GET THE BEST RESULTS FROM YOUR SALON VISIT

When you go to the hair salon, get the best results  from your stylist – whether in Beverly Hills or Beacon Hill, by following a few simple rules.  First, and foremost, choose a great stylist.  Yes, pretty obvious, but since we are all impulse buyers at one time or another, it is worth mentioning that you don’t want to just go to just anyone.  Even in Beverly Hills – the Mecca for great hair and style – your hair can be ruined by someone with bad taste. You certainly don’t want to choose a stylist because they are cheap – that is the road to sure disaster.  Always choose someone because you love his or her work!

Once you choose a great stylist it is best for you to go in to your salon armed with a particular hair cut or style in mind.  If at all possible, have pictures of the style you are considering with you.  Pictures you have found in current magazines are best.  If you can only find the style in magazines from a couple of years ago please re-think your choice – you don’t want last year’s look on this years head!

You will always get the best results if you can show your hair stylist what you want, rather than just describe it, so that he or she has a very clear understanding of what you are looking for.  Because the second rule for success when you get your hair cut, colored or styled, is great communication with your stylist.

As all heads are NOT created equal, rule number three for the best results from your salon hairstylist is to make sure he or she already knows the particular foibles of your head of hair.  This is particularly important with a new stylist, but even if you have worked together for a while, don’t be shy – mention anything you think is going to be an issue.  Do you have cowlicks, are you prone to frizz, does your hair go flat within an hour, do you feel the need to hide your ears?  We all have something we are working around when it comes to fashion and our own personal look.  The best hairdressers simply know how to work with quirks, and the best salon clients are excellent communicators!

If your hair stylist is good, and has worked on your hair more than a couple of times, these are things they probably will take into account each time they work with your hair. This is just one reason I believe so strongly in forging a relationship with a great stylist and sticking to it – like the song says, “nobody does it better!” I’ve noticed that the longer my own Beverly Hills hair stylist and I work together, the better he makes my hair look.

Communicating the right color to your colorist is often particularly difficult because you need to choose a shade or tone based on both the effect you want to create and on your own particular coloring. And just like your haircut, you may not want to always stick to the same old look, the same old color formula. But again, particularly if you are getting several shades of hair color blended together for a rich, dimensional color, the process of finding the perfect shade can be a lot of fun and if you have an experienced and talented colorist, one who is up on the most current trends and hair color technologies, then you still look fabulous along the way. Your stylist can even try temporary color glazes out on you as you collaborate on your look.

Finding your best look; experimenting with your hair color or cut should not be traumatic. It should be fun! The absolutely worst thing you can do is be polite and not say anything if you don’t like a result. Your stylist truly cares that you are happy with your look. And the better you stylist gets to know you, your taste, your lifestyle – the better the chance you will be really happy with the outcome. So be bold and always speak your mind.

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Best Hair Cut Los Angeles

What makes one hair salon good and another one great?  Los Angeles is a town filled with great hair stylists and they set a high bar for excellence in hair care.  You would think that here, in order to survive; you would have to be the best hair cutter in the world! but in fact, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, just like every other town have great hair salons and mediocre ones.  There are extremely talented hair artists and there are very ordinary ones.  So how do you find the best hair cutters in Los Angeles?  The best hair cutters in Beverly Hills?  How do you find hair stylists and hair colorists that can truly advise you on the best look for your coloring, your face shape, and your personality? How are you going to get the best hair cut in Los Angeles for you?

Whether you are an aspiring actor or actress looking to dazzle the rest of us with your beauty and style, a red carpet celebrity with an image to maintain or a regular person who wants to change or update your look, there are all kinds of great reasons to search for a hair stylist that will help you achieve your best look.  A lot of articles suggest stopping people you think have a great look on the street and asking them where they get their hair cut or colored.  But going around asking strangers who have great hair, who their hair stylist is, is not my favorite way to get a recommendation.  They may have a completely different hair texture, or shape of face than you do.  Their stylist may only be capable of one look – the one you saw!  Not the best way to get the best hair cut Los Angeles has offer!

However if you get on the phone and call some salons to ask for a consultation you may have better luck.  Most good salons will offer a new client a complementary consultation. Tell the receptionist about your hair type and a little about what you might desire in a stylist.  Many salons offer every type of stylist from just out of school to master hair designers.  Some people prefer a male while many prefer a female.  The receptionist then can match you with the proper person for the consult.

Always arrive at least 15 minutes early and watch what is going on in the salon.  During your consultation a good hair stylist will discuss with you your face shape, hair texture, and hair density and growth pattern.  They might analyze your face shape by dividing your face into three areas, from your hairline to the brow line, from the brow line to the tip of your nose, from the tip of your nose to the chin.  They will ask you what you like and dislike about your looks, Then they can suggest ways to either enhance or diminish certain areas of your face.  So if you are concerned about having too big a forehead they might suggest various styles of bangs. If you don’t like your chin, there are soft layered cuts perfect for hiding little flaws in your profile.

And finally, check out who else your hair cutter has worked on.  In Los Angeles, you have the unusual advantage of having access to the same stylists that your favorite celebrities use.   One reason I chose my own favorite hair cutter and hair colorist, Cal Martini, was that he has done such gorgeous work on actresses like Renee Russo. Her look is classic and stylish, which is exactly how I want my own hair to look.  NEVER put up with bad hair, there is simply no excuse for that – particularly in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles!!  If you want to upgrade your image, your hair is the best place to start.  Have fun!

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Beauty Tips Gone Wrong

HAIR CARE ADVICE FOR COLOR TREATED HAIR  (that you should NOT follow)

I recently sat down to read one of the thousands of beauty-related articles you can find online, called How To Make Your Beauty Treatment Last.  After all, beauty is my obsession.  However, I had only gotten as far as the hair care part when I had to put the computer mouse down and take a breath. Yes we all want to protect our new hair color, make a haircut last as long as possible etc, but honestly there is a lot of hair care advice for color treated hair out there that you should NOT follow.

For example:

There is no doubt that if you have your hair colored, particularly if you have a high maintenance hair color like red, you should take steps to preserve it.  Your color should to be lush and vibrant right up until the next time you color your hair.

The first tip suggested using shampoos and conditioners formulated for color treated hair. Well, yes but which brand of shampoo??  So many of the shampoos supposedly formulated for color treated hair that are currently available in drugstores, even many of the shampoo brands in beauty supply stores, will still hurt your hair color.  Brand matters.  So I recommend Minardi Hair Care for color treated hair.  I have field-tested it on my own color treated head for quite some time now.

If you try to save money on your shampoo, thinking you will fix it in the conditioning it will backfire. Inferior ingredients will scrub away part of the pigment in your color treated hair.  Your blonde hair will go brassy, your golden brown hair will go ashy, and your red will just fade away. In addition to messing up your color these shampoos can be drying which causes frizz, which dulls your hair color further.  So now you have to fix the frizzy ends with some kind of silicone-based gloss AND fix the color.  More money spent, more time wasted.

Another hair tip to file under hair care advice for color treated hair you should not follow?  The idea that when your color fades you can just go out and buy some random bottle of shampoo or conditioner that will “deposit a little color on the ends of your hair”  Really?  What color?  Does it go with the shade of brown or red that you already have? What is the color base?  What about your highlights?  What color will they turn?  This is hair care advice guaranteed to RUIN your color.

So what’s a girl – or guy – to do?

Always start by asking your colorist! That is what I do. Even when I think I know the answer.

While visiting family in Atlanta over the holidays, I had to find a salon to get my roots done. I asked this new colorist (as I always do) about shampoos he thought were good and he told me that I should just use whatever brand I was shampooing with now because my hair could not be in better shape.  When he asked me what I was using, (and I told him Minardi Hair Care which is the brand my Beverly Hills hair colorist had recommended, he nodded and said that I could do no better – which I really appreciated since he could have tried to sell me that particular salon’s brand of shampoo.

And here’s my point. Really good colorists – those who take pride in their work- will put the outcome of their client’s hair color far above the interests of whatever salon they might work in.  So don’t think that they are just going to sell you whatever brand they carry.  High-end hair salon’s choose to carry the high end brands they do for a reason.   These brands make their work look good. By the way, the only other product line for color treated hair that I can possibly recommend is Rene Furterer, and having used both, I prefer Minardi Hair Care.

As for how to refresh the color on your ends between salon visits, do not go buy some bottle of shampoo with color added, because you have no idea what the color base is, or how it will affect the color you already have.  I have never seen that turn out well – unless you actually WANT your hair color to look artificial.  Instead, have your colorist create for you a custom bottle of color-added shampoo, combining a really great brand of shampoo  with your special formula of  hair color. This way you will not have a color war on your head!

To sum it up:  if you want your hair color to last, then treat your hair very, very well.  Shampoo, condition and style using high end product with great ingredients that won’t cause skin reactions, dryness, and split ends.  Choose a formulation that is right for your hair. Beef up the color between salon visits with a color depositing shampoo formulated just for you by your colorist. And then expect longer lasting color, great shine and smooth texture in return.