Well, I suppose I should start by saying: Welcome! Welcome to my blog series 'From the Mouth of a Hair Stylist!' I am seriously so excited that I am here, and that you are too! So, without any further ramblings, please enjoy part 1 of my 10 part blog! =)
Haircuts are really the start and finish of everything to do with hair. While hair has moved into more complex chemical services over the years, haircuts really do remain the staple of the salon industry. Everyone needs a haircut, and thus it raises a lot of questions for people. Should you jump on that new haircut trend, or stay in your haircut rut?
With long waves and short pixies, undercuts and bobs all popular right now, how ever can you possibly choose between everything that's out there, and more importantly, know if it's going to look good?
That is why I hear this question more than any other:
"Okay, so I have no idea what I want my hair to look like... you're the expert! What kind of haircut should I have?"
I'm not going to lie to you, it is my most loathed question, which is why I've chosen to start here.
The reason that I find it so difficult to answer is mostly because there isn't one haircut that is the be-all end-all for your face shape and hair type. While of course there are cuts that work best for hair types and face shapes, with the plethora of hair products and tools available to the every day person, not to mention that everyone has different problem spots with their hair, there isn't really a clear cut answer to what sort of hair cut you should have.
To top it all off, the haircut you "should" have varies from hairdresser to hairdresser. What I think you should have could be very different from the cut "that terrible hairdresser" you use to see thought, and it could also be very different from that cut your "very favourite hairdresser EVER" gave you - and we could all be giving you 'textbook' hairstyles for your hair type!
So, I've come up with the top 5 things you need to think about before you head to the salon so you can get the haircut you WANT rather than the haircut you "should have"!
How to Get the Haircut You Want:
1. Ask people you know (including your hairstylist) what they think would look best on you. Almost everyone knows someone with great fashion sense, and they can often offer you wonderful ideas you never thought of. Always run big changes past people who will be honest with you, and consider them for longer than 5 minutes. Cutting of 2 feet of hair on a whim almost always ends in tears. If you have a big change in mind, they will always be the ones you can trust to tell you if it's a good or bad idea! Make sure to trust your hairstylist to tell you honestly what they think too, and don't let anyone, including your stylist, bully you into something you aren't comfortable with!
2. Come in with a style in mind. I'm not asking you to come in with a folder in your phone of pictures of your perfect haircut from all angles (although that's always helpful, us stylists are generally very visual people!), but consider how much length you are willing to part with, or if you want bangs or not. Even something as simple as knowing you "just can't part with anything more than an inch" is helpful! Your stylist will tell you if they think it's not going to work, so let them help you find something similar that will, and always make you sure you feel comfortable with the final decision before the cutting begins! (Oh, and always physically show me with your fingers your idea of an inch. My idea of an inch and your idea of are often different!)
3. Look at pictures, but don't look at pictures of your favourite celebrities. If you are going to bring in pictures, consider trying to find people with a hair and face shape that looks similar yours. If you have thick, unruly, curly hair and a very round face, trust me when I say you aren't going to be able to have Anne Hathaway's cute pixie cut without a LOT of work in the morning. Try to block out who you are looking at and look just at the hair - you have to remember you don't look just like Kim Kardashian or Jennifer Aniston (and you don't have their daily stylist either). Lastly, consider looking back at old pictures of yourself. If there is a time when you thought "yes, this was absolutely the BEST haircut I ever had - I felt amazing!" it's probably something that should be considered again! (unless, of course, it's a mullet. Never consider that again.)
4. Consider your daily routine. Are you a wash and wear kind of person, or do you have an hour every day to do a serious styling routine? Do you have specific fall back styles you can't let go of like the sock bun or braids? Are you skilled with a round brush or does the idea of having to put product in your hair every day scare you? All of these things are very important to consider! Be honest with yourself, and be honest with your stylist. If you sleep in every single morning, a high maintenance style is not for you. Your routine is also important to consider when it comes to thinking about your future haircuts! If you are going to get that super short pixie cut, are you going to be willing to come in every 4-6 weeks to get it re-shaped, or are you a haircut once every 8 months kind of person?
5. Remember - you know your hair best. We are the professionals, but you have lived with your hair your whole life and know what it is like! You know all the problem areas, and you probably already have a good idea of what types of cuts will work best for you. Trust your instincts, you are more knowledgeable about your hair than you think!
Your haircut should make you feel great, and if it doesn't you need to say something. While we will always try to provide you with the best haircut we can, everyone has bad days and this is an industry where we are always learning. If you leave with a haircut you hate and you never say anything, we don't continue to learn and grow as stylists - but be constructive and don't lose your cool. Sitting there and saying "I just hate this", pulling at it and crying, or playing the blame game is not at all helpful, so be specific. "I hate my bangs because they are too long" gives me an idea of what you see and why you aren't happy. Specificity is key! This goes for when you are getting your hair cut as well, not just after. Saying "I want this piece shorter" is not as specific as "I want my layers to start right below my ear" or "This piece needs to be 2 inches shorter." But please don't micromanage your stylist. Trust them and don't ask them to explain in technical terms every single snip!
Oh, and never, ever, ever, ever, EVER cut your hair yourself. You aren't 4 years old, you are a grownup. I don't want to have to scold you when you come in because you have chopped your bangs too short! Most salons do bang trims for a few dollars, so drop in for a few minutes and see if someone can trim your bangs for you. When you've worked so hard to find a haircut that works for you, trimming it yourself is just asking for trouble!
My last point on this matter is this: Save yourself some money and the chance of disappointment by finding a stylist that understands what you are asking for. This goes not only for haircuts, but for every facet of your salon experience. If that stylist down at the 15 minute haircut place isn't getting it done, stop going. Ask your friends and family, check reviews online, or even ask that lady with the great hair at the bank who their stylist is, and stick with the one you like once you've found them! Trust me when I say that it will save you lots of unnecessary tears and money if you take the time to find the stylist that gives you what you want!
While I can't provide you with all the answers when it comes to getting haircuts, I hope that I have given you some tips on how to make your haircut experience the best it can be! Keep those 5 points in mind before you leave for your appointment, and it will save yourself (and your stylist) a huge headache when you get to the salon!
Next week: Hair Colour!
For the love of your hair:
Kyleigh.
Showing posts with label salon secrets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salon secrets. Show all posts
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Social Network (Not the Film)
If you half read the title of this post as some of you might have (I am guilty of doing this often) this post is not about the 2010 film The Social Network, although that is a great film, and I think you should see it if you haven't. I've been contemplating a post like this for quite some time, but have never really been able to put into words exactly what I wanted to say on the topic of social networking. I think I've come up with some things to say, and I hope that you might have some opinions on this topic as well.
As many of you know, I am an avid Twitter and Facebook user. I'm also, obviously, a blogger, an email user, an occasional IM user, and I'm also finding my way through the world of Groupons and online deals. All of these things have one main source of power - The Social Network. It is what feeds our ability as a technology consumed society to be able to use the internet to efficiently waste time. Sort of.
I have come across many a person who do not believe in social networking, especially on a platform such as Twitter. Many people boo Twitter as being a "narcissistic way of posting about yourself constantly, but no one actually cares". While for some people this is the reality of Twitter, I believe there is a much more complex use for the system.
I won't lie. Do I use my twitter feed solely for the purpose of networking? No. I'm not sure anyone can completely use their twitter feed for the sole purpose of networking. But, I do use my twitter feed for posting, retweeting and updating people on the state of the world, on different things going on around Vancouver, and on things about me or things that I am doing that may be of interest to my followers. By posting these things, I'm connecting people together through the words I post, finding people with similar interests to me, making important strings of people that at any time I can count on to supply me with information, news, events and other things that may concern me or the people that follow me.
In this way, twitter has a huge capacity for finding people who are able to answer your questions, supply you with different opinions and allow for you to get a broad spectrum of ideas that float around out in cyberspace and all over the world. The twitterverse in that sense is much bigger, and much more useful for practical networking than a site like Facebook which really only allows you to network your real life friends, and the friends of those friends. Of course, Facebook has it's uses too.
I will give you a few personal stats here, and maybe it will give you a real idea of how much social networking has changed in the last 6 years:
In 2005 I started writing my very first blog. I posted on that blog close to 100 times and decided to close it off in 2007. In the 2 years I posted to that blog, I had 200 page views. In the 6 years it has been on the internet, it has had barely 250 views. In the time of 2005-2007 I thought that this was quite successful. My blog had 200 views! For someone 14, that's some kind of accomplishment, especially since this was on the cusp of the invention of social networking websites like Facebook.
In comparison:
In October 2010 I started posting to this blog. Since October, I have had 779 page views, not including any views that may happen to this post. In the past month, my blog has almost surpassed ALL the page views of my blog from 6 years ago. If I actually put effort into networking my blog, imagine the number of views I could have... the possibilities are endless.
The reason? Social networking. My #1 and #2 feeder sites to my blog? Facebook and Twitter respectively. I can almost guarentee that you found this post off of my personal Facebook page or my Twitter account. If you didn't, I am truely amazed, and thanks for taking a look!
I opened my Facebook account in early 2007, and my Twitter not so long after that although at the beginning I didn't use them much. Now of course I am an addict, and I've pretty much resigned myself to it. I decided to post to my facebook and twitter about the blog you are currently reading, not only so you would read it, but as a bit of a social experiment. How is it that in 6 months I could have 3 times as many views as a blog that has existed in cyberspace for 6 years?
Social Networking. It is the reality of the world. My words on this blog get read because you are socially networked to me via some program or website or you searched a random phrase and happened upon me. Without this new network of chains of people to connect you to me, this blog might have no views at all. My last blog barely got 1 view per post. On this blog, every post has at least 5 views, and some of my posts have exceeded 50 views.
Not only have you embraced my blog as an entertainment source (as I hope you get a tiny bit of enjoyment out of reading my blog!) but you have also provided me with the smallest amount of interesting data that allows me to say that personally, social networking has changed my life, and the amount of people who hear my voice. You, the people in my social network, the people who read my blog as I post, are the reason that I post, and you are the reason I will continue to explore the interesting ways that social networking can provide you with interesting new ways of enjoying life.
As my post is about networking, I thought I'd do a little bit of it myself and share with you a friend of mine's new blog. Revive Your Life is the new blog of my friend Taren, who is on the road to changing her life and becoming a personal trainer. It's a career that I am so excited to read about, and I am genuinely looking forward to reading her new blog just as much as I love to read her personal one!
I would also like to say, coming at the end of April 2011, I am starting up a new blog. I'm calling it Secrets of a Salon Student. I plan on using it to document my journey through hairdressing school, the trials, tribulations and successes of a girl attempting to reinvent herself, her career goals and her life as a whole. This is the official invite to join me on my journey, and I hope that I might get just as many views on that blog as I do on this one. The blog of course is in a Coming Soon stage, but I will be sure to remind you of it as I progress through the stages of getting myself into something I am so excited about. 36 days and counting, and I will be posting to my new blog as well as this one.
I hope you take a moment to think about your social network and the people in it, and that you are using your network to it's full capacity, and not just for killing time. While I do use those websites for some time wasting, I am genuinely working toward having a strong social network! This is the way the world is going, and I have decided to embrace it and get everything I can out of it before they start implanting computers into our brains or what ever direction technology decides to take.
Blog, and be happy! (Oh, and Go Canucks Go! #WinItForManny)
Kyleigh.
As many of you know, I am an avid Twitter and Facebook user. I'm also, obviously, a blogger, an email user, an occasional IM user, and I'm also finding my way through the world of Groupons and online deals. All of these things have one main source of power - The Social Network. It is what feeds our ability as a technology consumed society to be able to use the internet to efficiently waste time. Sort of.
I have come across many a person who do not believe in social networking, especially on a platform such as Twitter. Many people boo Twitter as being a "narcissistic way of posting about yourself constantly, but no one actually cares". While for some people this is the reality of Twitter, I believe there is a much more complex use for the system.
I won't lie. Do I use my twitter feed solely for the purpose of networking? No. I'm not sure anyone can completely use their twitter feed for the sole purpose of networking. But, I do use my twitter feed for posting, retweeting and updating people on the state of the world, on different things going on around Vancouver, and on things about me or things that I am doing that may be of interest to my followers. By posting these things, I'm connecting people together through the words I post, finding people with similar interests to me, making important strings of people that at any time I can count on to supply me with information, news, events and other things that may concern me or the people that follow me.
In this way, twitter has a huge capacity for finding people who are able to answer your questions, supply you with different opinions and allow for you to get a broad spectrum of ideas that float around out in cyberspace and all over the world. The twitterverse in that sense is much bigger, and much more useful for practical networking than a site like Facebook which really only allows you to network your real life friends, and the friends of those friends. Of course, Facebook has it's uses too.
I will give you a few personal stats here, and maybe it will give you a real idea of how much social networking has changed in the last 6 years:
In 2005 I started writing my very first blog. I posted on that blog close to 100 times and decided to close it off in 2007. In the 2 years I posted to that blog, I had 200 page views. In the 6 years it has been on the internet, it has had barely 250 views. In the time of 2005-2007 I thought that this was quite successful. My blog had 200 views! For someone 14, that's some kind of accomplishment, especially since this was on the cusp of the invention of social networking websites like Facebook.
In comparison:
In October 2010 I started posting to this blog. Since October, I have had 779 page views, not including any views that may happen to this post. In the past month, my blog has almost surpassed ALL the page views of my blog from 6 years ago. If I actually put effort into networking my blog, imagine the number of views I could have... the possibilities are endless.
The reason? Social networking. My #1 and #2 feeder sites to my blog? Facebook and Twitter respectively. I can almost guarentee that you found this post off of my personal Facebook page or my Twitter account. If you didn't, I am truely amazed, and thanks for taking a look!
I opened my Facebook account in early 2007, and my Twitter not so long after that although at the beginning I didn't use them much. Now of course I am an addict, and I've pretty much resigned myself to it. I decided to post to my facebook and twitter about the blog you are currently reading, not only so you would read it, but as a bit of a social experiment. How is it that in 6 months I could have 3 times as many views as a blog that has existed in cyberspace for 6 years?
Social Networking. It is the reality of the world. My words on this blog get read because you are socially networked to me via some program or website or you searched a random phrase and happened upon me. Without this new network of chains of people to connect you to me, this blog might have no views at all. My last blog barely got 1 view per post. On this blog, every post has at least 5 views, and some of my posts have exceeded 50 views.
Not only have you embraced my blog as an entertainment source (as I hope you get a tiny bit of enjoyment out of reading my blog!) but you have also provided me with the smallest amount of interesting data that allows me to say that personally, social networking has changed my life, and the amount of people who hear my voice. You, the people in my social network, the people who read my blog as I post, are the reason that I post, and you are the reason I will continue to explore the interesting ways that social networking can provide you with interesting new ways of enjoying life.
As my post is about networking, I thought I'd do a little bit of it myself and share with you a friend of mine's new blog. Revive Your Life is the new blog of my friend Taren, who is on the road to changing her life and becoming a personal trainer. It's a career that I am so excited to read about, and I am genuinely looking forward to reading her new blog just as much as I love to read her personal one!
I would also like to say, coming at the end of April 2011, I am starting up a new blog. I'm calling it Secrets of a Salon Student. I plan on using it to document my journey through hairdressing school, the trials, tribulations and successes of a girl attempting to reinvent herself, her career goals and her life as a whole. This is the official invite to join me on my journey, and I hope that I might get just as many views on that blog as I do on this one. The blog of course is in a Coming Soon stage, but I will be sure to remind you of it as I progress through the stages of getting myself into something I am so excited about. 36 days and counting, and I will be posting to my new blog as well as this one.
I hope you take a moment to think about your social network and the people in it, and that you are using your network to it's full capacity, and not just for killing time. While I do use those websites for some time wasting, I am genuinely working toward having a strong social network! This is the way the world is going, and I have decided to embrace it and get everything I can out of it before they start implanting computers into our brains or what ever direction technology decides to take.
Blog, and be happy! (Oh, and Go Canucks Go! #WinItForManny)
Kyleigh.
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