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!!
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!
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.
Hit or Miss ~ Olympic Hair
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.
Dekko’s Daily Grind- Stephanie
Punky in Pink:
Stephanie has been a client of mine for over 10 years and she’s one of those dream clients that is up for anything and is willing to try anything once, so over the years I have managed to have a lot of fun with all different types of haircuts.
One thing that has been consistent with Stephanie is her now signature pink hair, again varying from full head pink to slices of pink, expertly done by Jodi Ninomiya from Dekko.
Always one to stand out in a crowd, her only problem being trying to hide it when going into meetings or going to China!!
Here’s Stephanie with her overgrown locks…
We decided this time to get rid of the length at the back, bring the layers up so that she could get a lot more height and messiness. The hair was razored throughout to give a lot of texture, we kept the hair slightly asymmetric as it already was from a previous haircut. This time we decided to give her a more definite fuller fringe. Stephanie likes to play around with her hair and do allsorts with it, so we kept the shape abit more basic but defined this time so there was more hair to play with. We used a hell of a lot of combined products to give Stephanie her messiness!!
After haircut:
To see Stephanie’s fabulous creativity and other hair looks visit:
Oldie But Goodie
Roux – Fanci-Full:
My big surprise favorite product of the moment is the Roux -Fancifull Color Mousse.
For those of you who have been around awhile, this was the product that little old ladies used to use to give the blue, pink, purple rinses… punky grannies! It used to come in a hair setting lotion form and now comes in the form of a mousse.
I used it initially to tone my blonde streaky bits that turned too gold in the sun, but was so surprised to find this stuff actually gives the hair a great piecey texture and gives me quite abit of body too. Very easy to use becos you would towel dry, put some onto your hands and rub into the blonde parts and that’s it. Heres a pic of my hair the day after I slept on it.
Notes on Highlights and Slices
Because there are so many different kinds of looks with colors, if you have a particular look in mind, take some pictures into the salon with you, as long as you are being realistic and know that yours will never be exactly the same as the picture it will give the technician an idea of what you like or dislike. Tell the stylist what you have in mind and in return they should also tell you what is possible and what is not. Don’t go in with absolutely no idea and clues (especially if its your first time) the stylist will end up spending alot of time just trying to get to know your likes and dislikes rather than spending the time talking about the more important things like color choice and method also know that if your going for a natural look, choosing a natural hair color as well as choosing a natural hair technique could result in it being TOO natural for your liking, be very precise about your choice and needs.
Results of the Brazilian Straightener
As promised…. here are the before and after photos of the Brazilian Straightener by Lucky and Jodi from Dekko Salon.
Before……….
After!!!!!!!!
Cool Mops of the Week
Another group of cool hair around the city, feel free to send me any pictures you want posting of friends or family who you think have cool mops. Send it to jules@juleschan.com
