My Week in London with the Hob Academy Team

So, going into 2015 I’m looking at my career. I have had so many incredible opportunities and met/seen so many awesome stylists that, frankly, it’s hard to understand. Because at the end of the day I’m still just an OK hairdresser with loads of passion and a bit of potential.  I’m thinking this is the time where everything gets quiet for me and I just start working really hard so that one day, maybe I can be really awesome.

So what next?

All of my previous European training and quite a bit of my research into the dawn of haircutting pointed me towards London. I set my sights on the Hob Academy because of a recommendation from someone I admire greatly and then everything else just seemed to fall into place, as the name of the salon and their creative director, Akin Konizi, kept popping up all over the hair world’s social media.  The team boasts multiple International Trend Vision winners as well as British Hairdresser of the Year winners and many other accomplishments.

I learned a great deal on this trip, but the most important thing I learned is that after four years, six countries and hundreds of heads of hair, I think I am just beginning to understand what it will take for me to become a great hairdresser.

  
The Hob Academy is nestled near Camden Lock in a bustling, creative neighborhood, but also quite accessible to the rest of London. The interior of the salon is gorgeous and also quite minimalistic, in a way that suggests that it really is all about the hair. My first day was quite intimidating, made worse by jet lag and an unreasonable and unexplainable embarassment of my accent. But I was slotted for two days of Advanced Creative cutting and coloring and two days of Men’s Cutting and despite being a bit nervous, I was very excited to learn from some of the very best in the industry.

Now although we were focusing on Advanced Cutting, this was a great opportunity to work on my basics. I easily fall into a very loose style of cutting, which I partially attribute to my initial training…. which was me in the bathroom with old barber shears, just messing around until the end result was good (enough). Seeing the crispness of all of their lines and sections was inspiring to me, and though I always see it in classes, it meant more to me this time because I am so familiar with their work, so I know they aren’t just saying what they were told to say as educators… I know they live and breath clean part lines and perfected shapes.  And in the back of my mind I keep thinking, well, if that’s what it takes to get that result, then I suppose there’s something to it.

I received a lot of little tips to get my tension more consistent and to simply hold a direct the hair better. A lot of what I learned is in the muscles of my hands, so it is difficult to explain, but I feel like I can hold hair better now.

One of the coolest features of the class was that we had different educators every day, all of which had their own style, but they were also quite cohesive and consistent. On our second day, we were lucky enough to have Akin Konizi himself for the entire morning. His passion and knowledge of the craft was not surprising, but still quite astounding.  Darren Bain, our main teacher, had a very relaxing style of teaching, made better by his dry, meandering humor.  My other instructors included Peter Burkill, Jake Unger, Sean Nolan and Nestor Sanchez (who just happened to win International Trend Vision last year).  I was lucky to get time with each of them, and although they each had quite a different style, they also were very consistent in their approach.

Our two days of Men’s Cutting was more relaxing to me. Out of everything in the world of hair, men’s cuts are one of the most comforting to me. But don’t worry, I certainly got out of my comfort zone on the second day, when I got to do a flat top on ethnic hair. Men’s cutting is simple, but they went over many different length families and textures and watching their various sectionings really helped me out. It was also reassuring to see that a lot of their methods were similar to my own.

Below are just a few pictures including Akin in action, me with Darren and Nestor, my models from the week and Darren polishing a men’s cut.

Beauty Changes Lives Scholarship

Hello Everyone! As most of you know by now, I was one of the winners of this round of the Vidal Sassoon Scholarship. This means a five day course at the prestigious Sassoon Academy, all expenses paid. I could not be more thrilled! As a lot of you know, this was not my first time entering. I am so glad I entered again and that my bud Neil was willing to work the project until we had a winning entry. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me get to this point! Especially Sam, Nita, Maureen, Richard and Elysia for being featured in the film.

Are Beauty Blogs the WebMD of the Beauty Industry?

While I was in Europe last month I was surprised to discover that a lot of the professional product lines in Europe are actually salon exclusive (compared to the relatively few brands that are actually salon exclusive here).  It is something that is beginning to shift now, Europe becoming more like us.  But it is a big issue in the beauty industry there, where as long as I can remember our drugstores and supermarkets have been filled with more kinds of products than you could imagine.  It hadn’t even occurred to me that the markets could be so different.  But it got me thinking, and since then I haven’t stopped thinking…

I have often heard that in Europe the hairdressers are looked at in a different way.  They are seen with more dignity and admiration, whereas in the States many view hairdressers as lower class individuals.  So maybe it makes sense that people in Europe who care about their hair will usually buy products from their stylist, rather than off the internet or at a store.  Retail is important to salons for many reasons.  It helps us help the client keep their hair looking great, it helps fund the business expenses involved in running a salon and often salons get educational advantages when they are able to sell more products for a manufacturer.  Salon retail is great for the client because you can get recommendations from someone who actually knows their hair and can help them use the product, because how you use a product is at least as important as what you use.

So why do clients venture out of the salon to buy product?  I can think of a few possible reasons, most of which are baseless.  A lot of clients believe that salon retail is more expensive and that they can find the products somewhere else cheaper.  This is pretty much never true, but I think a lot of clients don’t even look at the price tag at the salon because they don’t want to be bullied into buying it. The same hair spray will probably be more expensive at the drug store or grocery store.  Not to mention a lot of salons will exchange a product if it doesn’t work out.  A lot of clients talk about having drawers and cupboards full of cheap products that they hate, yet are still nervous to buy something recommended by a professional.

I believe a lot of clients think we are trying to sell stuff just to make more money.  Honestly, most hair stylists don’t make that much commission on product.  There are definitely stylists that push products more, but they are misguided, because it isn’t about the money.  But it is frustrating shampooing your client and feeling how dry their hair has become from using cheap shampoos and hairsprays… you do everything you can while they are in your chair but you want them to have great hair inbetween visits too.  I love guiding and teaching my clients, but when I am asked how much of (insert grocery store product) to use or how to apply it, I really can’t offer much help.  I receive a LOT of training on the products I use and I use them all the time for clients of all textures and styles, for weddings, for photoshoots… I work hard to know what I know about products, it isn’t just a natural gift.  I can offer guidelines but I am not an expert on everything out there.

Lastly, I think a lot of people don’t trust their hair stylist.  And this is related to the above point but also separate…  I think a lot of clients get their hair cut by people that they don’t fully trust and therefore would rather read reviews on the internet (written by people that they really don’t know anything about!) than listen to someone who actually has their hands in their hair.  It’s like all of the people self-diagnosing themselves on WebMD, or becoming “experts” on topics by reading Wikipedia articles.  I’m not saying these things are bad, I read a lot of online reviews for beauty products, but I know how to cut through the BS and I also know that reading a lot of beauty blogs and reviews just makes you feel like you need things that you don’t.

The problem is, sometimes people don’t really understand what’s going on with their hair.  They think they have an oily scalp, when really it is just buildup from product, or people think they need more protein-rich products when really they are using so much it is making their hair more brittle.  Just like people self-diagnosing and medicating themselves in so many different directions that once they do see a doctor, the doctor has no idea what is the underlying illness and what is just a result of the patient taking a million things at once. Obviously, even a trained hairstylist can make mistakes, but usually they can rectify the mistakes, especially if you are working off just their advice and not the advice of everyone you’ve ever seen on the internet.  I know our culture is generally suspicious and impatient, but if you can’t trust that your hairstylist can and will try to help your hair, you should probably find a different stylist.  Just like if you trust WebMD more than your doctor, you should probably find a new doctor (and stay off WebMD!)!  We live in a time when their is so much information, we need to be extremely attentive to where it comes from.  But why we trust screen more than people, I don’t understand.  We forget that on the other side of the screen is someone just as infallible as the people we see in “real life.”

So, you ask, why would a beauty blogger speak out against beauty blogs?  I love information, but lets keep it in its place and surround ourselves with professionals that we trust.  Trust your hairdresser.  Otherwise you could be wasting money and wasting time, not to mention downplaying the importance of real, person to person interaction.

Next Saturday: Fundraiser for City of Hope/Diabetes Research

Greetings Pittsburgh friends!

Next Saturday, November 30, my former teacher/current boss, Derek Piekarski, will be hosting a fundraiser for City of Hope at his new salon space. City of Hope and the P&G Professional Hair Care lines have been partnering to search for a cure for diabetes with the Hope is in Style Campaign. Come on out if you are in town that night, hang out with a bunch of cool people, drink some beer, and help support the cause!

Diabetes is a disease that hits particularly close to home for me. I grew up in a family with a lot of diabetics, and I always assumed everyone had diabetic relatives until I went away to college and realized how many misconceptions there are regarding diabetes. Most of my aunts and uncles are diabetic, on both sides of my family, as well as three out of my four grandparents, one parent and one sibling.

As many of you know, I am biracial so the two sides of my extended family have very little in common. My mother is Chinese, and one of the few non-diabetics in her family. Two of her siblings are diabetic, but are quite slim/petite. They have Type 1 Diabetes. They eat well, and mostly always have, yet they still need to watch carefully (including making sure they don’t eat too much fruit or other sources of natural sugar). Her little brother was diabetic from a young age, and despite his healthy lifestyle and decades of taking insulin he is awaiting a new kidney and liver. He is in his mid-fifties with two teenage sons.

The Caucasian side of my family is ripe with diabetes. They mostly have Type 2. Both of my grandparents on this side of the family were diabetic. My grandparents both died in their sixties. And more recently, my father’s older sister passed away, also in her late sixties, after at least a decade of regular in home dialysis treatments. Dialysis is a common treatment for diabetics. Basically you are hooked up to a machine that filters your blood because your organs are no longer able to.

My father is also diabetic, but with the help of my mother has always worked very, very hard to eat well, and is on his way to being the first in his immediate family to make it to 70 in a few years. He does have the genetic predisposition towards diabetes, but he is also a Vietnam Veteran and Veteran’s Affairs acknowledges a spike in diabetes for Vietnam Veterans due to exposure to Agent Orange. He probably would have been diabetic eventually regardless, but who can say for sure whether he may have had a few more years disease free? And regardless is it is true for him, countless other veterans may have diabetes due to Agent Orange exposure.

During my sister’s first pregnancy she was diagnosed with Type 3 Diabetes, which is the only sort of diabetes that isn’t necessarily lifelong. Type 3 develops while a woman is pregnant and then usually goes away after, but it is a warning sign that the woman may develop Type 2 later on.

I tell clients that I try to eat well because I am worried about diabetes, and they always say, “But you are so petite!” And I am, but I have seen diabetes in every shape and size and it is not only no fun, it is also deadly.

Why Enter?

Hi Friends!  I am currently staring right down the nose at my NAHA shoot.  This Saturday I will be heading out to Ohio to hopefully get some killer photos for the North American Hair Awards.  This will be my first time submitting to NAHA and I must admit that I am pretty stressed out.

First off, I have been working a lot on my video for a scholarship competition for the Vidal Sassoon Academy (google Beauty Changes Lives if you don’t know about this!) and that has been incredibly enjoyable but pretty time consuming.  And it has required more teamwork than I am used to, which is fine except for finding time to meet and get footage, etc. etc.  Secondly, I am also starting to lay the mental groundwork for my creations on stage at Intercoiffure in just a few weeks.  On top of that What’s Next Awards just launched their competition so of course my head is spinning thinking about the Alter Ego collection.

Lastly, my NAHA visions came to me in a series of dreams and I am having great difficulty implementing my designs.  And yet, the desired styles are small (though detailed)… but will they be BIG enough for NAHA?  Truly, if I can get across what I’m thinking, I don’t know if NAHA will even like it because I have really never seen anything quite like some of these concepts….  And yet the visual interest and impressiveness (if I can achieve it) will be so subtle.  I always wonder if I waste my time with some of the little things I obsess over.

So, I am writing this fairly lengthy post to tell you and remind myself why competitions are worth the stress!  Here are some of the main reasons it is worth it to enter:

1)  Exposure.  This is not even necessarily about your talent being exposed to the world but about YOU as an artist exposing the world to YOURSELF.  I entered a few competitions with no success before winning the What’s Next Awards.  Honestly, as long as I was satisfied with my own work I didn’t mind not winning.  My first contest was in beauty school and I went all out and it taught me a lot about organizing shoots, working with photographers and models and also about turning my inspiration into a style and finding inspiration everywhere, which are skills that are applicable to salon work, and really everything else.  You learn to activate your brain!

2)  Seriously, What do you have to lose?  This is huge to my life philosophy.  I pretty much just do things unless there is a probably chance of a bad outcome.  When it comes to contests, what is there to lose?  Most are free or can be done on a budget.  I tend to not talk about my work as much as I’m told I should, but when clients hear about “extracurriculars” it boosts their love and they are more likely to refer clients, tip better, come more often, etc., which I would bet would more than make up for any entry fee.  Losing a hair competition is not a big deal.  Most people lose.  And it isn’t always a matter of talent, it is a matter taste and what the judges are looking for.  

3) And if you are worried about wasting your time, seriously, what else are you doing with your time?  Many of the most successful people I know have no time and yet still always find time.  My mentor for the year, Anthony Cress, always finds time to chat with me if I need it and I’ll tell you, this is a busy man!  Works six days in the salon, plays in a band, runs a flourishing beard and mustache club, wins NAHA and places as a semi-finalist in Trendvision and STILL has time to deal with me.  Trust me, you are not too busy to enter a competition!  I mean, obviously you have to really enjoy hair to enjoy doing it and thinking about it when you aren’t at work, but really I think “extra-curricular” hair activities make doing hair in the salon more enjoyable.  It has a way of refreshing your love for hair!

4) You could win.  Hey, it’s possible!  You could!  And the more contests you enter and the more you learn and grow from each one, the better chance you have of becoming a winner one day.  Honestly, entering the What’s Next Awards last year was a great source of stress, and part of that was because I had this huge, aching feeling that if I gave it my all that the What’s Next Awards would change my life.  If I could just create my vision everything would change for me.  And it truly has!  I have received so much warmth and support from Sebastian and so many opportunities I never would have imagined.  So much more than just the award on my mantle.

5) Join the conversation.  Do you ever feel like something is missing, like there is something to add to the world of hair?  Competitions are a great way to join an international artistic dialogue.  Show the world what you’ve got.  And be proud of it.

Connect 2013 Part III: Social Ponderings

In my first post about Connect, I spoke a little about feeling refreshed creatively, but almost as dramatically, I felt refreshed socially and emotionally. I remembered a lot about what makes me who I am and why I got into this industry in the first place.

Growing up, I saw myself as a healer, a source of comfort for those around me. To me, that was the most important quality I held. I thrived in hospitals, homeless shelters, funeral homes. I wanted to work in social justice or the mental health field. I went to college thinking I would work with victims of substance abuse. Much too much for someone so tender hearted. Fields that require tough love, when I was always more into the soft sorts.

At Connect I felt very hyper aware of the people around me and their energy was contagious. I am naturally fairly quiet but I love quality nonverbal communication. A touch on the arm, the right look in the eye, the correct degree of smile for any given moment. People always harp on remembering people’s name and I am almost decent at it, but what is never mentioned is how you can look someone in the eye and have them know that you know exactly who they are, and I think that is far more important than eye contact. I have known a lot of names for people I didn’t really know, and I think that is something people can feel.

Anyway, Connect gave me so much joy it just reminded me that that is what I want to give to my clients. I want to make them comfortable, excited. I want them to feel apart of something. I want them to feel alive and welcome and eager for change. I want them to be fearless.

One thing I thought a lot about this week is how small a percentage of someone’s personality is actually that person, mostly it is how they are reacting to their surroundings, which could result in actions that are quite contrary to how they normally are. I was keenly aware of how my actions could help people have a better day, a better experience, especially the first day of training when there was a lot of nervous energy lingering in the room. I remembered that paying attention to and helping others is one of the most important parts of my job, and that it is one of the reasons that I chose this line of work. It unlocks a part of myself and a part in others that can really change… Everything.

Connect 2013 Part I: Reconnecting with Myself Circa 2007

I spent last week in Las Vegas training with Sebastian Professional at an event called Connect (which included Wella, Nioxin and Clairol). I have written a great deal since Connect, so expect more posts to come, some will be hair related but mostly this was a week of finding myself more as a person and an artist. The energy of Connect and all the fabulous hairdressers attending, seemed to reawaken someone who I once was. It was a similar feeling to my early college years, where art ruled my life and haircuts were done in hallways and bathrooms with my friends wearing ripped up garbage bags as capes. It was electric. It was just the regression I needed, because it is so easy to lose yourself in the day to day and so hard to be on your A game if you aren’t being completely true to yourself, at least for me.

In college you could mostly find me holed up in a corner making crude sculptures or writing on my windows. Most people knew me like this:

Or this:

Above I am explicating trash/treasure from a scummy park with the intention of making found art. I remember every RA in the dorm telling me that the nasty shopping cart I hauled out of a hillside was not allowed in, and yet it got to my room and stayed there. For whatever reason people have always just let me get away with things, little and big. I guess because I am small, quiet and have a nice smile? I don’t know.

It is interesting to look at my old work and see how I have always been most obsessed with texture.

When working on this tree project I could not close my eyes without seeing bark patterns. I nearly went crazy, working 8+ hour days creating the texture out of newspaper and duct tape.

It is so strange, how coming together with the Sebastian team didn’t just inspire me to do hair, it had me writing on napkins again, re-reading my favorite poems, yearning for international travel and reminiscing over the different places my art has taken me in the past.

One of the things I love about Sebastian is that it has a strong culture, a strong identity, and the hair styles emanate from that. Over the course of the last few months I have been re-immersing myself in all of the things I used to enjoy, making time for concerts and writing and the occasional painting. It is invigorating and truly just what I needed. Starting out as a hair stylist I always felt the need to fit a certain mold, and I struggled and found myself generally unhappy. The Sebastian culture, however, is one I feel completely welcome within and I feel the importance of being in tune with the artist I am.

Sunset Hair

Here is a color I did in early May. This is my friend Nita and she had an ombre done about six months ago and her hair has been growing out. She has had several variations on red/brown since then and the ombre has been covered at times but always comes back. She has a lot of color build up on the midshaft so I mixed some deeper brown into her regrowth formula then diluted and added more red to the formula (and waited fifteen or so minutes) before applying to the midshaft, then emulsified at the sink for a few minutes. I used the ColorTouch line from Wella with Emulsion.

Formula: Wella ColorTouch: .2 6/75, .2 6/35, .1 8/81, .3 6/7, .2 4/6, .2 44/65, .2 6/4 with double Emulsion

Balayage Highlights with Illumina, Plus a Beautiful Textured Cut

Earlier this week I was honored to be the first professional to color Nichole’s hair. I wanted to start her off with something that required minimal commitment and a definite, yet natural, change. I chose to go with balayage highlights using our Illumina color line.

Illumina is Wella’s new color line and it works beautifully on blondes. It has a violet base, giving a cool and unique tonality that also cuts some of the warmth. Even the warm tones have bite of cool, giving a complex tonality. Illumina imparts incredible shine and keeps hair as close as possible to its virgin state. It does not lift or cover grey as much as Koleston Perfect, Wella’s other permanent color line, but neither of those issues were relevant to Nichole. With her hair texture it would not be difficult for her hair to lift.

Her formula is: Illumina .2 8/81, .2 9/60, .4 10/36 = 40 vol

I painted on Nichole’s color with a medium small brush and did a balayage technique using Saran Wrap, based on the method from our class last month with The Doves,

Next we cut! She lost about five inches of length for a summery new look with lots of interior and exterior layering. Nichole has a great texture and density; even though she has fine hair she can handle a lot of layering without looking sparse. I did a variation of Sebastian’s Jagged Edge cut, throwing in more layering with a back cutting technique.

Styled with Volupt Soray, Trilliance and a little bit of Matte Putty.

Two Days of Training With The Doves

The Doves, Christopher and Sonya, are an incredibly successful hairdressing duo. Originally from the UK, they are based out of sunny Santa Monica and travel the world teaching, training and styling. They have won some of the top honors in the national and international hairstyling community. All the while, they are very down to earth and approachable. This year, my salon met up with some of the other Salon Vivace locations in Santa Monica to spend a few days with the Doves. Some of the more experienced stylists had met them before at prior classes and their familiarity with our company was very flattering. Sonya has such a sweet and gentle nature with so much passion, it is truly intoxicating to listen to her soft British accent. And Christopher is always entertaining, always finding the right balance if playful and attentive.

The first day we went over a long, layered bob hair cut with the razor. Razor cutting is actually something that intrigued me a lot prior to doing hair professionally. In high school and college I used the razor quite a bit and probably tortured quite a few of my friends with dull blades (so sorry to all of you!), but as of late I have primarily been working with scissors. I am excited to jump back in and try some of the techniques from the class. Their cutting style is so intuitive, less architectural than some schools of cutting (think Sassoon). Very modern and right in line with the trends to simplify. I am usually attracted to more structure, more sections, over directing this way and that way, but that is mainly because those styles are counter to my own nature. It is nice to consider returning to some degree back to a more intuitive and natural style.

We returned to scissors the second day for a rounded bob. An oval perimeter is a particularly deceiving cut because it looks much simpler than it is. It is actually one of the easiest cuts to become lopsided, and probably the cut I see the most from people who come to me for the first time needing a hair fix. Christopher showed us his own tips and tricks on how to achieve the perfect oval bob.

Sonya demonstrated some very quick and salon friendly block color techniques. I am very excited to try them on some clients! I always love block color because it is a much more thoughtful way to do color than just lining up foils over an entire head and it is better for creating emphasis and interest. It is getting the hair and its natural fall to work with and not against the stylist. I will post some pictures of the finished cuts with the color techniques later on after I am back in Pittsburgh.

Sonya and Christopher also did some demonstrations for us with the new Illumina line from Wella and baliage highlights. Christopher was also excited to show some new hair styling gadgets. All in all, they were great mentors to us product knowledge, business skills and, of course, hair cut and color techniques! I had a great time with them in Santa Monica and would definitely recommend their classes to other hair stylists. Check them out: The Doves Studio (You can also find them on Instagram and Facebook.)

Here I am with the Doves!


After the first picture and some signals going literally over my head Christopher asked for another picture and they scooped me up.