Extreme Makeover, Blogeress edititon.

... Just kidding.  I mean, I had planned on doing an extreme makeover on the homliest girl I could find.  Like I wanted to do the before and after pics like weight-loss pills do theirs.  Fat, pale, no make-up, and frizzy hair in the "before" pic and then abra-ca-fucking-dabra, she's tan and toned and gorgeous.  Welp, the man upstairs had a different plan, because he sent me a betty, not a bertha.  Amber.  Even her name sounds hot.  I've never met an ugly girl named Amber. 

  Miss Amber has been a victim of a box-color addiction. Enter Cher from the movie Clueless, a.k.a. me.  Amber will be my Tai (mmm... mai tai..stay focused)

Tonight I am going to perform some good old-fashioned cosmetologist magic on Amber.  She's too pretty to have hair like this. 

• 6:30 PM I arrive at Amber's house.  We do a consultation and I tell her my ideas for her.  We decide to keep her blonde and keep her hair as long as possible while looking fuller and healthier.

• 7:45 PM I begin by applying a darker blonde to all of her hair  beneath her occipital bone.  Next, I do a partial foil from her temples to crown using an ash blonde color, cool mahogany, and dark blonde.

• 8:30PM We rinse the foils and color.  I used Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo on her and Joico K-pak conditioner.  Since Amber's hair is very fine, I explain to her to use the conditioner BEFORE she shampoos so that she can get all the benefits of the K-pak reconstructing conditioner without her hair being weighed down.  I leave her with these products to help her hair on the road to recovery!

• 8:40PM I cut her hair.  I take off several inches of overprocessed hair and add some long layers. 

• 8:50PM Barberess Dee's Blowdrying Course 101  I get a mirror for Amber to watch while I blowdry and teach her to do the same.  I show her how to apply product and section hair. We use a tiny amount of Super Skinny Serum by Paul Mitchell that I mix in my palm with some BedHead Masterpiece hairspray. Amber's fine hair that has a tendency to frizz makes her a perfect candidate for velcro rollers.  I show her how to dry each section and roll in a roller.  When I am done drying her hair, I take the rollers out and add a little more hairspray and voila!

Check back in soon, Amber!  Let us know how you're doing with your new hair!  Isn't she a babe?

To Box or not to Box, that is the question.

As a barber/cosmetologist, I get all kinds of crazy questions from friends, family, random people at the bar, etc.  The MOST common one is "Can I use box color on this?" 

I'm not going to advise anyone to color at home- if you buy the clearance rack generic color from Family Dollar, I don't want to be held responsible if your hair resembles Cyndi Lauper's back in her True Colors days.  However, I can advise when to ABSOLUTELY NOT do a DIY at-home color job and hopefully protect you, my friends, from holy hair hell.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, USE BOX COLOR IF:

1) You are blonde or have a lot of blonde highlights and want to go darker.  The technical term for this is called a tint-back.  Tint-backs are done with a series of colors.  I've done tint backs before and seen green and purple hair as a result. It's a very tricky thing to do, and can be unpredictable, so you want to be in a salon so they can immediately fix any scary colors that might erupt.

2)You are more than 25 percent gray.  Gray hair requires a completely different formulation and the more gray you have, the more formulations you are going to need to get all over coverage.  And it's more resistant and may not even "take" the box color you use.

3) You have color in you hair and want to go lighter or add highlights.  The rule of color is "color can't lift color" which translates to: box color cannot take you from dark to light.   Your stylist would generally use a de-colorizer for these situations, which will pull the artificial color molecules from your hair.  Next, they will use a "toner" or "gloss" to put shine back into your cuticle and even out multi-tones.

4) You use texturizers/perms or would like to use texturizers/perms.  The ingredients in box color do not mix with these chemicals.  And when I say they don't mix, I mean they'll deteriorate your hair.  I'm not talking about a little breakage, or needing a trim after.  I'm telling you that it will be like
 "oh, look at my pretty hair..."
 abra-cadabra
 "oh, f#$@! I'm f#$%@*g bald!"

When in doubt, see a pro!  There are so many chain salons that will take walk-ins, so if you fly by the seat of your pants when it comes to your hair, it's uber-convenient.  If you're finding it hard to part with the money it costs to make the change to your hair, you probably aren't 100 percent sure you want the new color, so wait it out until you're sure.  Although hair does grow back after color mis-haps, it takes time.  And time is money!