hair becomes too weak or is lifted to a level 9+. Apply Formula A (Pre-treatment) on strands that feels weak. 5 minutes before processing is complete, apply Formula B (Lightener) on any areas where previous color is still present.  Rinse when color is generally even or when hair is too processed to continue.

4. Shampoo with Fiber Fix Shampoo and follow up with Fiber Fix N2 Bond Connector Sealing Cream.

5. Quickly apply color Formula C (lilac-silver blonde) on the midshaft-ends and then apply Formula D (smoked shadow) onto the scalp area to start your shadow melt.  

6. After 5 minutes apply Formula D (smoked shadow) about 1-2 inch into the midshaft and onto any areas that are not toning out with Formula C (lilac-silver blonde). Allow 15 additional minutes to process.

7. Shampoo with Botugen Shampoo and Apply Formula E (rose color treatment) using a bowl and brush.  This will add a rose pink tint that last a few washes.  Rinse after 20 minutes.

8. Follow up with your favorite styling products, blow dry and curl with a 1 1/4 inch curling iron.

You can keep up with James Miju’s other creations on his instagram @dearmiju.

And if you’d like to see what other artists are doing with Fanola, definitely check out @fanola_usa.

Photo courtesy of Ellen De Vos

If you’re a stylist or barber you’re almost certainly on Instagram. If you aren’t, we wish you the best of luck, but we highly recommend you get on there if you want to maintain a good base of clientele. It’s tough to stay on top of Instagram. You have to maintain a consistent level of quality, you have to engage, you have to know what you’re talking about and what to say and who to say it to. Every now and then you hear something about the Instagram algorithm and wonder how important it is that you understand what that actually is. It can be a lot of work, but it’s simpler to keep your Instagram healthy than you think.

Tell Your Story, but not Too Much

Even if you’ve reached the point where you’re consistently styling hair that you’re proud of, you probably still aren’t standing out from the rest of the excellent stylists consistently putting out work that they’re proud of. There is no shortage of highly skilled stylists and barbers, which means most stylists don’t always get to just let the work speak for itself. Give people a glimpse into your process every now and then. Tell them about the client’s history and what they wanted when they walked in. When you tell a decent story behind a picture you give your followers something deeper to engage with, and you’re more likely to stick in their memory.

Hashtag in Moderation

You’ll find this advice everywhere you look, and yet so many stylists still insist on placing a hashtag behind every nook and cranny of their posts. We’ve talked about this before while discussing general social media tips for stylists, but it’s worth repeating and simplifying the advice:

• Always make hashtags

• But research before you hashtag

• And hashtag what’s relevant to the picture

Engage and Share

It’s not cheating to re-post a well done balayage from another stylist. In fact, there are a lot of quick benefits to re-posting good work from other people.

• It helps you engage with a larger community,

• Lets other artists know you appreciate their work,

• Brings more variety to the content you post,

• And gives your followers a deeper sense of your aesthetic.

Whether you find something by an established stylist that you admire or come across an especially good piece by an up and coming artist, re-posting their work (with attribution) helps you at least as much as it might help them. And when you do re-post them, be sure to comment on the picture. Tell them what you liked about it. Be a supportive member of the hair art community, not just because it increases your visibility, but because other stylists need encouragement sometimes too.

Stay Excited

Hopefully you’re in hair styling or barbering because you love it. All of this is a lot easier if you do, because then you’ll want to go find other people’s work, tell them how great it is and share it. You’ll want to tell people how you got that perfect shade of lilac blue. The minute you start losing interest or getting bored, it gets harder and you’ll slow down. When you feel yourself falling into a rut, you need to find ways to remind yourself why you enjoy this.

• Pick up a mannequin head and try a style you haven’t tried before,

• Find new sources of inspiration. If you’re usually inspired by nature, try taking a closer look at the neon colors of a city night.

• Talk to someone who styles completely different from you (and not just polite conversation. Really dig in there).

Or finally, and more dangerously, take a break. Doing the same thing day in and day out will always wear you down eventually. It’s tricky to step away from styling and advertising yourself on Instagram because people are probably following you for the hair glam shots and staying visible on Instagram means posting consistently. But posting a couple pictures of your vacation and taking a hit in followers for a week is better than falling out of love with what you do. You can always recover on social media. There’s always a way climb back up the Instagram ladder. Don’t let obsession with making your work more visible interfere with your passion for doing the work itself.

Our Favorite Summer Hair Looks So Far

July is in full swing now, so stylists have had plenty of time to flex their repertoire of summer looks. Traditionally this is the season of chopped bobs and light colors in beach waves, but hair stylists are as much creatures of the trend as they are rebels against mainstream standards, so when we say “summer hairstyles” there’s a tacit understanding that it could mean anything from hair designed to be comfortable in hot weather to a collage of bright colors made to incite the impression of summer. This year, we’ve come across a little bit of everything.

Platinum Transition

Of course you have to call out to Zach Mesquit of @platinum_perfection when you talk about summer hair. He’s like the godfather of platinum hair. Or maybe the Tony Montana. Either way, he’s one of the masters when it comes to bleaching and toning hair to a perfect white. This before and after shot is a great way to see the big difference between blonde and platinum hair. It’s also an example of just how much patience it takes even to lift hair this light to platinum, since this transition took Zach 7 hours to complete.

Cotton Candy Pink

Rachelle Mariano from Vancouver is not the stylist you would necessarily associate with summer looks since she deals with so many long, full-maned styles that look like shimmering fur blankets. Also, we’re skeptical that anyone who lives as far north as Canada could really understand the toils of summer well enough to make a great summer look. But then Rachelle came out with this cotton candy pink hair and now all we can think about is riding a ferris wheel on a warm night with a cool breeze and all the things we’re not supposed to eat. Well played, Canada.

Blonde Beach Wave Balayage

The blonde balayage is as much a symbol of a California summer as a paddleboard with cup holders for wine glasses. Stephanie Carrillo, owner of Modest Spot Salon in San Clement, captured this symbol perfectly with a brooding bronde put in beach waves. It has the kind of laid back, free-flowing style that encapsulates some of Orange County’s beaches, but also the general comfortable atmosphere Stephanie strives for in her salon.

Silver Blue Bob

We have a hard time staying away from James Miju’s work, but who could resist talking about this cool silver bob? Or maybe it’s a gray balayage. Or possibly an ash ombre. And there’s definitely blue in there too, it’s just hard to say what kind. Colors and styles are hard to define after Miju has blown through a head of hair. In this case, though, it’s worth forgetting about labels and just enjoying the cool breeze coming off this short-haired, steel-headed style.

Don’t Be Afraid to Sell Your Clients Good Shampoo

Fanola’s Botugen Hair System

Retail is one of the best ways to maintain and grow your salon without working yourself to death. That sounds like a commercial sell: “make big easy money now!” kind of thing. But the truth is that a lot of talented stylists are already working themselves to death while their salons remain financially stagnant because they’re unwilling or unable to sell the hair treatments on their shelves. It’s tough for some to think about selling retail when they’re so focused on refining their craft. Hair styling is an art, and money always complicates art. In this case, though, salon retail directly supports your art and helps your client’s hair stay healthy. Artist or no artist, it benefits everyone when people walk out of the salon with a bag of quality shampoo and treatments.

Educate Your Staff

No brainer. The more someone knows about a product, the better equipped they are to sell it. Every stylist should know not only what’s on the shelves, but how and when it should be used. Any one of the stylists in the salon should be able to recommend a product off the top of their head when a client complains about a certain characteristic in their hair.

“My hair is impossible to brush after I wash it.”

“Have you tried this after shampoo treatment? Its active ingredient is unicorn sweat which magically hydrates and oils your hair and makes it smell like a field of spring flowers. That should make brushing a little easier.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I need. Here’s all of my money.”

This is part of what John Harms calls “creating a culture around your retail products.” Clients want their hair to be manageable and look good and they know you’re the expert on that. If they like the way you take care of their hair they’ll trust your expertise on what products they should be using on it at home.

Think about Visibility

Obviously you need your clients to see what you’re selling, but more importantly, you need them to see it at the right time. Keeping your shelves near the checkout is one of the best places, but with the rise in mobile and tablet use (something we’ll get into next), clients don’t always pay at the checkout. Make displays in the waiting area, preferably with reading material to go with it. If a client can see an interesting product while waiting and then pick up a pamphlet about it, they’re far more likely to ask about it. And when you’re having promotions for products, make sure you put signs up where they’ll be visible from the styling chair.

Make Good Use of Smartphones and Tablets

Tablets and mobile apps have a become an integral part of tons of businesses. For salons, the tablet has become a great way for clients to make payments and schedule another appointment. That’s all great, but there are so many different ways tablets can help salons, especially big salons. You can get programs that let you create whole profiles on your client’s hair, which a receptionist could access to see what products you’ve recommended. This way, everything they’ve bought and used can be tracked, letting you not only see what’s selling, but also what is or isn’t working for the client.

Good Camera Work is about More than Instagram

Photo courtesy of Zorah Ollivia

These days most stylists immediately equate “better pictures” with a better Instagram following. Generally speaking that’s true. If your pictures look better you’ll get more engagement and reposts and ultimately more followers who convert into customers. But the benefits don’t stop with more people double tapping your latest ombre. Our world is driven by imagery more than ever before, so learning more about how color, lighting, and focus are affecting people’s perception of your work and your salon is almost essential to building a stable career in the beauty industry.

Good Pictures are Your Ticket to Winning Contests

If you haven’t seen the recent 2017 Behind the Chair One Shot winners yet, then you’re in for a pleasant scrolling jaunt later today. This year is full of colors and cuts that will either inspire you to create something new or make you feel inadequate as a stylist. That’s pretty much par for the course. The One Short awards attract a lot of insanely good stylists and colorists. Something that really stood out this year, though, and has become progressively more clear over the last few years, is that hair artists are getting really good at taking pictures. Some of that is due to better camera phones, and some to a growing interest in the hair community to actually learn how to take better pictures. Either way, if you’re trying to get your name out there, you’re going to need a little know-how with a camera.

You’ll See the True Importance of Salon Lighting

Lighting has a huge affect on your work and your clients both online and in person, so much so that there’s a growing industry dedicated to accurate color lighting for salons. There’s an odd rule of thumb going around that’s it’s better to use “natural light” for pictures, which has resulted in a lot of ill advised Instagram photos taken in direct afternoon sunlight. It doesn’t take much experience with a camera to discover the horrible things that much light can do to hair colors, but if you study a little more about lighting you’ll not only be able to discern what natural light is actually complimentary to your work, but adjust your salon lighting to be more agreeable for both your clients and your pictures.

It Makes You Invaluable for Photoshoots

Not everyone goes the route of a photoshoot stylist, but for those who do, it will make everything smoother when you and the photographer can speak on a more specialized level. Usually photographers (or the company they’re shooting for) are looking for a specific feel or look that will affect how they light everything and especially how they edit everything later, which ultimately affects how your makeup and styling will look in the end result. Also, anyone who’s ever been on a professional photoshoot will tell you that time management is one of the most stressful aspects, and you can make a photographers day by knowing how to accentuate the look and color they’re going for without too much explanation, and make them a lot more likely to call you up for the next gig.

Being Good with Hair Doesn’t Make you Good with Money

Image courtesy of Kevin Doncaster

Sometimes all you need to improve the profits of a business is to manage the money you’re making better and reduce costs. While this industry is full to the brim with brilliant creatives with supreme intellects for shape and color, only a modest percentage of those creatives understand the business side well enough to turn the art into a profitable career. It’s easy for creatives to get sucked into the fallacy that so long as they do great work they’ll be okay. Very often that’s not the case. There are thousands of stylists doing great work out there. And while there are a hundred and one ways to stand out and bring in more money to your salon, you’ll still need to know some solid housekeeping to survive the dry spells and take full advantage of your busy seasons.

Go Digital

We live in the age of information because it’s so easy to find and share information. It’s never been easier to track who comes into your salon, when, and what they’re paying for. There’s a thriving industry of salon management software designed to track this kind of information for you. Most of them are designed to streamline the booking process (as they should be) but it would be highly irresponsible for a salon owner to ignore the information they can give you. If you don’t know where to start with structuring or fixing a budget, or finding out where you’re slipping, then almost any of the well known management softwares out there will help you get on track fast.

Break the Numbers Down

Jim Pacifico of World Class Salons has a strategy of breaking down the numbers of his earning goal for the company by “the number of people and the number of days.” This way he gives stylists a less intimidating daily goal and each salon a weekly or monthly number to work with. While Pacifico is working with a much larger company than your average salon owner, the principal of structuring your goals and limits into manageable sizes is the same. Once you’ve figured out how much you need to make or save in order to turn a profit each year, start breaking that number down into what you need each month, and then day so you’ll have a clear idea of what you’re striving for everyday. This way you can gauge when you need to change something: for example, if you’re almost fully booked and still not quite meeting your goal, it’s either time to get a little quicker to fit in more appointments, or (more likely) it’s time to raise your prices.

Watch Your Color Bars

This should be one of the first places you look if you want to loosen up your budget a bit. A lot of money flows through a color bar, and stylists aren’t always mindful of how much they’re wasting what comes out of those color, bleach, or shampoo bottles while they’re working. It can be a touchy area, because so many colorists rightfully see what they do as an art, so they’ll use as much as they think they need. Most times though, there’s something in their method they can adjust to save product without hindering their creative vision. Whether it’s finding a new color line with a better price point, or just refining the way stylists apply product, good color management will bring health to your budget and opportunities for hair artists to grow.

NYFW 2017 Was Great but It Didn’t Make Pink Hair Cool

This year’s New York Fashion Week sparked its usual, widespread discussion of what’s “in” now. Vogue is under the impression that the lesson in the 2018 Spring line up is that long, pink hair with accessories is the cool thing to do right now.

But we’ve been watching colorists play with shades of red for the last couple years, and can assure you they’ve been making pink hair cool for a while now. Just because Alexander Wang dropped one model into his show with “rose-quartz” hair doesn’t mean it’s a new way to make a statement. Not to dismiss the work Josh Wood did on that hair; it looked great, but if it’s pink hair worn boldly you want now, we have some things to show you.

Metallic Pink with Lilac Extensions

Crystal Kim put up this metallic pink a while back, turning up the volume on what you thought was pink and threading light purple into the hair extensions to set the color off. The is actually a much deeper color than what Kim usually creates. Her usual aesthetic signifies an incredibly light and precise touch with pastels, which makes this strong, almost-red color all the more significant. Kim has always worked hard at refining a particular color style, but when she steps out and colors something a little louder, it’s always for a reason.

Sunset Color Melt

Nicki Nguyen set aside the subtleties of light, multi-tonal layers of delicately painted pink and dropped a bomb of pink and yellow. Don’t get us wrong. There’s some fine, subtle shading and cutting at work here. Nicki has put a lot of dimension into it. Cutting the end of the hair into a semi-uneven, frayed look creates an interesting frame for her work and saves the style from looking blocky. But It takes a while to pull your eyes away from this menagerie of color long enough to notice those things.

Rebel Pink Bob

You want to talk about multi-tonal color and cut dimension you better make sure you take a look at what Rickey Zito is doing these days. One of the most fascinating things about Rickey’s work is how he manages to take the mule-kick feeling of grunge and rebellion and compress it into diamond. In this case the diamond is a rough-cut pink bob. This seems all the better in the face of post-fashion week talk about long hair coming back. Long hair is welcome to come back, but RIckey will keep doing what he wants.

Balayage with Pink Highlights

If you’ve ever seen Vena Love’s work before you know this color and style is unusually understated. Vena’s status quo is often to upset everyone else’s with extreme vivids that defy our definitions of color and normalcy. This color really shows off Vena’s versatility. The dominance of a blonde/brunette color melt creates a dimensional canvas that’s just standard enough to accentuate the touches of pink balayage but almost hide exactly where that pink is coming from. You end up looking at a well done brunette balayage-ombre that inexplicably makes you think of pink.