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R.I.P. Sharon Tucker

As a stylist we all have clients that come and go, leaving us to wonder where a certain person has gone to.. .Have they lost their jobs and income to continue coming? Have they moved away? Or is it simply that they have found another stylist? On the odd occasions I have had phone calls or postcards letting us know that they have moved on, I sincerely appreciate this as there is no need for 2nd guessing.

Sharon Tucker has been a client of mine for over 10years, a beautiful soul who comes into my life every 7 to 8 weeks. The last time I saw Sharon she told me she’d been diagnosed with cancer but it had been caught early so chemo was not necessary, She said wouldn’t lose her hair and would continue to see me. Fast forward 10months to last night…

For months now I often had passing thoughts of Sharon and why I had not seen her lately? But as busy as we all are, time goes by and I kept forgetting to call or email her. Finally last night I remembered to look up her company to find a number or email address but nothing came through concrete, just the usual Facebook, or LinkedIn, but no company info. After looking for some time I came across a pdf file titled ‘Deaths’. My heart leapt, Oh no, how could this be? Staring me in my face was an article from Hope College stating Sharon had died March 13th, 2009. I was shocked, how was it possible that time had gone by so quickly and only 2 to 3 months after I saw her, she had passed away.

I cried, in fact I sobbed all night at the thought of losing and never seeing such a wonderful, beautiful, radiant person again, I will miss you Sharon. I had no other contact number or any other way to speak to anyone about Sharon so my only outlet was to write this as my memoir to her.

A message for all friends and family – we may only be peoples hairdressers or dentists or massage therapists, but we care.. we care alot!! (even though it may take us 8months to get round to looking) So please could you take a moment of your time to let us know, so we can quietly say our goodbyes too. Thank You.

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Make the most of your Hair Consultations…

Nearly ALL good salons will start your service with a consultation. If not I would either try somewhere else or if you are already there, insist on talking to your stylist first. The consultation is one of the most important part of the service especially when you are new to the salon.
This should be done while the hair is dry, which enables the stylist to see what the texture is like, how the client normally likes to wears her hair and also to check for other conditions such as swirls, cowlicks or even head lice (which we will talk about it another post)
During this 5 – 10 consultation (it should not take longer than 10mins because you want to give the stylist as much time as possible to spend on the actual haircut part) You should make the most of this time to get your point across as well as come to an agreement with your stylist on a hairstyle/color. Here are some points to remember to make the most of your time:
1. Your stylist is not a psychic, if this is your first time seeing this stylist do not hold any information back when they are asking you questions.
2. Even if you want them to give you suggestions, becos it is your first time, you must give clues to your lifestyles and desires.
3. Tell them how much time you are willing to put into your hair and whether you are high/low maintenance with it.
4. If you use words like short, funky, trendy, hip or words similar, please define them more clearly, everyone’s idea of these words vary so much. A young hipsters idea of funky may not be the same as yours!
5. If its your first time with someone, it is not a good idea to go in saying ‘Do what you like’ unless you REALLY don’t care!!
6. Do some homework before you go and have at least some idea of what you like and dislike.
7. Do take pictures with you as guide, (even though some stylists don’t like this, personally I think it saves time) this will help eliminate any differences in thoughts, but please be realistic and only use them as a guide to a specific shape and not expect your hair to be exactly the same as the picture, as all hair is different in textures and thicknesses as well as face shapes too.
8. When the stylist asks you questions, please answer truthfully, i.e. if you have had old color or any other product on your hair, please say so, as this can ultimately affect the end result if the stylist is kept in the dark about it.
9. Your stylist should be up front and honest with you as to what is possible or suitable and what is not.. be open to advice.
10. Try not to repeatedly praise your old hairstylist, (no matter how much you loved them)as this will make your new stylist feel that they cannot please you even before they have even tried.
11. Finally – remember that your stylist can only work with what is in front of them – meaning they cannot weave a silk rung from straw!!


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My Perms…

Now we’ve all been through some perms in our lifetime and if you haven’t your either VERY young or your lucky enough to have had natural curls!

I have certainly had my fair share of perms, especially being an experimental hairdresser In my ‘hey days’, we Asians could not live without them, and being raised in the UK, we were lucky if we didn’t get our hair fried off! Most of the hairdressers think of our hair types as coarse, thick and hard to wave, so they used the smallest rollers, the strongest lotions and left them on for maximum times!! Wrong! – even though we do have thick hair, it was amazingly easy to perm, so even the tiniest amount of wave was enough to show some movement.

But there again we all have aunts and grandmothers or even mothers who insist on having the smallest rollers to perm their hair as tight as possible to make it last longer and to make the most of their money!! Unfortunately all this did was make them look like they had an explosion on top of their heads and make the hair look thinner as the hair stood out from the head, showing scalp!

Perms have been off the scene for a long time now, but personally I still like them on certain occasions,(to add movement and funkiness) I tend to recommend my clients go to Asian hairdressers to do them becos they are so much more experienced (becos they have still continued with them) or to have it done in Asia when they are there, to try out the latest techniques.

One day maybe they will become popular again here but hopefully without the smelly lotions!

Anyway I felt the need to share with you my 70’s, 80’s an 90’s perms, even though I may regret putting some of these images out there but hey, what the hell!!

Here’s the 70’s:

80’s:

And 90’s:

If you have any perms of your own you would like to share with me, please do so : )

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Bleaching for texture?

Some may think this is an extreme way to get some texture into your hair, but for those with the most straight stubborn hair who like messy punky hair, its worth thinking about. Especially if you don’t want to have any kind of perm in your hair.

In other words, you need to wreck your hair as much as possible, hence the strongest chemical – Bleach!

By bleaching the hair, this opens up the cuticles and therefore leaves the hair with less elasticity, makes it more porous and therefore more pliable. But of course, once the hair is damaged, it cannot be repaired on the outside, and and only be cut off to remove it.

The degree of lift with the bleach is dependant on how ‘wrecked’ and ‘textured’ you would like it to be. Even lifting the hair to an orange shade will still give some texture to the most stubborn hair. Once the hair has been lifted, for those who don’t want to be lighter in color, then a dark brown or black is put back over the top of the bleach.

The idea of this technique is not necessarily to change the hair color but to change the texture of the hair, (hence the application of the darker color on top) and it is not suitable for anyone who wants to retain shiny healthy hair, this is an extreme way to give a very messy look to straight hair, for people who like funky ‘do’s!

image_of_Asian_punk_hairstyle_for_girlspicture

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Hit or Miss ~ Harajuka

Harajuka girls:

Very fascinating to go to Japan and visit Yoyogi Park (Harajuku Station). Anyone who gets the chance to visit Tokyo should try to go visit this large park, this is the place where all the kids hang out on the weekends and parade around. It used to be all about Rokerbillies and now it more about Goth looks. The kids go there, dress up or help each other dress up and then they will pose with or for any of the curious bystanders.

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Thinning Scissors…

thinning scissors

Thinning scissors are widely used on Asian hair around the world. As seen above they can vary on how much hair (weight) is taken out, depending on the spaces on the blade. One side has the teeth at varying widths while the other is a normal blade. The result of these scissors would look similar to this with varying widths:

thinned hair

Personally I don’t like to use thinning scissors for a few different reasons:

1. It gives such a uniformal look (above) that it becomes TOO thinned out.

2. You have no control over how much hair is taken out (unlike using razors or scissors) therefore in areas that are already thin, it becomes flat and flyaway.

3. Hair becomes too lifeless as too much of the body is taken away not leaving enough fullness and lift in the hair.

4. Although I do think they are good for use with cutting dog hair : )

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Bob – Hip or Mumsy?

What makes a Bob look hip and cool and what makes it look mumsy?

This one has always been a tough one for me, the number of times a client comes in asking for a Katie Holmes or a Nicole Ritchie and expect to look like them is beyond me. Women want bobs but most don’t want to look mumsy,(or like a soccer mum) so what can be done about it?

After alot of thought, I have come to the conclusion that if the client really wants to try it anyway, it really depends on a couple of factors and afew are dependant on whether the clients understands she needs to make some effort:

1. Whether the haircut has been done in a flattering but funky way,i.e., to suit the face shape with good angles, and whether its been cut to give movement throughout the ends.This does not necessarily mean lots of choppy layers either. Helps big time if your hairstylist understands the difference too.

2. Whether the clients facial features can carry it off without making them too old and stuffy, which bobs can tend to do. This is a tricky area but if a client tends to look abit older then the bob WILL look a little mumsier. Make up will help… as seen on Katie Holmes when she debuted her bob with the dark smokey eyes.

3. How the client dresses can affect the way the bob is perceived. If they are running going around in sweats all the time, then yes, the bobs going to look mumsier.

4. And lastly, how it is dried and worn, If the bob is stiff with no movement then that’s how it will come across,whereas funkier layers and movement can be accentuated with products or a flat iron.

We’ve all seen bobs we’ve liked and ones we don’t like ,so I pulled afew examples of ones that I feel would show the differences in what I am trying to say, hopefully this will give you all an idea to see for yourselves.

From the above pictures you can see even without me pointing out, that one of the things missing in the 2nd row is movement, all the hair is stiff (with or without layers), whereas the top row has movement, fun and even with a one length bob, it can look hipper!

Hey but with all that said, its only hair and it grows back if you don’t like it, so if you haven’t had short hair and want to try it, go ahead.. Eva Longoria did!

Evas bob

You tell me what row you would put her in?

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Hair Fact….

True or False?

By not washing the hair before a color, it helps the pigment to take better?

False!

It does not make any difference to how the color reacts on clean or dirty hair, however, what it does help with is, if the scalp is dirty then this can act as a barrier and help stop your scalp from stinging with the chemicals.

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Men’s sideburns…..

Sideburns are a very important part of a haircut. Some guys may not put enough thought into this, but the length, thickness, and shape all help develop an image that defines an individual. We all know that unfortunately with Asian hair, most guys sideburns don’t really grow through much, but for those lucky ones who’s burns do grow then alot of fun and expression can be had.I would like to go through afew basic choices in shapes and give you my thoughts and opinions on them.

Lets start with NO sideburns: This image (below) is usually sported by the military. Hair is shaven so close that there is no stop or start to the hairline. On the right person, this look can be converted from stiff and formal to a trendy hip look, i.e. Beckham

Beckham

But be warned, on the wrong person, this could happen:

Asian Shaven

Then there’s what I call the Forest Gump, where the hairline is taken high on the sides, usually the guideline to where a sideburn should start is by following the corner of the eye, it should not go higher unless you want the Gump look, not too hot I might add:

Forest Gump Nic Cage

Basic Men’s Length: This is what I call the business mans length, safe and normal with just the right thickness.

david Archuleta

From there we have the slightly longer lengths, which I think make a normal haircut look slightly trendier:

Asian with basic Basic Asian basic

Onto slightly different funkier sides, I chose to keep this quite basic as I could’ve very easily found some CRAZY looks but didn’t want to go there, so from ultra thin and long to ultra thick like Elvis’s (very renowned for his sideburns):

And finally, for those of you who’s sideburns may grow and grow, here’s some fancy dancy looks of Ludacris:

Ludicrus 1 Ludicrus 2