Today, as followers of Cecily's blog already know, I did her color. I will now walk you through what happened on my end. refer to her post for pictures because she took much better ones than I did.
She's an ideal client, especially for a student. "Hey, do whatever. It's impossible to fuck up my hair!"
So, okay. Let me try this layering method I just read about and thought would be fun. 3 r/v on the bottom, 6 r/r on the top. In laymans terms, that's a dark red violet layered with a medum true red. A few foils in front to break it up. Let's go!
Oh, wait. Except there's one formula for the roots and another for the colored hair. Don't forget the gray, and the developer it requires. And those zig-zag partings? that's a great idea, it surely will make the color blend nicely, and they make a special brush for that. You don't have it? well then paint like Michelangelo, and make sure you don't overlap the formulas!
Perfectionist, IGNITE!!
Four formulas, four applications. Cecily was serious when she said this took HOURS.
The biggest difference between student salons and regular salons is that everything takes twice as long, at least. We are slower and we require frequent checks to make sure that some horrible oversight hasn't been made.
When I am doing something new, as I was doing with Cecily, I will ask for instuctor assisitance as often as I can get away with. One reason is that I don't want to fuck up Cecily's hair. The other reason is that I have tremendous respect for my instructor and I know that whenever she comes over to check on my work I will learn something new. It helps that she also has respect for what I do. I can tell she likes instructing me.
"whenever I see you you're getting color" says the blond 17 year old jersey girl classmate in the dispensary.
I tell her about the idea, the existing color, the gray.
She blanches. "Good luck!" , rolls her eyes and saunters away.
Later, another classmate joins me. 20 year old PA suburbanite. "Your client FREAKS ME OUT. what's up with HER EYES? she looks ANGRY!"
I laugh. I tell her Cecily is a writer friend of mine, and she's one of the most awesome, powerful women I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Intense, yes. Angry? No, not really.
"oh my god you KNOW her?" and I can tell she's thinking she put her foot in her mouth. Who cares? Not me. Not Cecily.
The color comes out exactly as I planned. But the highlights are still ahead.
I place seven foils, all face framing, all chunky slices. Foils are harder than you'd think. You have to get them close to the scalp but not so close that the lightener bleeds out as it processes. Heavy enough to have a strong effect, fine enough to not scream "skunk!".
Because we are trying to lift out fresh pure tone color as well as exisiting color, my instructor recommends a high volume develper with the bleach. 30 volume. If left to my own devices I would have gone all the way to 40 volume but I go with what my teacher tells me. I apply it and wait. and check and wait. I put on a cap and a towel to heat it up and wait some more. And try to keep myself from checking. It's becoming a compulsion. I show Cecily the results and pray she says it's light enough. Thank god she does because by now it's 3 PM and we've been at this since 9:30.
Jesus, this is taking forEVER.
Finally, I take the foils out, shampoo, condition deeply, and blow dry. My blow outs have been on the bad side of mediocre lately and I'm glad this one goes well. I am careful, I take my time. Because I have been substandard with the blow dryer lately I know they are watching me.
In the end, even though the lightening pattern wasn't at all uniform, it turned out cool and funky. I loved it. And Cecily liked it too.
After she was gone and I was cleaning my [tornado mess of a] station several of my classmates complimented me on my day's work. Nobody in my class has had a chance to really explore the creative side of color and they were all watching, from a distance, to see how this one turned out.
There are things I would have done differently. I would have section her hair so that more would have been the darkest color, especially in the back. But all in all, a good color service and an excellent learning experience. Thanks, Cecily. Please come back soon!
