Great hair doesn't always happen over night...
Nowadays we are inundated with hordes of pictures of amazing transformations by hair magicians all over the world. Thanks to the Instagrammers, You tubers and tweeters we can all keep up to date with everything new and wonderful in the world of hair. If a Kardashian colours her hair we will know within the hour or sometimes as it is being applied thanks to Snapchat.
This world of instant knowledge is a breeding ground for unrealistic expectations. Hair colouring is science, it takes a vast amount of product and hair knowledge, experience and investment in amazing products, both for the transformation and for the home care.
All is not what it seems...
Often, what the Instagramer fails to point out is the true time taken of some of those transformations, many have a full day with a top stylist for around 9 hours, we've all seen Guy Tang going for lunch in the mall with his clients and watching (singing to) Disney mid-transformation. This is the harsh reality of celebrity hair, it often is beautifully natural and low key but takes a life time to create, oh and $1000!
A great one to follow is my old boss Nicky Lazou, she get amazing results but she will not push the hair, you build up to your dream hair a number of sittings and she's big on home care like me.
Into the salon...
So clutching your phone loaded with 10 Pinterest boards you enter the salon and begin the conversation with your stylist, your smile starts to drop as they gently try to break it to you that you may not get that in one go.... the translation here is, and they don't want to be rude or hurt your feelings but.... can you afford £/$1000? If the answers no then you cannot do it in 1 go! Even if you own OLAPLEX it is not happening.
It's not that we don't want to and it's certainly not that we want to charge you more money, trust us when we say big transformations are not where the money's at,,, give us a full head of highlights and a glaze any day! These transformations are like haveing 5 hair appointments in one day, which is why it has such a hefty price tag.
Colour correction is stressful for the client and stylist, it can be unpredictable, remember that box dye you used 3 years ago, just the once because you we're broke? yeah it just came back to bite us in the ass... (yes it's important you tell us)
Ultimately we want to make you happy, your happiness is the single reason we stylists put up with the long days, the absents of loo breaks and staying late because your hair was thicker than we expected. We love our job and love delivering that feeling of euphoria when your stylist makes you look and feel hotter than a Victoria's Secret Model! but please let us manage your expectations, please don't push and bully us into doing something that compromises your hair health. Stylist's are creative people, natural risk takers and they have to reign that back, the only time a clients hair usually goes wrong is when a stylist buckles under pressure to do something they aren't more than 90% convinced will go right and guess what, if that gamble doesn't pay off you will slate them all over the internet saying they are a bad hairdresser when it was probably 2ml of too much ash or not enough ash that landed them in that hot water.
With that said, dream hair is possible and with the right advice and guidance by a good stylist can be achieved.
Read my blog post Hayley's Top Tips For Changing Your Hair Colour to get it right with your stylist.
Now is the time to start that summer hair journey, if you are lucky enough to get it in one hit then all you have to do until the summer lights up our lives is maintain it!
H x
