How To Make The Most Of Your Hair Consultation

We all strive for that amazing salon experience that puts every other salon encounter to shame, where we dance out of the salon with our hair blowing in the wind like a Pantene commercial. OK, maybe not that drastic, but we do want to walk out feeling new again and happy about the direction our hair is taking. It’s comforting to know that your stylist is on the exact same page from the color, cut, curl expression, home styling, and every other flicker that comes into your head about how you want your hair to act. Stylists should have ESP right? An extra sixth sense so that they know exactly what you mean when you heave a large sigh and say, “Please just fix this! I don’t know what to do with my hair anymore and I think I’m in a hair funk”. Don’t Worry!  There is a bright moment to this cloud, and you are the key. How do you achieve this crazy eye-level intuitiveness with your stylist about your coif? You’re going to have to be honest about your hair expectations. Tell us about the absolutely fabulous times when your hair was at it’s peak and then we want to hear about your worst times when you couldn’t stand to go outside without wearing a hat. We won’t air your hair monologue to the world, so don’t be ashamed about your hair’s history. I routinely had perms back in the mid 90’s and sported a bobbed haircut on my round cheeked face, life happens to the best of us.

So let’s take each one in stride. Everyone loves the good hair times and there’s no hiding that, and we love to talk about the times that we felt our best and everyone around us had hair envy. That might have been a tad eccentric, but you get my drift. Now is the time to tell your stylist about the good things that you like about your hair. Did you like your last haircut? What specifically did you like about your last hair cut? Do you like how it’s growing out? Do you like that random patch of curl at the nape of your neck and want to highlight it’s appearance in your next frock? Tell us these things, because they’re very important and they make up you. Tell us what you like about your color now or a previous color that you had that you really loved. Make up five things, and they can be quick statements, about the pros of your hair. If words are hard to come by, pictures are a great way of telling your story.

Now comes the harder part. What do you not like about your hair? No one’s hair is perfect and usually our hair will have a mind of it’s own. Tell us about those pesky cowlicks, tell us about that horrible time you tried to go blonde after being brunette or that time you cut your own bangs. Asymmetrical and a jagged edge is in right? Most importantly, tell us about your chemical history. Not every color line is equal and yes there is a quality difference between at home and salon quality coloring. Every person has been down the path of picking a box shade from the grocery store. You usually pick based upon the girl’s beautiful hair girl on the front of the box only to discover, hmm, yeah my hair did not turn out at all how I expected. Color is a chemical treatment, and it could react adversely with a previous color or chemical treatment, so let us know what’s going on so that we can quickly diagnose what steps are best for maintaining your hair. It can be hard to be honest about what you didn’t quite like from the previous experience, especially if it’s your regular stylist, but don’t worry. Coming to the salon is fun and it’s a friendly environment, but above all, you’re paying money for a service and we want you to be happy. Is it not as layered as you wanted it? If your hair is too light or dark for your tastes, please talk to your stylist. Once again here is a great place to show pictures you’ve found to reinforce your hair case. Don’t worry about hurting our feelings by being honest and stating any cons from your last visit. If you’re not fully satisfied during your salon visit, we need to know so that we can learn and know what not to do for future visits. Being open and straightforward will save more time on the front end than having to go back and fix something after the fact, a win-win for everyone.

So the good and the bad have been taken care of, now to talk about reasonable expectations. I would love to tell you the secret to growing your hair five inches overnight or to have ten times thicker hair by merely changing your part line. Your hair in its normal state on a normal day is what genetics has bestowed upon you. It could be smooth and sleek or it could look a tad frayed and frizzy because of your recent trip to the coast. Damaged hair is damaged hair no matter how many hair masques and treatments we apply. Believe it or not, a little trim will actually make the hair appear fuller and thicker because it has a nice blunt edge and retains color better than a split end. If your hair is breaking, having trouble curling or retaining color, don’t be alarmed if we advise a trim or cut. Color is a main expectation that could have its differences. What a stylist sees as a Level 8 neutral (medium blonde), the client could see it as an orangey blonde. Your stylist will go over these differences in color to help you to understand the process. Sometimes achieving a look can take several times, in intervals of 6 weeks.

One more thing to mention, don’t forget to talk about your hair routine. I roll out of bed, spray hair spray on my head and let my hair fall where it wants to fall. Sometimes my head will naturally rock a faux hawk and it looks great and then sometimes my hair rebels and it’s a headband day. Do you like to blow dry your hair, let it partially air dry, let it fully air dry, flat iron, velcro roller, or curl your locks with a curling iron? What type of products do you like to use at home? Letting us know how you normally style your hair will play a significant roll in planning your cut or color. With all these helpful hints in tow, you should have an amazing consultation and the best hair experience possible at your next salon appointment.

Written by Nina Gay, Hairstylist at Urban Betty Salon

The Graduated Bob, and the Pain of Growing it Out.

Ah, the graduated bob. This haircut exploded on the salon scene and seemed to me, the most requested style since 2007. Depending on your age, you may remember the origins of this short cut from the 1970’s when it was referred to as the wedge or more commonly the Dorothy Hamill.  The wedge cut is a classic short hairstyle that became very popular in 1976 when champion figure skater Dorothy Hamill sported it as she won the Olympic Gold Medal at the age of 19. Her signature look became popular with young women across the globe and soon the “Dorothy Hamill do’” could be found nearly everywhere. Oddly enough, although Hamill’s signature hairstyle is the wedge, the hairstyle evolved and has continued to remain popular.

Fast forward to the last couple of years and you have the reverse bob haircut (also known as the inverted bob). It quickly became one of 2008’s most popular hairstyles. The look first showed up on Victoria Beckham, and was immediately a fashion standard in New York and Los Angeles. It then morphed into the Posh spice bob and women of every generation began requesting it.

So, here you have a cute, fun, and trendy short haircut. So what’s the big deal you ask? Well, being a cutting specialist, I have not only had a chance to cut this bob, many times, I have also had the difficult job of trying to help women grow it out. There were so many clients coming to me when the craze was over, wanting to know what their grow-out options were. I was asked how to make the transition from short to long hair in the best way. One of the most challenging things is having to explain to my clients the painstaking task of growing it out. Most of them were in disbelief, and still are today, when I would tell them what was in store for them and their hair. I became obsessed with trying to explain how to grow out this cut. I’ll never forget the one night I came home from the salon and told my boyfriend how I wanted to create some sort of diagram or 3-d chart to let the clients see this haircut the way I did. Meaning, if I could explain it with geometry, an architectural approach to it, then they would see what I was talking about. After all, that’s really what haircuts are. They are shapes, all dependent on proportion. I never made the diagram, but still today find myself, on almost a daily basis, trying to explain and help people move on from this haircut. Now that I have a public forum on the Urban Betty page, I can take this opportunity to help clients understand more about this cut and how to grow it out. I used to and still joke around that this haircut was so difficult to grow out, the client should sign a waiver form. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great haircut for many reasons. The upside of it would be that it keeps its shape and doesn’t take a lot of styling, with the right hair type. Whether you wore it smooth and polished or even curly, the cut was the shape itself. It’s definitely a 6-week haircut, max, so it would require consistency on the client’s part. But now, here we are, ready to grow it out, hence the name of this blog.

The good news is, it can be done. I have seen it and worked with clients over the last few years to make it happen. The bad new is, out of all the haircuts, in my opinion, it is indeed the most difficult to grow out. And here is why. A graduated bob is all about the proportion and angles, like most cuts, except this one would be considered on the extreme side. The back of the hair, starting at the nape of the neck is cut at a 45 degree angle and builds weight as it goes up the head, mostly all the way to the crown. Meaning each section of hair is dependent upon the section before it, creating a wedge like shape. Then when you get to the top of the head, the hair is left long and most of the time blended into an ‘all one length’ style. An A-Line bob would be when the short back connects to the long front, creating an ‘A-line’ shape. Any way you wore it, you had hair that was super short in back and long in the front. And herein lies the painful task of growing it out.

People have come to me in the beginning stages and sadly I would have to tell them there was nothing I could do until the back was grown out more, the hardest but most important part. Then there is what happens when this hair does start growing out. It turns into the old, 1990’s Jennifer Aniston ‘friends’ cut. Without getting into that, let’s just say most people are not happy about having to sport that do again. But because of the proportions, this is exactly what this haircut turns into. So what do you do? I tell my clients that the first thing is they have to let the back grow out. There is no short cut to this and it can be quite unflattering, for lack of a better term. Then, regular visits to the salon to do what I call ‘reversing the proportions’ comes next, after you have enough hair in the back to work with. You see, it’s all about letting the back grow out, that’s where your length comes from, and shortening up the front and sides. This is a gradual and slow process that takes months, but it can be done and if you are reading this right now, wanting to grow out your graduated bob, just know, you have to commit to the decision to do it. A lot of people get halfway there and give up, because of all the different stages your hair has to go through to get this shape out of you head. However, it can be done. It just requires patience, commitment and regular trips to a stylist who will work with you on this hair plan. Don’t make the mistake of having someone keep cutting on it in the wrong areas. That will just set you back each time. It’s knowing when and where to cut, and when and where NOT to. I hope this blog helps those out there who are looking for answers and support in taking on this task. And like I always say, when you know WHY hair is doing certain things, then you know what you can do about it.

Written by:

Mercedes Mancillas, Stylist at Urban Betty Salon