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Dekko’s Daily Grind.. Michelle

Showcasing some more work from Joni at Dekko Salon. Michelle came in with fairly long hair and wanted to have a change. After a consultation, Joni went about her work and created a shorter cute, messy fresher style for Michelle.

Cut with a razor to give more texture and create messier lines, but still keeping in with the graduated shape through the back to give it a nicer profile, Joni created a shredded asymmetric bob shape that has been styled with styling cream to bring out Michelle’s natural movement in the hair. Nice Joni, thanks for posing for me Michelle : )

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Dekko’s Daily Grind–Patricia

Patricia came into Dekko Salon a while ago and had grown her hair long enough so that she could donate it to one of the many organizations that create wigs for people with hair loss with cancer or other diseases. Good for you Patricia.
Anyway as you can see from the pictures below she certainly had a lot of length to work with. We must’ve had about 12 inches that we could cut off and still have a decent shoulder length style.

We decided to give Patricia a style that was around shoulder length, we made sure she had plenty of layers and because her hair is so thick, we took a lot of weight out of it and textured it quite a lot. Because Patricia’s face shape was more on the long side than any other shape, we thought it would be good to give her a softer fringe to balance out the length. We dried it casually with no brush, and then we rolled some styling cream onto the ends just to give it abit more texture.
I must say that we were very pleased with the end result and thought Patricia looked very sexy and
fresh : )
Thanks a lot Patricia for posing and for donating!

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Different types of Bobs and Layers..

As a client it can be very confusing to go into a salon and know what to ask for, especially if you don’t have the technical background and words to back you up.

With this post I’m hoping to help make it abit more clear about the different types of Bobs available and what to expect and how they will look. Of course a post about Bobs is not complete without the mention of Vidal Sassoon, (the king of bobs). I had the privilege of training and working in Sassoon’s in the 80’s and I definitely feel like I got the best training that a stylist can ask for. The 80’s was the time of strict structured shapes before razoring and texturising became so popular, so most of the haircuts were extremely technical, so I felt this helped me with my bob situations. So anyway, I’m using some original Sassoon Classic pictures as well as other examples to help with my explanations and opinions.

The 4 types of bobs I will talk about are shown below with Classic Sassoon pictures:
Classic One Length Bob(2 versions shown) Bob with Layers(medium length and layers)
Bob with Graduation (Classic Nancy Kwan bob for Vogue) and the Graduated Bob.

Classic One Length Bobs:
Great for people who would like a simple cut with no layers to it. (One length means that all the hair is brought down and cut to visually look like one length at the bottom.) Works great if you already have straight smooth hair but it you have any texture to it, it would need alot of blow drying to get the sharp look. For people who have very thick hair, the one length bob is not advisable as it would look very heavy and triangular at the bottom half, therefore adding too much width visually to their cheek area. Length can vary from hairline length to the top of the shoulders, and what can also vary is whether the bottom part is cut blunt with the scissors or razored through giving it soft edges like Gwyneth Paltrow’s. Here are afew other samples of One Length Bobs:

Bob with Layers:
This is something you could ask for if you like the look of a bob shape but your hair is too thick to have the classic one length, Layers can be added to your hair and can vary from short to longer fuller layers. Length too can vary from hairline to top of shoulders. Can be done on straight, wavy or curly hair. Afew more example of Bobs with layers on Nicole, model and Cathy done by Joni at Dekko:



Bob with Graduation:
This Bob shape is one of my favorites because not only is it a sharp defined shape, but it is fantastic and almost a must for making fine thin hair look fuller. (Graduation means to build up weight from short to long creating a fuller shape) It is also a flattering ‘all age’ shape that in my eyes, will never date. This one is where the bob appears to be one length but in fact there is graduation in it, much more at the back and then blending into the sides. The graduation that is put into it can be either very subtle or much more exaggerated (think Katie Holmes with her bob), if the hair is cut well then even without the blow day, the shape will hold and form a fuller look, this technique/style can be done on straight, wavy or curly hair. Here’s Katie’s as well as a couple of clients, Rachel and Simone from Dekko:



Graduated Bobs:
Last but not least this one is the shorter version of the Bob. The difference between this one the others is the back. Rather than having a straight clean line like the others, this one works the hair short into the nape from the occipital bone and follows your natural hairline into the nape. Asian hair in particular have a harder time with this one because the hair is usually coarser so it can stick out wildly, whereas with the finer hair and hairlines, this style can look very soft and feminine. It has a much stronger look because of the length, for me as soon as you mention Graduated Bobs, Louise Brooks (20’s silent movie star) and Mary Quant (60’s fashion icon)come to mind. Most clients who ask for the jaw/cheek level bobs needs to understand that if your natural hairline is longer than your desired length then you will have the graduated shorter part in the back, I know some of you will call it a ‘step’ and alot of people don’t like it so short so please be aware that you will have the ‘step’ look if you go for the cheek level bob. Also be aware that your natural hairline shape will have an impact on how short the back goes with this style as you have to work with it. Here’s Louise Brooks, Rachel Lim from Dekko, and Mary Quant:

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Hair by Dove Palmer Part 1

Update – If slideshow does not start, please click on here to see hair..

Dove Palmer is Creative Director for Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy in London, UK. He also ran the Masters Academy for them too and has made 3 DVD step by step videos as well helped in contributing at least 12 haircut pictures for the Academy Photo collection. I came across Dove’s work on Facebook and instantly LOVED the exquisite work done by him. Funnily enough Dove turned out to have the same mentor as I did back in the day. Stacey Broughton (also from Sassoons) has been his mentor since he went to work for Sassoon’s. I definitely spotted the Stacey traits in the haircuts.


I have so many different styles to show you that he has done over the years that I have decided to split them up into 3 slide shows so that we can make the most of showcasing his work. Dove’s specialty seems to be on Asian hair, whether its because he tours to the Far East to do seminars so much (and for up to 4months at a time) or maybe its because his wife has so many friends that needs to utilise his craft, I don’t know, but whatever it may be, I’m so happy to be able to show you his creative work on Asian hair. Here is part 1 of 3, I will show you the others at a later date so look out for more of his precision cutting : )

Thanks Dove for letting me share with my readers.
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Beach Waves…

Fekkai – Heat Activated Wave Spray:

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I find some of Frederick Fekkai’s Hair Products to be great, this one is his heat activated Wave Spray which works by misting it onto the damp hair and using a hair dryer to create a tousled, ‘beachy’ look, by shaping it with your fingers while it dries.


I didnt love this one as much as some of Fekkai’s other stuff, I found it left the hair with abit of a dry and coarse feeling afterwards, with the hair frizzing quite easily. Some of his curly hair products gave my hair a much nicer softer beachier feel than this one did. Maybe this one might work better on finer hair?

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Dekko’s Daily Grind – Katie

So here’s Katie who came to Dekko salon with her long overgrown hair, Katie’s hair is naturally curly at the back of the head and then the front and sides are pretty straight. She wanted to have something that could could wear curly or straight.


We kept Katie’s hair on the long side but decided to cut the layers to a medium length. With the front area, we made it much more definite so that the straighter hair could form a stronger look with or without blow-drying. I always think with this type of hair, its much better to have it straight on the front areas rather than the other way round of having it straight at the back and curly at the front, which would make it very hard to control. After the cut, we blow dried the hair straight, using a straightening balm to help smooth the ends more and to hold it in place. Here’s Katie after the cut, she definitely looks alot cuter don’t you think?


Thanks alot Katie for posing for me…
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Dekko’s Daily Grind..Kim

Another dose of ‘before and after’ styles from Dekko Salon. Our clients are so great for letting me take photos to show different looks for my blog – Thanks again for all your help.
I’ve been cutting Kim’s hair for over 10years now and she has always been very creative with her haircuts over the years, just recently we have been keeping Kim’s hair on the longer side. So this is Kim after not having a haircut for over 5 or 6 months. That’s because she’s abit of a gypsy and has lived all over the States, right now she comes all the way from Chicago : )

We decided to keep the hair on the longer side but ‘chop’ all the rest of it up with shorter layers and a shorter front area, so that if she decides to tie her hair up, it still looks like a cute short haircut on top. We razored the hair throughout as Kim’s hair is very thick and coarse. We then styled it using a styling cream for hold and dried it while twisting the hair into big sections, creating a messy textured look. Thanks Kim!
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Cool Mops Of The Week

HAPPY 4TH of July !!
Enjoy another round of Cool Mops around town. Thanks to all the girls who posed for me – Kerina, Helen, Joanna and Michelle. You all look great.

If you see any cool mops around, please feel free to send me some pictures and we can post them to showcase the styles!!
jules@juleschan.com