Dear friends and clients, I hope you are all staying safe and well during this Covid-19 quarantine time. What a terrible situation for all of us – I am proud that we all have taken the right measures to keep everyone safe, but I share your frustrations with the situation. Plus, I miss you all!
Many of you have asked me for advice on how to color their hair at home. I know you are concerned about gray showing up, regrowth and you have expressed that your hair really needs my attention. One client even asked if I could do a drive-up service out in front of the salon! I wish I could!
Ok, here’s my advice. Don’t do it yourself.
I really believe we are going to be back in service soon. By the way, during this stay-at-home time, I am taking educational training on enhanced safe practices and salon procedures to increase safety for myself and my clients.
But if you MUST do it yourself, then I urge you to think about a couple of things.
About Supermarket and Online Boxed Colors and Products
As a professional stylist, I urge you to avoid the boxed color, live with the regrowth and grays for a while, or find a camouflage for those roots that won’t damage your hair (more on this later in this blog). When I color and cut your hair at the salon, I am applying art and science to find exactly the right hair color for your skin tone, the shape of your face, and I am protecting you from damage to your hair that could be a disaster. It may look easy, but I am preparing a custom formula for your hair’s texture and color. My experience allows me to have a very good idea of how your hair will respond.
If you go to the supermarket or order color online, then apply it to the previous beautiful color I have put on your hair, there is no way to predict what will happen. The colors I use at my salon are not the same thing you are buying online or at the store. Remember also this is a chemical process. Your hair could become dry and brittle – oh no! Be aware that if you apply a bleaching product on top of already-bleached hair, you could damage your hair so dramatically that your only option is to cut it.
Is it ok if your hair turns orange? I must tell you that this is possible. Will the orange remain even after a dozen shampoos? It can. The store-bought products do not tell you how much ammonia is in the product and if it is too much, a very damaging result can happen. When I do your color at the salon, I am applying my experience to put in the right level of ammonia or none to get the beautiful results you enjoy from my work.
Don’t believe everything you read on the store-bought colors. These can be sold without FDA approvals, and they can claim whatever they want on the box and how do you verify?
About the Results from Your Do-it-Yourself Color
Let’s say you find a boxed product that did not damage your hair to a dry, brittle, orange. It’s unlikely that that your hair is going to look like what you expected from the box. If you are one of my regular color clients, beware that you may very well ruin the color I have worked so hard to achieve and that you have invested in.
Believe me, your hair is unique in how it responds to color. What I do is custom to you. Don’t believe the boxed color claims that their product works on hair types. Your hair texture and natural color are part of the custom coloring process and formula that I use for you. The techniques I use to apply your color are based on decades of experience and training. The applications I use can vary by person or by each section of hair. Ask yourself, how are you going to work on the back of your head?
About the Cost to Color Correct
“Lyn, I colored my hair myself and it’s terrible, you must help me!” The most expensive service in the salon is color corrections. It takes a very long time, and many times it is a process of multiple lengthy appointments. If you buy that inexpensive product online, then you might be paying a lot of money to do the correction. This will cost hundreds for each appointment, all due to an $8 product from the store.
Ok, What to do Now
While I am asking you to not do your own color job, you can actually touch-up your roots yourself. If you are a regular client of mine, you know I love Joico products and carry these in my salon for sale. Joico has Tint Shot Root Concealer that you can use to touch up the gray. If you cannot find this, let me know and I may be able to order it for you. Also, there are some others out there such as Oribe’s Airbrush Root Touch-Up Spray. This will carry you through quarantine until we re-open the salon.
About Bookings and Re-Opening Salons
I believe we may be allowed to reopen by mid to late-May, maybe sooner. I will re-open and operate with safe practices to prevent spread of the virus. When it happens, I expect to be very busy and will limit the number of clients in the salon at a time. I am taking bookings for May and I encourage you to book with me now online at my website www.446.5d1.myftpupload.com or you may call and leave a voice message at the salon at 503-533-9785. I will do my best to accommodate you, but the online booking is the best right now. If we must cancel your appointment due to not being allowed to open, I will prioritize you as best I can for a re-booking.
There is a petition to allow beauty professionals to perform beauty service with one client in the salon at a time starting as of Monday April 27th. I believe that servicing one client at a time (while wearing mask and gloves) poses little to no risk of spreading the virus, as compared to 20 or more people in the grocery store or 10 people at restaurants picking up food. I am asking you to sign to follow this link and sign the petition.
Stay safe and well my friends! I will enjoy seeing you soon!
Lyn
