So, I'm fixing my clients hair tomorrow. It's normally my day off, but for this situation, it was worth the sacrifice of a few hours to make it right. As a professional stylist, a person who literally touches my clients, and their lives to some extent, every day, I am more than willing to fix my mistakes as quickly as possible. There's an enormous responsibility, and a terrific amount of trust, in the client/stylist relationship.
As stylists, we are expected to take a certain amount of risk to further our clients goals. We coach them on where to go, and they trust us not to lead them down the wrong path. In exchange for this trust, is the honesty on the clients part to tell me about, and let me fix, any problems. Even if that reason is simply, "it's just not me". Please trust me when I confirm how valid such an opinion truly is. And so I find myself driving to Davis on Wednesday afternoon.
My client Elaine (of course the name is changed, and many of the events probably are too!) came in last week for a touch up of the red she really liked. Unfortunately, believe it or not, both the distributors that carry my preferred color, RIchesse by L'oreal, were out of stock on their copper tones. They were also out of the copper tones in my backup brand, Vero Chrome by Joico! Richesse is the best no ammonia color I've ever worked with, and Joico's is second only because I haven't worked with it as long. But I digress, when she arrived for her appointment with my associate Kristin, I did my best to mimic the shade. I keep very detailed notes, and I studied the formula to see what I had on hand to match the color. Now, I don't mind bragging, I have at least an above average ability to match tones, so I was pretty sure I had it right, and when she was finished, I thought it looked nice. In the salon the tones seemed perfect, and the baliage highlights gave it a nice depth. Seemed like I was lucky. But then I got the text. She didn't like my color, or Krisitn's cut! The color is too blue red, instead of orange red. And knowing what I used, I believe she's probably right.
So on my day off, I will gladly sacrifice my time for the privilege of making her hair perfect. I'm not worried about the color, I'm sure I can correct the tone (they're no longer out of stock), it will actually give her color better staying power to add one or more glazes, so It's no hardship for her hair, and from the picture she sent, I'm pretty sure the cut is an easy layer tweak. Kristin's style of cutting is a little different than mine, every stylist cuts a little differently, so a nice dry cut to finish the style should take care of any layer issues.
I'm thinking of switching color brands, though. I mean come on, all the copper tones in both brands! I need better support than that, I would do no less for my clients!
David Martin
Owner, Cobalt Salon & Gallery
As stylists, we are expected to take a certain amount of risk to further our clients goals. We coach them on where to go, and they trust us not to lead them down the wrong path. In exchange for this trust, is the honesty on the clients part to tell me about, and let me fix, any problems. Even if that reason is simply, "it's just not me". Please trust me when I confirm how valid such an opinion truly is. And so I find myself driving to Davis on Wednesday afternoon.
My client Elaine (of course the name is changed, and many of the events probably are too!) came in last week for a touch up of the red she really liked. Unfortunately, believe it or not, both the distributors that carry my preferred color, RIchesse by L'oreal, were out of stock on their copper tones. They were also out of the copper tones in my backup brand, Vero Chrome by Joico! Richesse is the best no ammonia color I've ever worked with, and Joico's is second only because I haven't worked with it as long. But I digress, when she arrived for her appointment with my associate Kristin, I did my best to mimic the shade. I keep very detailed notes, and I studied the formula to see what I had on hand to match the color. Now, I don't mind bragging, I have at least an above average ability to match tones, so I was pretty sure I had it right, and when she was finished, I thought it looked nice. In the salon the tones seemed perfect, and the baliage highlights gave it a nice depth. Seemed like I was lucky. But then I got the text. She didn't like my color, or Krisitn's cut! The color is too blue red, instead of orange red. And knowing what I used, I believe she's probably right.
So on my day off, I will gladly sacrifice my time for the privilege of making her hair perfect. I'm not worried about the color, I'm sure I can correct the tone (they're no longer out of stock), it will actually give her color better staying power to add one or more glazes, so It's no hardship for her hair, and from the picture she sent, I'm pretty sure the cut is an easy layer tweak. Kristin's style of cutting is a little different than mine, every stylist cuts a little differently, so a nice dry cut to finish the style should take care of any layer issues.
I'm thinking of switching color brands, though. I mean come on, all the copper tones in both brands! I need better support than that, I would do no less for my clients!
David Martin
Owner, Cobalt Salon & Gallery